Mignola, Mike
About the Author:
As well as writing and illustrating comic books, Michael Mignola worked as a production designer on Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire and as a visual consultant for Director Guillermo Del Toro on Blade II and the movie version of Hellboy. He lives in southern California, USA with his wife, daughter and cat.
AVERAGE REVIEW SCORE:
3.7 out of 5
(3 books)
TOP PICK:
Hellboy: Wake The Devil
Hellboy: The Storm And The Fury
(Art by Duncan Fegredo)
The twelfth volume and the climax of the series as a whole, following on from the events of 'The Wild Hunt'. The sorceress Nimue has made herself the goddess of war but, in doing so, has unwittingly opened the door for a much more ancient and terrible power to return to the world. Meanwhile, Hellboy rejects his royal heritage in order to face the apocalypse on his own terms.
This book does a good job of giving the sense of powers and armies gathering for the Final Battle, for Ragna Rok, as well as Hellboy's stubborn refusal to simply accept his destiny as an unwilling figurehead. In fact, I think it was Hellboy's determination to face what's coming in his own way and as himself that was my favourite element of this book, because that refusal of the concept that he's 'destined' to be something in particular is fundamental to the character.
Unfortunately, in picking up the threads of British and Irish folklore from 'The Wild Hunt', drawing in elements of the the rest of the series going all the way back to 'Seed of Destruction' and trying to create a climax to everything that has come before, this book gives itself just a little too much to do. As a result some elements feel a bit rushed and overall it wasn't as satisfying as I felt it should (and could) have been.
3 out of 5
Hellboy: The Wild Hunt
(Art by Duncan Fegredo)
Book 9. When giants begin marauding across England and Nimue, the queen of witches, is resurrected, Hellboy is summoned from his self-imposed exile in Italy to join the Wild Hunt.
I'll admit that I haven't yet read volumes 3 - 8 of the series so, particularly at the beginning, this book has allusions to a number of major events that I was totally clueless about. However, once you get the sense that Hellboy is feeling weary and jaded due to his experiences, you can catch up to the narrative here pretty quickly.
What I've enjoyed about the Hellboy books is how much obvious respect Mignola has for the dark mythology and folklore he draws on and, for me, it was a delight to see that turned towards my home turf, with this book involving Hellboy in the mythology of Britain and Ireland, tapping into the ancient Celtic traditions as well as the later Arthurian legends.
I really enjoyed Hellboy's arc in this book as he realises that supernatural past he has rejected won't let him go but the humans he has chosen to live with and protect refuse to trust and embrace him. It leaves him the odd man out and adds some genuine stakes to the sword-shaped offer he has to contend with about halfway through. If I had one criticism of this book it's that with Hellboy already being a Prince of Hell, the revelations about his maternal lineage seem a little contrived and retcon-y.
4 out of 5
Hellboy: Wake The Devil
(Art by Mike Mignola)
The second volume of the series sees Hellboy and the BPRD set off to Romania where they hope to prevent the vampire Vladimir Giurescu from being resurrected by Nazi occultists.
At this point Hellboy is well-known enough that you should have a sense of what the story on offer here is; a mixture of the gothic horror and superhero genres. For me, this was the first actual Hellboy graphic novel I've read (my previous experience with the character is entirely Guillermo Del Toro's movies) and I was impressed by how respectful Mignola is of the mythology he's tapping into. Some pop-culture mediums like to lift the specifics of mythology for the sake of spectacle, without considering the context and tone, but here you get a genuine sense that the writer has a passion for what he's borrowing from. In fact, he even dedicates this book to Dracula and you can tell it's Bram Stoker's original version he's clearly inspired by. There's also near-flawless mixing together of different mythologies such as Greek, Norse and Slavic which never feels like a cheap mash-up.
The one big downside for me here was that some elements of the book reference things that happen in volume one and others that clearly set up situations to be resolved in subsequent volumes. That's nothing untoward if you're the kind of person who'll read an entire run of comics/graphic novels, but personally, I like to dabble (hence this being the first Hellboy book I've read). The fact that a lot of bits of the book only make sense in the context of the larger series did take the edge off my reading experience a bit.
Of course, it's worth reading this book if only for Mignola's stylised and brilliantly atmospheric artwork.
4 out of 5
Collaborations & Anthologies:
Hellboy: Seed Of Destruction (here)
Read more...
Hellboy (here)