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Creative Team:
Writer: G. Willow Wilson
Artist: Christian Wildgose
Colorist: MSassyk
The Hunger and the Dusk Recap with SPOILERS for Issue #1
The first issue of The Hunger and the Dusk, dives right into showing the audience the relationship, or lack thereof, between humankind and orckind. However, while the humans run in fear as they see a trio of orcs in the distance, we’re introduced to said orcs, who are teasing each other in the most human of ways. While the humans grab weapons and prepare to fight the orcs, we learn the land is dying. Everywhere and everyone is struggling.
Before the humans even have a chance to potentially defend their farms, and livelihood, the trio of orcs are murdered in the most brutal of ways. While the audience is still digesting the shock of the unexpected attack, we then see the group of humans was met with the same destiny.
Fast forward six months. Humans and orcs have decided to follow the ‘enemy of my enemy’ rationale. They team up to sign a peace treaty, and fight The Vangol. Everyone naively believes they are safe enough inland, to avoid the Vangol, but an ambush ensues. The Vangol come out at dusk, and attack while muttering, HUNGRY. The humans and orcs come out ahead (and with their heads this time). However, the main take away from this ambush is the relationship formed between a human, Callum Battlechild, and an orc, Lady Gruakhtar “Tara” Iceman. While Tara was to leave with the humans as part of the treaty, the moment they save each other in the ambush, their relationship clearly begins as more than a condition of a clause in a contract.
The Hunger and the Dusk – Issue #2: The Story
Issue #2 hits the ground running with our new unlikely pair: Callum the human, and Tara the orc. Callum quickly tries to make his new friend feel comfortable while being surrounded by a species that she has only ever known as an enemy.
Meanwhile, Tara’s older cousin, Troth is off on his “wedding hunt.” The wedding hunt may seem irrelevant to the main event occurring throughout this story so far, but it’s showing us Orc culture. Both humans and orcs are being humanized. Making you wonder why they were ever at odds to begin with. Was it simply a fight over resources? Or were unnecessary prejudices instilled in them for generations?
The last part of this issue once again focuses on Callum and Tara as they bond over their own tragedies and describe themselves as “war orphans.” However, much more ensues and the ending leaves you with a very concerning cliff hanger.
While these first two issues gave me Game of Thrones vibes, I can already tell there is so much more going on, and we have only scratched the surface.
Check out another review from Lauren: Klik Klik Boom from Image.
THE ART:
You can’t love comic books without loving comic book art. The art in these issues does a fantastic job of conveying emotions and personality. All the while still having beautiful details and colors in the background. Comics don’t have detailed descriptions of people’s faces to convey emotions like in books, and they don’t have actors on a screen showing their emotions. They have art on pages that need to show emotion. That was beautifully achieved here. Callum and Tara are young scared strangers getting to know each other. You can clearly see their emotions in every panel they were in.
The saying, ‘don’t judge a book by the cover’ definitely applies to me for this comic. While the art is beautiful from cover to cover and everything in between, it’s not a comic I would I have grabbed, if it hadn’t been recommended. I saw orcs on the cover, and thought…that’s not really my thing. Then half way through issue 2 I felt my stomach ache as I thought one of the characters I already fell in love with was about to meet their demise.
I was hooked by page 3 of the first issue and stayed hooked. This is the quickest I have found myself attached to fictional comic book characters. I will definitely be following this story until the end, and adding it my pull list!
