The Comic Cave – Marvels

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The Comic Cave is a bi-weekly feature where we spin the Wheel of Comics and see what graphic novel story it brings up for us to deep dive into! This week we take a look at Marvels, a book often held up as one of the finest examples of the medium, and a great celebration of the Marvel Universe.

There a few names in comics art that are instantly recognisable for people who read comics, even if they’ve never read a book that they’ve worked on. People like John Romita, Jim Lee, and Todd McFarlane usually bring pretty clear images into your mind. But one artist whose work stands apart from even some of the most recognisable comic art, an artist whose work gets those who don’t care about comics to pause for a moment and take a long look at it, is Alex Ross. Ross’ hand painted work has gone on to produce some truly iconic pieces in comics history, and his style is instantly recognisable; no one questions if his work is another artist. Having worked on the biggest characters to ever exist in comics it can be hard to imagine a time when the name Alex Ross meant nothing, and that his work was unknown. That was the landscape into which Marvels was released in 1994; a book that was seen as something of a gamble before release.

Marvels was conceived to be a history piece, a celebratory look back at the history of the Marvel Universe, focusing on several key events from the publisher’s early years. The project was initially pitched by Ross, who wanted to create an anthology series, one that would follow ten different characters that he considered to be some of the best in Marvel. There was no real connective tissue for the project, nothing that would tie these moments together; and this is where writer Kurt Busiek came in. Busiek has said in interviews that growing up reading comics it was the interconnected world of Marvel that tended to interest him the most. He’d spend time looking for the connective dots in the various books, and would try to make everything fit the best he could. As such, when Ross showed him the idea for the book he was excited to be able to explore the Marvel Universe as a whole.

With help from editor Marcus McLaurin, the idea was scaled down and given a more human figure to follow. Instead of looking at several different heroes across decades the book would follow one man, a photo-journalist, who would encounter the heroes of the Marvel Universe at key moments taken from existing comics, giving readers an alternative, human, perspective on some memorable issues. Ross’ art helped with this too, with its more photo-realistic painted style not only looking unlike anything else in comics at the time, but giving the world created within the pages of Marvels a very grounded feel.

Marvels begins in 1941, where we meet young photo-journalist Phil Sheldon, a man looking to make a name for himself in the business, and hoping to be sent across to Europe to cover the events of the war. He’s one of the journalists sent to cover the unveiling of a new project from scientist Phineas T. Horton, who reveals to the world his synthetic man, an android that when exposed to oxygen sets on fire and becomes The Human Torch. Thanks to the press coverage of the event, the android is seen as a danger, and is buried beneath the Earth. However, an accident occurs that allows him to escape out into the world. As time goes on The Human Torch begins tackling crime across the city, making a name for himself; but he’s not alone.

Over the coming months another Marvel, as Phil names them, appears: Namor, the Sub-Mariner. Something of a frightening figure, Namor spends time as both a hero and a villain, even battling the Human Torch. And Phil is there every step of the way, taking photos of them. It’s not until America enters World War II, however, and the two Marvels join the fight against the Nazis that the world begins to see them as potential heroes. Public support rallies behind them, and even Phil comes to admire them. His belief in the Marvels is cemented when Captain America joins them. Not even losing an eye taking photos of one of their battles can dissuade him of that.

The second issue of Marvels jumps forward in time to the 1960s, where Phil is now a married man with two young daughters. It’s also a time of great wonder in New York, as the Avengers and the Fantastic Four protect the city. Celebrities in their own right, the costumed heroes are on the covers of magazines, and have their own clothing lines in shops. Despite these wonders, the world has started to turn against one group of Marvel, the mutants. Treated as a danger, anti-mutant propaganda is everywhere, and Phil even ends up joining in with a mob to attack the X-Men. As the mutant hate increases, Phil discovers that his daughters are hiding a young mutant girl named Maggie in their basement.

Having been surrounded by mutant hate for so long, Phil initially worries that the girl might have somehow contaminated his daughters, and keeps thinking of Maggie as an ‘it’. But then he stares into her strange features, her large eyes, her sunken face, and he sees the victims of the concentration camps he saw as a war photographer and the reality hits home for him. She’s a girl, just a little girl lost and afraid and hated by everyone, and he’s wrong to fear and hate her. This is easily the most moving and impactful part of the entire Marvels series, and it hammers home a more grounded and realistic version of mutant bigotry.

The rest of that issue depicts two starkly different events in Marvel that happened at the same time, the wedding of Reed Richards and Sue Storm, and the activation of the Sentinels. The city is mad with Fantastic Four fever, and the wedding is a huge party for everyone, but then the mutant killer robots are unleashed and the city plunges into riots, violence, and hate. The scene in which Phil is standing amidst the chaos, taking photos of people as proof of ‘what we did in our nightmare’ is perhaps one of the best for showing the human reality to these big comic moments.

The third issue of Marvels does this again, though in a different manner. By now the world has begun to sour towards its heroes. Spider-Man has been labelled a menace, the world still hates the X-Men, and even its beloved Avengers have changed. The amazing has started to become the banal. And then Galactus comes from the heavens. A towering, world-ending horror, the people of Earth are on the brink of extinction, unable to do anything, forced to watch without any context for what’s happening. Eventually the Fantastic Four save the day, Galactus leaves, and the world goes on. And then the world begins to call it a hoax, it begins to question what Reed Richards did to get rid of a god, and people become bitter again.

It’s interesting to see the final page of the issue, where Phil loses it with a group of people who are complaining about the heroes, yelling at them to actually just be grateful for once, to be happy that the world is still there and to not dismiss it because the press are cruel. This is perhaps a scene that lands differently now, whilst we’re living in the middle of Covid, where we’ve all seen people call it a hoax as others die, where the press has downplayed things, and where those who were true heroes during that are treated with disdain. This is perhaps the most realistic moment in Marvels, and one that I think most of us will admit we’ve seen.

The final chapter of Marvels focuses on Phil as he comes closer to retirement. His book of photos and writing about the Marvels is a best seller, and he’s got himself an assistant to help out with his ageing hands. This chapter focuses on Phil looking into the death of police captain George Stacy, who died whilst Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus were fighting, with the press labelling Spider-Man as the culprit. Phil is sure that Spidey had nothing to do with the murder, and sets out to find the truth. This journey leads him to taking to Doc Ock in prison, and eventually to him becoming friends with Gwen Stacy. The two of them talk about her father, and Spider-Man, and Gwen even admits that she doesn’t think Spider-Man is responsible. It’s in their times together that Phil begins to see the wonder in their fantastical world again, by seeing how much wonder Gwen sees in it all.

