The Hunger and the Dusk: Book Two #1 has a difficult task by its name alone. This is the seventh issue of an ongoing fantasy series and it picks up immediately where the sixth left off. In name, however, it’s the first issue of something new, even with the “Book Two” of it all. G. Willow Wilson has to use this issue to not only continue an already great story, but also make use of this issue as a bit of a reset, launching into a second part of the saga that should feel at least a little different from the first.
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For the most part, Wilson succeeds, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has read… well, any of her work over the years. She’s one of the best pure storytellers in the comics space and The Hunger and the Dusk gives her a massive canvas to create something exciting and different. So, while this launch of Book Two may not be propelling the action, it’s a joy to watch a great writer use the resetting of a game board to deliver something compelling.
This first installment of The Hunger and the Dusk: Book Two picks up in the middle of the war against the dangerous Vangol forces, with the treaty between humans and orcs as shaky as ever. Relations between the sides are even more uncertain now because of what happened at the end of Book One: Callum and Tara’s love story turned into a bitter fight and saw the latter depart the Last Men Standing. Tara returning to her kind has made many orcs and humans believe the treaty to be over, and that couldn’t come at a worse time with the Vangol continuing their assault.
Callum’s army continues to suffer, especially with Tara gone and no healer to help keep things together. Their numbers continue to dwindle until, finally, help arrives in the form of a new healer, a gorgeous woman with incredible talents and an eye for Callum.
The Hunger and the Dusk excels as a Dungeons & Dragons-esque fantasy adventure, but the comic book’s real super power is how all of its great fantasy elements are just window dressing for a gripping love story. The first six issues created some fantastic tension with Callum and Tara’s pseudo-enemies-to-lovers situation. Theย Book Two debut sets up a second, very different chapter of that love story.
“Everyone knows the old saying: you don’t appreciate what you have until it’s gone,” Sev says in the issue’s opening narration. It’s a novel concept, but it sets the tone for that this entire comic book will be about, even if your attention is sometimes drawn to the greater conflict happening around the characters. While Book One saw these heroes grapple with hope and identity, Book Two focuses on their reckoning with grief and loss. Throughout every turn, whether it’s at camp or on the battlefield, Wilson uses these characters to make you ponder the things you love, whether or not you appreciate them enough, and what life could look like if you lost them.
A neat little bow is put on that idea at the end of this first issue, bringing things full circle from the opening pages and doling out a hypothesis for the next five issues to come.ย
“Many things, when lost, cannot be recovered,” Sev ponders on the final page. “Is love one of them? I sometimes think so. But try telling that to a man like Cal.”
Pitting the narrator’s answer to life’s big questions directly against that of the story’s lead character creates a situation of a man fighting against forces out of his control. Are Sev’s words meant to set up a victorious, against-all-odds ending for Cal and Tara? Or is he foreshadowing a devastating tale in the issues ahead. With two perspectives in such stark contrast, it’s impossible to tell, but I can’t wait to find out.
Published by IDW Publishing
On July 10, 2024
Written by G. Willow Wilson
Art by Chris Wildgoose and Marc Laming
Colors by Msassyk
Letters by Simon Bowland
Cover by Chris Wildgoose and Msassyk
