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Post by thwhtguardian on Sept 10, 2014 21:20:19 GMT -5
Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #1Hellboy #1
March 1994
Story by Mike Mignola and John Byrne
Art by Mike Mignola
Colors by Mark Chiarello
Edited by Barbara Kesel
Year 1944
Summary: In 1944 Professor Trevor Bruttenholm, Lady Cynthia Eden-Jones, Malcolm Frost and a costumed hero known as the Torch of Liberty lead a squad of American Army Commandos to the village of East Bromwich in the England where they believe a psychic event related to a Nazi doomsday weapon will occur. When the team arrives at the site of an old church outside the village they find neither signs of Nazi occupation nor signs of further occult phenomenon but still the medium, Lady Cynthia, insists that the site is of extreme significance. Nor sooner does she explain this than a huge gout of flame erupts in the middle of the church. When the flame finally dies down and the smoke clears the team uncovers a small child sitting calmly where the holocaust of flame once raged, he's a bit redder than most toddlers, and he has horns, hoofs and a tail, but he is a little boy none the less and he is quickly embraced by the commandos who name him simply, "Hellboy" and the name stuck, even after Bruttenholm formally adopted him as his son.
Review: For me, when read as a one-two punch Hellboy #1 and its follow up The Chained Coffin make up one of the greatest origin stories of all time. I know, I know, I can hear some others of my peers crying, "The origins of Superman and Batman are so much better!" or, "Spider-Man's origin changed my life!" and it's true those are some pretty magnificent origins and I'll tell you why they're awesome, because they answer these questions: what is the hero really like? what motivates him? What's his world like? and what will future stories feel like?. In Detective Comics #27 you learn that Batman is really Bruce Wayne, that he fights crime because he witnessed his parents grizzly murder as a child and he wants to prevent further injustices like that from happening again, we learn that his city of Gotham is ripe what crime and we get a feel that Batman stories in general will be like slightly more colorful police procedural. And it's the same for Superman, Spider-Man and all the other greats, in a single morsel you learn just about all there is to know about the character.
So yes, the origin of your favorite hero is great, that's been established,but the question remains: why is Hellboy's better? The answer, I think, is two fold; in writing Hellboy's origin Mike Mignola not only answers all those questions from above but also gives you a solid sense of mood that will carry into every issue and he also tells the reader who he is as a writer, which I find powerful. The mood, I think, needs little explanation, with his almost minimalist pencil work and his heavy use of black ink Mignola's art work easily evokes mood and tone of the classic, black and white Hollywood horror films of yore, the second point though, concerning Mignola as a writer is going to take a little explanation.
To try and convey the reason why I feel Mignola's origin of Hellboy is evevated above those origins of other comic book heroes by the inclusion who Mike Mignola is as a writer and indeed how he views the act of story telling, I go first to Italo Calvino, "Myth tends to crystallize instantly, to fall into set patterns, to pass from the phase of myth-making into ritual, and hence out of the hands of the narrator into those of the tribal institutions responsible for the preservation and celebration of myths". Contrary to popular belief the act of creating a story is not a static moment in time, it's forever ongoing and the culture that listens and retells the story is just as responsible for its birth as person who originally told it. With so many minds involved in giving and sustaining the life for a story changes occur, elements are added while yet others are subtracted and over time the very signs and meanings attached to these may change making heroic acts evil and evil deeds heroic. And while modern origin stories follow in this mold, like the way Simon and Shuster utilized elements from the stories of Moses and Hercules in creating Superman, they do so in an almost subconscious way that has more to do with enticing readers to read a new story by presenting them with the bones of stories they are familiar with, Mignola's act of synthesis of past myths and legends into new stories is precise and purposeful in the way it participates in the cycle of myths. Mignola shows a keen respect for the act of story telling, and indeed crafts his work as a celebration of storytelling as much as they are a vehicle for the adventures of a demon spawned paranormal investigator. And it's that very reverence that makes a story like Hellboy's unique and beautiful.
