“Hellboy in Love” #2 brings the ‘Goblin Night’ arc to a close, but this is clearly just the first step in a much bigger story. Read on for our spoiler filled review.
Goblin Night – Part 2
Written by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden
Illustrated by Matt Smith
Colored by Chris O’Halloran
Lettered by Clem RobinsHellboy and Anastasia chase the goblins from punk show to occult auction in pursuit of Anastasia’s stolen artifacts in this fun romp across the English countryside.
Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden with artist Matt Smith bring the next installment of Hellboy and Anastasia’s unlikely romance.
“Hellboy in Love” #2 is a curious issue. I would describe it as “overstuffed,” but in this particular case, that’s not a negative thing. For Anastasia, this meeting with Hellboy is a whirlwind romance. She develops a crush on him very quickly and then all the action of the story propels only makes those feelings stronger. And so the action of the story should likewise feel like a whirlwind. It’s just a lot to pack into an issue.
In a way, part of me is disappointed, because it’s like being on a racing train and you whip past something that really wanted to sit with longer.The sequence with the ravens and the hummingbirds was fantastic but I wanted to stay there longer and explore it. But then, look at the way Anastasia is responding―she’s not put off by any of this. She wants to see more too.
Maybe it’d be better to describe “Hellboy in Love” #2 as “appropriately overstuffed,” since it is very purposeful. Oh, and it’s fun too. Not just in the “Yah, adventure!” kind of way, but in the way where you can see the people making it are having fun. Matt Smith especially has a very playful approach to the art. When a crowd scene comes along, you can see he’s trying to amuse himself just as much as the reader―Oh, look, there’s Laszlo and Nadja from What We Do in the Shadows. Also a monkey with a monocle. And Smith is great at the talkier moments, keeping things alive with body language.
There was a pair of moments that were kind of off though, when Hellboy hits the would-be buyer at the club and later a guard at the auction. It’s not that Hellboy doesn’t hit people, it’s just that it seems out of character for that to be his go-to course of action. He’ll hit supernatural things that can take that hit, but with regular people they need to push him pretty far before he’ll hit back. The incident in the auction isn’t as bad, since Hellboy is taken aback and is genuinely concerned he hurt the guy, but the one in the club was more awkward, especially since it’s portrayed as a hard hit with his right hand.
I’ll chalk it up to Hellboy knowing they don’t have time to take this guy in, and he needs to quickly and persuasively convince him that being an Aleister Crowley wannabe is a bad life choice. Hellboy’s having a busy day, so I can understand the impatience here. But character really matters to me and a character is their actions, and Hellboy is someone that’s very aware of his capacity to hurt people and usually keeps that side of himself in check. The moments he’s failed to keep that side of himself in check are moments of deep shame.
That said, character is where “Hellboy in Love” shines again and again. For me, one of the most interesting things about “Hellboy in Love” is Hellboy himself. It’s 1979 and Hellboy is in his mid thirties. He was married in 1956, while drunk, to a demon. . . but that didn’t even last till dawn.
And. . . that’s it. Mentally, for whatever reason, Hellboy shut down that side of himself. It’s not hard to come up with reasons for this—he’s a demon among humans, which maybe made him feel like it was inappropriate to act on his desires (and that may be why his past encounter only happened when he was drunk); or maybe the problem comes from the other direction, where people aren’t interested in hooking up with a demon and the people that are are not Hellboy’s type; and fans have even suggested Hellboy could possibly be demisexual or perhaps even asexual (though probably not aromantic). It’s an aspect of Hellboy that simply hasn’t been explored yet, so “Hellboy in Love” is not just about these two years he was in a relationship with Anastasia, but it also shines a light on who he was before then.
Continued below‘Goblin Night’ opens up these avenues and begins to explore them. It turns out that Hellboy is incredibly obtuse when it comes to attraction. Anastasia is not exactly subtle with her feelings, but even still Hellboy fails to notice what’s happening. Even the goblin with them notices before Hellboy.
This culminates at the end of the issue with Anastasia very gently making her move and Hellboy getting that lightbulb moment of, “Oh, she likes me.”
It’s a sweet moment and one that made way too much sense to me. I know there are people that’ll look at this scene and roll their eyes, but I’ve been in Hellboy’s position and had this exact thing happen to me―I’m always the last person to know if someone likes me and it did in fact once take someone holding my hand before I caught on.
And I like the way this moment was executed too. As I said, it’s a lightbulb moment for Hellboy, and while there isn’t literally a little lightbulb appearing next to his head, that’s still very much happening. Look at the colors on the page, where even though the two are outside, Chris O’Halloran has Hellboy and Anastasia in shadows and then after they hold hands they’ve passed into the light. The lightbulb moment is right there in the coloring.
And I love the way the moment Anastasia holds Hellboy’s hand, the background is black. In this instant, the rest of the world falls away and it’s just their hands touching. The panel captures exactly the way this feels.
Look, my favorite book of all time is Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. I don’t like a vast majority of romance, but when it’s well-executed, it is a genre I love. Introducing this genre into “Hellboy” was a risky undertaking, because it’s so easy to fall into the trap of doing hollow romance. Yes, I can see aspects of Romancing the Stone in the story, but that stuff is a garnish, something that adds to the presentation and makes it fun, but if that’s all there is, I’m not going to be even remotely satisfied. I’m reading “Hellboy in Love” for honest moments of connection, constructed in such a way that they are felt in every aspect of the scene, and that’s what I see in the final page of “Hellboy in Love” #2.
Final Verdict: 8.5 – I may be in love with “Hellboy in Love.”
