Review: ‘Hunt.Kill.Repeat.’ #5 Revisits The Past And Peeks At The Future

Welcome to the table,

Monsters! I talk about my love of monsters all the time and that is not going to change. When I was a kid, I did not get to have fun like everyone else. When kids got to have activity day or recess or fun times with each other, I got shuffled off to a large closet or the backstage of the auditorium or a storage classroom and had to do physical therapy.

It sucked. It was frustrating, it was embarrassing, and every time it happened it left me feeling drained and tired. As a kid, the last thing I wanted to do was have another thing heaped onto me that caused pain, all while making me even more of an outsider to the rest of the kids at the school I was attending between surgeries.

However, one thing came out of the thousands of hours of physical therapy that still sticks with me, past the childhood trauma and all. One of the therapists handed gave me a copy of Edith Hamilton‘s Mythology before vanishing to further her goals in sports medicine or some such.

Mythology was first published in the early 1940s and has a wealth of Greek mythology that covers the majority of the known tales. This book, dog-eared and well-loved kept me going a lot of days, as my parents saw it as a textbook and not a story of “other gods,” who they condemned from their own ideological positions.

While there are a ton of stories I really enjoy, from Echo to Charon and everything in between, one of my all-time favorites has always been the story of the daughter of Phorcys and Ceto, Medusa.

Hunt.Kill.Repeat continues to be a standout book as it effortlessly blends classic mythology in a new and exciting way that is both action-packed and deeply character driven. In a landscape where stories about gods can get very one-dimensional the fractured facets of these deities are put on full display and each page turn seems to be driving to some great tragedy that will shake the heavens and hells to their core.

Issue #5 of Hunt.Kill.Repeat starts off with a beautifully crafted flashback to the wedding day of Hermes and his bride-to-be, Medusa.

There is some really solid world-building done yet again in this issue where we get some insight into just how classist Zeus is. The Lord of Olympus scoffs at Hermes’ love of human food. There is a very clear through line that further establishes Artemis even in this flashback as companionate to all regardless of if they are mortal or god.

The book plays along with the mythologies, and while unmanned, I do believe that Poseidon’s action in Minerva’s temple is mirrored in this plot and the resulting fallout and transformation of Medusa from what she was to what she is known to be can be seen.

Her more iconic form is really well designed with some interesting choices that I think really work to sell the monstrousness of the character. Also, I’m being intentionally vague as I do not want to spoil some of the emotional beats and story developments. The bits with Medusa are only the tip of the very big iceberg of what is to come.

This issue ends with a showcase of something that has been looming in the shadows since the first, and I think all the pieces are finally coming together to lead us to a bloody endgame.

Only time (and the next issue) will tell what is in store, but Hunt.Kill.Repeat still continues to be a great comic that I look forward to month after month.

Until next time, go read some myths!