Continuing with my deeper review of the Hellboy universe of stories, I now turn to the Hellboy and the BPRD series, in what will be the first of two, maybe three, postings.
After the main Hellboy series ended, and the BPRD series had its focus, we started to get a series of comics about Hellboy starting from the point where he had joined the BPRD in 1952. As each set came out, it would be collected, moving from 1952 on.
I figured this would continue until maybe we moved up to when the main Hellboy storyline started in 1994 with Seed of Destruction. But then it seems things changed after we got 1956, things jumped around. And then issues got dragged out during the pandemic, and I didn’t know what was going on.
Then everything came back together, and we got stuff set in 1957. But at this point, I again don’t know what’s going on going forward. We have some uncollected comics at this point, and there are no new comics on the schedule beyond the last of the 1957 ones.
So for balance, I’ll do the first four volumes in this posting: 1952-55, and do the rest in the next posting and we’ll see where we are at that point. With the new BPRD omnis coming out, those will be next, followed by BPRD: Hell on Earth and the concluding storyline. And I need to cover all the other Hellboy universe stuff plus the new series about to begin at some point as well.
Overall in these stories, we see Hellboy working with agents who are new to us, which makes sense. Some of these agents have special abilities. You wonder whether they died or retired between this time period and the ’90s. We will also see agents of the Soviet Special Sciences Service group headed by Varvara. As it’s the Cold War, they won’t be allies. And we’ll see hints of the building in Colorado Springs that the BPRD would later move to, which at this point is used by a hidden government agency. But who are they, and what is their aim?
1952: Here we get one storyline and it’s about Hellboy’s first mission. There are strange murders and goings-on in a Brazilian village, and so a quintet of BPRD agents is sent with Hellboy down there. Keep in mind that it’s after WWII and one of the main places former Nazis fled to was Brazil. The agents include Jacob Stegner, who’s been there since 1947 and who was part of that mini-series; pilot Archie Muraro; Susan Xiang, who has psychic abilities; and Robert Amsel.
When they get there, they find a mystery that seems to center around a former Portuguese fort turned into a prison, now abandoned. Someone is making ape monsters and building an army of Frankenstein monsters. It’s our old pal Von Klempt, the Nazi head in a jar. But we also have some other hints and things going on. And you’ll see what happens to Amsel.
1953: With this one we start the trend of having one-shots and shorter two-to-three-issue arcs, rather than one single story. It does allow for more variety of things. We actually start with several short stories with Hellboy in England with Professor Bruttenholm and another occult investigator. They deal with several matters. One was the phantom hand of a child murderer who claimed to be possessed. Another was a witch’s tree. Another was a pub sign tied to a haunting. And there’s an encounter with a kelpie.
Another case has Hellboy with agent Xiang in Wyoming dealing with a haunting caused by the restless spirits of Chinese workers who had been massacred and want their bones returned to China. But the big story has agents Xiang and Stegner with Hellboy in California on a case of missing persons that somehow ties to enkeladite. Enkeladite is material left behind by the atomic blast testing and tied to what happened in Utah in BPRD: 1948. So we get giant, mutated animals. And we also get our first Soviet agents appearing, Moravec and Rahel. Both have special abilities. Also, Susan is working with a Dr. N.K. Sandhu, who I believe is the brother of A.N. Sandhu who appeared in the Black Flame and Rasputin mini-series.
1954: The first story takes Hellboy and another agent, Woody, who is a cryptozoologist, to an arctic research station that has been attacked by some monster. It turns out to be a mutated polar bear, which leads them to a flying saucer. Hellboy gets into it, which activates and takes him back to its base. It’s a secret Nazi saucer base where the remains of the Sonnenrad Society are building more but are having problems recreating the power source, which should be vril. Hellboy puts a stop to things and discovers that the base is in Antarctica.
Then a case in Baltimore has Hellboy with Agent Xiang looking into it. The father of a family is being haunted by the ghost of his son’s monkey. They had been living at the home of the father’s brother when a fire broke out that killed the brother and the monkey. But why is it haunting the man? Can Xiang figure it out and end it?
And the final story is kind of fun in a different way, blending in spy stuff (James Bond-type stuff, etc), and hints of further things. An old associate of the Professor’s from the British Paranormal Society, who is actually part of the British SID, asks for help in Hong Kong. So it’s agents Muraro and Xiang with Hellboy in a matter of spirit jars, demons, and more. I did enjoy seeing the old Forge logo in the SID headquarters, so maybe SID succeeded them. There are more hints about Susan Xiang’s background as well. And we get one final short story with artwork by the late Richard Corben.
1955:. We first get a short story with Woody and Hellboy in Oregon that deals with a demon summoned by some idiots.
But the next story has some interesting revelations. There are two storylines in it. In one, Hellboy is in the South Pacific with agents Stegner, Woody, and Muraro. They are dealing with mutated creatures tied to enkeladite. It looks like the U.S. government is trying to weaponize it. Soviet agent Moravec is there as well. It seems this work is led by the “Center for Defense Research and Development”, housed in a familiar (to us) base in Colorado. While that is going on, Professor Bruttenholm is with Agent Xiang in London. While Xiang is exploring her powers with Dr. Sandhu, the Professor is looking into things and encounters the SID. And it doesn’t go well. There’s a lot of setup for future stories in this one.
And in the final story, Hellboy is in Florida with the Professor and Susan Xiang looking into a case of spontaneous combustion.
So it’s an enjoyable set of stories. I hope we get the full story on Susan Xiang, as well as the two Soviet agents. Coming up are the 1956 and 1957 volumes and the two others in this series at some point. And I do hope we get more.