Grade: A |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 2, 2014 17:41:50 GMT -5
B.P.R.D. 1946 #1
January 2008
Written by Mike Mignola and Joshua Dysart
Art by Paul Azaceta
Color by Nick Filardi
Lettered by Clem Robins
Edited by Scott Allie
Year: 1944 and 1946 Synopsis: The issue opens in 1944 in what appears to be a secret Nazi laboratory where we see a woman being chained to a table by men in lab coats and Nazi troops in armor. The woman is not the innocent victim she seems though as she quickly reveals her fangs and her true identity: a vampire! The Nazis are nonplussed however and produce electrified crosses which aid them in subduing the vampire woman. We flash forward an it's now 1946, the war is over,Germany is in ruins and split into four administrative zones. In one of its earliest post war missions Dr. Howard Eaton and Professor Bruttenholm travel to Berlin on a paranormal version of Project Paper Clip: they are there to recover as much of the Nazi's occult research as they can before the Soviets can snag it all up. To assist them in their search the Army begrudgingly gives them what is left of an infantry unit, five guys who have no knowledge of the paranormal and just want to go home. The unlikely team spends the next two weeks sifting through Nazi documents with no real success in finding any occult research when they catch a break and get an invitation to meet their Soviet counterparts.
Traveling into the Soviet controlled zone Bruttenholm is led to a large warehouse full of antiquities and strange objects where he meets with Varvara, the head of the Soviet occult team. Bruttenholm is completely taken aback as she looks like a small girl in frilly doll's clothing, but speaks and acts with authority. Tactfully deciding not to question it Bruttenholm asks her , in the name of science, to share some of the documents. With a knowing smile she responds that although tasked with finding any and all Nazi research she knows that Bruttenholm's true goal is uncovering more information concerning the "Hellboy Incident". She tells Bruttenholm that he interests her and because of that should she and her team uncover anything about Hellboy she will share it with him but that otherwise he is on his own, and so Bruttenholm goes back to the grind and digs back in. Pouring through the records Bruttenholm finally finds something: a large amount of liquid nitrogen delivery to an asylum in 1945...an asylum that officially closed in 1939. With this in hand Bruttenholm and Eaton travel to the asylum to investigate once there the pair finds a surgical room(the same one we saw from the opening) and a blueprint to the asylum. Reading the blueprint they discover a basement and go to investigate, but as they enter the dark, cavernous basement they fail to notice the twisted forms crawling above them.... Dun Dun Dun!
Review: Now normally when I read a Hellboy comic with art by someone other than Mignola I find myself slightly disappointed and I spend my time reading the book just trying to imagine how it would of looked if only Mignola had drawn it...but not here. Artist Paul Azaceta and colorist by Nick Filardi's work really shines here. In every shadow lurks a haunted spirit, and every character’s expression has a murky, textured shading that gives the panels a nostalgic feel – perfect for a vampire story taking place in 1946. But despite those heavy blacks the depiction of the unit of ragtag soldiers assigned to assist Bruttenholm is amazing, through all the mood amplifying murk and shadow you can still see that a tremendous attention to detail that was given to creating individuality among the men, which is hard to do given the fact that they're all in uniform.
Not to be out done by the art, the story by Mignola and Joshua Dysart is just as solid and it further illustrates the way that Mignola loves to play with other genres by both homaging them and twisting them in his own way. In 1946 #1 Mignola and Dysart really chose wisely when they decided to set the story in post-war Berlin, it both immediately grounds the narrative as it gives us a real historic site to latch onto and fills us with a sense of excitement because due to the setting we know from history that this was a place of intrigue where nearly anything could happen in the chaos created by the power vacuum that resulted in the fall of the Third Reich. And they do all that with a single sentence, "Berlin, 1946", just with that your mind spins and begins to populate with expectations and in the following panels they meet those expectations, you see building blown apart, you hear about corruption and famine, you see children picking through rubble in the streets and you get an allusion to project paper clip and then bam! monsters! The way they cultivate that twist is just inspired, because of the setting you're expecting intrigue and surprise and that allows them to create their twist without losing that sense of realism which is really important in a horror story, and ultimately that's their aim here.
