Delver #1 Review: Never have I Ever Been So Afraid of a Goat

DELVER #1 Written by MK Reed & C. Spike Trotman, Art by Clive Hawken, Color by Maarta Laiho, Lettering by Ed Dukeshire

Synopsis: When the door to a living dungeon surfaces in the tiny hamlet of Oddgoat, village girl Temerity Aster has two choices: abandon the only home she’s ever known to carpet baggers and sellswords, or carve out a place for herself and her family in the new and dangerous world of delving. A 5-issue miniseries.

Part of the comiXology Originals line of exclusive digital content only available on comiXology and Kindle. On release, this title is available as part of comiXology Unlimited, Kindle Unlimited and Prime Reading.

Thanks to Comixologyfor sending a copy to review!

Have you ever played Dungeons & Dragons? If so, I think this is a comic for you. I myself have played a fair few times (dwarf druid with a battleaxe) so I found a lot to love in issue #1 of Delver.

The story is set in a small rural community where it seems that nothing exciting ever happens except for the occasional goat born with two heads. One day all of that changes when a door to a magical realm known simply as “Dungeon” opens up in an underground cellar. Everything quickly becomes much more complicated for the small town of goatherds.

There is so much going on in this story. You have a tight knit community of farmers just trying to keep themselves fed and healthy. Injecting a huge dose of magic into their lives could make things so much easier, or vastly more difficult for them. There are also a large number of strangers coming into the town to see the door to Dungeon. Visually, seeing how the magic awakening throughout the town takes shape was amusing, scary, and downright sad in turns. It results in one of the most horrifying renditions of a goat I have ever seen, so please read this book so you can share my nightmare.

Delver promises to dig deep not only into some fun magical shenanigans, but also into how a community is affected by change. It’s basically the most extreme example of gentrification you could possibly imagine. I look forward to seeing how the story and the characters will adjust to the increasing magical influence coming through Dungeon.

You can read the first issue of Delver now on comiXology!