Phil is going to meet Gwen to get her father’s journal to help with his investigation when he sees Gwen taken by the Green Goblin, snatched into the sky. Phil follows behind in a cab, chasing the villain to the Brooklyn Bridge, where Spider-Man battles against the Goblin. During the fight Gwen is thrown from the top of the bridge, and Spider-Man webs her to try and save her. Phil is there to see it, and even hears the snap as Gwen dies. He watches in stunned silence during the aftermath, as the police arrive, as Gwen’s body is loaded into the ambulance, standing alone as the crowd leaves. The next day Phil sees that Gwen’s death barely made the paper, and then his belief in the Marvels dies. Phil hands his camera over to his assistant, and leaves the world of the Marvels behind.

Marvels is a book that was unlike anything else when it was released, and its mission to take a look at the history of these characters and the world they live in from a different point of view was one that hadn’t really been done until that point. The book was, unsurprisingly, a hit upon release, and would win three Eisner Awards. Most notable for the book, however, is that it immediately made Alex Ross a star artist. It’s not hard to see that coming, thanks to Ross’ hand painted art and unique style, he brought a level of reality and gravitas to the book, and the events that they depicted. Ross would spend a year working on Marvels, with each issue taking close to four months to complete.

Ross would go on to work on many other books over the years, mostly providing cover art, though would also provide the interiors for the DC book Kingdom Come, which is similar to Marvels in a number of ways. Both books use an older regular human character as their main point of view, interacting with the world of heroes as major events happen (though Kingdom Come focuses its narrative on an alternate future and tells an original story). This wouldn’t be the only time that Marvels‘ formula would be emulated, however, as even in Marvel they tried to do more of the same. A year after the release of Marvels a dark, cracked mirror version of the book would be produced in the form of Ruins, a two issue story with a different creative team. In this book readers would follow Phil Sheldon in another version of the Marvel Universe, one where everything goes wrong. Ruins would take the concept of Marvels but completely miss the point of it, revelling in nastiness and moments designed to upset.

Despite multiple imitators Marvels has never really been topped for the kind of story that it told. Even as recently as 2021 when Busiek returned with a year long series The Marvels the book just wasn’t as close to being as well received. Much like books like Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns, Marvels is a book that has been much copied, but never bettered. It’s a book that came out at the right time with the right concept and made big waves in the comic world. It might not be a perfect book, and you might have others that you find more enjoyable, but you’d be in the wrong if you didn’t consider Marvels one of the all time greats just for what it did.

Marvels was first published from January 1994 to April 1994 by Marvel Comics.

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Pokemon Ruby & Pokemon Sapphire – Throwback 20

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Pokemon is a series that sometimes gets some criticism for not really changing much between each generation of games. Yes, they’ll introduce a whole host of new monsters to catch and train, but the core game play often remains the same. But each new game does try to bring something new to the mix in some ways. The second generation games would bring colour, animations, and breeding, Generation Seven would get rid of Gym battles for special trials, Pokemon X & Y brought in Mega-Evolutions, and the latest games gave players an open world to explore. They might not be huge changes, but they always bring something, and the third generation games were no different.

Set in the island region of Hoenn, the third generation games, Pokemon Ruby and Pokemon Sapphire, put players in control of a young character just moving into their new home in the quiet Littleroot Town. Your character has barely stepped foot outside their house to have a look around when you hear a call for help from the nearby grass. Rushing over, you find your neighbour, Professor Birch, under attack from a wild Pokemon. Grabbing one of the three Pokeballs dropped on the ground, you come to his aid in your first Pokemon battle; a battle that results in you being able to keep the Pokemon you picked.

Once you’ve received your Pokemon you get to meet your rival, the child of the Professor whose gender is determined by your own, and get to set out on your quest to fill the Pokedex and become the region’s Pokemon Champion. This closely follows the basic premise of the games that have come before, and other than a few tiny changes such as being new to the region, and your father being one of the Gym Leaders you have to battle, there’s not much that separates this from previous games. But slowly the two games begin to reveal more details that make the third generation something a bit different.

The main difference here is that as well as having version-exclusive Pokemon to capture, each game has a slightly different story. This is the first time that the versions have changed in such a way, and is something that the series would repeat rarely over the years. Depending on which version you pick up you’ll find yourself fighting against one of two different villainous gangs.

Pokemon Ruby will see you challenging the red hoodie-wearing Team Magma, who set out to free the ancient Pokemon Groudon in order to change the world to their liking by expanding the amount of land mass. Pokemon Sapphire replaces Team Magma with the pirate themed Team Aqua, who seek out the legendary water Pokemon Kyogre, who they hope will expand the amount of water in the world. Both stories run along similar paths, but are different enough that you and your friend with a different version will have subtly different experiences playing.

The games also introduced some new features that would be available in both games. The first of these is the DexNav system, which displays important information for the player including their map, the condition of their Pokemon, and information on trainers who want to rematch you. There are also a few new Pokeballs, including the Premier Ball (which would become one of the more well known in the franchise), the Dive Ball, Net Ball, Timer Ball, and others, all of which were designed to be used in different circumstances and have their own unique designs.

The third Generation was also where Abilities and Natures wold be introduced, features that have become a core part of the series. In an attempt to vary Pokemon somewhat, each Pokemon would have its own Nature, which would dictate its personality type and could shift their stats slightly depending on that Nature. Abilities also gave Pokemon their own little twist, such as allowing immunity against certain types of attacks and boosting attacks in certain circumstances. Even the same types of Pokemon could have a variety of Natures and Abilities, which encouraged players to catch multiple of the same Pokemon in order to find the best one to meet their play style and tactics.

In order to break up the monotony of Pokemon battles the game also introduced Pokemon Contests, competitions where players could enter a Pokemon into what is basically a pet show. Your Pokemon would be required to compete against others, and would be judged based on categories such as cuteness and toughness. These Contests made for a fun distraction from the main quest, and also allowed another arena in which to compete and think about Pokemon in a different way.

Initially released in Japan on 24th November 2002, Europe would have to wait an additional six months to receive the game, and would be the last territory to do so. Despite this staggered launch, the game received positive reviews across the press, and the new additions helped to outweigh criticisms of it being similar to what came before. The game was also a commercial success, and sold 1.25 million copies in Japan in its opening weekend alone. With combined sales of 16.22 million copies, the third generation of Pokemon became the biggest selling games on the Game Boy Advance (though these numbers were drops from previous generations).

The love for Pokemon Ruby and Pokemon Sapphire would continue over the coming decades. It helped that it was the only new Pokemon generation on the Game Boy Advance, and the drop in quality and critical reception for the next two generations made them games that people remembered fondly. The two of them would be remade in 2014 for the Nintendo 3DS, where they would receive several new features, updated story and graphics, and incorporated elements from the third game in the generation, Pokemon Emerald. Along with their remakes, Pokemon Ruby and Pokemon Sapphire have become highlights of the Pokemon franchise.