As I've said before its the layers that really do it. They start with a war story and all the realistic trappings that come with it, then segue into a pulpy adventure story with a feeling of energy akin to Indiana Jones...and then take a hard left into horror. And it's all done with out feeling jarring, they simply build off of each other in the most natural of ways. And what's all the more surprising is that at the end when you are really able to pick up and reflect on that metamorphosis you realize that you should have seen it coming from the start as the same progression took place in the prologue; you got the historical setting with the clearly marked Nazi doctors, with that in mind you assume that the girl on the table wondering where her family might be some poor Gypsie or perhaps a Jew and then bam, she's a vampire! You'd think seeing that play out would cause you to be waiting for a similar turn but because of how well they execute the story your mind simply goes along for the ride. In short, it's just a fantastic read from start to finish...and it's just the opening to a larger story!
Grade: A |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 6, 2014 17:01:56 GMT -5
B.P.R.D. 1946 #2February 2008
Written by Mike Mignola and Joshua Dysart
Art by Paul Azaceta
Color by Nick Filardi
Lettered by Clem Robins
Edited by Scott Allie
Year: 1946 Synopsis: Trevor Bruttenholm and Howard Eaton are continuing their exploration the asylum when the infantry men assigned to them catch up to them and tell them are not to travel alone. On the way back to base the group stops for a beer at the local bar, while there they learn that one of the inmates from the asylum had recently escaped and went back to his family farm. Instead of returning home as originally planned the fledgling BPRD squad head out to investigate the story, once there Bruttenholm talks the family into lettting him into their barn where he meets their un-dead child. The child seems confused and docile ay first but once he sees the soldiers that child attacks them killing one of the men and just as the squad manages to close the boy back into the barn the Russians show up.
Possessing fewer numbers the BPRD yield the scene to their Russian counterparts. Varvara goes in to see the boy and learns about a secret basement in to asylum, but her methods seemingly kill the child in the process, leaving no room for Bruttenholm to as more. After Varvara reveals the news to the others, Bruttenholm realizes that the liquid nitrogen shipment that he uncovered previously must have been used to keep the creatures frozen, and that the appearance of the boy means that they must be thawing. Realizing the size of the threat the American and Russian teams join together and return to the asylum. On the drive, Varvara tells Trevor Bruttenholm what she has learned about a secret Nazi project called Vampir Sturm. At the height of WWII Hitler met with a vampire by the name of Vladimir Giurescu, the plan was that the vampire would help create an unstoppable vampire army for the Nazis. After the meeting with Giureschu Hitler was so frightened by the vampire that he decided that such an army like the vampire would be uncontrollable and so he had the vampire and his brides killed. However, Hitler had one of the brides, Anna Giurescu, drained of blood before being killed. Hearing this Bruttenholm concludes that the blood must have been used to create creatures like the one they saw in the barn.
Not just satisfied with this information alone Bruttenholm asks Varvara the question that has been plaguing him since he first met Varvara: who is she really? She responded to this question with a story of Tsar Peter and how he had summoned three demons to aid him. After their jobs were completed they returned to exact their fees from him; the first demon took the lives of all of Peter's future sons so his name could not live on, the second took Peter's heart so cruelty would be the character of his reign but the third demon, who was meant to take Peter's soul, decided that it liked the human world and instead chose to walk the Earth as a human and so it stayed as without its bounty it could not return home. With the story done the joint teamed arrived at the asylum...
Review: Much of what I loved about the last issue continues to be strong here, Paul Azaceta and Nick Filardi's art is just as dark and moody as ever and while the narrative isn't as layered as the first issue as the story here plays out mostly as a straight horror piece the dialog is really fantastic and there are a few twists that are really fun. Although touched on earlier the results of the Reichstag Fire Decree and the Nuremberg laws were developed further in this issue(though never named), in that the old farmer's wife revealed that her child was taken by the Germans and put in the asylum because he was "Sick". The Asylum then was a concentration camp where various "undesirables" were imprisoned and ,in the case presented here, experimented on. The pain in the woman's face as she says that her son was taken is deeply evident in Azaceta's art, and it speaks to the horror of the concentration camps with out needing any textual aid. Indeed, if there had been text explaining the seizure of her son because of his "sickness" it would have felt cheap.
