Filed under: Comic Reviews, Dark Horse Comics | Tags: Abyss, Dark Horse, Hellboy, Mike Mignola
A big spoiler for this new arc from Dark Horse may well be that Hellboy is dead……but then I’d doubt it would be much of a surprise whether you’ve heard or not….it’s the kind of title where you know that anything can and does happen.
What this does mark though is the welcome return of Mike Mignola to writing and art duties as well as a change in direction for the title with a series of mini-series being replaced with an on-going approach. These first two issues represent the very best that a character like Hellboy has to offer with the style and depth that only his creator could layout for us. As Hellboy tries to come to terms with his death and seeing where his final place in Hell will be, of course this title represents the fuller journey that our main character has to endure as he makes his way through the Abyss, the dark corridor that leads to hell with enough typically obscure characters stepping in to guide/confront HB along the way.
Mignola steeps us in the mystery with his dark, moody artwork and he helps open this out further with his strong writing style – a combo that ensures the success of this and all the previous HB releases. He even lets us see a flashback of Hellboy’s birth including the stone right hand that’s become such an iconic part of Hellboy himself. We have switches between the madness, the humour and the wonder that this title has become so well known for but it’s the return of Mignola that helps to elevate this further.
A must-read title for me just now and one that I already find great difficulty in keeping until the last of my issues to read because saving the best to last just isn’t always possible the titles are THIS good. Having hit a second printing already it’s testament to its quality and it’s already become one of the talking points that I add to my “Have you read?” question to my fellow comic-book reading friends. Go get this now….be it first or second print or digital but get it however you can.
9/10
G-Man
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