The Hunt #1 and #2 Review

Yeh Cheeky Fecker Yeh

Written by: Colin Lorimer
Art by: Joana Lafuente and Jim Campbell
Cover Price: $3.99/each
Release Date: July 20/August 17, 2016
Review by: Josh Vermillion

Part of my pursuit of branching out to new comics involves picking up books I wouldn’t normally try out. Scrolling through the Image Comics website, I came across The Hunt and decided to try it out. The concept of a young character not knowing what’s real and what’s not isn’t exactly a new one, but I was putting my faith in dual-threat creator Colin Lorimer to give me a good story. Let’s see how well he’s done two issues into this story.

We get introduced to our main character, Orla, in the very first panel. We’ll have to ask the guys over at 365Flicks if kids in Ireland call their fathers “Da” a lot, because that threw me off a little bit. Other than that, the first few pages are mainly just introducing Orla and her family. That is, until Orla goes into her Da’s room to see him being straddled by a… something. Some kind of giant bug-looking thing is going to town on Orla’s Da.

Next, in the present day, we see that Orla isn’t exactly in the cool kids club at school. The other girls seem to spend most of their time making fun of Orla and Sarah, her only friend. We get introduced to more of Orla’s family in her one-eyed Granny and her little brother Olly before seeing her college boyfriend, Damien. Later, while on the potty at her boyfriend’s party, she is going through old posts about her while reminiscing about a few years before.

After her dad was “taken,” I’m assuming by the big bug thing, she’s running through the woods, naked for some reason, looking for him. After some old guy finds her, we finally get a little explanation of what’s going on. Something killed her dad, but they still have his soul and are torturing it.

Back in the present, some creep with glasses is watching her pee, and tells her they’ve still been watching her, whoever “they” is. This book definitely likes to play the pronoun game to keep the audience intrigued. The creepy watcher warns her that her granny is next, but Orla can’t get to her in time. We see Granny get stabbed by some guy before one of the bugs reveals itself and takes her on. We get a better look at the bug this time and see that it has two human faces on it’s head. It’s actually pretty creepy looking and it had me excited to jump into the second issue.

Issue #2 picks up right as Orla pulls up to see her Granny laying in a pool of blood. In another flashback, we see Granny defending Orla from some school bullies. It’s also revealed that Granny can see the monsters as well. The bugs watch them constantly but can’t interact with them, and Granny is trying to teach Orla how to block them out.

It looks like Granny is going to be okay, but Orla is worried that the rules are changing and the Slough can hurt them somehow. Orla goes and finds Creepy Glasses Guy and slaps him across the face before telling him that she’s ready to listen. The guy takes him to the woods, waves a stick, and a door opens up to some other plane.

In this new place, Orla walks up to what must be the leader of these people and tells them to back off. The leader tells Orla that they had nothing to do with it and that the Slough aren’t a part of them. The leader tells Orla that it wasn’t one of their people that led her to this world, and that it was most likely a setup by the Slough. Back in the real world, the guy with glasses finds Olly and gives him something to look through. Olly does and sees the guy is actually some other kind of monster, probably what the people in the other world was calling a “changeling.”

Wow… That was a lot of stuff to talk about. I can’t say that I totally understand everything that’s going on, but I can say that I’m having fun. Sure, I’m confused as “feck,” but I’m excited to see where it goes from here. Despite the constant use of the pronoun game, I am definitely intrigued and want to learn more about these monsters. Colin Lorimer’s art complements his story perfectly. I do wish Joana Lafuente’s color popped a little bit more, but other than that it looks great and I’m ready for more. Next month can’t come soon enough.

Bits and Pieces

I don’t really know what’s going on, but I’m excited as hell to see where it goes from here. Colin Lorimer has put together two issues that are almost completely set-up, but it’s still awesome. I really can’t wait until the next issue. I just hope the story lives up to the promise of these two issues.

9/10