The second nugget that made this issue so interesting was the word play in the dialog, which is illustrated beautifully in the scene where Varvara enters the barn. First we hear yelling, then there is only silence. The Sergeant looks to Bruttenholm and asks, "What in God's name is going on here?" to which Bruttenholm responds, "There are monsters in the world Sergeant..and I'm afraid we've stumbled upon one." there's a beat panel where we see the barn door slowly opening, and then we see this:  And lastly we get a prequel to Hellboy: Wake the Devil with the introduction of the vampire Vladimir Giurescu. In Wake the Devil(which will get reviewed sometime down the road) we never got a reason for why the Nazi/Vampire relationship fell apart but here we see that it did so because Giurescu was so terrifying that he scared even an evil, mad man like Hitler, and the scene that illustrated that exchange was beautiful. Giurescu is presented as larger than life and with the way view of the panel is angled he seems to be looming over us, where as in the panel depicting Hitler the angle has us looking over him making him seem smaller and weaker mirroring the way that his fear made him shrink away Giurscu. That artistic display of their power struggle is fantastically done and really elevated this issue more than anything else.
Grade: A
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Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2014 20:45:53 GMT -5
Those BPRD omnibus are pretty awesome, definitely my preferred way of reading the whole Plague of Frogs saga. Hopefully when the time comes they'll do the same for the Hell on Earth story as well. I don't know if you saw, but 1946-1948 is getting an omnibus release next June. I've started buying the Library Editions, and it's really clicking this time. |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 6, 2014 21:52:21 GMT -5
I'll totally be getting that when it comes out, the 1940's books are some of my favorite Hellbooks put out to date and I can't wait to see them continue.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 10, 2014 21:48:29 GMT -5
BPRD: 1946 #3February 2008 Written by Mike Mignola and Joshua Dysart Art by Paul Azaceta Color by Nick Filardi Lettered by Clem Robins Edited by Scott Allie  Year:1946 Synopsis: The American and Russian teams arrive back at the asylum. and based on a blueprint, the group goes to investigate a basement they missed before. Once the group enters the dark, subterranean depths of the asylum the vampire creatures slowly pick off the men. As the team fights for its life Professor Bruttenholm and Varvara manage to make it into the hidden basement. Once inside Bruttenholm and Varvara are greeted to a room with rows upon rows of large glass containers, and in each of the containers in the row infront of them they discover a hibernating vampire. As the two explore the room Varvara finds hidden records that explain that of all the inmates that the asylum once held in the end only 120 were selected for Vampyrstrum, while the rest were killed. To their shock though only 20 full containers are still in the room, meaning 100 of the creatures may be elsewhere.
As Varavara and Bruttenholm ponder this shocking discovery a vampire, who identifies himself as Baron Konig, suddenly appears out of the shadows and tells them that the vampires in the containers are Giurescu's children and that if freed they would wreak a horrible vengeance upon all of mankind unseen since the great plagues of Egypt. With his tale complete the vampire begins to stock Bruttenholm but Varvara reveals her demon self and forces the vampire into submission and under her fierce gaze the vampire cracks and reveals that the other vampires had been removed before he became aware of the asylum, but before more can be extracted from him he transformed into a great, snowy, white owl and flew away. After the confrontation Varvara escorts them out of the asylum where they meet back up with the surviving members of their teams.
Review: What I really enjoy here is just how natural the intermingling of the history of the death camps and the vampire lore felt. In the past issues we saw a juxtaposition of history and fiction and even one leading to the other but it wasn't until this issue that we saw them combined and the result was really fantastic. In these kinds of situations there is often the risk that the story may come off as insensitive to the history, or at the very least create a jarring clash between the fictional elements and the historical ones that would pull you out of the story and the fact that Mignola and company managed to navigate clear of both those two outcomes makes the story pretty impressive.
