We continue with my deeper re-read of the Hellboy universe stories, but I think I need to pause in my re-reading of the B.P.R.D Omnibus series to take care of the Abe Sapien stories since they will link into the final omnis as the whole storyline concludes there.
Abe Sapien has been an important character in the Hellboy Universe storyline from the beginning of the first Hellboy story. He is our gillman in the B.P.R.D. and his origin is a mystery that we slowly learn about, as well as there being a “purpose” to him that wouldn’t be finally answered until his own series and finished in the final B.P.R.D. storyline.
We first learn that Abe was found in a tube of water in a sub-basement of a hospital in Washington, D.C., in 1978. There is a label on it identifying him as Icthyo sapien and a note with the date of Abraham Lincoln‘s assassination. Hence the name Abe Sapien, and he soon starts going on missions with Hellboy in 1979 and quickly on his own as well.
Later he (and we) learn that he was originally Langdon Everett Caul, a Victorian scientist and businessman who joined the Oannes Society, an offshoot of the Helioptic Brotherhood of Ra. This group claimed that human knowledge came from Oannes, a merman of an unknown civilization (Atlantis?). Oannes is based on Mesopotamian legends. We learn he had sailed with Elihu Cavendish, who was looking for proof of Hyperborea and whose family discovered the Ogdru Hem that was shown in the first Hellboy story.
We saw in the B.P.R.D. series that Abe finds out about Caul but has problems because he has no memories from him. He and the B.P.R.D. find the Oannes Society in the South Pacific and stop their plans. Later he is told by the Black Flame that he has a role in the coming Ragna Rok: as the first of the new men who will replace us. He is then injured by Fenix and is later transformed, and then leaves the B.P.R.D. What happens next is covered in his own series. These have been collected in two numbered omnibus volumes. A third unnumbered volume collects stories that occurred before that. So we’ll start with that.
Abe Sapien: The Drowning and Other Stories
This volume collects several stories that occurred before Abe’s transformation. We’ll cover these stories by internal chronology.
While the framing part of Icthyo sapien is set in 2013 after Abe’s transformation, the main story is set in 1834 when Caul was a new member of the Oannes Society. We even see part of one of their rituals. He is sent by the head of the group on a mission with others to protect a frozen merman from being stolen by their rivals in the Heliopic Brotherhood. Will they succeed?
“The Drowning” is a long story set in 1981 with Abe leading his own mission without Hellboy. The story actually begins in 1884 as Edward Gray after a warlock, Epke Vrooman, whose corpse he stabs with a Lipu dagger near the island of Saint-Sebastien. Abe is to recover the dagger and whatever remains. But nothing is ever that simple.
The corpse really contains the soul of Cedu-Barra, a Hyperborean priest. He has six “demons” to help move his soul, and they want to free him. Other forces want to stop it because he is from the left-hand path. And Abe is stuck in the middle trying to also stop him from coming back.
Set in 1982, “The Haunted Boy” is a sad story when Abe looks into a case set in Vermont where two 10-year-old boys fell through the ice in a frozen lake, but only one survived. But now his ghost seems to be appearing. Abe looks into things, and while he solves the mystery, it’s pretty sad.
Set in 1983, in “The Land of the Dead,” Abe travels to Mexico to help with a dig. In investigating a cave with a lake in it, a team of four had problems with only one returning. Abe helps out only to run afoul of Germanic vampires hiding out. While he is able to get the one survivor out, he isn’t able to find his way back to the temple they were in.
Also set in 1983, “Witchcraft and Demonology” is more a vehicle to inform Abe (and us) about Gustav Strobl, who will play a big part in the upcoming Abe series. He also has ties to our old pal Martin Gilfryd, who was his last apprentice and who killed him.
Set in 1984, “The Abyssal Plain” is important as it introduces us to Iosif Nichayko way before he became director of the Soviet Secret Sciences Service. We see him in 1948 as a soldier in the SSS, being given a mission by Varvara to guard a magic helmet being transported by a submarine, which sinks with him in it. Now the B.P.R.D. has found the submarine while looking for the helmet, and Abe goes to get it. But we soon learn that Iosif, now some kind of zombie, is continuing his mission of protecting the helmet. So Abe decides to leave him and the helmet in the sub for the SSS, which is coming, to find.
Set in 1985, in “The Devil Does Not Jest,” Abe travels to visit the Maine home of an author on demonology with the man’s grandson. But you just know things don’t go as planned because some people think their knowledge allows them to do things men should not.
Set in 1992, “The Ogopogo” finds Abe and Hellboy in British Columbia looking into, well, the Ogopogo, who has killed someone. But they look into it and while, yes, it exists, it’s not the cause.
Set in 1994 after their adventure at Cavendish Hall, “Subconscious” has Abe trying to find answers. But will he like them?
Set in 2005, “Lost Lives” has Abe and Agent Vaughn dealing with a tentacle that tries to take them over, with a little help from Roger. Ugh.
Abe Sapien: Dark and Terrible, Vol. 1
In this series, Abe is traveling through the U.S. both to prove he is not part of the coming apocalypse, as well as to avoid the B.P.R.D. as he doesn’t trust people like Devon. But he’s not the only one with a mission. Gustav Strobl, thrown out of Hell after the events of Hellboy in Hell, is looking to make a deal with the new masters after the apocalypse and thinks Abe is his means to do so. And B.P.R.D. agents, including Vaughn, are looking for Abe as well. But Vaughn soon falls into Strobl’s hands.
Abe first goes to the Salton Sea to check out the Ogdru Hem there, then heads to Texas where he was shot by Fenix. From there he wanders to Mexico, up to Oregon, and back south where he later hooks up with a Santa Muerte cult led by Dayana. All the while, he ponders his origin, fights monsters, and such. And Strobl is following.
Abe Sapien: Dark and Terrible, Vol. 2
Abe continues his journey in more ways than one. He will soon travel to Florida. And we get the return of that Hyperborean shaman, as well as a young girl who seems to be a new shaman. He would soon travel to New York City and find Professor Brumholm‘s old house and listen to the records he had made when Abe was hypnotized. Soon Abe was contacted by Shonchin, the Hyperborean shaman who has appeared in several stories and learned who he was. He was one of two humans trained by the Hyperboreans of the right-hand path who were captured by those who followed the left-hand path. Shonchin was weak and renounced his faith and lived. But the other one was sacrificed and transformed into the jellyfish entity that transformed Abe. Shonchin returned to the right-hand path but would be cursed to remain on Earth.
This explains both Abe and his destiny. But Strobl is trying to usurp it. Who will succeed?
And now we return to our re-reading of the B.P.R.D. omnis as we come to Ragna Rok.
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