Hellboy: The Wild Hunt

Bought at Boocup, Kerry Parkside, Pudong, Shanghai, China.

Title: Hellboy: The Wild Hunt
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Date: October, 2018
Writer: Mike Mignola
Artist: Duncan Fegredo
Colorist: Dave Stewart
Letterer: Clem Robins
Editor: Scott Allie

Hellboy is recruited to join the Wild Hunt to defeat a gang of six giants who have awakened from their tombs. But the battle with the giants leads to betrayal and plunges Hellboy into a rapidly-brewing war between the forces of mythical Britain.

This was a beautifully atmospheric deep dive into Arthurian mythology with Hellboy's own distinctively snarky viewpoint laid over the ancient forces a play.

There is a lot going on in terms of plot and characters, and much of this volume is simply putting pieces onto the board for the game to come, but the setup is lovely to watch unfold.

Duncan Fegredo does a great job with the art, incorporating the mythical elements while keeping the distinctive look of Hellboy.

Rating: 8.5/10

Angel & Faith #17

Last summer at MASSive Comic Con, someone was giving away some issues of this series, and I ended up with two consecutive issues. This is the first of those.

Title: Angel & Faith
Issue: 17
Date: 2012
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Writer: Joss Whedon, Christos Gage
Artist: Rebekah Isaacs
Colorist: Dan Jackson
Letterer: Richard Starkings, Comicraft's Jimmy Betancourt
Editor: Scott Allie, Sierra Hahn, Freddye Lins
Cover: Steve Morris

I really have no right to complain about this being hard to follow, given that I'm jumping into the series at issue #17, not to mention that it's an adaptation (continuation, really) of a show I've only ever seen one episode of. So this gets a pass from me on needing a scorecard to figure out who is who and what is going on.

There are basically two parallel stories happening. The first involves Angel and Faith doing some fairly standard detective work to try to figure out who stole the body of Giles during his funeral. This is with the intention of eventually resurrecting Giles.

Meanwhile, the second storyline has some sort of alternate-rules zombie bad guy deceiving a crew of young women (slayers?) with a promise to resurrect a dead friend of theirs. This half of the plot also features flashbacks to a group of young dabblers in the supernatural years back in London.

The interplay between Angel and Faith was strong, with some good dialogue, and nice progression on the unraveling of the mystery elements of the story.

Meanwhile, the battle between the bad guys and their (outmatched but scrappy) victims was enough to at least evoke some sympathy.

I wouldn't say this has me looking to go out and buy more of these, but I am looking forward to reading the next issue which I already have.

Rating: 5.5/10

Baltimore / Criminal Macabre

Missed yesterday's review due to technical difficulties with our internet connection. Fortunately, we seem to have solved the problem (by changing providers; bye-bye Verizon!). Here's another selection from Free Comic Book Day 2011.

Title: Avatar: Baltimore / Criminal Macabre
Date: May, 2011
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Writer: Steve Niles, Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden
Artist: Christopher Mitten, Ben Stenbeck
Letterer: Nate Piekos of Blambot, Clem Robins
Colorist: Michelle Madsen, Dave Stewart
Editor: Scott Allie
Cover: Christopher Mitten, Michelle Madsen, Mike Mignola, Dave Stewart

Flip book. First up is Baltimore, a well-executed but somewhat generic alternate history monster-hunter story by Mike Mignola. It's set in 1916 in Germany, where war has given way to a plague of monsters that threatens the land. Two boys observe the arrival in their town of a stranger, a mysterious monster-slayer who just might be exactly what the citizens need to deal with the local vampires. And giant spiders. Decent introduction didn't deliver much in the way of surprises but featured good storytelling from start to finish.

Flip over the book and you get the supernatural noir comedy Criminal Macabre. The plot for this one-shot story involving Frankenstein's monster was resolved a bit too quickly ( a function of the format of this FCBD freebie to some extent), but the dialogue and narration were very entertaining.

Neither book showed much depth, but they were both fun.

Rating: 7/10