Hinterkind: The Waking World (Vertigo/DC)

Hinterkind: The Waking World

Vertigo/DC

Written by Ian Edginton, Art by Francesco Trifogli

Sep 19, 2014 Web Exclusive By Zach Hollwedel

Mankind has been all but wiped out by a deadly plague. Former metropolises—New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, among others—have been reduced to pocket colonies of survivors, and Mother Nature has reclaimed the cement and concrete. Nobody knows what lies beyond the fallen cities, but whatever it is, it’s presumed dangerous. Disobeying her grandfather’s orders, teenaged Prosper and her friend Angus venture forth from their village in Manhattan’s former Central Park and discover the roving bands of looters that roam beyond New York are actually the least of their worries.

Had writer Ian Edginton and artist Francesco Trifogli stopped there, they would have had a fun, post-apocalyptic premise on their hands with hints of nature-reclaimed-city fare such as NBC’s Revolution. The problem is, they kept going. Not long after Prosper and Angus depart New York, they are chased by a troll and then kidnapped by a group of elves and other fantasy creatures. Turns out, after the fall of man, satyrs (half men, half goats), faeries, and countless other species long-since relegated to myth (the Hinterkind) emerged from hiding to reappropriate the world humanity lost.

The story continues to bounce around both tonally and between genres. Fantasy and post-apocalyptic adventure semi-mesh, and then the coupling is joined by sci-fi in the form of murderous soldiers in a subterranean base who are trying to find a cure for the plague. Edginton’s halty dialogue, with its manifold dropped Gs and stilted abbreviations to reflect gruff accents, adds to the slowness of the read, begun by the oversaturation of differing story elements. Fantasy readers might respond more generously to the first appearance of the trolls, elves, and satyrs, but for others, the story will come across as inundated with too many disparate elements and not worth the time. (www.vertigocomics.com/comics/hinterkind-2013)

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