Pokemon Ruby and Pokemon Sapphire were released in the UK on 25th July 2003

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Wild Spaces by S.L. Coney - Book Review

 

'Robert R. McCammon’s Boy’s Life meets H. P. Lovecraft in Wild Spaces, a foreboding, sensual coming-of-age debut in which the corrosive nature of family secrets and toxic relatives assume eldritch proportions.

'An eleven-year-old boy lives an idyllic childhood exploring the remote coastal plains and wetlands of South Carolina alongside his parents and his dog Teach. But when the boy’s eerie and estranged grandfather shows up one day with no warning, cracks begin to form as hidden secrets resurface that his parents refuse to explain.

'The longer his grandfather outstays his welcome and the greater the tension between the adults grows, the more the boy feels something within him changing —physically—into something his grandfather welcomes and his mother fears. Something abyssal. Something monstrous.'

It seems like cosmic, unknowable horror has become linked with the sea, and the odd creatures that call it home, thanks to the work of H.P. Lovecraft. Whilst I do like Lovecraft's work, and the things that he created (and were inspired by his mythology) sometimes it feels like authors try to stick too closely to what he did when crafting their own horror tales. Wild Spaces is much like this, and the sea plays an important role in this story of a destruction of a perfect, loving family.

Wild Spaces introduces readers a to family living in South Carolina, an 11-year-old boy and his dog, Teach, along with his mother and father. None of the family receive names, and are referred to only in their roles within the family, and as such it's sometimes hard to see them as actual characters rather than just roles in the story. That being said, Coney does take some time to flesh the parents out a little, at least telling us what they do outside of their family roles, with the father studying endangered clams,  and the mother writing pirate history books.

The four of them, the tree humans and the dog, have settled into a decent life, and are happy. However, when the mothers father, the grandfather, arrives one day things begin to change. The narrative gives the impression that the mother and the grandfather are somewhat estranged and that they haven't seen each other in a while. Inviting himself to stay, the grandfather slowly begins to disrupt their lives and their happiness. He makes thinly veiled insults and jabs, and fractures begin to form within the family. When the boy begins to 'change' it starts a series of events that will result in tragedy.

Wild Spaces often times felt like a vague book to me, the family weren't given names, the histories that play an important part in the story are only implied, and the horror is breifly touched upon and never explained. I'm sure that this was done in a way to make the horror feel more real, that the unkowable parts were made in order to get under the readers skin and upset them, and that the family not having names was done to make it feel like a story that could happen to anyone. But, to me, it felt like I was reading something partly finished, something that wasn't quite fully formed.

The book is very short, just over 100 pages, and with the lack of any real depth in the characters and the story I kept feeling like I was reading a rough draft, something that was yet to be filled in and fleshed out. Because of this, I failed to connect with the story, and by the time the horror elements were introduced I was already too bored to really care. I know that this is an issue with myself, and that there are a lot of positive reviews and ratings for the book online. I think this is just a case of me not being the right audience for the book; which does happen from time to time.

As such, my final score represents only my own personal experience in reading Wild Spaces, and your experience could be completely different. The writing itself is decent, and S.L. Coney clearly has a lot of talent, the writing just wasn't what I like. If you're interested in cosmic horror, strange occurrences, or simply want to read something a bit different give Wild Spaces a try. If you don't like it it's only a short commitment, but you might just end up loving it.

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Crow by Nicola Skinner - Book Review

 

'When lonely Hattie feels out of place at her new school, she creates a scarecrow - Crow. Hattie wants him to guard the den she finds in the playground, the only place she feels happy and comfortable. Poor Crow really just wants to have fun with the other children, but he takes his job for Hattie very seriously and is behaviour starts to get scarier and scarier. Will Hattie realise that Crow is ruining her chance to make new friends before it's too late?'

I remember when I moved school when I was eight, despite only having move from one side of my town to the other it changed my life completely. I had to move school to one closer so that my parents could easily walk me down the road for five minutes rather than drive across town, and it resulted in every single friends I'd made being gone. Coming to a new school midway through the year, with a class that had been together for years and had already made strong friendships was a daunting situation. It's something that I think parents who haven't gone through that can assume isn't going to be too big a deal, but to the children involved it's scary. This is the central theme of Crow, and Nicola Skinner does a wonderful job at bringing it to life with a magical twist.

Crow tells the story of Hattie Mole, a young girl who's moving to a the small village of Little Plug along with her dad and older brother Oliver. Hattie decides before they even get there that the move has ruined her life, as she's had to leave all of her old friends behind. Except for her pet rat, Sid; except that doesn't really count. After moving into their new home, a pink cottage, Hattie faces her first day of school. Despite some of the students trying to make friends with her she's very nervous, says odd things, and doesn't know how to act around the others.

During the lunchtime break Hattie is off playing on her own and finds a hollow tree. She decides that the tree is now her den, and sets about crafting decorations inside it, including hanging flower chains, and decorative hedgehogs made from mud and leaves. However, when a couple of the kids find it and accidentally break several of her creations Hattie decides that she needs something to protect her den and keep the other kids out. She builds a scarecrow out of some old clothes, a cushion, and some straw. But when a thunderstorm rolls into the village that same night it seems to bring the scarecrow named Crow, to life.

Crow is a wonderful story thanks to the very realistic and grounded start, and the sudden shift into the supernatural and the fun. If you go into the book without reading the back cover there's zero here to hint at what's the come, and the moment that Crow comes bouncing up to the cottage and knocks on the door with his wooden arms is a delightful surprise. And from this point on the book kind of becomes one with dual protagonists, as Crow gets as much of the spotlight that Hattie does.

Crow is almost the oppisite to Hattie, in that he's outgoing and fun loving, and is quick to try to make friends with the other children in Little Plug. However, Hattie doesn't want him to be friends with other people, as she made him to guard her den where she can be alone and do things by herself. As such, making Crow stick to that mission she sees how people go from liking Crow to kind of hating him, knowing that he's going to cause trouble and disruption wherever he goes. The slow transformation from happy scarecrow into a mean and sullen individual is almost like holding a mirror up to Hattie, and it seems like she realises that if she continues to isolate herself people will react to her the same way they do to Crow.

Eventually, Hattie not only realises that she needs to come out of her shell a little and try making friends with the other kids in the village, but realises that she needs to try to find a way to help Crow too, so that he doesn't become meaner and meaner. 

