Again, I’m doing a deeper read of the B.P.R.D Omnibus series, which is part of the Hellboy universe. I won’t repeat everything I said about the B.P.R.D., so read the first posting.
We continue with the war on the frog monsters that started in Vol. 2. The B.P.R.D. has become a more militarized strike force than just occult detectives. Plus they move to a new and weird HQ in Colorado.
But we already had some major things happen in the last volume. We were joined by two new “enhanced” agents. Johann Krauss, who is basically a spirit of a dead medium now housed in a containment suit. Captain Daimo, who somehow came back from the dead. We learn more on that here, including about the Chinaman. Sadly, Roger the Homunculus was killed. Destroyed. Can they restore him?
It’s stuff like this that made this series so great. “Creatures” who should be the bad guys are instead the good guys. Roger had become more human. Johann calls him a mensch.
And as I thought about it, Roger is kind of like Frankenstein’s monster (though he is in the HB universe). Daimo is kind like the Wolfman. Johann is a ghost. Abe is the Gill-man. Panya, who shows up here, is the Mummy. Almost all the Universal monsters except for Dracula.
Omnibus Vol. 3
In “The Universal Machine,” we are introduced to Andrew Devon, who will become more important in the series over time.
Dr. Corrigan and Andrew head to France to obtain a rare book from a dealer in a small village. The village was built in the shadow of a castle, the home of the Marquis Adoet de Fabre, which was destroyed 500 years ago under mysterious circumstances. Dr. Corrigan hopes that with the book they can rebuild Roger. But the dealer turns out to be the Marquis himself. He is a collector and has a group of vampiric followers and a couple of others of a different sort. But the Marquis doesn’t give away things in his collection. He will only trade the book — for Roger’s body. Or Abe. And he is basically holding Dr. Corrigan hostage. How will this be resolved?
Meanwhile, back at HQ, the others tell stories of themselves. We learn how Daimio died and got his scar. But it’s not the full story as he himself doesn’t fully know it. We learn about the Crimson Lotus and her connection to Daimio. And we learn about Daryl the Wendigo, an ordinary man who was turned into a wendigo and is now imprisoned by the B.P.R.D.
In “The Garden of Souls,” we focus on the Oannes Society, the group that Langdon Caul was a member of in the 1800s. And the same members form the group, who now live on an island in Indonesia. But as they are so old, they have to live in these diving-suit-like outfits. But they are also growing these large bodies for another purpose, which the B.P.R.D. will learn and need to stop.
They get help from an unlikely source: Panya. We learn about her coming back to life in Victorian England when the Heliopotic Brotherhood of Ra unwrapped her. She lived with them but felt constrained. The Oannes Society tricked her into joining them, and she lives on her island but uses her powers to alert the B.P.R.D. Once they are defeated, she joins the B.P.R.D.
Finally, in “Killing Ground,” the full mystery of Captain Daimio comes to a head. We learn that he has become a were-leopard. And such creatures kill anyone who is not part of the leopard cult. Daryl gets loose. The Chinaman dies, but we learn what he was doing. Johann gets a new body, but that will be short-lived. And in all these stories, Memnan Saa is sending Liz visions, including visions of a possible future. And the Lobster, or his ghost, shows up.
At the end, Captain Daimio and Daryl come face to face. How will that end?
Omnibus Vol. 4
“The Warning” starts out a little slow. When Liz, Panya, Johann, and Dr. Corrigan get together to help Liz figure out what is going on, the Lobster’s ghost gives them a clue that Panya uses to figure out who Memnan Saa really is: Martin Gilfryd, someone she knew from their time with the Helioptic Brotherhood. So he’s not even Asian. But how did he become Memnan Saa? This leads them to what they think is his headquarters, but not so. He spirits away Liz. But where?
Meanwhile, strange goings-on are occurring in Germany. Soon they discover that it’s the Hyberborean servator race who are repairing the Hyberborean giant robot machines, and they soon attack, along with other creatures. Can they beat them back? Oh, and Dr. Corrigan winds up meeting one of the German officers.
In “The Black Goddess,” Devon has found the Lobster’s old headquarters and the team starts looking through the files while Dr. Corrigan meets with Harold McTell, the last of the Lobster’s associates still alive. We also find out what happened following the Lobster’s first encounter with Memnan Saa. The files tell us more about how Gilfryd became Saa. But McTell knows where he’s at.
Soon the team, with the backing of a large military force, is on Saa’s doorstep. It’s a strange retreat along the Soviet-China border, a former Hyberborean city, Thadrethes. He has a group of monks who seem to be followers of the old Hyperborean ways. Are they the left hand or the right? Well, he does invoke Heca-Emem-Ra, and has statues of her, so…
Soon they are attacked by frog monsters and Hyberborean servitors. It’s the B.P.R.D. and Saa’s monks fighting against the frog monsters and servitors. Who will win? Then everything goes sideways when the Lobster’s ghost appears to confront Saa for the final time.
How might things have gone differently if Memnan Saa wasn’t killed?
In “The King of Fear,” a lot of things happen. The B.P.R.D. is called before several groups, like the U.N. Security Council. Dr. Corrigan and her new German friend take the Lobster’s ghost to Hunte Castle for the next part of his existence. The thing is, he has basically hijacked Johann’s protoplasm. So to get Johann back, they need to help the Lobster “move on.”
Meanwhile, Liz and a group of B.P.R.D. soldiers, Abe, and Devon head to Agartha, the monastery Liz went to way back in Vol. 1 that the Hyperborean servitors attacked. Again, going down into the Earth, they find the servitors and the frog monsters working together, and also using the Hyperborean robots to birth more Ogdru Hem. They also meet again the King of Fear, the servitor who was leading them back in Vol. 1. I thought he was dead. So he’s been leading the attacks of the servitors and frog monsters. But not really. The one in charge is the Black Flame, who got dragged down into the Earth by the frog monsters back in Vol. 2. But the King of Fear isn’t a bother for much longer.
We learn from the Black Flame that he’s just getting things ready for someone else: Abe. He is the first of the “new men” to replace us, though he doesn’t want to accept that. Meanwhile, Liz is having visions, being first visited by the ghost of Memnan Saa, who shows her a possible future with a strange crashed airship with B.P.R.D. markings and photos of people, like a new form of Abe. Then a Hyperborean priest(!) shows her a new vision and rescues Abe and the rest while Liz burns it all up. I will say the Black Flame will return. Liz, however, goes AWOL and won’t be seen for a while.
Things are heating up all around the world. Most of Indonesia disappears or is destroyed in an earthquake, and more Ogdru Hem appear. At the end, the B.P.R.D. is now a U.N. agency, under the direction of the Security Council, to lead the war against the frogs and try to stop Ragna Rok. Oh yeah, and we find out that Zinco is now being run by Marsten, who had been working with Pope. How do they fit in? Oh, and pay attention to Marsten’s assistant. She’ll be more involved in things going forward.
The B.P.R.D. series was relaunched as B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth. That would be collected in five omnibus editions, which have recently been renumbered.
So next we move to volumes 5 and 6, the former Hell on Earth omnis volumes 1 and 2.
