Feature: Young Hellboy: Assault on Castle Death #2 Reviews 

Mignolaversity: “Young Hellboy: Assault on Castle Death” #2

By | September 21st, 2022
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

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In “Young Hellboy: Assault on Castle Death,” we get the pulpiest version of the Lobster yet as he teams up with the Scarlet Crab and Mac the dog. This review is full of spoilers; you have been warned.

Cover by Matt Smith
Written by Mike Mignola and Thomas Sniegoski
Illustrated by Craig Rousseau
Colored by Chris O’Halloran
Lettered by Clem Robins

As Hellboy struggles in the grip of a mysterious illness, a Brotherhood operative inside the B.P.R.D. brings an assassin within striking distance! But even with a fever, young Hellboy has an ace up his (pajama) sleeve. . . or is that a familiar calling card?

Read the exciting continuation of the second Young Hellboy series, from Hellboy creator Mike Mignola and cowriter Tom Sniegoski, with art by Craig Rousseau and colors by Chris O’Halloran.

“Young Hellboy: The Hidden Land” had a lot going on. In the first issue, there’s an assassination attempt on Hellboy, a plane crash, an attack by giant crabs, an attack by dinosaurs, a giant gorilla, quicksand. . . and there’s probably more I’m forgetting. And that worked for ‘The Hidden World.’ It’s a story that throws a lot at the reader all while barreling toward the next obstacle. It’s fun, but if it keeps at that pace, you become numb to it. There’s no space for atmosphere or character moments.

“Young Hellboy: Assault on Castle Death” manages to balance this better than its predecessor. It still has that mad capped energy where it feels like anything can happen at a moment’s notice, but this time the story isn’t told on such a grand scale. It’s limited to a single location and it isn’t in a rush to get to the next big action beat. This really works in the story’s favor, because the joy of this tale is simply in seeing Hellboy run around with an imaginary version of the Lobster, and by keeping the story small, we get more time with the two of them simply interacting.

Reading ‘Assault on Castle Death,’ I was frequently reminded of “Calvin and Hobbes” strips featuring Stupendous Man or Tracer Bullet, especially the latter, which relied on a strong shift in the visuals to jump into Calvin’s imagination. I have to applaud both Craig Rousseau and Chris O’Halloran here as they use this to tremendous effect for the big moments, like the scene when the Lobster and Hellboy take on the “Clockwork Terror.” Mike Mignola and Thomas Sniegoski gave them a full page for that moment and they went for it.

However, they’re also able to dial down the visual shift for more subtle, almost invisible transitions. With the setting being during a storm in the hall of B.P.R.D. headquarters, Rousseau and O’Halloran are able to use the natural grays of the environment to pull a scene back and lower contrast, allowing moments to read flatter, but with a mere flash of lightning we have dramatic shadows, vibrant colors—square tiles become jagged rocks, Hellboy’s hand-stitched cape becomes a full costume. The comic speaks two visual languages side by side.

These two panels appear on the same page

As you can see in that first panel above, letterer Clem Robins adds to this by introducing a special typeface just for the Lobster’s dialogue. It’s a reminder that this isn’t really the Lobster, but rather a version pulled from Hellboy’s imagination, right out of the Golden Age of comics. Robins also lightens the tone with his treatment of sound effects, which have more roundness than you’d usually find in a Hellboy Universe title.

But the biggest contrast comes in the writing. In ‘Assault on Castle Death,’ we’re seeing Hellboy at his most childlike—the whole adventure is fueled by his exuberance—and this is contrasted against a man that sees Hellboy only as the harbinger of the end of the world. He recites the teachings of his brotherhood, brandishing a sacrificial blade as he stalks a child. Hellboy may have been swept up in a fever-induced fantasy, but it’s Brother Robert who strikes me as the one most at odds with reality.

Continued below

Brother Robert is the source of tension in the issue, but not because he’s going to kill Hellboy—we know he doesn’t—but rather from the damage he does along the way. The thing that hangs in the balance in ‘Assault on Castle Death’ isn’t Hellboy’s life, but his innocence.

That makes the issue sound heavy, but it’s not, it’s really not. The core of the book is the Hellboy and the Lobster team up. If you enjoy “Lobster Johnson” comics where the Lobster cries out “Beware the Claw of Justice!” then you’re going to love this.

Final Verdict: 8.


//TAGS | Mignolaversity

Mark Tweedale

Mark writes Haunted Trails, The Harrow County Observer, The Damned Speakeasy, and a bunch of stuff for Mignolaversity. An animator and an eternal Tintin fan, he spends his free time reading comics, listening to film scores, watching far too many video essays, and consuming the finest dark chocolates. You can find him on BlueSky.

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