Hidden Society #1 - Dark Horse Comics
Written by Rafael Scavone
Art by Rafael Albuquerque
Colors by Marcelo Costa
Letters by Bernardo Brice
If you thinks superhero stories are everywhere, apparently you didn't notice the trick up someone's sleeve. Stories of magic and magical creatures are just a prevalent, and the world often needs saving. It takes a special set of circumstances, or a special cast of characters, to stand out from a very crowded field. Let's see how Hidden Society #1 from Dark Horse Comics stands up for itself.
One by one we meet several unique characters. We have a cursed bounty hunter named Mercy, Laura a blind woman with a service dog and a daemon and finally a professional "magician" named Jadoo. They are all leading their own lives, as normal as you can when there is something special about you. Suddenly they are brought together, but the kicker is, we don't really know why. You can see how, as separate entities, they could be useful to someone needing magical help. The problem is, we get almost zero explanation as to why they have been summoned together. That is kind of where the first issues leaves us, guessing as to what might be next.
The biggest problem with this book is, they are banking on you either really digging these characters or the lore of magic itself. This first issue serves as a very good introduction to all of the main characters, but that's kind of where it stops. My point is, this book will likely hook you in the first issue or it won't. For me, it's the art from Rafael Albuquerque. Right from the beginning, when we see Mercy for the first time, the whole mood of the book changed. Artists like that have the ability to elevate whatever might be happening on the page. I want this story to be good, I do, it's just that we didn't get to see hardly any of the bigger picture. The book actually gives you a chance to form an opinion about it's characters, even relate to them, but we have no idea why they have been summoned. So, despite being visually stunned and fun, Hidden Society has a long way
RATING: 3/5
(I have a feeling that this book will dive in answering some of it's major questions in Issue 2. If all goes well, this should be in my pull after reading the next issue.)