Summary: Fifteen years ago, our world was overrun by creatures of myth; orcs, dragons, and other nameless horrors threw the entire planet into total chaos. Today, the shattered remnants of civilization must fight just to survive in a deadly new era of violence and mayhem.
Plot: In his new book The Realm Peck crafts a story that is an excellent genre mash up between a post apocalyptic adventure and a high fantasy romp full of goblins, wizards and dragons. There are plenty of genre mash ups these days, but what made this one unique was that despite swords and sorcery and mad max, end of the world antics Peck manages to still make the story feel grounded and real. What I loved were the little details in the world, tooth brushes are trade-able goods and being in control of a Costco gives you the power to name yourself a king; it's fun and inventive and it has great characters. All that combined, I'm really excited to see where this book goes.
Art: Part of what really grounds this book ,aside from the solid characterization, are the gritty, lived in cityscapes that Haun brings to the page. They are instantly recognizable and immediately make you feel like this is a place you know which is a fantastic juxtaposition to the orcs and wizards which really makes the whole piece work.  
Grade: 10/10

Summary: R2 comes to the rescue!
Plot: Tieing up one of the last loose ends of his run Aaron finally shows us the rescue of Threepio. It's light on characterization, and it staggers the realm of belief in a few places even in a world of wizards with laser swords but it's fast pace never ceases to entertain and the slap stick humor was a lot of fun. It was a light story and it doesn't exactly jive with the over all tone but humor is not out of place in the Star Wars Universe, as Tag and Bink was one of my favorite stories in the Dark Horse Star Wars books so this was a nice jaunt back down that road.
Art: Again, Larroca's cinematic look really makes the story feel authentic and I enjoyed the cameo of a droid that looked like K-2SO from Rogue One.
Grade: 7/10

Summary: A layover on a remote island drops Hellboy into a web of intrigue involving government secrets and foreign agents waging their own cold war over a weapon that might be right up the BPRD's alley. Meanwhile Professor Bruttenholm uncovers a new facet of the cold war and it's supernatural. 
Plot: After a few stumbles Mignola and Roberson seem to be back on stable ground again with this tale of mutated monsters and political intrigue. Although it's all mostly set up at this point the pieces that have been revealed so far are very intriguing; the demonically possessed eternally youthful Varvara and her Russian paranormal team are always welcome, more Harry Middleton and the introduction of a secret British paranormal team are new and exciting. I don't know what kind of picture the puzzle pieces will eventually paint but the possibilities have me excited. 
Art: While I enjoyed Churilla's monsters, and his depiction of Hellboy himself is fantastic the human characters of Hellboy's world are rendered a little too cartoony and young. Stegner and Archie who were introduced in the Bruttenholm driven BPRD 1940's stories are now 10 years older than they were when we first saw them and are veterans of multiple campaigns and suffered serious wounds and so should look weathered and grizzled and yet they're almost unrecognizable here as bright, youthful men of action. In the years since Mignola's semi-retirement as the sole guiding artist for Hellboy's world he's chosen many great artists to continue his work while he focused on telling the stories but sadly Churilla is not among the greatest of those.
Grade:7/10