The book has a number of really lovely illustrations throughout, provided by Rebecca Bagley, an example of which is on the front cover. The artwork is very nice, and has a wonderfully cartoonish and larger than life feel to it that absolutely suits where the story is going. The early illustrations are grounded enough that you don't expect a living scarecrow to pop up, but once he does he fits into the other characters perfectly. The moments of the book that are illustrated also help to convey the emotional moments and journey that Hattie goes on, with the artwork capturing the expressions in big bold way that young readers will enjoy.

Crow is a lot more fun than I was expecting. With Barrington Stoke producing books that are wildly fantastical, and very grounded, a book that sits nicely in the middle, and almost tricks you into thinking it's going to be one thing, and deals with a topic that some kids might feel they can't talk to their guardians about, makes this a wonderfully fun and potentially helpful read for younger kids. Definitely worth checking out.

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The Ghost Cat Who Saved My Life by Pamela Butchart - Book Review

 

'The flat upstairs from Sav is empty, so who or what is making the strange yowling noises she can hear at night? Could it be a ghost cat?! Sav and her best friend Liam decide to investigate, but their ghost hunt takes a very strange turn when Liam gets stuck in the stinky bin room of the flat and it's a new feline friend who helps to get him out. Nothing is quite as it seems in this brilliant new addition to the Little Gems list.'

The latest addition to the Barrington Stoke Little Gems line is the wonderful The Ghost Cat Who Saved My Life by Pamela Butchart, which tells the story of two young friends who set out to find out where a mysterious meowing noise is coming from in the empty flat above them.

The story begins with Sav and Liam, two friends, hanging out in Sav's flat, playing games, when they hear a faint meowing noise coming from the flat above them. Sav mentions that she's heard the noise for a few nights now above her room, and is starting to get worried that her elderly neighbour above them might be in trouble. The two of them head up stairs and knock on the door, but receive no response. Sav's mother tells them that the neighbour moved out days ago, and that they must be imagining the noise, she jokes that it might even be a ghost cat.

With the news that the flat above them is empty, the two kids start to formulate a plan to go inside to trap the ghost cat. Sav's always wanted a cat of her own, but her mother is allergic, so a ghost cat would make the perfect pet. When the two of them manage to get inside the flat, however, it sparks a series of events that will see Liam trapped, and the ghost cat having to come to his rescue.

The Ghost Cat Who Saved My Life is the perfect kind of book for kids (and parents) with a love for cats. There's something about Sav's desperation to have a pet cat, even willing to have one that's a ghost, that I think a lot of cat lovers will recognise. It's fun to watch the two friends trying to formulate a plan to catch the ghost, and figuring out the mystery of what's making the strange noises that will keep little readers entertained throughout the early stages of the book.

Whilst there is some peril involved in the story it's pretty mild, the kind of situation that kids would imagine is a 'I'm doomed' scenario, yet there's never really any real risk or anything too frightening to be worried about. Plus, the adorable rescuer will grab kids imaginations more than any thoughts that one of the lead characters is in any kind of danger.

The book comes with a number of illustrations throughout, and unlike the books aimed at older readers, the Little Gems line has full colour illustrations. The art has been provided by Monika Filipina, and it has a wonderfully hand drawn quality to it. It looks almost like it's been made using coloured pencils, and has a ton of energy and detail to it that makes the pictures jump off the page; it's sure to capture the imaginations of younger readers and draw them in. 

The Ghost Cat Who Saved My Life is a fun story with a lot of heart to it. It has mystery, fun, and an ending that tugs at your hearts a little. I think anyone who's ever had that super special connection with their cat will fall in love with the book a little, no matter your age.

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Rich and Famous / Tragic Hero – Blu-ray Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Hong Kong cinema has produced its fair share of crime movies over the years, and a decent amount of cop movies too. They’re genres that seem to work well in the Hong Kong setting, and the people making them are able to infuse a lot of personality and style in them that makes them unique to Hong Kong. So when Eureka Entertainment released Rich and Famous and Tragic Hero with the description ‘influenced by The Godfather and Once Upon a Time in America‘ I was left wondering if these two films would still feel distinct, if they’d still have the same kind of flavour that makes Hong Kong cinema so enjoyable. Needless to say these fears were unfounded, as both movies proved to be an absolute delight.

Rich and Famous tells the story of Yung (Alex Man) and his adoptive brother Kwok (Andy Lau) who his father took in when they were children when Kwok was orphaned. Having grown up together, the two see each other as brothers, and Kwok treats Yung’s sister and father as his own. So when their father falls sick and medical bills need paying the two of them try to trick a local bookie into paying out on a fake ticket. When they’re caught they’re able to talk their way out of Yung losing a finger, but they are both landed in serious debt. Soon they find themselves caught up in the world of gangsters and serious crime as they try to get enough money to pay off their debt.

Luckily, they catch the attention of gang leader Li Ah Chai (Chow Yun Fat), who takes pity on the two brothers, seeing that they’re in over their heads and trying to help their family. Chai gives them jobs in the organisation, and over the coming years they rise through the ranks, becoming Chai’s friends and trusted enforcers. Unfortunately, events come into play that will see a violent rift form between the two brothers.

It’s easy to see the comparisons to The Godfather with Rich and Famous, as the stories of Yung and Kwok are similar to that of Michael Corleone. The pair don’t set out to become criminals, and it’s through wanting to help out other people that they find themselves being slowly drawn into a world of crime and violence. Unlike The Godfather films, which show the uglier side of the Corleone family and makes it clear that they’re not good people, Chai and his group are very much painted as the good side here. Yes, they engage in criminal activities and kill people, but they’re always shown to be the reasonable people, who try to keep the peace, and who only kill in self defence. There’s very little talk about how they get their money compared to the other crime families, and you never see them engaging in torture or beatings like their enemies do.

This clear line of good and bad is mostly to illustrate the different journeys that Yung and Kwok will go on during this film, as one of them sticks with Chai, whilst the other will turn against him. It wants you to see one of the brothers as more inherently bad, more corrupted by their lifestyle; and it works well. It’s ironic that the word tragic is used in the title of the second film, as the first is very much a tragedy too, and seeing Yung break his bond with his brother, murdering people in cold blood, torturing his friends, and performing vicious acts has you feeling sorry for him as much as you hate him.

That being said, Tragic Hero shakes things up quite a bit, and makes a much starker distinction between the two sides in the conflict. Set several years after the first film, Yung has served his time in prison and has now risen up the ranks to become his own crime boss to rival Chai. So far the peace has been kept between the two, though everyone knows that Yung is waiting for an excuse to kill Chai. When Yung begins his machinations to take down Chai it begins a series of bloody events that will see innocent people brutally killed, and Chai losing everything. Fleeing the country, he goes to the one friend he has left, Kwok, who left the criminal life behind years before. But when Yung’s crazed lust for violence comes after them it will see the two brothers once again at odds.

