The Upside Down. A dark, dank, and creepy-crawly-filled nightmare that some could never dream of, even in their wildest of nightmares. A place so saturated in decay and darkness, once you find yourself lost in its foul reality, all hope seems better left abandoned. This place of terror is where Will Byers, a normal boy from Hawkins, Indiana, finds himself trapped one night after an innocent game of Dungeons and Dragons. With the barrel blast of a gun and the pop of a light socket, Will is spirited away into the Upside Down, and dragged into an adventure he wished the rest of his party was there to endure with him.
Aided only by his own cunning and tenacious nature, Issue #1 of Stranger Things delves deeper into the side of the story we didn’t get to see in the Netflix original series and gives us a glimpse into what Will experienced while trapped in the Upside Down. As the threat of the Demogorgon looms over him, Will finds himself slowly realizing the gravity of his situation, and quickly tries to find a way out of it. Briefly coming into contact with everyone’s favorite Eggo-loving psychic, Will finds that perhaps his situation may not be entirely hopeless as at least someone, as he believes, may have seen him in the wretched world torn asunder.
This first issue gives us what we have all been wanting since seeing the creative and creepy world of Hawkins brought to life in season one. What happened to Will while he was trapped in the Upside Down? That had been the question on everyone’s mind between the static-laden walkie-talkie messages, the blaring sound of The Clash pouring out of Johnathan’s stereo, and the jury-rigged Ouija board wall Joyce managed to come up with in order to communicate with him. Perhaps we will finally get the answers we crave or, worse case scenario, be trapped in the never-ending and mysterious Upside Down with more questions and theories than we bargained for. Roll a d20 to see what happens September 29th when Stranger Things issue #1 hits shelves!
