Is It Good? Hinterkind #2 Review

I was so-so on the first issue of Hinterkind. I thought it was decent and had a lot of potential, but didn’t really get going and had some bad dialogue at points. However, we are on the second issue now. Can this book better show us what it is made of? Is it good?

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Hinterkind #2 (Vertigo Comics)

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Prosper and Angus run afoul of a gigantic troll on the Brooklyn Bridge who is blocking their path out of the city. Meanwhile in California, the queen of something called the Sidhe reads many books written by humanity in hopes of studying them and coming to a conclusion that would best fit the world now run by the Hinterkind (AKA all the monsters).

I’m not sure if Slaughter House 5 is the best kind of book to judge humanity on.

This issue felt like a much needed step up from the last one. There was excitement (especially from the troll fight) and the dialogue felt so much more natural. Everyone’s voice and accent remains the same instead of jumping around like it did last time. Sure, a good chunk of it is an exposition dump and a little forced (some of these characters should know these subjects already), but hey, it is nowhere near as awkward and some dialogue bits between characters are very engaging.

I also enjoyed the world building going on here, with the Sidhe Queen and her daughter talking about the state of affairs and their views. It’s very enlightening and helps the audience understand why the monsters/Hinterkind are not exactly fans of humanity. The rest of the writing is decent in terms of pacing and flow, but the story does not really progress much outside of the setup being developed. Still better than last issue, but not quite there yet.

Good! Glad the fleas weren’t a problem. Hard to cook those buggers out of there.

The artwork by Francesco Trifogli has also taken a step up now that monsters are beginning to appear; it gives the book a more creative flavor that was lacking for a majority of the last issue. The detail put into the locations are good and there are no odd layouts that make it hard to follow from panel to panel. Character expressions are still a bit lacking and the whole scene with the queen and princess is kind of dull looking, but still in an improvement in the product over all.

Is It Good?

Hinterkind #2 was an improvement over the debut issue; there’s world building with the monsters, better dialogue, and the art has improved now that it can provide visually appealing creatures to make the story stand out more. It’s still not the most engaging comic yet and the story hasn’t really gotten going but there’s still plenty of promise. I’ll be back next time to see if this comic continues to grow.