“Hellboy: The Bones of Giants” #2 left us with a scene about to boil over into action, and it delivers on that in issue #3, but where the issue really impresses is in its slower moments. We get action with consequences and it weighs heavy here, felt in every aspect of the comics page. As is often the case for our Mignolaversity reviews, there are spoilers ahead.
Written by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden
Illustrated by Matt Smith
Colored by Chris O’Halloran
Lettered by Clem RobinsHellboy, still inhabited by the ghost of the Norse god Thor, has his first confrontation with the newly resurrected Frost King Thrym! But not having recovered his full strength yet, Thrym slips away and leaves Hellboy to follow a grisly path toward their next encounter.
Based on the novel by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden, this comics adaptation brings readers into Hellboy’s fight against the Frost Giants with stunning art by Matt Smith and colors by Chris O’Halloran.
James Dowling: We’re back for the third issue of “Hellboy: The Bones of Giants,” bringing the focus back to mythology, its central themes, and its characters.
This, above all else, is a really cohesive comic issue. It’s a more meticulous in its focus than either issue #1 or #2, but ends up presenting its ideas with greater clarity because of that. It makes “Hellboy: The Bones of Giants” #3 one of the better statements on Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden’s approach to Norse Mythology, and the relationship between Hellboy and Abe in this era of the “Hellboy” series.
Mark Tweedale: Again, I feel like this issue is absolutely packed. There’s so much story to go through. . . and yet a big part of this issue is about slowing down. And, rather surprisingly, I think Christopher Golden and Matt Smith pulled this off. Despite how much happens in this issue, it does slow down and take on a more meditative quality. How they did that in a mere twenty pages while covering as much story ground as they did is a bit of a puzzle to me. But it works.
And I’m glad that this issue could at least feel like it’s slowing down a bit because it gives us time to take in everything that’s happened and makes us feel the journey from an urban fantasy world to a world right out of Norse mythology. “Hellboy,” despite being a series set (for the most part) in the modern world, rarely takes place in urban environments. However, ‘The Bones of Giants’ feels like an urban fantasy novel a lot of the time. Where the story ends up, with the characters far from civilization, facing the paranormal, that’s pretty standard for the “Hellboy” series, but in this case, it needs to feel unusual. So Golden and Smith laid the groundwork by pushing that urban fantasy aspect in the first half of the story for greater contrast.
James: Yeah, that last page is inarguably the best cliffhanger of the series so far, placing the series firmly into the liminal thematic environment it’s been toeing around up to this point. The way it’s able to pull the rug out from under us is really well prepared too. Like you said, this issue feels intentionally slower paced yet expansive, and achieves that by going back to some of the loose threads from the first issue, like Thor’s corpse and the threat of Ragnarok, right after resolving the bombastic resurrection at the end of last issue. So many of the main beats here reframe some of the most memorable parts of the earlier issues, and we play between those familiar isolated country environments we know from the classic “Hellboy” gothic style with this urban fantasy setting. So when we’re thrown into an entirely foreign world, both literally and in terms of art, at the end, it feels chilling.
This whole issue just shows how the creative team refined their interpretation of the novel and each story component into its most evocative form, especially through the art and color of Matt Smith and Chris O’Halloran.
Continued belowMark: Just in terms of space, this must’ve been a tough issue to lay out. I mean, the opening fight has Hellboy fighting a bunch of tiny Svartalves and also the Frost Giant, Thrym. Right away, the scene requires not just composing so that we know where every character is in relation to each other and how the action unfolds, but it also needs to account for scale.
There isn’t much room for Thrym on the page, not if we want to see what Hellboy’s doing clearly. For the most part, Smith has confined the action with the Svartalves to wide panels, using that width to showcase their hordes while reminding us that these guys are tiny.
Whereas Thrym’s panels are generally taller. And just to really push the scale, when he and Hellboy are framed together, Hellboy’s usually leaping through the air so we’re only really seeing the upper half of Thrym.
