Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden, and Matt Smith’s “Hellboy in Love” #4 is the second part of the ‘Shadow Theater’ two-parter, and it’s an issue that really benefits from the previous issue doing the heavy lifting in establishing the premise. “Hellboy in Love” #4 goes straight to the fun stuff and doesn’t relent till the final page. This review is packed full of spoilers, especially for a particular sequence that’s best experienced having no knowledge of it whatsoever, so please don’t spoil it for yourself by reading our review first.
Shadow Theater – Part 2
Written by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden
Illustrated by Matt Smith
Colored by Chris O’Halloran
Lettered by Clem RobinsHellboy and Anastasia find out more about the history of Turkish shadow puppetry than they intended. After their clash with the malevolent shadows of puppet show characters Karagöz and Hacivat, the pair soon find themselves with more than shadow puppets to reckon with! But any possible way out must first lead deeper into the shadows. . .
Mark Tweedale: Before we dive into the meat of this review, I wanted to draw particular attention to the first page of this issue. We already got a sense of the strained relationship between Hellboy and Professor Bruttenholm in the last issue when they briefly spoke on the phone, and here we touch on it again, this time expanding the focus a bit more to see how it’s affecting Bruttenholm’s other children, Liz and Abe. Obviously, Abe and Liz weren’t involved in the phone call from the last issue, so the tension they’re talking about is a pre-existing tension, one that we haven’t explored yet.
When you think about it, it’s a strange thing to include, because the rest of the issue has nothing to do with this scene. It’s clearly laying the groundwork for the future of the “Hellboy in Love” series. And considering that Anastasia and Hellboy were romantically involved from 1979 to 1981 and we’re still less than a month into the relationship, I think it’s extremely clear at this point that May’s issue is not going to be where this series ends. There’s a long game at work here that’s starting to emerge.
Kate Kosturski: I agree with you, especially with the final comment from Abe, “If there’s trouble to be found, he’ll find it.” There’s a note of resignation in that statement, and that’s going to be fascinating tension to explore in future issues. How does the rest of Hellboy’s world fit now that Anastasia is in it? Relationships are never just the two people that are together; it’s their whole world around them. It’s interconnected.
And for Hellboy, a character who is used to being on his own, he not only has to navigate having someone else closely by his side, but how that closeness affects his orbit. Much is at play here for future issues.
Mark: I also want to point out what a rare moment this first page is. We virtually never see B.P.R.D. agents in their quarters. Happily, whenever these rare instances occur, the artists drawing them absolutely take on the importance of this and are very careful with what the environment says about the character. The details feel carefully considered, and that is absolutely the case here too.
Kate: Nothing in a Mignola story is there just for its own sake. It is there to build on something else, either past or future. What it will build on is yet to be seen, but if it is there, it is important and we must remember it.
That said, it did give me a chuckle to see that the B.P.R.D. headquarters are in Fairfield, Connecticut—a twenty minute drive from my home, and a town I almost moved to a few years ago.
Mark: Oh yes, that’s been the Bureau’s headquarters since “Hellboy: Seed of Destruction” was published back in 1994, till they moved to Colorado in the early 2000s. The recent “Young Hellboy: Assault on Castle Death” actually covers when the Bureau first moved to Connecticut in 1947.
So let’s get to the rest of the issue. I wanted to discuss the pacing, because in our last “Hellboy in Love” review we spoke a bit about how full the issue was, which ended up dragging down our grade. While that continues to be something at play in this latest issue, it wasn’t a stumbling block here, but rather a springboard. It dives from sequence to sequence so rapidly that it’s a little disorienting, but I found that was an advantageous choice here, because the whole point of the shadow puppet reality the characters are entangled in is that it is disorienting. And by making the disorienting qualities come from the pacing, rather than from difficult-to-read visuals, there’s no sacrifice in clarity. It meant the artwork was free to fire on all cylinders when we get to the fantastic sequence in the middle of the issue with Hellboy and Anastasia transformed into shadow puppets running around a flatland.
Continued below
I absolutely loved that bit and it really makes this story feel unique.
Kate: I agree with you, the pacing takes you into the breakneck and confusing pace of the action beautifully. You can feel Hellboy and Anastasia’s anxiety as they navigate into and out of the shadow puppet world. Coupled with the change in art that jars your eyes, it all sets tone and brings the reader into the story effectively.
