Annotations 

Hell Notes: Hellboy in Hell #1-3

By | March 6th, 2013
Posted in Annotations | % Comments
Logo by Tim Daniel

Welcome to the first edition of Mignolaversity’s Hell Notes.

When Brian and David read Hellboy in Hell, they loved the hell out of it. However, they were also confused as hell. There were things that were familiar, but they couldn’t quite remember their full significance. If you found yourself in a similar situation, then this column may be of help. My aim is simply to jog memories and fill in blanks. This time I’ll be revising Hellboy in Hell #1-3, which picks up after the conclusion of The Fury.

Please note, this column is only for those that have read the stories being studied. It’s packed full of spoilers from start to finish. You have been warned.

Reprint cover

Hellboy in Hell #1

Page 1
The Baba Yaga has a long history with Hellboy. In the sixties, Hellboy shot out her eye, and ever since then she has been intent on taking one of Hellboy’s eyes. She finally achieved her goal in the final pages of The Storm. She featured most prominently in Darkness Calls.

Page 2
This is the dragon Hellboy fought in last miniseries, The Fury. Some people have incorrectly taken this dragon to be the Ogdru Jahad, but it’s only the witch Nimue transformed and possessed by the Ogdru Jahad. The seven dragons that shall bring about the end of the world remain sealed away in the far reaches of space, still very much alive, although wounded from this battle.

Page 3
Nimue (the Queen of Blood, later the Goddess of War) was the main antagonist during Duncan Fegredo’s run on Hellboy (Darkness Calls, The Wild Hunt, and The Storm and the Fury).

Page 4
The guy in the cloak with the metal mask is Sir Edward Grey. You may also know him by another face, as an agent for Queen Victoria in the Witchfinder series. We’ve known for a long that these two figures are the same person, but how a witchfinder became this immortal cloaked and masked character has never been revealed (although it will be very soon… ). Sir Edward made his first appearance in Wake the Devil (as both witchfinder and masked figure) and has been watching Hellboy for most of his life. Their fates are connected somehow.

Page 8
When Edward Grey was a witchfinder, he was extremely wary of anyone using magic or having too much knowledge of its workings. To see him using magic now speaks volumes about how much he has changed since he was mortal.

The symbols he’s drawing in the air are similar to those drawn by Martin Gilfryd while he was committed in Bedlam Asylum (see Witchfinder: In the Service of Angels). Gilfryd would later become Memnan Saa, a character frequently featured in B.P.R.D..

Page 10
In The Wild Hunt, Eligos stood between Hellboy and saving Alice Monaghan, but his strength far outmatched Hellboy’s. He was only defeated after Hellboy smashed a ring he wore on his finger, cutting him off from the power granted to him by Hell. Now that he’s back in Hell, it appears he is once more far beyond Hellboy’s ability to defeat.

Page 20
A while back Mike Mignola drew a short story called The Ghoul. As a framing device, he’d used puppets performing Hamlet. He described it at the time as almost certainly the oddest story he’d done. When it was collected in trade paperback, Mignola warned that he really enjoyed The Ghoul, and would love to do something like it again. So it was nice to see puppets in the pages of Hellboy again.

Hellboy in Hell #2

Pages 6
In Box Full of Evil, the demon Astaroth tells Hellboy there is a seat reserved for him in the House of the Fly. When Hellboy refuses to take back the Crown of the Apocalypse, Astaroth tells him he will be keeping it there for him when he wants it. Incidentally, around the time of writing Box Full of Evil was when Mike Mignola first got the idea to do a Hellboy in Hell story.

Continued below

Page 9
In The Wild Hunt, Astaroth told Hellboy that one day he would go to Pandemonium, down into the pit where Satan sleeps and kill him. He went on to say Hellboy would overthrow all princes and generals of Hell, and claim the crown waiting for him there.

Pages 16-17
Hooks have been associated with Azzael since his first appearance in The Chained Coffin. His horse wore chainmail made of hooks when he came into the church to claim Sarah Hughes.