James: Yeah, the page structuring throughout feels like a mammoth achievement considering that not only does it manage to keep together a great degree of cohesion despite everything going on, but there are even some moments of real flair to it.
Thyrm is a great, imposing villain for the opening, bringing a whole new element to the classic “giant fight,” seeing as our main frame of reference is still “Hellboy: The Wild Hunt.” It’s the sheer emotionlessness of him that makes the scene feel more dangerous. We can’t tell what effect Hellboy, Abe, and their supporters can have on him, because he’s already a corpse robbed of expression. O’Halloran helps him feel especially removed from reality in his use of color during Thyrm’s resurrection, Where he places a really heavy emphasis on the natural greens/browns of the environment, and the unnaturally light blues/grays of the Frost Giant.
That said, I noticed some moments in Smith’s blocking that felt static given just how much is going on during the opening. I don’t think I’m necessarily looking for the same bombastic motion in Smith’s art that you would find in a fight by James Harren or Guy Davis, but it does make the scene feel flatter when the environments and ‘camera’ aren’t moving with the motion of the scene. I think it does really affirm a divide in Mignolaverse artists between the more ink-focused contemplative stories you see from Mignola cartooning or an artist like Matt Smith drawing, and the spikier action-packed stories we saw in “B.P.R.D.,” but that’s just the trade-off all artists have to decide on. Plus there are still some pretty great reaction shots in the mix throughout.
Mark: This being a forest fight makes it difficult to show which direction the reader is looking in a panel. All trees can look the same, so there needs to be visual anchors that orient the reader in the space. But I wasn’t lost in Smith’s layouts. He used the treeline as a way to show how far Abe and Pernilla were from Thrym, while Hellboy was out in the open, fighting in the thick of it.
Also, I’m going to have to call out Clem Robins in this sequence, ’cause his lettering gives Thrym a presence in practically every panel. With that steady rumble, we always know he’s pulling himself from the ground and that when the rumbling stops, that’s when our heroes are really in trouble. And it means there can be panels low to the ground, focused on the small action, and Thrym still feels like he’s there, looming. It dominates the sequence. I mean, there’re panels with Hellboy beating the crap out of Svartalves which would normally have a “BOOM!” sound effect as his stone hand smacks into them, but here that’s all overwhelmed by this constant rumble—the lettering creates the scale of a giant even in the tiniest panels.
James: Yeah! Clem Robins is so good at translating the tone of a moment into the lettering he uses, which is great for drama and comedy. I really like how he uses the overwrought, fantastic voice of Thor to show how he pops out to rally the Nidavellim during Hellboy’s big call to arms.
Continued belowThere are just some great understated moments of humor throughout. I was a big fan of the little insight into Abe’s practical skill set, which apparently includes a good knack for hotwiring cars.
Mark: Yeah, I liked that touch too. He’s also great at making omelettes.
James: He’s a real renaissance man.
Mark: In this issue, Abe sits comfortably back letting Pernilla and Hellboy lead throughout. Even still, Golden and Smith use every moment with him to accentuate who he is as a person. The hotwiring moment is a good example of that, but more importantly we see Abe as a supportive person. He looks out for both Pernilla and Hellboy. I like that after the fight with Thrym, he pulls up Hellboy so that Pernilla can grieve. When Mr. Wilton lays the blame for everything on Hellboy, Abe immediately backs his friend. And later, as they all travel after Thrym, he keeps doing mini check-ins on Pernilla and Hellboy.
Abe becomes more withdrawn later in the “B.P.R.D.: Plague of Frogs” cycle and onward after he learns more about his past, but I think this stuff here shows how much Golden understands Abe, especially ’80s and ’90s Abe. He writes him so well.
James: Abe-solutely. The main takeaway from this book continues to be how badly we need more prequel Hellboy/Abe buddy stories.
