“Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1957” wraps up with ‘From Below,’ but don’t go in expecting a story to lay groundwork for the future—this is about who the characters have become. Like all the stories in “1957,” it’s a character-focused story emphasizing the positive aspects of the characters. If you haven’t read the issue yet, just be aware this review contains spoilers.
Written by Mike Mignola and Chris RobersonCover by Laurence Campbell
Colors by Dave Stewart
Illustrated by Mike Norton
Colored by Lee Loughridge
Lettered by Clem RobinsHellboy, Professor Bruttenholm, and B.P.R.D. agent Archie Muraro investigate an abandoned sawmill that is rumored to be haunted. But when they get there, an unexpected discovery reveals an even stranger source for the rumors!
Hellboy creator Mike Mignola and longtime collaborator Chris Roberson team up with artist Mike Norton and colorist Lee Loughridge for a new story of strange doings.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed Laurence Campbell’s covers for “Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1957.” They’ve been a highlight of this batch of one-shots, and this one is one of the best. And yet, I can’t help but feel like this is the wrong cover for this story. With Hellboy seemingly unconscious in a pool of blood, it sets up a grim story of peril involving the Heliopic Brotherhood of Ra. And ‘From Below’ is the opposite of that. I went in with expectations of a different story and at first I didn’t fully appreciate the one I got.
‘From Below’ serves a very specific purpose, but it’s a purpose you won’t see if you’re reading it as a stand-alone story. Yes, it does stand alone and it can be read that way, but it feels inconsequential. But this is the last story in not just “1957,” but the last of the 1952–1957 batch of stories, and it needs to be read in that context.
It reminds me of ‘Another Day at the Office,’ a “B.P.R.D.” short story from very early on in the series’ run. At the time, the series had just had a burst of one-shot stories, which were exploring what a “B.P.R.D.” series could be. ‘Another Day at the Office’ capped that off, showing B.P.R.D. agents quickly dealing with some zombies—they have the situation completely under control and deal with things easily.
Likewise, “Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1957—From Below” serves as the final 1950s story. In this time we’ve seen the Bureau deal with all kinds of problems and we’ve seen Hellboy grow as an agent. This story reflects on that growth. Back in “1952,” Hellboy wasn’t even formally an agent yet, but he had Archie Muraro with him, guiding him when he needed guidance, cheering him on, and taking the lead when he needed. Archie has long been a big brother figure to Hellboy ever since he introduced himself to Hellboy as “Ace Number One on Pancake Detail” in “B.P.R.D.: 1947,” and I find the relationship between Hellboy and Archie is usually the best barometer for Hellboy’s progress as an agent.
And here, what’s really emphasized is that Hellboy and Archie are co-workers. And we see Hellboy find a problem, manage it quickly, and deal with it relatively easily. Mystery and tension are present, but purposefully downplayed. This is a story about three people at work doing their job and being effective at it. Yeah, it’s a slightly more eventful day than usual, but it’s just another day on the job.
This makes ‘From Below’ an interesting challenge for artist Mike Norton. The story demands action, but it’s action with low stakes—Hellboy can never feel like he’s out of his depth or in any real danger. The drama of the fight needs to be as dramatic as a plumber being sent out to a job only to find the job is worse than expected—a bit of extra nuisance, but manageable. Norton gets a lot of this tone from Hellboy’s body language, but also a lot from the reactions of Archie and Professor Bruttenholm. When Hellboy takes a punch to the face, we don’t see Archie panicked or frantic, instead they’re discussing the problem or cheering him on.
Continued belowNorton’s approach to character expression can be quite exaggerated, especially in the eyebrows, and I feel like this is something the team behind these books is acutely aware of, because they cast Norton where this approach plays to the story’s advantage. ‘From Below’ is exactly the sort of story where playing up smaller expressions bigger makes the tone work. I feel like a more subdued version of the character acting in ‘From Below’ would have been drowned out by the action of the fight—but the fight isn’t the point of the story.
I have to call out Clem Robins’s lettering on this issue too. He knows this fight is not a fight about tension, and so he likewise goes broad with his sound effects. Imagine this is a story about a plumber and suddenly another pipe bursts with FWOOOSH!—that’s the same approach Robins takes here. It’s cartoony, playing up that Hellboy’s busy, not that he’s in peril.
Professor Trevor Bruttenholm is also on this case, and his arc also benefits from taking a step back and looking at “Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.” as a whole. He’s not the one giving orders anymore, instead he’s taking orders from Margaret, his former secretary. This is a story aspect that could’ve gone down a familiar road, with a man’s pride wounded, taking orders from a woman—a tired plotline that “Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.” completely avoids. Yes, Bruttenholm is a man with a prideful streak and it’s caused him problems in the past, so that could’ve been a direction to take his character. But he also hated being the Bureau’s director and he loves field work, and so instead of showing us a resentful Bruttenholm, we get a Bruttenholm that’s coming back to life again. He quite literally says there’s no other job he’d rather be doing. Not only that, we see him working as part of a team. He, Hellboy, and Archie figure things out together. There’s a sense that a weight has been lifted from Bruttenholm’s shoulders.
There’s also a few things here for readers that are deep into the Hellboy Universe. We get a brief reference to Sarah Jewell and Marie-Thérèse LaFleur, but there was also a reference to Marion Loveland, who we previously saw in “The House of Lost Horizons.”
Loveland’s reference could be seen as simply name-dropping for the sake of name-dropping, but I thought it was a nice way to show the character had made the best of her situation. In “The House of Lost Horizons,” she was a mess, frequently drunk, spending all her time talking to the ghost of her former lover. . . her life wasn’t in a great place to begin with when that story began and it had gone completely off the rails by its end. ‘From Below’ implies that Marion Loveland took her life in a very different direction, becoming a paranormal investigator in her own right. This could imply that maybe she’ll show up again and there are other stories to tell with the character, but it works just as well as a subtle kind of epilogue for her.
“Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1957—From Below” is a light story. While the story does stand alone, it is best appreciated in context of the full 1952–1957 story, especially for Professor Bruttenholm. There’s definitely a bit of dissonance between the cover and story though. This is a comic that’s about characters’ relationships with their job, and it focuses on that in a positive way.
Final Verdict: 7 – All things considered, this is a quieter way to wrap up “Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1957” than readers were probably expecting, but I think the purpose will read clearer as part of a collection.
