Review: ‘Hidden Springs’ #2 Shines In Small Moments That Showcase Humanity

Welcome to the table,

We always need more giant monster stories. Dark Horse Comics is bringing us one of the best modern original Kaiju tales that I’ve seen. Let’s get into it.

Hidden Springs is a horror-comedy series written by Rob Williams, with art from Nil Vendrell, colors from Berta Sastre, and letters from Simon Bowland.

Issue #2 of this series kicks off with the baby Kaiju running from military submarines under the water. We see that this is actually the mind meld that the Kaiju has with Brock, one of the octogenarian ex-celebrities who have become entangled with this baby Kaiju in the middle of the woods on their dubious and ill-advised trip from their retirement village.

-Spoilers Follow-

Things go sideways after we are treated to a flashback of the talented and tortured Loretta. The flashback shows the crushing control of a film studio that wants a woman director as a showpiece but not as an actual force behind the film.

We get a bit of insight into the baby Kaiju’s powers and how the military captures its kind and uses them for all sorts of nefarious purposes. This gives a better understanding of why it freaked out, accidentally activated its spaceflight powers, and somehow landed itself in a forest so very far away from the sea, its natural environment.

The military soon arrives on the scene in action movie fashion. Then the quiet (but clearly deadly) Bob kills a raccoon that it uses to distract them long enough for the baby Kaiju to blast the military jets out of the sky.

All of this goes down while one of our elderly ensemble struggles with what seems to be late-stage heart failure. Another tries to navigate dementia or memory loss. The whole thing is very charming and chaotic and colorful. It feels very much in the vein of films like Cocoon or Batteries Not Included.

The charm of Hidden Springs comes from the ensemble of irritated elderly folks who serve as the newfound shepherds for the size-shifting Kaiju. Hidden Springs shines in the small human moments it uses to create in the middle of military units shooting at the big baby beast, and our ancient rocker going into what seems to be late-stage heart failure.

Until next time, this is the kind of comic I think works really well as a fun summer read or could make for a cool basis for a limited series like The Boroughs.