Rich and Famous is a film that focuses on the relationship between Kwok and Yung, and charts Yung’s slow descent into evil. In contrast, the sequel goes arch in its depiction of him, and Yung goes from a man slowly corrupted by crime into an unadulterated psychopath who finds joy in murder. It can at first be a bit jarring, but it’s actually a pretty interesting look at how hate can twist someone so completely. Yung has lived with his desire for revenge for years, and it’s turned him into a complete monster. It also makes the lines of good and bad so much starker here, and you’d be hard pressed to describe Chai as a bad guy in this film at all. He, and Kwok, are the heroes described in the title.

I can see that this change might not sit well with everyone, and it might be too drastic a shift, but when watching the two films together it does feel like a believable progression of these characters’ stories. Perhaps the most jarring change isn’t in the characters, but in the way the film is presented. The first film is a slower affair, more focused on characters, and is a crime drama with some smattering of action in a couple of scenes. In contrast, Tragic Hero is a dark action movie. The characters are well formed at this point, and there’s no more development for them to be had; Kwok and Chai are the heroes, and Yung is the villain, and that doesn’t change. So the film leans into the violence and the action more.

There’s a point in the film where you can feel the change, an event that means that everything changes, and it sets our heroes on a road that will lead to a sequence that feels like the Hong Kong equivalent of Commando, with explosions, gunfights, and extreme violence. Honestly, I kind of loved this shift. The moment that changes the movie literally made my jaw drop, and I couldn’t believe that the film had just done what it did. And as a fan of 80’s action films, seeing this character-driven gangster drama turn into one of the most intense action movies I’ve seen was a surprise and a joy. Tragic Hero will be the more divisive of the two films here, but for me it was a delight to watch, and a surprisingly interesting end to the entire saga.

The performances in both films are great, and Chow Yun Fat makes for a wonderfully charismatic gangster. He’s a kind and caring guy, and it never once feels like him being kind towards the people under him is an act. As such, when he needs to turn on the anger it comes across as much more surprising and intense. That being said, Alex Man is by far the actor you want to watch here. The first film sees him go from a kind young man out to help his family into someone who starts to be out for himself, eventually broken and twisted by his hate for others brought about by his own actions. His downfall is a tragic one, and because of how well he played Yung at the start of the film you can’t help but still care for him at the end. That being said, he’s absolutely chewing up the scenery in the sequel, leaning heavily into the role of villain. It feels like he’s having a lot of fun playing a character so openly bad, and you can’t help but love seeing him on screen even though you absolutely despise the character at that point.

Along with the two films, presented in new 1080p restorations, the discs feature a couple of extras, including archival interviews with Manfred Wong and Michael Mak (both clocking in at 20 minutes), and a new short feature looking at the dubbing of Hong Kong movies in the 80s, again clocking in at around 20 minutes. Other than that there are new audio commentaries on both movies by Asian film expert Frank Djeng. Sadly, that’s about it, and both discs end up feeling quite light on extra material. This has been something that regular viewers of Eureka’s Hong Kong film releases will have noticed, however, and the lack of behind the scenes materials made at the time is really felt now, decades later. Whilst it would be nice to have seen more stuff included here it’s not really the reason why folks are picking up these new releases, and the films themselves carry the set well enough.

Rich and Famous and Tragic Hero are both enjoyable and entertaining movies with some great actors in the central cast. On their own both movies are entertaining and well made, though offer slightly different things. However, watched together the two movies make for a truly interesting story about these two brothers and the crime lord who forever changes their lives. Fans of crime movies, those who love character drama, and action movie buffs will all find amazing moments to enjoy in this new set.

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Sakra – Film Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The wuxia genre is one that often gets a bit muddled when it comes to the big screen, especially when it comes to martial arts movies putting on impressive stunts. Whenever a character flies across the screen, leaps over their adversary in an impossible way, or lands a blow that sends their foe flying out of shot you can be left wondering if the film is just going a bit over the top, or if it’s supposed to be a fantasy story. Luckily, Sakra makes it clear very early on that the events of this film are in no way supposed to be realistic, and you’re able to relax and enjoy the spectacle.

Sakra, which both stars and is directed by Donnie Yen, tells the story of Qiao Feng, who was left on his adoptive parents’ doorstep as a baby. His parents, who live in the Song Empire, raise Qiao Feng as their own, and teach him to be a decent, honourable young man. Over the years he ends up becoming part of the Beggar’s Sect, a gang of heroes that wander the land. As one of the Sect’s chiefs, Qiao Feng makes a name for himself and does some good in the world.

However, Qiao Feng’s life is shattered when he is accused of murdering one of the Sect’s leaders. It is revealed that the leader had discovered Qiao Feng’s true origin, a child of the Song Empire’s enemies, the Khitan, and it is believed that Qiao Feng murdered him to keep the secret. After escaping the gang and returning home, Qiao Feng finds his adoptive parents and his Shaolin teacher murdered, and is blamed for these crimes too. With four murders against his name, Qiao Feng sets out to discover who committed the crimes.

Sakra makes it clear within the opening minutes of the movie that this is a fantasy film; one with arch characters, extreme action, and a complex plot. The first time we see the adult Qiao Feng is in a scene where he is fighting a group of monks at a tea house, a scene that has the combatants flying across buildings, smashing through statues, and producing fire around their fists. It’s an impressively put together scene, one that not only lays out the kind of things that you can expect from the setting, but also the beauty of the film.

Sakra is an impressive looking movie, one that goes out of its way to make each shot look good. The level of detail and attention given over to the sets and the costumes makes this a film where you’ll find your eyes wandering around the screen trying to take everything in. The action sequences also look incredibly well done, and it seems like a lot of effort has been put in to make them as interesting as possible. The camera isn’t just content to sit stationary as the fighting goes on in the centre, and moves and flies around the environment like it’s also possessed of enhanced abilities. There’s a level of fluidity and scale to the film because of this, and it feels as though camera position and movement were planned into the fights with painstaking detail, working to give the audience the most dynamic experience possible.

Based upon the novel Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, the film adapts a small part of the large narrative, focusing on one of three central protagonists in the book. The film seems to be hinting that there could be more to come from this story, with an extensive mid-credits scene that plays into the history of the events of Sakra as well as building towards a future narrative. As nothing has been confirmed towards a sequel actually being made at this point, these scenes make for an interesting move, as they take a film that feels pretty well finished and complete and make it clear that there’s a lot more happening. If no sequel comes out these moments are unlikely to ruin the experience of the film, though it may leave viewers somewhat frustrated if it gets them excited for more.