I wanted to look more at the death of Aickman too, as we see it here. I think this opening worked as a really great capstone to what makes him such an engaging villain, obviously he has that classic fanaticism and the willingness to sell his soul in pursuit of it, but there’s also a determination in him to seek out those deals which makes him a great foil to Hellboy. Hellboy’s usually a very passive protagonist, an everyman who begrudgingly seeks out evil because it helps other simple people, while Aickman is fascinated with encountering everything that can elevate him beyond any kind of simplicity.
That all becomes clear to Pernilla too, despite any other anger she carries in the moment, when she says “Somehow my father is dead, and myths are real” it’s this admission of how warped the priorities of her father were, and where it left him.
That all said, it speaks to some of the narrative propulsion missing in more modern four-issue “Hellboy” miniseries when so much of Aickman’s persona and goals were perfectly pronounced in a short story, yet it takes around sixty pages to get the same kind of effect in its capstone. Still, it’s unfair to review this single issue for the misgivings of its wider format.
Mark: I think it’s more a matter of focus. ‘The Bones of Giants’ doesn’t have anything new to say about Edmond Aickman—he’s still the man we last met in ‘King Vold,’ cowardly and selfish—but it does want to explore Pernilla. She stands in contrast to her father. And there is something about mourning someone that has bitterly disappointed you that rings very true for me. Rather pointedly, Aickman could have given up Thrym’s goblet for Pernilla, but didn’t. And that hurts. It’s not just that he’s dead, but even before he died, he destroyed who he was in his daughter’s eyes.
The second half of this issue has a hollow, resigned nature to it, stemming from both Pernilla and Hellboy, that feels so very appropriate. And while I liked the first half, the second half is really damn good. My favorite stuff is all here. The mood of it is just so perfect.
James: Yeah, this issue really fills its funeral quota, with all the atmosphere to boot. That second half does really represent this very intentional shift in focus that I adore, the longer roadtrip section allows the art and dialogue to breath deeper, I love watching the whole palette shift as they enter the far North to hunt down Thrym, like they’re symbolically entering his realm before they really have.
Mark: Oh, for sure. O’Halloran’s colors in the latter half make you feel Thrym’s influence, even though he’s not in any of those scenes. Falling snow during a funeral sequence has never been more thematically appropriate.
James: I hadn’t even thought of that! Never has snowfall felt more oppressive.
Continued belowThere are some moments here that are especially impressive too, like the runes chipped into Thor’s ribcage. Matt Smith has no right to be that good at detailing. It’s such a perfectly articulated image, and a motif that really reaffirms the gravity these dead gods still carry.
Mark: I love that, because it’s such an otherworldly touch and it’s played against such a mundane environment. And then the scene’s punctuated by an act of violence that further pushes the friction between these two elements.
James: I was actually wondering about your opinion on something I’ve noticed with the divide between images and scenes in this book. I’ve been a bit more concerned as the series went on that despite the strong knack the team have for watershed images or sequences, it doesn’t always carry that energy into the next scene. It’s not a consistent problem, but it does make me wonder if we’re going to have a style versus substance problem with hindsight.
It’s weird, because the whole team can design the shit out of a page, but it feels like the further you pull back, the less engaging some scenes feel. Like the autopsy, where the skeleton and the cowering doctor both really resonate for me, but there’s a sense of necessary business in between. Even Smith’s covers kind of highlight this for me. They’re building a book with a primary focus on engaging imagery that elevates design and placement above all else. I can’t really complain about a style obsession though, when it means Smith is always at the forefront, since he’s the main thing I’m unabashedly here for.
Would you agree with any of that, though?
Mark: Not really. When you talk about the energy coming from one scene not quite meshing with the next, I know what you mean, but I only really felt it once in this issue. It was coming from the Thrym fight into the autopsy scene. I know why I felt that though, as the Thrym scene is such high intensity, and it needed a moment to unwind to go into the next. In part, it’s because Thrym is huge. . . and in the last half of the page he moves from being close enough to talk to Hellboy to being completely out of sight. With an extra page, it could have loosened that moment up, to feel the stillness settling in again after the fight. There are a bunch of panels there that try to slow that moment down, but they would have played better with space.