Of note: At the end of this issue that Dr. Howard Eaton was killed by one of the vampires which really surprised the heck out of me. I figured that with their limited development the army grunts were probably expendable but with the time spent on building up Eaton as a character I figured he was pretty safe but boy was I wrong.
Grade: A |
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Post by Nowhere Man on Oct 11, 2014 2:16:52 GMT -5
I really need to complete my Hellboy collection. As of now, I have the first two volumes ("Seed of Destruction" and "Wake the Devil") and haven't read beyond that. I love everything about Mignola's art and the world he's created. It's interesting how he had the breakout, creator-owned, success long before it was in vogue and never looked back. (Of course it also help's that he drew THE best Doctor Doom story, and one of the best Dr. Strange stories, in Triumph and Torment; this was my first exposure to his work once he found his own signature style outside of his early Incredible Hulk, Alpha Flight, etc.)
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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 11, 2014 12:18:43 GMT -5
Out side of Rocket Raccoon I've never seen any of his Marvel work, but I can only imagine how great his Dr. Strange would be as I loved Mignola's Phantom Stranger. And you should definitely pick up more Hellboy, especially as you left off just before it truly starts to get amazing.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2014 13:30:08 GMT -5
Did they not release the collected editions in the same order as floppies? I was reading the first Library Edition (I believe the story was Wake the Devil) and it had a footnote pointing to Chained Coffin which is in a later volume.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 14, 2014 18:30:33 GMT -5
Did they not release the collected editions in the same order as floppies? I was reading the first Library Edition (I believe the story was Wake the Devil) and it had a footnote pointing to Chained Coffin which is in a later volume. Yeah, the Chained Coffin not only was published before Wake the Devil, but its events take place before Wake the Devil as well as its basically an epilogue to Seed of Destruction. It has to do with the way Mognola generally writes, he'll do a big story that spans 3-6 issues and then he'll do a hand full of one shots before doing another big story. When it times to collect the issues the big stories tend to get collected first and then after enough one shots have been published they collect those together. For the most part this works out fine, as there are only a few examples like the Chained Coffin that are published in collections after the collections that reference them. |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 16, 2014 21:37:54 GMT -5
BPRD: 1946 #4Written by Mike Mignola and Joshua Dysart
Art by Paul Azaceta
Color by Nick Filardi
Lettered by Clem Robins
Edited by Scott Allie
Year:1945(flash back) and 1946
Synopsis: After surviving the asylum the teams return to the Soviet headquarters where they learn that a former member of the asylum is now being held prisoner. Varvara smiles gleefully at the prospect of using her renown interrogation techniques but Bruttenholm convinces her to let him try his luck with the Nazi soldier. The soldier identifies himself as General Friedrich Manstein and he tells Bruttenholm that although Hitler thought the vampire soldiers would be uncontrollable he none the less kept the project alive so that if Germany lost the war the vampires could be released as the ultimate scorched earth plan. That said, in the last days of the war when the order came down to release the vampires Manstein couldn't do it so he bricked off the basement and fled into the country side. However, although he was in charge of the project he didn't know who would have been able to steal the subjects, but revealed that the only other Nazi facility capable of housing them was located in Berlin.
With the location of the frozen vampires at hand the two teams dash off to recover them only to have to face off against giant Frankenstein monster like gorillas!
Review: Although the scorched earth plan with the vampires is interesting this issue suffers slightly from feeling like filler before the conclusion. It's the kind of issue you find yourself flipping each page compulsively, and not because the suspense of the narrative has sucked you in and you need more but rather because you are in a hurry to simply see how it ends which is pretty unsatisfactory. Still, the art remains strong and the inclusion of Professor Doctor Herman Von Klempt is awesome as he's probably my favorite Hellboy villain of all time. I mean, the guy is a head in a jar and his henchmen are killer gorillas...what's not to love??
