Advance Review: Hunters Become The Hunted In `Stranger Things- Tales From Hawkins’ #1

Ah Hawkins, Indiana! A small town where nothing ever happens.

That is, until the calendar turns to 1983 and the events of Netflix’ Stranger Things unfold. A new anthology series, subtitled Tales From Hawkins, aims to fill in a few gaps during the shows run.

The first issue is set in the fall of 1983, during the show’s first season. It deals with Dale and Henry, two hunters who make the unfortunate mistake of heading out into the woods while a demigorgon is on the loose. The pair knows nothing about the monster in the woods, of course. They want nothing more than to drink some beer in the early morning hours. But when they come upon the mutilated corpse of an animal, they know they are dealing with a different kind of predator.

Seeing themselves as heroes, they start looking for the animal that committed the atrocity. It ends pretty predictably for them. (One of the pluses of an anthology series like this is you can introduce and kill off characters at will.)

Writer Jody Houser takes advantage of that pro – and likely will again over the four issues of this limited run. Houser’s story is simple enough, and you can see the ending once you read the first few pages, but that doesn’t take much away from the tight tale. While only one of the streaming show’s main characters appears in this issue, we still feel the Dale’s and Henry’s excitement and eventual terror as the demigorgon turns the game around and starts hunting them.

Caio Filipe does a fine job with the artwork. The monster and its path of destruction are sufficiently scary but not overly gory. And he even includes a visit to the Upside Down, a reality where familiar things are turned on their heads.

This new series may not break much new ground, but given that we have to wait another year and a half for the final season of the Netflix show, it’s not a bad filler.

Stranger Things: Tales From Hawkins #1 will be available for purchase tomorrow.