Continuing our coverage of Hellboy turning 20 years old today, we have a Countdown in which some of our Mignolaversity staff chooses their five favorite moments from his history. It’s a long and storied history that rivals that of any comic character, with fun, small moments and historic, legendary ones meeting each other in our list. It was a hard list to compile for our team, but it sure was a lot of fun looking back on the fabled history of Mike Mignola’s brilliant creation.
Make your contribution by sharing some of your favorite moments in the comments!
David Harper (co-lead of Mignolaversity)
5. Hellboy Saves Alice Monaghan – Hellboy: The Corpse
4. Hellboy Beats the Baba Yaga in the Most Hellboy Way Ever – Hellboy: The Baba Yaga
Quite often, the fascinating thing about Hellboy isn’t that he’s necessarily the right man for the job, it’s that he is the person most willing to do anything to win in any given situation. Look at this story where he met the Baba Yaga (titled “The Baba Yaga,” shockingly), a monstrous witch with a chicken house. She’s hugely important to his overall story, but when they first meet, Hellboy frankly gets his ass kicked (this happens a lot). Ultimately though, he wins because…well, he shoots her in the damn face. Hellboy is living proof that you can put a square peg in a round hole, so long as you have a hammer.
3. Anung Un Rama Revealed – Hellboy: Wake the Devil #4
In the truly exceptional “Wake the Devil,” many, many important things take place, but nothing is more important than the revelation of Hellboy’s “real” name: Anung Un Rama. Hellboy has long not been interested in his destiny, nor what his origins are. He was as much boy as hell, and he liked it like that. But when confronted with Hecate – a continuous factor in the Mignolaverse – he is thrusted horn first into his destiny as the Beast of the Apocalypse. I remember reading this for the first time and realizing very truly that nothing would ever be the same for the character.
I was right.
2. Hellboy Goes to Mexico – Hellboy in Mexico
Besides #1, my favorite story in the history of Hellboy is Mike Mignola and Richard Corben’s brilliant “Hellboy in Mexico” stories, ones that captured both the depth of horror and emotional storytelling they can convey as well as the huge fun they have with the character. The original one-shot remains to this day one of my absolute favorite comics ever, and people don’t really know this, but the second story actually was the inspiration for Mignolaversity going from something Brian Salvatore and I did for fun to something much bigger for the site.
1. PAMCAKES! – Hellboy: Pancakes
Is this the best Hellboy story ever? Probably not. It’s definitely not the most important, regardless of how highly you hold up breakfast in your day-to-day life. However, it is my favorite, and the one that I show people the most as I just enjoy the living hell out of it. It’s a simple story that arguably is extremely important (I mean, the boy is lost post pancake ingestion after all), but it really underlines how once upon a time, Hellboy really was just a boy. A pretty average boy who just didn’t want to eat something he perceived as gross (instead favoring noodles). That’s a great example of the humanity Mignola brings to this character.
Continued belowAnd it’s hilarious. Come on now.
Mark Tweedale (resident Mignolaverse historian)
Coming up with five favorite Hellboy moments is a pretty daunting task. Only five? I know I’m gonna feel guilty for a sizable chunk not on this list, but here are the ones that mean the most to me.
5. Slaughter of the Giants – Hellboy: The Wild Hunt #4
By the time The Wild Hunt came along, a lot of different folk had said Hellboy was the Beast of the Apocalypse, but it had been easy to shrug it off and go, “Yeah, but Hellboy’s a good guy.” This moment really showed how dangerous it was for Hellboy to stick his head in the sand every time someone started talking about this stuff, and it revealed an aspect of himself he hadn’t acknowledged. Previously I’d felt Hellboy’s discomfort with what people said he was, but in this comic for the first time I felt his fear.
4. Hellboy Saws Off His Horns – B.P.R.D.: 1948 #5
3. Pandemonium’s Darkest Hour – Hellboy: Pancakes
As much as I love the dramatic and dark stuff in Hellboy, I simply can’t get enough of the absurd moments, and there is none more absurd than the minions of Hell crying out in despair as Hellboy discovers the joy of fresh pancakes. It is made all the more funny by that Pythonesque sensibility to play the utterly ridiculous seriously. Of course, Mignola took it to a whole other level in The Amazing Screw-on Head and Other Curious Objects…
2. Azzael’s Favorite Son – Hellboy: The Chained Coffin
This was the first Hellboy story I ever read. I remember being in awe of the atmosphere created by this story. I could hear ever sound effect like I was there. I was entranced by it, and when Azzael looks at Hellboy, who wasn’t even there when these events unfolded, a chill ran down my spine. In that moment I was hooked, just like Hellboy’s mother, Sarah Hughes.
1. WOK – Hellboy in Hell #2
This is the single best use of the sound effect “wok” ever.
The first time I read this page, I was standing at Mike Mignola’s table at the New York Comic Con while he watch me with a devious grin on his face. I was utterly speechles. I had just seen how Hellboy got the Right Hand of Doom in front of Mike Mignola himself. I cannot put into words how incredible this moment was.
