We’ve got another year (give or take) before we see Stranger Things Season 3, but to tide us over Dark Horse is giving us an all new comic. Read on for a review of Stranger Things #1.
Follow Will Byers into a dimension of decay and destruction where he must use his wits and resolve to dodge the pursuit of the Demogorgon and escape the Upside Down.
I’m not a big follower of comic-books-based-on-popular-TV-shows, because I tend to be pretty picky about the artwork: in some series the characters look nothing like the actors, and in others the artist was trying so hard to draw them accurately, they end up looking a little creepy with too-defined eyes and teeth.
I think Stefano Martino and Keith Champagne, with colorist Lauren Affe, managed to avoid both those problems: you can easily recognize everybody, but the rendering of faces isn’t stiff or uncomfortable. There’s a couple panels of Will and Mike that could’ve been a little more relaxed, but all in all I think the art was solid (there’s one panel of Eleven that’s particularly nice.)
I knew going into this issue that it was going to be a retelling of season one, told from Will’s point of view inside the Upside Down. My only complaint is: I loved the first two seasons of Stranger Things, but I’m hoping the next season has any storyline except “We Have To Save Will.” We’ve done that for two seasons, and it was fun, but I’d like to see things going in a different direction.
With this series we’re back with Will and his terrible adventures in the Upside Down (which technically we didn’t see through his eyes in season 1) and I’m sure the creators will do an amazing job with the story. But I hope somewhere in the next three issues they find a way to surprise us with something different.
Stranger Things #1 is in stores September 26.