When it comes to art there are many discussions about separating the art from the artist. Often times these discussions end up getting muddied and heated, especially with fanbases that can be described as ‘intense’. One need only look at the recent discussions of Ezra Miller being brought up in relation to The Flash, and how fans shouted down comments as being some kind of hit piece, in order to see how these things can sometimes go. As such, it does feel somewhat risky to mention Donnie Yen’s links to the Chinese Communist Party in relation to Sakra. That being said, with there being scenes in the movie where his character confronts the ill treatment of people described as animals and stands against it, this does end up feeling a bit odd and even hypocritical of him considering the human rights violations in China against the Uyghurs.

Sakra is an interesting, and well made Wuxia martial arts movie with some fantastic action sequences and inventive fights. It manages to make a pretty dense narrative, filling the two hour run time with a lot of background info, romance sub-plots, political intrigue, and small character moments. In a lot of ways Sakra feels like the kind of films that the martial arts movies of the 70s and 80s were trying to be, but with the budget to finally bring the grand sense of scale and epicness to proceedings.

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The Comic Cave - Wytches

 

The Comic Cave is a regular feature where we spin the Wheel of Comics and see what graphic novel story it brings up for us to deep dive into! This week we take a look at Wytches, a dark and creepy horror tale about the monsters stalking a father and daughter in their new home.

Witches have existed almost forever, the concept of people with powers and abilities that you don't understand, often frightening and monstrous. Over the centuries witches have played various roles, from healers and wise women, to monsters, and even victims. And whilst very few people in the modern world believe in witches and magic the way that we used to, witches remain a part of our culture and imagination. They appear in our stories, they get used a boogeymen, and you're guaranteed to come across a few every Halloween. But the witches that you think of when you hear the word don't appear in Wytches. Writer Scott Snyder instead creates something more monstrous, more primal, and more terrifying than a green skinned woman riding a broom.

Wytches tells the story of Rook family, mother Lucy, father Charlie, and their teen daughter Sailor, who've recently moved away from their old life to a quiet small town to try and get a fresh start following a series of tragic events in their lives. Not only is Sailor getting over a case of extreme bullying, but her mother was recently in a car accident that left her using a wheelchair; which also resulted in the loss of her unborn baby. Things have been hard for the Rooks, but they're hoping that this new start will be what they need.

Unfortunately, their first day in their new home doesn't go as well as hoped, as Sailor struggles to fit in at school, and is immediately asked if she killed her bully (who went missing following an incident between the two of them in the woods), and back at the house Charlie and Lucy have a deer walk inside, who then begins to scream and vomits up blood all over the office room. They're all shaken by the days events, but Sailor is affected the most, as it brings up memories of the day that her bully, Annie, went missing.

Annie followed Sailor out into the woods one day, screaming at her, abusing her, telling her how much she wished she was dead. Sailor, who's gone through months of this finally snaps and pulls out a knife, threatening Annie to leave her alone. It's at this point that Annie pulls out a gun. She orders Sailor to strip, and tells her that she's going to record Sailor masturbating with the knife so that she can release it to the school. As Sailor begins to take her shoes off a strange chittering sounds begins. Annie walks up to one of the trees where the noise seems to be coming from, and is pulled inside a small opening by long, monstrous arms, in a spray of blood.

In the present, Sailor begins to see a strange, twisted shape in the woods from her window at night, something that calls her name, and begins to believe that it's Annie come back. When something smashes its way into her room one night and bites her, it leaves her with something growing on her neck. The visions of the creature begin to become more intense, and Sailor eventually runs out of school, fleeing into the woods to find answers. As Charlie starts to head out to find her, he's attacked by a woman who begins to tell him about what's really going on, and the danger his family is in.

Wythes is a monster story, and one that plays itself out at a wonderfully creepy pace. The book opens in with a dictionary definition of witches, one that we're all familiar with, a definition that's repeated on the next page, clawed out, the writing obscured by slashes and cuts. Between this and the opening scene set a hundred years ago, the book doesn't play around with making it clear that these are not the witches you're used to, and that you're not going to be able to predict where the book goes.

As the drama with the Rook family unfolds we begin to learn more and more about the Wytches, about what they are and where they come from, and even with this information we still know very little about them. It's claimed in the book that they're thousands of years old, and that they might be an offshoot of humanity that evolved in a different way, but even then that's still just a theory. It's said that they're not magic, but that they have sciences that are so beyond us that they appear like magic, but once again that could just be conjecture. Even when we go below the surface and see them in their tunnels and caves, see them in their natural environment, we get very little insight into them. And this is perfect. The best horror comes from the unknowable, the things that you don't understand, and Wytches gives you that in spades.

The monsters in Wytches are used sparingly, appearing only in the background at times, hidden in shadows, and you're left wondering whether they were actually there or not most of the times that they appear. Scott Snyder seems to know that less is more, and having read some of his other horror comics before, seems well practised at making the medium frightening; something which is a lot harder than in some other mediums. It also helps that there's a very engaging human story going on too, and the relationship between Charlie and Sailor is the very real heart of the book.

We learn through flashbacks that Charlie is an alcoholic, and that in the past he had a decent relationship with Sailor, playing games with her and encouraging her creativity and belief in herself with her 'monster slayer' games, but drink caused a rift between the two of them. One of the incidents in which things come to a head for them is when Charlie has climbed up onto an old feris wheel at an abandonned amusement park, and is drinking in one of the higher seats. Heckling Sailor, who's too afraid to climb up after him, he verbally abuses her and berates her until she begins to climb up. The abuse gets to the point where she tries climbing even higher than him in order to prove herself to him and shut him up. Sailor falls, and Charlie is barely able to catch her in his drunken stupor, managing to save her from serious injury.

This incident happens at the same time that Lucy is driving in the accident that paralyses her and loses the baby, and Charlie and Sailor end up in the hospital that same night as the receive the news about Lucy. The two of them have a blow up, in which Sailor makes Charlie see that he's failing as a father, that Sailor thinks of herself as a failure as a daughter because of it. Ultimately it brings the two of them closer together, and it makes Charlie give up drinking to be the father that Sailor deserves. It's also the catalyst for Charlie to throw himself in danger again and again for her over the course of the book, willing to give his life to save his daughter from the Wytches. This relationship, and the things that Charlie and Sailor go through over the course of the book are not easy to read, and there are times when it quite literally had me crying. And it's because of this that I'd say Wytches isn't just a horror story, its a love story in a horror setting, a story about how far a parent will go for their child. 

