What do you get when you mix one part Judge Dredd, one part Escape From New York, one part Robocop, and soak the whole thing in neon and grime? You get a goddamn good comic called Night Hunters.
Night Hunters
Dave Baker (Writer), Robert Negrete (Letterer), Alexis Ziritt (Artist)
Floating World Comics
February 9, 2022
I had the pleasure of visiting Seattle’s Short Run Festival recently, an independent comics show that made for an entirely inspirational experience. While wandering the tables, I came across Night Hunters, and given both the color choices and the back cover copy, I couldn’t resist picking up a copy for myself.
Set in a dystopian Venezuela one hundred years into the future, Night Hunters is the tale of two brothers doing their best to survive in a world where social stratification has reached a breaking point–civilians live in rubble and slums, eking out a starving existence, while over-funded cops modify their bodies by installing increasingly ludicrous means of murder in order to better hunt the individuals they’re nominally meant to protect. If you want to have a home, a bed, or amenities like electricity in Gran Caracas, you have only one option–become an arm of the very system that oppresses you. These things are granted only to cops, and the only safe places are megalithic structures known as Peace Prisons, skyscrapers not unlike the Megacities of Dredd, packed to the brim with occupants and boasting nearly decade-long waitlists for new residents. Everyone else lives in open districts where murders happen in the double-digits daily, and where cops don’t even have to pretend that they’re not manufacturing excuses for arrests. It’s not a subtle story, but then that’s the point–creators Baker and Ziritt are upfront about their inspirations, be it Paul Verhoeven or 2000AD.
Enter Julien and Ezekiel, brothers who find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict after a tank shell burns away half of Julien’s body and sets him on a path of needing cybernetic enhancements in order to live. Those enhancements require regular upgrades, and the easiest way for Julien to get those is conveniently by following a childish dream—to become a cop, clean up the city, and live a life of luxury. This puts him at odds with his brother, Ezekiel, who joins a local gang after their separation, eventually taking it over and becoming the leader of an entire revolution. It’s a simple, straightforward drama, but it works. For all that this story crams into four issues, the battle between these two provides an emotional tether that only intensifies the conflict raging in the corners of the story.
Ziritt’s art here is really something to behold. The entire book is full of memorable character designs, individuals heavily augmented by cybernetics that aren’t clean or sleek, but grimy and chunky, with visible servos, cables and toggles. Every aspect of the book looks like it smells of diesel fuel, every environment feels like it’s thudding with synthwave beats. Colors are vibrant and blocky; entire pages done in red on black inks, with only a small burst of yellow to denote a visual effect. More than just evocative of some of cyberpunk’s best tropes, Ziritt’s world here feels lived in.
It’s not just his art either; Baker’s characterizations give the story a hunger and urgency that keeps it churning along. I was through all four issues before I knew it, and immediately found I wanted more. As a result of Julien’s injuries, he can no longer speak, all he has is a vocal processor that allows him to emit a series of clicks. He keeps his ravaged face hidden behind an executioner’s shroud, and yet despite all of that, between Baker’s writing and Ziritt’s art, Julien carries an empathetic tragedy about him. It hurts to see him battle his brother, the way it hurts to see any two brothers caught on opposite sides of a war.
Night Hunters packs a hell of a punch, as a book. If you’re looking for something in the vein of Judge Dredd, but leaner, and with a modern sense of hunger and urgency, you’d do well to pick this up.
