We all knew how this was going to end—after all, we’ve already read it—but somehow Roberson and Grist have made it into something more.
Written by Mike Mignola and Chris RobersonCover by Paul Grist
Illustrated by Paul Grist
Colored by Bill Crabtree
Lettered by Clem RobinsAfter decades of living as a man the visitor has a chance to return to his people in space, but must deliver a message to Hellboy first.
Mark: This issue brings “The Visitor: How and Why He Stayed” to an end, and I feel like I’m going to spend a lot of time talking about the miniseries as a whole, because I can’t remember the last time I read a story that was so transformed by a latter issue. In this case, issue #4 is the core of the story, changing everything that came before and sort of reset my expectations for this final issue. Brian, I don’t know about you, but I think if it hadn’t been for issue #4, I would’ve thought this issue was treading too much familiar ground from “Hellboy: Conqueror Worm.” But looking at the series as a whole, I don’t find myself wanting another chapter in this story (as strange as that may sound). For me, the story ended at #4 and this issue is more of an epilogue, meditating on what came before. And in that context, I think it works, even though it flies in the face of my usual expectations for a final issue.
Brian: That’s an interesting way to look at it. The fourth issue was certainly the emotional climax of the series, this issue being the resolution to a series that, as you said, took a few issues to truly turn into something special. But special it is—the final scene of Hellboy and the Visitor was absolutely magical. It was heartfelt and eye opening and just lovely.
Mark: Honestly, this ending was something I’d been nervous about since I read issue #1. In that issue, we’d had a scene from “The Nature of the Beast,” and I’d felt like it was retreading too much of the same material, and giving too little in the way of new material. Funnily enough, I think that same criticism could be leveled at the “Conqueror Worm” sequence in this issue, but there’s a notable distinction: This time we know the Visitor. Throwing the weight of the full miniseries behind a moment we’d previously seen meant that this wasn’t just a rehash, but rather a chance to re-experience it in a new context.
Also, I think it’s beautiful that in an issue without Ruby, she was still the core of the story. I made a big deal in our review of issue #4 about the use of white, and so I found it very satisfying to see that at work again here. I especially loved that the first panel of the story was completely white and so was the last. Seeing “The Visitor” completed, I find myself impressed by visual touches like these that bind it all together.
Brian: This is definitely a work where, reflecting back on the entirety, a whole new appreciation takes place. To borrow a phrase from the much maligned George Lucas, the series as a whole ‘rhymes’ nicely. Its place in the Hellboy canon is relatively small, but it handles its moments with such reverence and grace that it works, probably better than it should in places.
A huge chunk of that is due to Paul Grist’s work on the book. We’ve been singing Grist’s praises for months now, but here he really goes above and beyond yet again. He imbues such humanity into each panel, and the Visitor by the end of the series seems like an entirely different character than the one we met in issue one. But, again, if you dig out that first issue, you see Grist laying those seeds early on.
Mark: I don’t think we can praise Grist enough. And yes, the Visitor totally transforms in this miniseries. The first bit of this issue shows him having a chat with his fellow aliens in space, and when contrasted against the conversation with them from issue #1, the change is stark. I do have a few minor points of criticism, though, because sometimes a moment felt too compressed, or a new scene began too quickly on the tail of another. But when I look at the issue as a whole, the only solution I can imagine is that it needed a page or two more just to break up the pacing a bit. And if anything, that’s more a criticism of the format than anything. Monthly singles rarely have room for pages of nothingness, but given the subject matter of the story, I think a bit more nothingness in there would have heightened the experience.
Continued belowBrian: That is an odd comment to make, but one I wholeheartedly agree with. The work could’ve used a few extra pages to breathe a bit but, as you said, that’s not really how monthly comics work.
I feel like there are two main things we need to discuss in regards to this issue: the Visitor’s story, and the impact on Hellboy’s story. Let’s start with the former—to you, what was the most effective part of this issue, purely from the Visitor’s standpoint?
Mark: It was the awkwardness that he felt when he was alone with his mission again. It was like he was wearing someone else’s shoes or he was merely going through the motions. He was disconnected. He returned to his former life, but he couldn’t live it anymore. He’d changed too much. When that alien buzzer goes off on the third page, it’s such an intrusion.