Some of these themes are expanded upon in the essays found in the back of the collected graphic novel, in which Scott Snyder talks about what it's like to be a parent, and how you try your best to make your world a kinder, safer one for your child even whilst fighting against monsters both imaginary and real. The essay in which Snyder talks about his young son getting over his childhood fears of things like ghosts and the tooth fair, only to have a terrifying experience during a lock-down drill, where his son developed a fear of a gunman coming into his school is absolutely heartbreaking to read. The first of these short essays, however, was actually chilling in places. Its here that Snyder reveals the genesis for Wytches, of a frightening childhood experience in the woods, and a similar experience again as an adult. There were times reading that that I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and could very easily see how this pushed Snyder to create Wytches.

Whilst the writing is fantastic, I have to also heap a lot of the praise for the book at the art team. Artist Jock, and colourist Matt Hollingsworth do such a fantastic job at bringing the story to life, and at making the book scary. Comics are hard to make frightening, with it being a medium that married still images with snippets of words it's much more difficult to put readers into the emotions and the moment than a film or a novel. A lot of comics rely on things like gore and gross out moments in order to shock the reader because building atmosphere in a comic can be hard. But in Wytches this seems to be something the boo excels at. Some of this is down to how the art hides small things in the panels, the Wytches peeking out from behind trees in the background, or strange shadows that might be a monster.  But the way the art is presented also makes you uncomfortable.

Jock does some amazing work on all of the projects he works on, and his distinct art style has resulted in him receiving a lot of accolades and acclaim. But with Wytches his work has been given a whole new look and feel thanks to the colouring work from Hollingsworth. Colouring tends to be one of the parts of comic making that gets overlooked, and whilst bad colouring can make a book stand out for the wrong reasons a lot of folks tend to gloss over good colouring. If the colourist is doing their job right then you're not really noticing. But Hollingsworth brings a whole new level of create flair and wonder to the book that you can't not notice it. The back of the book goes into this in some detail, showing you the step by step process for the art. Most of the processes are ones that long time comic readers will be familiar with, but it's the final stages that make it something unique. 

The book incorporates hand painted colour splatter on every page. These blotches and sweeps of colours that don't fit into the scene begin quite lightly, and you almost fail to spot them in the first few scenes of the book where things are nice and normal for the Rook family, but as the issues go on and things become more and more nightmarish these intrusions of colour become more pronounced, more obvious. It gives the book an almost dream-like quality, where the images that you're seeing don't quite feel real, where it feels like something is interfering with what you're seeing, messing with your perception. This adds tons of atmosphere to the book, and results in a comic that looks so different from anything else I've read. The art in Wytches not only stands out as something wonderfully unique, but ends up playing a major part in the book being so damn good.

There are few horror comics that stick with me, few that feel like they've gotten under my skin, and fewer still that manage to do that and also elicit strong enough emotions that I'm wiping tears away when I close the book. In the back of the book Snyder talks about how he expected the book to do moderately okay, it being an indie book with dark subject matter meant that he never thought it'd be a huge hit, but it ended up being one, and when you read Wytches its not hard to see why. It's a book that feels like something special, and I truly hope that we get more from this story in the future.

Wytches was published by Image Comics from October 2014 to March 2015.

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The Lair (2022) – DVD Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

There are certain directors that come along whose careers seem to be intrinsically connected to their first movies, to the point where it can sometimes overshadow their other works. Whenever anyone brings up Sam Raimi as being attached to a project you get ‘the Evil Dead guy?’ in response, even though he’s worked on many other projects with very different tones since.

Because his first film was such a hit it’s become THE film of his career. Neil Marshall is another of these directors, who no matter what work he produces people will think of Dog Soldiers before anything else. And it seems that after spending the last twenty years making film and TV of varying styles he’s going back to his roots for his latest film, The Lair, which feels like a spiritual sequel to his debut movie.

Much like Dog Soldiers, The Lair pits a group of soldiers against a monstrous foe in a fight for survival with a cast of weird characters and fun banter, though this time we’ve swapped the forests of Scotland for the hills of Afghanistan. The film opens with British Air Force pilot Kate Sinclair (Charlotte Kirk) on mission over Afghanistan, where she and her partner are both shot down. As the two pilots eject from their craft and manage to land safely they come under attack from insurgents in a fight that leaves Kate as the only survivor. Forced to run from the scene as more enemy fighters close on her position, she stumbles across an old soviet bunker, a warning hastily scrawled on the outside, and the doors chained shut.

Coming under enemy fire, Kate enters the bunker, hoping that it can provide her shelter, or perhaps a weapon. With the insurgents stalking her through the halls and tunnels beneath the surface Kate finds evidence of startling experiments having been conducted within the bunker; and when one of the creatures inside the lab if freed and starts killing everyone, she manages to escape to the surface. Picked up by a group of American soldiers and taken back to their base, Kate knows that the creatures are still out there and tries to convince the commanding officer to listen to her before it’s too late.

There’s very little to the plot of The Lair that will feel new or innovative. The abandoned bunker where twisted experiments were being conducted has been used more than a few times, and the base under siege from monsters isn’t even a new plot for Marshall. But this isn’t a film that’s trying to tread new ground. Instead The Lair is trying to appeal to fans of these particular tropes and stories, and to the people who enjoyed Dog Soldiers, and because of that Marshall is able to put his focus elsewhere in the film, and to just have a bit of fun with things.

One of the things that made Marshall’s first two films work well was the camaraderie that his characters had with each other. Whether it was a group of soldiers stuck in the woods whilst the football was on, or a bunch of women going caving together, Marshall was able to very quickly establish clear characters, demonstrate the bonds between them, and get the audience liking them. This is something that is present in The Lair, but takes a little while to get going. For the first act of the movie Kate is on her own, and Kirk, who previously worked with Marshall on his 2020 movie The Reckoning, does this well. Once Kate meets up with the American soldiers we’re slowly introduced to our core cast of characters; a mix of US and British troops.

Kate is the outsider in this situation, and we meet the others through her experiences at the base. A such we get small snippets of background on the people present, an explanation for why they’re in a unit made up of fuck-ups and losers. The concept of a group of soldiers who are the people that the army wants to shove in a crappy base and leave them to their own devices because throwing them out would be too much trouble is a fun one, and it means that Marshall can get a bit arch in their portrayal and characteristics. But it does become clear that the soldiers there care for each other and know each other well as you see their inside jokes and shorthand coming through in their dialogue. Some of the best of this is the moments of culture clash between the American and British soldiers, especially with Welsh soldier Oswald Jones (Leon Ockenden).

The stand out of the film, however, is Hadi Khanjanpour, who plays captured insurgent Kabir. Rather than going the same route as Dog Soldiers and Captain Ryan (who was also captured by the protagonists and spent a while tied to a chair), the film doesn’t have Kabir turn on the soldiers. Instead, it becomes a narrative of these two sides at war with each other working together against a common foe. There’s even a sequence where he describes growing up in a country under invasion from the soviets, of watching his friends and family killed, that seems to give the foreign soldiers a moment’s pause as they start to consider that perhaps the insurgents aren’t who they thought they were. Sadly, the rest of the movie ruins this as every other Afghani present in the film is an antagonist out to kill the heroes. But Kabir is at least presented as a decent character.

