Hellboy: Wake The Devil: This wasn't as good as the first one.
Seed of Destruction had it all. Particularly humor. It also folded neatly back into itself, creating a whole story. Yes, there were hanging plot threads, but they seemed to have been left intentionally.
In this book, though, it feels like the resolution was rushed. Parts of the story seem to be left completely alone after being introduced, and didn't seem like carefully planted clues to future stories. In particular, the homunculus seems to be left wandering the country-side.
While it certainly wasn't bad, I was a bit let down by this one after how spectacular the first trade was.
Hellboy: The Right Hand of Doom: A whole bunch of short stories, including a color reprint of the first ever Hellboy story I read, "Pancakes".
I loved this one. Lots of good stories, lots of fun. Yes, Hellboy stories are often quite gruesome, but the artwork is stylized enough to hide a lot of what would have been gore.
And this features one of the all-time best exchanges in comics: "Is that a monkey?" "He's got a gun!" Unexpected, and priceless.
I also visited hellboy.com, and found links to several on-line short stories. After my experiences with the last two collections, I realized that short stories are far more interesting to me, for the most part, than larger narratives. So here's some reviews of some of the on-line comics. I'm not linking directly to the stories, only to the page on hellboy.com that links to them. The astute among you will figure out why very quickly.
Hellboy: The Corpse: A stolen baby, cold iron, and a talking corpse. The on-line presentation is odd, but you get used to it. This has all the humor and shock value of a normal Hellboy story.
Hellboy: The Iron Shoes: Very short, and very odd. I like the set-up, of how horrible this monster is... followed by Hellboy taking it on.
Hellboy: The Wolves of Saint August: Nasty brutal one. It's easy to develop a liking for the Father early in the story, which makes the appearance of Hellboy so much nastier. I love the incorporation of hidden history, and I really like the "old legend" feeling of this story. Very creepy and effective.
The following are available on Dark Horse's Website:
Hellboy: A Christmas Underground: Hellboy and Father Christmas. Yeah, this one was just strong all the way through. A good one.
Hellboy: The Baba Yaga: Hellboy takes on Mother Russia? This is definitely a case of Hellboy getting involved in something far beyond his understanding which results in what is arguably a failure.
Hellboy: The Chained Coffin: Is this Hellboy's origin? Wow. Nasty stuff going on. There's some unfinished business there, and now I'm curious to see how it works out.
Hellboy: Almost Colossus: Hey, it's the missing homunculus from Wake the Devil! The biggest hanging plot thread that annoyed me the most, resolved. And nicely, too. Another good one.
B.P.R.D.: There's almost a story here.
As a collection of Hellboy stories, these get a high rating. So, instead of rating each one individually, I'm giving them a collective 4 starfish.
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