A trip to China doesn’t exactly go to plan.
Creative Staff:
Story: Mike Mignola, Chris Roberson
Art: Brian Churilla
Colors: Dave Stewart
What They Say:
Hellboy hunts ancient Chinese demons in the Walled City of Hong Kong when an old friend of Bruttenholm’s calls in a favor. A heavily researched look into the early days of the British spy network in the Far East, combined with Mignola’s unique brand of supernatural adventure.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Digging deeper into the 1954 period, the Hellboy and the BPRD universe expands with its next offering, a multi-issue arc under the Ghost Moon header. With a two-part story kicking off previously and a standalone before this, there’s been plenty to like for fans that are into this period of the character, much like I am, as it’s not quite as heavy with lore and material from the present day run of the book. This issue has Chris Roberson working with Mignola to tell another tale and they’ve brought in a new player in the Mignolaverse with Brian Churilla, who I’ve haven’t seen before but definitely like what he brings to the table in capturing the look and feel of this world and these characters.
While we’ve had mostly familiar terrain in past installments, even when it went to the top of the world, this one takes us to a place that’s new for them in this period as they head to China as a favor is owed by Bruttenholm to Lady Cynthia. The team is kept small with just Archie and Sue going with Hellboy to figure out what’s going on as little information was given. The book does some decent setup to introduce us to the turmoil of the time five years into Mao’s reign and how many had fled south to Hong Kong where things are becoming even more difficult now thanks to the surging population. That population has spilled over to Kowloon which is where events here shift as the group was brought in to meet with Richard Childe, a man operating under advice from Lady Cynthia to procure more unusual items from the area.
With Richard as guide and Sue using her abilities to suss out more information, it’s a standard creeping into a dangerous and unknown area kind of story as one of Childe’s associates went missing while the other is fairly catatonic after going here previously. Though there’s a mild bit of action with some supernatural types that show up to deal with their cousin in Hellboy, going on about wanting things left to them similar to previous material in this year, the more interesting part is just how empty everything is considering how many people are supposed to be living here and the reveal of the jar that’s causing everything. Sue brings in some decent pieces of the belief system that exist and why people are doing what they are prior to the full investigation so some solid things are laid out for the reader that connects well as the more serious threats begin to show up.
In Summary:
Hellboy works a fairly standard formula here in terms of story and executes it well to give us something interesting and a little different from the norm all while tying into some of the larger 1954 story material. Roberson’s obviously got a handle on things and the characters with their dynamics so it’s fun to see the interactions between ARchie and Sue as well as Hellboy’s unease in the area. For me, this was my first exposure to Churilla’s artwork and I definitely like what he brings to the table here. It feels in tone with what we’ve had before while staking out his own ground as well with the character designs and the expressiveness of them. The flow of the story through the panel layouts is nicely done and the overall tone and atmosphere of the book hits just right to up the unease slowly but surely as it moves on. This story doesn’t have me in a strong way at the moment but it’s definitely adding more to the overall lore that Hellboy fans will enjoy.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: March 8th, 2017
MSRP: $3.99
