Writer: Mike Mignola
Artist: Duncan Fegredo
Colorist: Dave Stewart
Cover Artist: Mike MignolaThe long–awaited follow–up to 2009’s The Wild Hunt comes to a terrible crossroads, when Hellboy cuts a deal with the devious Baba Yaga that may secure the survival of mankind, but will change his life forever, and the Queen of Blood discovers that the source of her power has unexpected plans for her.
* Mike Mignola and Duncan Fegredo return with Hellboy: The Storm to follow up on the events of their best-selling saga.
* Next up: The saga concludes in the three-issue series Hellboy: The Fury!
Click after the cut to check out my thoughts on the final issue of this mini series!
With the final issue of the Storm, we are given our last little Hellboy story “in continuity” to the trilogy before it’s epic finale in the Fury. The story is very much what it’s title suggests it will be: the gathering storm before the violence to come. In that way, this mini is essentially the biggest tease I’ve ever read, and it leaves me kind of torn as to my affection towards it.
On the one hand, this issue (and the mini as a whole) does a perfect job at the tease. This issue especially ends on such a note that part of me is wondering why split it into two minis instead of just making one. In fact, in a way there are two endings — one for our hero, and one for our villain. It makes the entire story very tense and basically on the edge of my seat for what happens in the Fury.
On the other hand, I just hate being teased!
Mignola has really been fusing various elements of folk lore and history into his story, and this feels like one of the biggest pay offs to this. The return of Baba Yaga for example (and what happens with her) is such a great nod to earlier in this trilogy, and it shows the various interconnecting moments of the story as opposed to it just being a straight through story told in three parts. This issue actually feels the strongest of the three for the mini because it really shows off Hellboy as a character and his first real and honest reaction to his role as King, and it even gives a tease for what will happen after the Fury is over.
Duncan Fegredo also continues to make me a complete fanboy over his art. The man is an absolute master in this world. As I’ve said in past reviews, Hellboy and Mignola call for a very specific style and feel, and Fegredo is doing it as if he invented all of it. To be honest, if Fegredo kept drawing Hellboy forever, I would be too happy. His short action sequences are great, and he manages to infuse a lot of emotion into the panels which are conveyed easily despite Hellboy being a rather gruff and stoic character.
In the large scheme of things with the tale being woven here, the Storm does feel slightly disappointing. This arc was supposed to be all about build up, and build up it does, so it is inherently a success — but for me, as the type of reader that I am, I want the whole enchilada given to me. Now, if this and the Fury were all one big mini, I would probably write about this differently because the way I’d read it when it’s completed would be under different conditions. However, the Storm ends up being a comic that I can tell fans will either love or hate based on personal preference. For me, I’m somewhere in between right now. But I will say this — I am ready as all hell for the Fury.
Final Verdict: 8.1 – Buy
