Right In The Heart — Reviewing ‘The Hunger And The Dusk’ #5

Forces both within and without continue to chip away at the already extremely fragile alliance between humans and the orcs. One poor choice or powerful moment could shatter it all and send the world fully into chaos.

With The Hunger And The Dusk #5, things get one step closer to this possibility. Another gripping tale from G. Willow Wilson, Chris Wildgoose, Msassyk, Diana Sousa, and Simon Bowland.

Imagine a comic book so mentally and emotionally delicious, every issue is one that you wish could go on forever. Full of delights, frights, and emotional character depth that can sustain for years. Wrap it up with a package of high fantasy with a nice colorful bow on top. Baby, you’ve got a stew going.

That is just what one gets with The Hunger And The Dusk. A rich meaty powerful meal that leaves the belly full but in a very pleasant way. Okay, I might be very hungry as I write this, but the sentiment stands. This series is a well-conceived and crafted five-course meal.

Keeping on that theme, part of what keeps it this way is the pleasant anticipation.

Some stories would take the situation of the alliance between Humans and Orcs and either rush to the “happy” ending, or rush to the “it all falls apart” ending. Wilson though knows how to make things simmer and arrive just as planned. Through this issue, we get far more hints at the threat that is actually facing the world (what the Vangol might be running from) and see cracks forming in the alliance. Because of the building done in the four issues we care for these characters and the pain at seeing them hurting and breaking apart is too real.

There are still so many layers to these characters and this world unrevealed. We saw nothing of Overlord Troth & Wife this issue, after tons of them last issue, and I missed them. Just like I missed the Last Man Standing crew when there was less of them. That’s some quality character-building when you have the audience wanting to see all of them as much as possible.

Oh, but things are not just a character-writing feast. No, no. Visually there is just so much that Wildgoose and Msassyk, with assistance from Sousa, are delivering issue after issue.

All the vistas are just gorgeous with such depth and presence. Each space the characters travel to, and the seasons/elements we’ve seen are crisp and feature their own unique looks. Colors are often natural and quite muted in many respects. Allowing some of the bigger moments or elements to soak in the more vibrant color tones, really pushes the fantasy feels.

So much of what drives this issue is the emotional beats, as we see various characters stretched to their limit. We can see what they are saying and know how that must feel, but the emotional energy on the page makes sure we actually feel it. Every character just has such rich facial expressions and body language, changing rapidly to suit the moment or mood like it’s nothing. Not to mention there is just such a variety of not just skin tones and appearances but even body types.

No two characters, be they named or not, look anything alike other than their race and small common elements.

I mentioned seeing what the characters are saying plays a part in the emotional atmosphere. That’s thanks to the great work Bowland does with the letters. Letting the character’s personality and mood pour from their every word onto the page. Bubbles and captions flow smoothly from space to space, letting everything from the bubbles/boxes to the rest of the artwork breathe.

The Hunger And The Dusk #5 is now available from IDW Publishing.