Grade: B
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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 18, 2014 21:51:17 GMT -5
BPRD:1946 #5Written by Mike Mignola and Joshua Dysart
Art by Paul Azaceta
Color by Nick Filardi
Lettered by Clem Robins
Edited by Scott Allie
Year: 1946
Synopsis: As the remainder of the American and Soviet teams battle it out with Von Klemt's robot- gorilla " Kreigaffen" Bruttenholm follows after Von Klempt and uncovers where the mutant vampires are being held but before he can do anything he is captured by another one of the Kreigaffen. Now properly restrained, the not so good doctor proceeds to tell Bruttenholm of his dastardly plan to unleash the vampires on the true enemy of the third reich...the United States! But how to get them there with out thawing them?? Easy, says Von Klempt, the room containing the vampires isn't really a room at all...it's the inside of a rocket set to blast off towards the US. As the rocket is set to blast off the Sargent busts in and frees Bruttenholm, giving Bruttenholm the only parachute he tosses Bruttenholm out of the rocket to safety while he heads off to disable the rocket. As the rocket explodes Bruttenholm lands below it in the what he latter learns when he wakes up in a hospital is southern France. As he lays there recovering, Varvara suddenly appears and warns him that Hellboy is nothing but danger but Bruttenholm disagrees saying that Hellboy is just a boy and that he has as much good in him as any other child to which Varvara only smiles.
Review: This is it, the conclusion of the first case for the BPRD, the nazis have their last gasp, and not only do the heroes win but their success gains them official recognition and full funding from the US government...but it's bitter sweet as nearly all the initial members fail to see the mission to the end. Despite the heavy casualties though the final chapter isn't nearly as dark as the first few issues, it instead takes on a James Bond thriller kind of tone along with a heavy does of melancholy towards the end. But although nearly all the supporting characters bite it in one way or another there is a fair bit of black humor to balance it out, my favorite bit of which was the way Varvara gleefully clapped her hands and shouted "Fantastic!" after the soldier who attempted to "save" her from the rocket's blast bursts into flames while she stands there unharmed by the blaze. I just couldn't help but chuckle at the juxtaposition of the childlike demeanor of Varvara and the horrific death of her Soviet subordinate. What's great is that these small bits of humor don't stick out, they mesh seamlessly with the rest of the narrative in a way that really serves to accentuate the horror, it's a contrast just works beautifully.
It never really crossed my mind when I read this arc previously, but looking at it now I have to wonder if the reason why the entire supporting cast was killed off had to do with this story perhaps originally being planned as a single stand alone chapter instead of the beginning of an ongoing story set in the past spawned by the run away success that was 1946. I've never thought of this before, so I've never thought to ask about it so of course I can't say if this is true but with a new cast of characters that will get introduced in the next chapter that share the same loser/out cast mold as the soldiers here certainly gives an amount to credence to my theory.
Issue grade: B+, although the action was fun I miss the horror infused mood the first three chapters had. Story Arc: A-, it sags a bit in the middle and looses a bit of its horror bite at the end but over all it's a fun ride and gave us a great look into the start of the BPRD.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 18, 2014 22:07:58 GMT -5
For the next story arc I'm going to be alternating between issues of 1947 and a series of shorts featuring little Hellboy so the pacing is going to be a little different but I think it'll be enjoyable. Also some of those little Hellboy stories are from some of the early Hellboy trades such as the Chained Coffin so hopefully a few may be familiar.
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,860
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Post by shaxper on Oct 19, 2014 7:44:22 GMT -5
For the next story arc I'm going to be alternating between issues of 1947 and a series of shorts featuring little Hellboy so the pacing is going to be a little different but I think it'll be enjoyable. Also some of those little Hellboy stories are from some of the early Hellboy trades such as the Chained Coffin so hopefully a few may be familiar. Little Hellboy! I'm going to grab some pancakes and prepare myself!! |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 19, 2014 14:19:37 GMT -5
He makes some amusing appearances in 1947 as well so I think the breaks will work out well. I'm also toying with the idea of perhaps splicing in Lobster Johnson between issues of 1948; Hellboy is seen reading the Lobster Johnson comic so I could justify it as Hellboy's reading material plus LJ does become important later on.
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