Summery: Hellboy, Susan and the Professor head down to the Florida everglades to investigate a series of strange deaths by burning.
Plot: The pairing of Roberson and Mignola, though the longest sustained colaboration at this point, has largely ran very hot and cold. Some stories the pair come out with are red hot and feel like instant classics while others just leave you feeling left in the cold wondering why Mignola has decided to hand Hellboy over to this guy and there hasn't really been a story in between...until now. Other than the fact that the cover is an absolute fake out and this isn't a book about Hellboy fighting dinosaurs in some land that time forgot style pocket dimension there's nothing here the terribly disappoints you; it's a competent story that details an investigation into mysterious deaths that leads to Hellboy encountering an entity made of fire that he can't beat with brute force. It has some good action, some short but solid character bits with Susan, the Professor and Hellboy bonding and a nice bit of history thrown in but in the end it just feels a little too been there done that as we already saw a monster created by collective grief in 1998's Abe Sapien: Drums of the Dead. So in the end we don't have anything that you can complain about but nothing really to hold onto either; making this a bit like a frozen pizza version of Hellboy; no body will hate it because hey, frozen pizza is still pizza, but no body will say it's their favorite either.
Art: I think by far the stronges element of the book was the art by Rivera; I absolutely love the characterization he brings to Hellboy's face. It's tough line to walk, you need Hellboy to look like his face is roughly hewn out of granite by someone with only a passing knowledge of human anatomy to make him look right but at the same time you have to be able to convey emotions as well. It's a balance that even Mignola himself struggles with at times as he occasionally slips and Hellboy will look a tad too cartonish with an unhinged jaw as he yells in a panel or too but Rivera just seems to really get it creating fantastically emotive scnes with Hellboy both while he casually interacts with the police of podunk and while he's engulfed in the flames of the fire spirit. And boy, when we finally see him emerge is that fire spirit a sight to see; you really feel like it's a creature made of flame as it's anatomy seems to flicker from panel to panel giving it a great visual. So while the story might just be okay the art is fantastic.
Grade: 7.5/10 (for the art!)