First off, let me say that Adam Hamdy and David Golding's The Hunter looks fantastic as a package. The book runs at 64 full colour pages, and looks gorgeous. For a price of £2.95 and a card cover, it really is great value for an indie book. Hamdy's writing is good, the dialogue flows nicely and the pacing is brilliant. The character's do feel unique and individual, and we have a great hook to bring us in to the story, and a lot of set-up's and questions prepared that future issues should answer.

However, nothing much really happens. We are introduced to the main character, shown the bad guys and what they did, and what the government intends to do, but for 64 pages there's a lot of filler. I think what contributes to this is the quick introduction of a lot of characters without us really knowing much about them, and at the moment, not really caring too much. Hamdy has crafted a great comic, and I know he has the back story and the events all figured out, but he should have waited an issue or two for some characters to have been brought in, as we don't really know much about the character and personality of any of the characters introduced in the first issue.

There is also the relentless banging home of the the word "sleepers". It's used a lot, and I felt Hamdy was trying too hard to make us recognise what he was saying. I do feel that for his first comic, Hamdy has written a good introductory issue, it's just not great. With more experience under his belt, and introducing more about the character's back story (which will be featured in issue #2) the I feel The Hunter's story will begin to come together. Golding's art is a good choice for the book. It has a very superhero feel to it, and it's consistent throughout all the pages. Only a few thing's I picked up (on page 51 the woman character we are introduced to appears to be slightly out of proportion), but it's really nothing I can honestly grumble about. The use of an old style comic drawing and colouring in some later pages for a flashback was smart and a nice little touch to the comic.

The Hunter defies what an ordinary superhero comic would do for the first issue. It skips the back story and instead focuses on what is happening right now, hitting us with all the characters we would have been introduced to slowly if an origins issue had been put out first. I applaud Hamdy for the change, and it's works as long as you want to stay in for the second issue, which I recommend you do, as this first issue shows great promise for the series. And at £2.95 for 64 pages and a glossy card cover, why wouldn't you give it a go.