Page 18
The events portrayed here directly follow on from those Hellboy saw in a vision in The Chained Coffin.

Page 20
The Right Hand of Doom has a complicated history that was related to Hellboy in The Island by a man that claimed to be the only record of “the beginning of all things”. The hand is that of a Hyperborean statue, stained red with the blood of the Hyperborean people. The statue contained the right hand of one of the greater spirits, the watcher Anum who created Ogdru Jahad, and who sealed them away and cast them into the Abyss. The Right Hand of Doom has the power to unleash and command the Ogdru Jahad.

Page 21
Astaroth first appeared in Pancakes and Box Full of Evil, and has since appeared on numerous occasions, trying to tempt Hellboy into taking back the Crown of the Apocalypse and leading the armies of Hell. He’s been very persistent over the years.

 

Hellboy in Hell #3

Page 2
Panel 1: “He was my own brother” – This is the first mention that Astaroth is related to Hellboy, and is in fact his uncle.

Panel 3: Hellboy gave his eye to the Baba Yaga so that he could get past Nimue’s army and into her tower. It was a sacrifice that ultimately bought the world a little more time, so that while the human race may die, its spirit will survive into the new world.

Page 4
Hellboy was summoned to Earth as a part of Project Ragna Rok, a Nazi program puppeted by Rasputin. The story of Hellboy’s arrival on Earth can be found in Seed of Destruction. The priest and the nun are the human children of Hellboy’s mother. They were killed by Hellboy’s father, Azzael, in The Chained Coffin.

Page 6
This is the first we’ve heard any mention of Hellboy’s demon siblings, though in The Chained Coffin Azzael called Hellboy his “favourite son,” indicating that he had other children. On another occasion, Hellboy met one of his cousins, Ualac, in Box Full of Evil. Ualac stole the Crown of the Apocalypse from Hellboy’s head and tried to cut off the Right Hand of Doom. Perhaps it’s a family trait?

Page 16
This little devil is the one that told Hellboy about Eligos’s weakness in The Wild Hunt.

Page 20
In the past Hellboy has always fought against anything that has been foretold, but here he seems to give in without any fight at all. It is worth noting that Hellboy did not knowingly kill Satan, so there are likely other forces at play here. That Hellboy would one day kill Satan while he sleeps is only part of the prophecy. The rest involves Hellboy taking up his father’s sword, and leading the army of Hell. This may yet still come to pass.

 

And that’s it! I hope you’ve enjoyed this column’s debut. If these notes have helped you piece things together, or if you have any theories about Hellboy’s future in Hell, please share them below. Thanks for reading.


//TAGS | Hell Notes | Mignolaversity

Mark Tweedale

Mark writes Haunted Trails, The Harrow County Observer, The Damned Speakeasy, and a bunch of stuff for Mignolaversity. An animator and an eternal Tintin fan, he spends his free time reading comics, listening to film scores, watching far too many video essays, and consuming the finest dark chocolates. You can find him on BlueSky.

EMAIL | ARTICLES


  • Feature: Giant Robot Hellboy #3 Reviews
    Mignolaversity: “Giant Robot Hellboy” #3

    By | Jan 3, 2024 | Reviews

    Mike Mignola and Duncan Fegredo’s “Giant Robot Hellboy” wraps up with a bang (or should I say boom?) in this final issue as we finally meet the true titular character. And yet this story leaves a lot of dangling threads. This is clearly the beginning of something much bigger. As usual, this being a review […]

    MORE »
    Feature: Hellboy and Kate Christmas (from The Yule Cat) Columns
    Multiversity’s 2023 Holiday Wishlist for the Mignolaverse

    By | Dec 21, 2023 | Columns

    ’Tis the season here at Multiversity Comics when we look ahead to the upcoming year and write our wishlists for what we’d like to see. And considering next year is the thirtieth anniversary of “Hellboy,” our expectations are very high.A return to the OuterverseThe Outerverse, the world of “Baltimore,” “Lady Baltimore,” and “Joe Golem,” has […]

    MORE »

    -->