I can’t talk about a monster movie and not talk about the monsters, so let’s get into it. The creatures in The Lair aren’t going to be as memorable as the werewolves in Dog Soldiers or the crawlers from The Descent, both of which were great designs. The creatures in this movie are less distinct, and their design feels like something that I’ve seen before more than once. That being said, there is a certain thing that they do that feels like a surprisingly creative moment, and their origin was genuinely surprising.

Luckily, the monsters here don’t have to be distinct, they just have to be a deadly force overwhelming the heroes; which they do well. The best thing about the monsters, however, is the fact that they’re practical. Whilst CGI means that films are capable of bringing the most fantastical design to life it does also mean that you often feel that what you’re looking at isn’t real, and on occasion performances suffer from having to interact with nothing. The Lair chooses instead to stick stunt actors in monster suits, and it’s such a great choice. The practical approach makes the film feel like an old-school monster movie, and that’s definitely a plus.

Whilst the film itself is enjoyable, the physical release is somewhat lacking. Other than the film there’s a short behind the scenes segment that’s mostly just clips from interviews with a few of the films cast and crew. Mostly they talk about what their characters are like, which if you’ve already watched the film you know. There’s a little bit of talk about what filming was like and how well the cast got on, but there’s nothing truly revealing or interesting here. There’s nothing about the making of the movie, the design and creation of the monsters, or what shooting the action was like. Compared to home releases of Marshall’s older movies, which would come with all of this plus a commentary or two, the DVD feels ridiculously light. You’re basically just paying for the movie, which does help those who don’t have Shudder, but for those that already do there’s no real reason to go out and get the physical release.

The Lair is Marshall going back to the movie that made him a hit and putting that formula in a new setting, and despite it being quite obvious that it’s the same kind of movie it’s incredibly good fun. Marshall has tried a few different things, and whilst his work is entertaining, this feels like where he excels. It might not have much substance, and it won’t become a film that people hold up as a masterpiece, but it’s the kind of film you can have a lot of fun with, a film that you can put on a guilty pleasure list, and that you can stick on whenever you want a bit of schlock. And as someone who likes a bit of schlock every now and then it’s a lot of fun.

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The Hunger and the Dusk #1 – Comic Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Orcs can vary wildly from story to story depending on the kind of person writing it and the tale that they’re trying to tell. Tolkien’s orcs were twisted monstrosities lost forever to the forces of evil; the worlds of Warhammer depict them as roving warriors who love to fight; The Elder Scrolls games often portray them as skilled blacksmiths and crafters; and Dungeons and Dragons have gone from having them be brutish barbarians to pretty much anything that a player could want them to be. Whenever you pick up a book that has orcs in it you’re almost doing a lucky dip, having to hope that what comes out is a depiction that you like.

The opening pages of The Hunder and the Dusk makes it seem like perhaps this new fantasy comic series from IDW will be going for the type of orcs who travel the land, pillaging and killing in order to survive, caring nothing for the weak and pathetic humans that stand before them. We see them through the eyes of human children, who see a trio of orc warriors watching from the top of a hill, sizing up their small settlement. As such, the orcs instantly become a source of fear and hate, and it does seem like this group of raiders are prepared to cause havoc. However, a darker threat emerges from the setting sun, coming at dusk; something that slaughters the orcs and humans alike.

From here things change, and we see the orcs in a new light as we jump forward in time several months where this new threat, the ancient race the vangol, has begun to bring humans and orcs together. Knowing that neither race can defeat this new threat alone, a meeting is made to formalise the alliance. It’s here that we get to meet some of the lead characters of the series: Callum Battleborn, a human warrior and member of the mercenary band The Last Men Standing, who’s been selected to be the human representative by one of the orc leaders, Troth Icemane. Troth is bringing his cousin, Tara, to act as ambassador to the humans, to travel with Callum in their fight against the vangol.

The first issue of The Hunger and the Dusk is pure set-up, but it’s masterfully done. The opening scene plays with your expectations a number of times, setting the orcs up to be villains, before showing a more nuanced side to them. They’re then killed off by what you think might be the heroes of the piece, before you learn that their assailants are true monsters. It’s a tense sequence, and one that builds to a point where you’re almost holding your breath as the unseen forces come to the human village, waiting to see if they act as saviours or destroyers.

Despite not previously knowing anything about this world that writer G. Willow Wilson has created, she’s able to use this opening scene to lay the groundwork for the warring nature of human and orc interactions. This means that as we move on to the meeting between the two delegations and get to see them talking about how important this alliance is, how each race’s very survival hangs upon it, it is completely believable. And whilst we only really get to know a couple of the characters in this first issue what we do learn about them makes them interesting. Troth seems like a man for whom honour means everything, Callum is a capable guy but definitely feels like he’s in over his head, and Tara is a character who doesn’t really seem to know who she wants to be yet, but who holds a ton of promise. Plus, there’s definitely some cute romance vibes between her and Callum.

The art, by Christian Wildgoose, with Msassyk on colours, looks absolutely gorgeous. The environments are beautiful, with gorgeous rolling countryside and cosy-looking farm homes in the opening scene, and more mysterious and foreboding settings for the latter half of the book as the two races come to meet. And speaking of the races, the orcs in this book are fantastic to look at. They have wonderfully interesting features, with parts of them that feel very classically goblin-like with their large ears and bright eyes, but there are times where they also look a bit feline too, with a beauty and grace to them. Each of them looks unique in their colours and their features, and it makes them instantly stand out from each other; and Tara is made to look very beautiful without losing her orcness.

The vangol, when we do finally see them, are an interesting creation; one that looks similar enough to both the orcs and the humans that they’re clearly from the same kind of world and don’t look completely alien. However, they manage to look twisted and monstrous to the point where you can see why the two races fear them and are willing to come together to fight them. It feels like there’s going to be a lot of visually creative and creepy moments to come in the series featuring them, and I can’t wait to see what those are.

The Hunger and the Dusk seems like an exciting new fantasy series, and one that will appeal to fans of the genre. Despite being a first issue that has to try and set up both the world and the characters we’re going to be following, you come away from it feeling like you’ve got a good grasp on things, and that this is a deeper, richer world that we’ve only just started to scrape the surface of. With the promise of frightening enemies to fight, epic battles for survival, the chance to get to know a really interesting version of orc culture, and romance blooming, this is a series that folks are going to want to keep an eye on.

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