And, if you’ll excuse me for cheating and picking a second moment, I think that was also what made his final meeting with Hellboy so meaningful. Part of his change had been in staying his hand and letting Hellboy live. He’d had faith in Hellboy, and in this issue, he’d grown into everything he’d hoped. It was nice giving the Visitor this moment where the last fifty years of his work come to fruition. There was catharsis in the Visitor’s death. Yes, he died, but it was a life well spent. So, same question back to you. What did you think was the Visitor’s most effective moment in the issue?
Brian: I hate that we’re so simpatico with this book, but it’s just the way it is: The sentence I had written out before seeing your email was ‘The Visitor’s clear discomfort at revisiting his old life.’ It felt a bit like what I presume it would be like to have to take a high school class at thirty-five—he knew what to do, but it felt incredibly stilted and strained while he was doing it.
This is probably putting too fine a point on it, but the title of the book/character—the Visitor—was applied to the alien living on Earth. But by the end of this issue, he was visiting his old life. He was now fully a denizen of Earth and had to adopt a different posture and attitude to do his old job again.
Mark: Yeah, I think I made a comment in one of our earlier issues about how the title’s meaning shifts as you read the series. And really, that’s this whole comic. It changed in some very unexpected ways. It may be a strange comment to make, but I liked how small it ended up being. I mean, the climax of the story is simply a conversation between the Visitor and Hellboy. Yeah, it’s a conversation about grand things, but the emotional element beneath it was smaller and closer to home.
I think the reason this story works is that it’s written around the Visitor’s final works to Hellboy: ‘Hellboy, to be other than human does not necessarily mean to be less. Remember that. Remember me.’ We’ve heard that line before, but it works the second time, and in fact, hits even harder than it did in “Conqueror Worm” because everything that preceded it was building to it. It’s a tricky thing to do, but I honestly feel like everyone involved absolutely pulled this off.
Also, I think Grist did an excellent job throughout the sequence. I mean, he basically had to recreate an entire conversation spanning several pages that were word for word the same as it was in “Conqueror Worm.” He did this clever thing where at the beginning of the sequence, he did his own thing and approached the material very differently from Mignola, aside from the occasional panel to anchor it. However, as he approaches the end of the sequence, he got closer and closer until he was sticking very closely to Mignola’s layouts. That slow convergence of page layouts and panel compositions gave the scene an extra punch.
Plus I like that Bill Crabtree did something different with the colors than Dave Stewart did. Crabtree’s colors are tweaked to match the tone of this story, especially the red of Hellboy’s skin. I can’t be sure, but I imagine the creative team must have spoken quite a bit about when to be the same and when to be different.Continued below
Brian: Yeah, I had a similar thought while reading this issue. While in the past, Grist has shown us scenes that we’ve already seen, this is the first time he’s really had to imitate what Mignola did, panel construction wise. He doesn’t try to ape Mignola and, as the art you’ve displayed shows, each artist’s style is very much present in their own page. We’ve spoken before about how Grist and Mignola, while not all that similar in terms of the aesthetics of their work, both have an ability to simplify things down to a level that most other artists would be afraid to get to. Negative space is a huge piece of both of their styles.
As you mentioned, the dialogue between the Visitor and Hellboy had so much more resonance here than it did in “Conqueror Worm,” and that is entirely due to the work that Grist and Roberson did in getting us, the readers, to understand what those words mean coming from the Visitor. Sure, we understand the general tenor of that line, but after having seen the journey that the Visitor took and, especially in this issue, the loneliness that accompanied the later parts of his journey, that phrase means so much more.
Mark: It certainly does. So how’d you feel about this issue overall? I’m giving it a 9. Chris Roberson really delivered on this one, with a very satisfying and meaningful ending, and Paul Grist took everything to the next level. His thoughtful approach to the subject matter was a perfect fit for “The Visitor: How and Why He Stayed.”
Brian: I’ll go with an 8.5, if only because, as much as I really enjoyed it, it didn’t quite soar to the heights of the best Mignolaverse works.
Final verdict: 8.75. “The Visitor: How and Why He Stayed” #5 ends on a sad, but honest note, and even managed to heighten a classic moment from “Hellboy: Conqueror Worm.”
