We’re sad to see “Koshchei the Deathless” come to an end. It has been masterful from start to finish.
Written by Mike MignolaCover by Mike Mignola
Illustrated by Ben Stenbeck
Colored by Dave Stewart
Lettered by Clem RobinsKoshchei retells his final encounters with the Baba Yaga, and he and Hellboy part ways.
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).
Mark Tweedale: OK, before we get to the review, I have to address a misconception I had about the timeframe of this series. I figured it was set at some point during “Hellboy in Hell,” but this issue makes it pretty damn clear it’s set after it, so that’ll likely change my read on the series when I go through it a second time.
Christopher Lewis: For sure. Learning this series takes place after “Hellboy in Hell” is a big revelation, and is something I never considered a possibility.
I actually did go back and reread the entire series and found it interesting that Mike Mignola told us the timing of the series in the first hell scene from issue #1. It said the story took place Now. Somewhere in Hell. I glossed over this statement when reading the issue back in January, but now I think it literally means this series takes place now in the current “B.P.R.D.” timeline. So basically sometime during the “Messiah” storyline of “B.P.R.D.: The Devil You Know.”
Mark: Yeah, the “now” thing is something of a pet peeve of mine. Now is a fleeting point in time and it works only if you read it when the book comes out. As more time passes, it becomes more nebulous. In a series that relies heavily on flashbacks, I wish they’d dated all stories, not just the flashbacks. But that was a decision made back in ’90s and it’s way too late to change it now.
All that’s beside the point though. I haven’t done a reread yet (saving that for the trade), but given how much of the story relies on pauses or looks from Hellboy, I wonder if I’d read those moments differently. A lot of stuff happened to Hellboy in those last four issues of “Hellboy in Hell,” and he carries that emotional baggage around with him. Did you find this knowledge augmented your reread much?
Chris: It surprisingly didn’t affect my read too much as it relates to Hellboy. Hellboy still seemed like Hellboy to me and this final issue is where I noticed a difference in him being more at peace.
My reread did augment things significantly regarding Koshchei, and this is where I am going to have to drop a warning that spoilers are ahead. When initially reading the first issue I made a lot of assumptions about Koshchei that all turned out to be wrong. I had figured Koshchei regained his soul after the end of “Hellboy: Darkness Calls,” then died, and his soul went to Hell. Based on this and the way Koshchei has been talking to Hellboy, I felt that this story was leading to Koshchei being sorry and asking forgiveness for past transgressions, where he would be redeemed and his soul freed from Hell.
So finding out Koshchei ended up walking into Hell through the roots of the world tree to find the goat with his soul was a big surprise and affected my reread/view of the series. All of which was positive.
Mark: Koshchei wandering a transformed Hell searching for the goat with his soul in it is pretty much the perfect ending for the character. Does he ever find his soul? Does he ever ascend from Hell like we’ve seen other souls do in “Hellboy in Hell?” Maybe. But even if he doesn’t, he still has enough peace in Hell.
Ultimately, Koshchei got better than he deserved. He’s no longer doomed. Given his genuine remorse, there’s the sense that he could make something better of himself now. His fate is in his own hands. As a reader, I don’t need more than that.
Continued belowThat said, this final issue does not stand alone as much as the material before it did. It heavily draws on themes introduced in “Hellboy in Hell,” and I think the book would be lesser if the reader hasn’t read that series. But that connectedness adds such emotional resonance. “Koshchei the Deathless” serves to bridge “Hellboy in Hell” and “B.P.R.D.: The Devil You Know” in an understated, yet emotionally powerful way, especially seeing Hellboy’s house in Hell surrounded by greens, then opening “B.P.R.D.: The Devil You Know” #6 with that same scene shifting to autumn. That island of peace Hellboy found is fading in the face of what is yet to be done.
I want to say we’re very lucky here at Multiversity Comics in that editor Katii O’Brien gets the PDFs for reviews to us early. (Thank you, for this and many other things, Katii! We couldn’t do the stuff we do here without your help.) It lets us do these conversational reviews even though the story Mignolaversity team all lives in different timezones. On top of that, it means we get a bit of digestion time before we have to talk about it. With “Koshchei the Deathless” #6 I liked it after reading it, but over the next week my mind kept drifting back to it and I found by the end of the week I liked it more.
Chris: I like the issue more after reading it too, and am also thankful and grateful to Katie O’Brien for letting us have these books early. And really, everything you said is spot on Mark.
The big thing for me is that Koshchei finds peace. Him and shockingly the Baba Yaga. What’s interesting is in some of our earlier reviews you mention that Hellboy was the glue that held the story together. In the final issue we really see exactly how important Hellboy is to this tale. It goes beyond just him listening and engaging Koshchei at a bar, Hellboy is the direct reason that both Koshchei and the Baba Yaga change. It seems Hellboy giving his eye to the Baba Yaga was in some way the catalyst for her changing her ways. For Koshchei, after the big brawl in “Hellboy: Darkness Calls,” he finally lets go of his rage (done in a very nonchalant Mignola way of course). Hellboy is key to the story.
Mark: He is, and he’s key to keeping the energy up. The difficulty with a story like “Koshchei the Deathless” is there are sections readers are already familiar with, the sections that overlap with “Darkness Calls,” but they’re very important moments for Koshchei so we can’t exactly skip them. Hellboy fills in the blanks and skips over things on our behalf and cuts right to the point. The first eleven pages rush through so much!
The second half of the issue exists in stark contrast to the first. It slows down dramatically when Koshchei is merely wandering until he meets Vasilisa, then the Baba Yaga, then Gamori, then finally Hellboy. I rather enjoyed seeing Hell from from Koshchei’s point of view instead of Hellboy’s. In “Hellboy in Hell,” Hellboy would bump into characters that would flit in and out of his story like ghosts. And from Koshchei’s perspective, Hellboy’s the same, vanishing mid conversation. (Hellboy is a ghost after all.) It is an ephemeral meeting, almost dreamlike.
So, shall we score this one?
Chris: I am giving this one a 9. It is the perfect end to the series.
Mark: I agree, but I’m going to go a little higher with a 9.5. “Koshchei the Deathless” is Mignola and Stenbeck’s best collaboration to date, and this is coming from the team that brought us “Frankenstein Underground.”
Final verdict: 9.25 – “Koshchei the Deathless” stands among the very best the Hellboy Universe has to offer.
