Hinterkind has been improving slowly over time with each new issue, which is always enjoyable for a reviewer. With this new issue out, I’m looking forward to reading it more than ever! Is it good?
Hinterkind #4 (Vertigo Comics)
Somewhere deep underground, there lies a freaky group of humans that survived the plague and the onslaught of the Hinterkind. These humans have grafts and patchworks of different kinds of skin all over their bodies, done in a desperate attempt to find a cure. This group has captured Propser, her grandfather, and many more in their underground base. What will happen now?
This won’t end well, I promise you.
This issue is a bit like the previous ones, with writer Ian Edginton continuing to build up the mythos of the series and the world. I still appreciate that, but ultimately, that’s all this issue mostly is. It’s just building up the world and some background for these new survivors, without any real character depth for the characters or progressing the story much. Yes, there is a bit of both of those things, but only in the last few pages of the issue. They just sort of took a backseat this time around and that’s a bit disappointing.
Regardless, the writing is fine and as serviceable as the last issue. The dialogue is decent, even though there is a lot of exposition being dropped and it slows things down. The story flows well from scene to scene, so there are no structural problems or odd cuts. The pacing is fine, but again, it’s slow going this time around (despite the situation the characters are in, it’s kind of like the calm before a storm, in this case the next issue). It has a pretty good ending and I do see people being interested in seeing where it goes next time around.
I’m sure a lot of people are thinking the same thing.
The artwork is up to the usual level of what you would expect from the series: decent designs for the monsters and characters (the patchwork on baddies look good but also off putting at the same time in some panels), there are some interesting expressions, and there is a fine use of color around. There are only two nitpicks I have with the artwork: some of the shading looks off in some parts, as in you can see the shaded colors go outside of the lines (look at the first picture in the review for instance). Also, the layouts are very generic — prominently (over)using rectangles and squares with big white gaps between them on every page but one. It just looks rather boring and the white gaps are conspicuously more irksome than a usual comic.
Is It Good?
7.0
- The world building is still compelling.
- The ending pages are pretty good.
- The artwork still has its moments.
- Story progression and characterization take a back seat.
- Not much else to the comic other than setup.
Hinterkind #4 is a good issue, but it’s pretty slow and most just an exposition drop for new information. It’s good to get this knowledge out of the way now so things can speed up later in the future, but right it is really slowing the story down a lot. Still, there is promise on the horizon and no reason to skip this at all despite everything.
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