The imagination of a young Hellboy.
Creative Staff:
Story: Mike Mignola, Thomas Sniegoski
Art: Craig Rousseau
Colors:Chris O’Halloran
Letterer: Clem Robins
What They Say:
As Hellboy struggles in the grip of a mysterious illness, a Brotherhood operative inside the B.P.R.D. brings an assassin within striking distance! But even with a fever, young Hellboy has an ace up his (pajama) sleeve . . . or is that a familiar calling card?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
I’ve long enjoyed the concept of Hellboy and a few of the series over the years but I’ve read probably less than five percent of the works created over its run since the old Bravura days. Dark Horse recently dropped a new one-shot that had Mike Mignola doing a little cleanup and closure on a part of the past that works nicely and that got me back into the mood to look for more to try – even though I’m missing lots of context. This is the second series I think that deals with Young Hellboy and has Thomas Sniegoski joining Mignola on the script. Craig Rousseau has long been a favorite of mine and his work with Chris O’Halloran here means we’re getting a really strong visual presentation that captures this period and all of the kind of old-school starkness that it needs in the architecture and the character designs.
With a lot of things established in the first issue, this one shifts gears a bit while still slowly advancing the main story. That piece has the devoted/radicalized killer continuing his work here, knife in hand, going through the corridors looking for Hellboy so he can complete his mission. We do get a bit more of the cult group themselves in Italy and how committed they are as well which gives it a bit more impact. At the same time, we also get the local custodian that’s doing his thing of taking care of the place but also finding a lot of things going wrong. That’s happening for a reason but he’s mostly just reacting to things until, presumably in the next issue, that he ends up coming across the truth of it all. But his presence adds another level of tension to things which works really well as you don’t know if he’ll find Hellboy first or the killer.
For Hellboy, well, he’s just having a grand old time. He’s pulled his cape out of storage and slapped on Mac as well so that the dog can take on the role of Lobster Johnson. Hellboy has named himself the Scarlet Crab and the two are on an adventure for much of this. That has them going through various rooms in the facility but in his mind’s eye, we see it all as though he’s running through parts of occupied Europe by making his way to a castle and all that. It’s an absolute delight to watch play out with the nature of it and just the dialogue that Hellboy has as he sticks to the character he’s portraying and the dialogue he’s envisioning coming out of Mac as Lobster. It’s absolutely adorable in the big picture but it is moving him closer to the danger that he’s not able to see just yet either.
In Summary:
A lot of the focus here really is just on Hellboy having a great little adventure. He’s using his imagination in a big way and has no clue that he’s being hunted. He’s simply having a ton of fun as boys of that period would while hanging with his dog Mac. He’s not being watched as he should be by those there that are supposed to but it that’s also something that feels natural as well. The book reads quite well and the art is great in making it all feel cohesive and absolutely delightful at times with Hellboy’s imagination. I can’t wait to see what happens next.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: September 14th, 2022
MSRP: $3.99
