After starting in 1993, Hellboy and the related series of comics have pretty much come to an end. As I write this, there are a handful of comics coming out over the next few months (which will hopefully be collected), and after that I’m not sure. A planned mini-series was canceled.
When it came out, I saw a lot of pulp elements in Hellboy. There is a lot taken from H.P. Lovecraft of cosmic horror, looming apocalypse from beings from “out there” who want “back in”, supernatural elements, and more. But there are also elements from Clark Ashton Smith of ancient races and secrets, Manly Wade Wellman of folk occult threats, and also occult detectives (both “modern” and past), and even shadowy pulp heroes. As so much has come out since I did my first couple of reviews, I plan on doing subsequent posting on the later and longer series.
For this posting, I am looking at the various short mini series that producted just one collection each. These all fill out various elements of the “Hellboy Universe.”
In several of the series, we learned more about earlier occult bad guys. These include the Crimson Lotus and the Black Flame. In the Crimson Lotus mini-series, we learn her story. It starts in 1904 during the Russo-Japanese War, where Rasputin leads a group to steal an occult object from a remote Japanese island, and murders the Crimson Lotus’ father. The story then shifts to 1932, where she is trying to enact her revenge against several Russian ex-pats living in China, while two Chinese agents try to stop her.
The Black Flame plagued the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, or BPRD, in modern times, but we learned that he was not the first. During WWII, there was a Black Flame working for the Nazis. In Rise of the Black Flame, set in 1923 British Burma, little girls are disappearing. When this includes English girls, the British authorities take notice. Two officers are assigned: Sergeant Geoffrey McAllister and Constable A.N. Sandhu. We learn that McAllister is a former London bobbie who encountered Sir Edward Gray in one of his cases.
In the search for the girls, they are joined by three others. There is Sarah Jewell and her companion, Marie-Therese Lafleur. Jewell is a long-time fighter of the occult and had worked with Gray. The last member of their group is German Raimund Diestel, who has been living in Siam and knows the area and language. Their target is the “Cult of the Black Flame,” which is looking for the next veseel for the Black Flame. While the group is able to rescue the girls, one of the group is killed and another becomes the Black Flame.
Back in the first Lobster Johnson mini-series, we were introduced to a strange suit of armor that allowed the wearing to utilize vril energy. Its creator was killed during that adventure, and the wearer of the armor was transformed, or evolved to a higher plain of existence. But the creator’s daughter still lived and she rebuilt the armor for the U.S. Army and is now called “Sledgehammer.” In Sledgehammer ’44 we see the armor in action. Its first pilot, like the original wearer, is also transformed, and a dying soldier somehow comes to inhabit the suit. He then fights the original Black Flame and kills him, leaving a deactiviated suit until its re-used in the later BPRD series by another ghost.
In the Hellboy series, there were these strange aliens who seem to be observing the Ogdru Jahad trapped in their crystal prison. And in one of the early Hellboy adventures, one meets him before dying. In The Visitor: How & Why He Stayed, we get the story of that alien who was there when Hellboy was summoned, with a mission of destroying him. But he felt there was a spark of good in him and did not. This series tells his story from the 1940s to modern times as he worked against the forces of darkness, his checking in on Hellboy and realizing he made the right decision, his life as a human with a wife as she grows old and dies (a very sad part of this), and his final meeting with Hellboy. This one has artwork by Paul Grist who has a distinctive style I like. His Kane series is an interesting noir crime series, and his Jack Staff, while being about superheroes, has a different take on them.
Rasputin has long been the main foe of Hellboy, trying to bring back the Ogdru Jahad. We know he was operating with the Nazis and caused the summoning of Hellboy. Rasputin: The Voice of the Dragon tells of his early days with them in 1937, and a mission that Professor Bruttenholm, joined by A.N. Sandhu from Rise of the Black Flame, tries to stop to little avail.
Koshchei the Deathless was sent by Baba Yaga to kill Hellboy. But what of his story before that? In Koshchei the Deathless, we learn this and why he was the “son of the dragon,” and what made him deathless. I thought the elements of the dragon who ‘raised’ Koshchei having 7 eggs, plus what we are told of the origin of dragons very interesting. Especially in light of what we know of Ogdru Jahad and their origins.
Frankenstein’s Monster actually appeared in the Hellboy Universe during his wanderings in Mexico (collected in Hellboy in Mexico). Freed, he continued his wanderings, and in 1956 came to an underground world in Frankenstein Underground. Here he finds the remains of an expedition from the Heliopic Brotherhood sent out in the 1880s, learns of his true destiny and how it will save mankind as we will see at the end of the BPRD series. We were supposed to get a second series, Frankenstein Undone in 2020, but it was canceled.
There are areas for more stories. Certainly we could get more of Sarah Jewell (and will in the final Witchfinder volume). Did Sandhu have other fights with occult evil? Could we get more Crimson Lotus? (she HAD appeared in Lobster Johnson.) Learn more on how she is a grandmother to Capt. Ben Daimio. I would love to learn more clearly what happened to him. And it would be nice to get Frankenstein Undone. It remains to be seen as the main focus now seems to be on the new roleplaying game.