Mike Romeo (Mignolaverse enthusiast and Mignolaversity contributor)
Ok, Hellboy’s got a lot of water under his bridge, so choosing just five favorite moments is going to be a tall order. Here we go!
5. Hellboy, Eres Mi Mejor Amigo – Hellboy in Mexico
In 1956 The Bureau sent a still green Hellboy down to Mexico to investigate some trouble they’d caught wind of. While in the field he made the acquaintance of three luchador brothers who had been told by the Virgin Mary herself that they needed to quit wrestling and fight monsters. This chance meeting led to one of my favorite montages in comics: Two pages of Hellboy and the brothers, masterfully drawn by the legendary Richard Corben, killing monsters and getting blind drunk. Speaking of Corben…
4. You Said You Saw The Devil? – Hellboy: The Crooked Man #1
Continued below
Did you know that if you find someone who’s been hexed by a witch ball, all you have to do to break it is boil their clothes while calling out the name of the person who cast the spell? That tidbit is just the first of a number of weird witchcraft facts we learned from one-time Hellboy accomplice Tom Ferrel. The Crooked Man is littered with all manner of haunting and surreal ideas, but the real gem of its first issue is a wordless panel. After a number of exposition heavy pages, Tom and Hellboy sit down at an old wooden table together. It’s here at this table where, just for a moment, both the protagonists and the reader take the time to let it all sink in. Mignola and Corben expertly crafted this moment.
3. What’s He Making? – Hellboy In Hell #2
After being presented with his father’s crown, sword and ring of office, Hellboy’s tour of Pandemonium introduces him to The Fisher of Souls. This creature, who’s been deafened by his own hammer and blinded by it’s spark, has been forging an army from the souls of the common damned for as long as man has sinned. This is the army that Hellboy is destined to lead back to earth, after giving them life with his own right hand.Of course, he wants nothing to do with The Fisher or this army, but destiny has a funny way of getting what it wants, doesn’t it?
2. That Guy Needs a Vacation – Batman Hellboy Starman #2
I love Hellboy’s dry humor, and this sequence of panels is a classic example of it. After an evening of nazi pummeling, Starman and Hellboy part ways with Batman. In an exceptionally Dark Knight moment, Bats says farewell and walks away. After watching him walk away, Hellboy makes a snide remark at Batman’s expense, he and Starman are of to conclude this adventure on their own.
1. I Quit – Hellboy: Conqueror Worm #4
Not only is this whole volume a ton of fun to read, it’s also in in-depth examination of who Hellboy is as a character. Noble, brave, unsure, it’s all there, right along side his discontent with the BPRD. Hellboy’s told that since Roger is not human, he’s considered expendable to the Bureau. This leads to a crisis of trust between Hellboy and his bosses, ultimately resulting in his quitting. Plus, there’s a gorilla fight.
BONUS ROUND!
MIKE’S BONUS ROUND!
What Have You Done, Boy? – Hellboy: The Baba Yaga
I couldn’t do it. I could not narrow my choices to less that six. So here it is, my favorite Hellboy moment ever, from the creepiest Hellboy story ever. We join our hero in Bereznik, Russia, where a little old lady is telling him about The Baba Yaga. Hellboy is on her trail to sort out some nasty business about some little tiny bones he’s seen. While sneaking around a seemingly ancient cemetery, The Baba Yaga appears to count the fingers of the dead. You see, she has some curious habits, and they are not for you to understand. Anyway, after her counting, Hellboy rushes out to confront the old witch. “Insolent Devil!” she screams. “Cannibal!” he snaps back. BLAM! In the struggle Hellboy fires his gun, shooting The Baba Yaga square in the eye. The creatures of the woods seem to think that this is the end of The Baba Yaga, but we know better. The witch and her missing eye are tied to Hellboy for the rest of the time he is destined to spend on Earth.
MARK’S BONUS ROUND!
Hellboy Gives His Eye to the Baba Yaga – Hellboy: The Storm #3
This was the moment I realized Hellboy was going to die. I mean, I knew it had been coming for a while, but it always seemed like some distant thing. Now it had shifted to the near future… though I had no idea it was within three issues of this story! Mignola has often spoken about “breaking things that can’t be fixed,” but up until this point Hellboy still seemed untouchable. He was the solid, unchanging rock of this universe. Taking his eye was the first step to his death. Looking at pictures of Hellboy it’s immediately obvious if you’re looking at living Hellboy or dead Hellboy. Messing with an iconic character’s look in such a dramatic way (not just changing their costume) takes guts.
Continued belowDAVID’S BONUS ROUND!
Mignola Struts His Stuff – Hellboy: A Christmas Underground
My last moment isn’t a particularly important moment by any means, but it does show off one of the things that makes this series and Mignola’s work in general so great: his art. This moment from “A Christmas Underground” found my jaw dropped as a response, as Mignola beautifully displays this fight and its effects with the help of colorist James Sinclair. Mignola is a nearly unparalleled storyteller artistically, and this? This is a beautiful example of just that is arguably my favorite artistic moment in the series.
