We return to Hellboy, Susan, and Jacob’s suburban adventure. I can’t keep you in suspense. I loved the hell out of this issue.
Cover by Paolo Rivera
Written by Mike Mignola and Chris Roberson
Pencils by Paolo Rivera
Inks by Joe Rivera
Colored by Dave Stewart
Lettered by Clem RobinsSuburbia is torn apart when Hellboy faces off against a bizarre creature, while the BPRD tries to uncover who created such a monster—and why.
In the last issue we got a glimpse of the creature behind all those mysterious disappearances, and while it looked a little creepy, I was left wondering how that dog could be legitimately scary. Creepy maybe, but scary… I just didn’t see it. Still, I figured I’d wait and see. Maybe it’d surprise me.
And the result? It surprised me big time. The creature design work in this story is excellent. There’s a long, proud history in Mignola’s stories of monsters going through transitionary stages, and this monster certainly fits alongside them. I won’t even attempt to describe it. Just see it for yourself. Paolo Rivera nailed it. I’m looking at the first panel on page fourteen right now and it still gives me chills. (Here’s a link to the panel. It’s very spoilery though.)
I’m not going to lie. The rest of this review is going to be like this, just praise from start to finish. If all you’re looking for in this review is the answer to “should I pick this up?” then the answer is yes. Hell, yes.
I love Paolo Rivera’s character work, especially his use of body language. I went on about that a bit in my last review, and this issue is the same standard of excellence. Rivera also has an excellent sense of space. He knows how to set up an environment so that the reader gets a sense of the place, its size, which direction the panel is looking, and the atmosphere. The barn sequence in this issue is an excellent example of this. I loved the build throughout this sequence, going from quiet and subtle and gradually getting bigger, louder, and much less subtle. This was pulled off masterfully.
And it’s not just the big things I appreciate either. I like the way he designs the children so that they look similar to their parents. And when Miss Fox was introduced, he gave her those distinct glasses so that she pops out in a crowd. These elements of design make for an effortless reading experience.
And already I’m struggling to talk around spoilers. If you wish to avoid them, jump ahead to the end.
I like what this issue did with Hellboy. His confidence is growing as an agent, but more importantly, he sees more than just a monster. He still sees the dog the monster once was. And we all know Hellboy’s got an affinity for dogs. Not cats. Dogs.
But let’s put aside the monster stuff for a moment and talk about everything else that’s going on: the stuff with Dr. Boucq and Moravec. What’s curious here is Moravec apparently has some manner of paranormal ability. Could he be an Special Sciences Service agent? With the series being set in the 1950s, the Cold War was bound to play a part sooner or later, and that’s probably what’s going on here, or at least, it’s the obvious assumption.
How the Enkeladite fits into all of this, I don’t know. When it was introduced in B.P.R.D.: 1948, the story was ambiguous about what had really happened. Who had been right, Professor Bruttenholm or Professor Rieu? Could other atomic blasts potentially weaken the fabric between universes or was this an incident unique to Project Enkelados? What we do know is that years later, in 1983, Rieu had been somewhat vindicated, though the details were a bit vague. It could merely be about the shift in public opinion in regards to nuclear weapons in general.
Continued belowThen there’s one other piece of the Enkeladite puzzle: Fenix Espejo. Here we have a girl that’s a genetic chimera. Her ‘sister’, the absorbed zygote, exists as a spirit in her mind, able to tell the future… Oh, and Fenix wears an Enkeladite pendant around her neck which she got from her mother. If the pendant had once belonged to Fenix’s mother, is it responsible for Fenix’s chimerism and her subsequent powers? After all, her mother would have worn it while she was pregnant with Fenix and her sister.
This is a plotline that’s been sitting in the wings for a while, so I’m eager to see it explored more. Parallel realities certainly exist in the Hellboy Universe (and not just where Enkeladite is involved. Consider the parallel reality in B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: The Broken Equation). Anyway, I’m curious. I don’t expect we’ll get any answers at this early stage though, just more tantalizing questions.
The other question in this story is Miss Fox. I mean, the story went out of its way to introduce the school’s substitute teacher—she’s clearly there for other reasons. With only one issue to go, it’s unlikely all these pieces will come into play before the end. It seems that Roberson is already setting up multi-arc plotlines, which makes me very happy. I suspect her reason for being at the school has to do with Dr. Boucq’s son though…
Spoilers over.
After those shorts stories from Mike Mignola and Ben Stenbeck and now this arc with Chris Roberson and Paolo and Joe Rivera, I think Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. has established itself firmly and it’s definitely vying for the position of my favorite Mignola series. It’s got such a range of tone, I can’t help being wooed by it. Let’s face it, I am smitten.
I’d give this issue the same grade as the last, except that monster design deserves a bump.
Final verdict: 9.25.