But, monthly comics are always a battle of page real estate. An extra page for this sequence steals it from another. I adored the latter half of the issue and I can’t think of any way you could trim it down any further. It was taught as it is.
As for the style over substance issue, I don’t really find that, because I keep finding moments where the style accentuates substance. One of my favorite moments from this issue comes from when Hellboy is talking about how he doesn’t feel like himself anymore. There’s this panel that boxes Hellboy in, using the car window’s frame to make him feel trapped. And to heighten it further, O’Halloran doesn’t color Hellboy red, but shifts him to yellow.
This panel externalizes so much of the internal conflict. And it does it so quietly.
James: Yeah, Dave Stewart used that trick pretty successfully too. The most notable is probably how Hellboy’s saturation slowly decreases across the four “Hellboy” omnibus covers, showing that same loss of old identity.
I appreciated how Smith takes the opportunity to bring some of the weight of prose into the more implicit parts of his art throughout this issue too, like the page structures we mentioned before. For example, Hellboy and Abe’s funeral pyre for the Nidavellim’s features a really strong synergy between blocking, coloring, and imagery. It made the slaughter go from a side note I wouldn’t have spared much of a thought for, to being deeply and unexpectedly tragic.
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It hammers home that same sense of how the fantastical still brings a heavy emotional toll, only in the inverse of Aickman’s situation, since we’re mourning Brokk despite always having him valued as just another product of the less-human mythology at play.
Mark: Brokk’s death was something I felt more in the aftermath than in the moment in the comic. The comic hasn’t been able to spend as much time with him as the novel did, so it could never hit the same way. But the aftermath was so beautifully handled. That moment from above, where Abe is meeting Hellboy’s eyes, but Hellboy isn’t meeting his, separated by that burning pile of corpses, just shows how much page composition can communicate the unspoken. Hell, there’s even a post in the foreground, splitting Hellboy from Abe, to further accentuate that Hellboy has put a wall up around his emotions.
The whole Garm sequence was a crossing of a threshold. Before, the story was in our world and mythic figures would visit. After, the story is in the world of myth.
There’s so much in this scene that I loved. Like the way Pernilla is still angry and wanting to be involved and she won’t back down, even going so far as to ask for Hellboy’s gun. Later, when the fight with Garm gets nasty, Hellboy knows he has to get her out of the room, but instead of saying, “Abe, take Pernilla outside,” he says, “Take Abe and wait outside.” It’s a subtle thing, but it shows he knows how to manage someone that’s emotionally fraught. And if you look, when Hellboy leaves the burning building to go back to the van, he’s got his gun again—not a big point is made of this, it’s just there if you notice it.
The character dynamics between Abe, Pernilla, and Hellboy were so well done in this issue. And to see Hellboy just shut down after the fight with Garm was really affecting. It’s a great action scene, but more importantly, it revealed character.
James: Yeah, the whole thing is a great example of how subtlety can define a character more than grand expression can. I think I was tough on this issue in places, especially around story presentation, but I really loved it! No single creator has slipped in quality at all as the series goes on, and it’s easily an 8.5 for me. I also think we’re on the way to a top quality finale.
Mark: It’s a 9 for me. I think Chris O’Halloran especially was doing some great stuff here, responding to elements in Smith’s compositions and then taking them to another level. What I love about this sort of storytelling is that it’s more often felt than consciously processed. And to articulate internal struggles visually requires the whole team be specific about what they’re doing. So, yet again, I guess I’m saying I just love how this whole team works together.
Final Verdict: 8.75 – Everyone on the “Hellboy: The Bones of Giants” team is doing great work here, but it’s the way they build on each other’s work that makes this issue something special.
