A former enemy, Koshchei the Deathless, meets Hellboy in a pub in Hell and tells him his life story. It’s a rather strange premise for a miniseries, but boy does it work.
Written by Mike MignolaCover by Mike Mignola
Illustrated by Ben Stenbeck
Colored by Dave Stewart
Lettered by Clem RobinsSent to kill Hellboy by the Baba Yaga in Darkness Calls, Koshchei the Deathless hinted at a long and tragic life before being enslaved to the Russian witch. Now Koshchei relives every horrible act on his road to immortality and beyond, with none other than Hellboy himself—in Hell.
Mignola returns to Hell and to the bizarre folklore that’s filled some of his greatest books, reuniting with one of his favorite collaborators, Ben Stenbeck (Frankenstein Underground, Witchfinder: In the Service of Angels, Baltimore).
For a while now, the Hellboy Universe has been exploring odd little avenues that didn’t exist before. I mean, if you think of the spin-offs that existed ten years ago (“Abe Sapien,” “Lobster Johnson,” “Witchfinder”), they were all pretty straightforward, marketable projects. Abe Sapien, Hellboy’s pal at the B.P.R.D., the fish-man with the really iconic design, makes perfect sense as a spin-off. But how about a villain that appeared in a single story ten years ago? Aside from his confrontation with Hellboy, the villain has no major connections to the Hellboy Universe. Oh, and the story is going to be drawing heavily from Russian folklore. Let’s face it, this is not an easy sell.
And yet this sort of project really excites me. Conventional wisdom would say that expanding the universe through an obscure character won’t work, but then this is Mignola we’re talking about—he seems to be at his best doing things that shouldn’t work. And isn’t great to have a story with so few preconceived notions? “Koshchei the Deathless” could really go anywhere. This is Mike Mignola and Ben Stenbeck wandering at the very fringe of the Hellboy Universe. I mean, at least with “Frankenstein Underground” they had a name in the title most people would recognize.
Just looking at this first issue, I can’t help but be fascinated by the ways it does things it shouldn’t do. The first half basically recaps a bit from “Hellboy: Darkness Calls” then launches into a full retelling of the short story “How Koshchei Became Deathless”—it even uses the same lines of dialogue. But Mignola found a new angle on it. “How Koshchei Became Deathless” was told by a nameless scribe, whereas this time the story is told by Koshchei himself. The story is personal now, which means that while the story is virtually the same, the tone is different.
Of course, “How Koshchei Became Deathless” is a somewhat obscure short story, so I’m guessing most readers won’t be familiar with it, but the way it’s written it works either way. Stenbeck had his work cut out for him, that’s for sure. He could have played it safe and cribbed from Guy Davis’s layouts, but instead he found ways to show the story in a way that was both familiar and yet captures the new tone.
Even in referencing “Darkness Calls,” there’s an element of newness to it. The opening actually reminds me of the opening to Peter Jackson’s film adaption of The Two Towers, flying over mountains before settling on a familiar scene, but showing it in a new way.
I’m glad Stenbeck landed this gig. “How Koshchei Became Deathless” references story moments previously drawn by Duncan Fegredo and Guy Davis, and even shows some scenes of Hellboy in Mignola’s version of Hell. Having to reference one of these artists and not fall short would be a challenge, but Stenbeck manages it for all three. He’s worked with Mignola for so long, he understands the rhythm of his storytelling intimately.
I mean, at one point a goose just wanders up to Koshchei and starts talking to him, yet this is not a comical moment. Mignola writes this stuff, but Stenbeck has the challenge of pulling it off, and boy did he ever succeed.
In the second half of the issue, there was another bit of retelling. By now we’ve often heard the story of the Watchers and the Ogdru Jahad, and yet I love how Mignola continually finds ways to make it fresh, and a natural extension of whatever mythology he’s exploring. It’s part of what gives the Hellboy Universe that old world feel. Plus Mignola’s insanely good at altering mythology to suit his purposes. At this point he’s basically refined it to an artform in and of itself. If I’m not familiar with the myth, it’s impossible for me to tell what is original and what is new… in fact that’s often true even when I’m familiar with the myth too.
Continued belowMignola embraces the things in myths that shouldn’t work—like a goose casually walking up and starting a conversation—and uses them without any trace of cynicism. It’s clear he has real affection for the myths he’s playing with.
The framing device, of Koshchei chatting with Hellboy in a pub in Hell, is such a fun idea too. It’s a grand idea with a certain mundane quality built into it, and that contrast provides an energy that immediately hooked me. Like I said, the opening of the comic reminded me of The Two Towers, but then it essentially cuts to Koshchei appologising to Hellboy for throwing a knife at him and Hellboy shrugging it off with a ‘I’ve had worse.’ Mignola really makes the most of this technique of cutting from story back to the storyteller and listener.
Like “Frankenstein Underground” before it, “Koshchei the Deathless” shows just how far we can stray from Hellboy’s story, and yet still feel like a part of the Hellboy Universe. More importantly, it’s a strong story in its own right, even without the Hellboy connection.
Final verdict: 9 – I’ve been waiting for this story for years and it did not disappoint.