There’s a lot to love in the artwork of this issue. From the cover that stands out in its pastel colors when compared to the grays and darker earth tones of the previous issue to Matt Smith’s use of a light hand in facial detail to emphasize the grotesque to that jarring change as Hellboy and Anastasia jump from the real world to the shadow puppet world. . . If there is a star of this issue, it’s the artwork. And the only reason that it can be the star that it is here is due to proper pacing in the script.
Now while the main story itself moves apace, there’s still some good characterization at play here. We talked a bit about Hellboy and Anastasia’s relationship in the context of others, but we also see the two of them growing as a team. Trust is starting to deepen, as Hellboy starts to realize more what Anastasia brings to how they work together, and how well it complements him.
Mark: Yes, I very much liked the way the two compliment each other in their approach with Ghafouri. Hellboy has to deal with the maniac, but Anastasia still takes a moment to make sure passersbys don’t get caught up in his nonsense too. But their dynamic was balanced out by some fumbles too. Anastasia full-on belting Hellboy in the head was a great moment, and Matt Smith really milks it too with the three reaction panels.
That’s four panels on a single tier, by the way. Looking back at this issue, it’s densely packed. Hell, the first page kicks off with ten panels. It’s certainly much higher than your average Hellboy Universe comic. (Each issue of “Hellboy in Love” has roughly twenty more panels than an issue of “Koshchei in Hell,” even though the latter has two more pages per issue to work with.)
Part of the reason Smith’s artwork reads so clearly, even when he starts pushing the panels of a page into double digits, is because keeps finding strong silhouettes in his compositions and making space around key gestures. In particular, look at the way he puts hands in front of relatively low-detail sections of the panels. You can especially see this in crowd scenes, and it’s a big part of the reason our eyes don’t get overwhelmed, and why each panel reads with such immediacy. The panel below is a particularly obvious example, where the puppet seller’s hand gets a nice little space to sit in so we can clearly read the gesture.
Kate: This kind of density is something I see in European comics, particularly French and Italian comics. It tends to be coupled with very detailed artwork (especially the backgrounds), and lots of text. (That could be a factor of translation to English, though). The panel density here works in some moments and doesn’t in others. But overall, I see a nice balance between American and European comic style.
Mark: I was first introduced to Smith’s work through his Image miniseries “Lake of Fire,” which leans heavily into that bande dessinée aesthetic. European comics are clearly a big influence on Smith’s work, and I can really feel him tapping into that here and I love it.
Kate: There’s one other aspect of the script I want to comment on here before we wrap this up, and that’s the larger theme of history. Anastasia’s plan to break the curse is to tell the right story of Karagöz and Hacivat, the story of what really happened. This had me thinking about larger themes of how the history we learned—be it in school or passed down in oral tradition—isn’t accurate. It’s a topic on people’s minds no doubt, especially here in the United States, as we realize how much our education left out certain events or glossed over the bad parts. A very timely choice of topic.
Continued belowMark: I liked the way the story left it there. It wasn’t like the problem was immediately fixed, but rather it felt like the healing had begun. That felt like the right choice here.
Before we get to scoring, I also want to mention Clem Robins’s lettering, especially in the light of how it was used in Ghafouri’s performance of the Karagöz and Hacivat story. It evokes the crudeness in Ghafouri’s portrayal of Karagöz and Hacivat, and it was an excellent counterpoint to the spirits listening in anguish. It was a strong choice that reinforced a core theme of the story.
Kate: Lettering truly does deserve more praise than I think it gets sometimes. Good lettering takes artwork to the next level.
I’m going to give this issue an 8. The way the characterization, exploration of deeper themes, and action all work together in balance provide for a compelling story. And for the most part, the pacing problems we noticed in previous issues smooth themselves out, which really allows art to shine in moments where and when it should.
Mark: This is likewise an 8 for me. I’ll be interested to see how this issue and the last read together when they’re collected. I get the feeling that without the break between issues, the last third of part one will feel like it’s picking up speed and get into part two already running. There’s definitely a lot of “yes and” stuff happening in this issue, where each creator sees what the other is doing and builds on it in clever ways. The Smith’s art reinforces choices made in Golden’s writing, O’Halloran’s coloring reinforces both writing and art, and Robins’s lettering reinforces everything. It’s a team rowing together.
Final Verdict: 8 – When a creative team like this is in such sync, building on each other’s foundations, the results are a masterclass in comic book storytelling.
