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

Shade: The Changing Man #44

From the Random Stack of Unread Comics.

Title: Shade: The Changing Man
Issue: 44
Date: February, 1994
Publisher: DC Comics (Vertigo)
Writer: Peter Milligan
Penciler: Chris Bachalo
Inker: Rick Bryant
Colorist: David Hornung
Letterer: Todd Klein
Editor: Shelly Roeberg, Karen Berger
Cover: Duncan Fegredo

Trapped in the midst of an outbreak of 17th Century witch hysteria, Lenny and Karen are about to be hanged, and Shade is not helping matters at all. In fact, he's actually transformed himself into the gallows tree as he wages an internal battle between his love and hate for Karen. Meanwhile, John Constantine tries to figure out the spell to get all of them out of this mess, only to find that the secret he needs is buried in a very dark place in his own past.

Loaded with overtones of abortion politics and religious puritanism, the story also features some heartbreaking interactions between all of the main characters. It also fills in some interesting backstory on Constantine, and serves up a side helping of time paradoxes.

I didn't read the issues leading into this one, so I probably missed some of what was going on here. There was a LOT going on. But even without all of the backstory, this was a memorable chapter in the tale of Shade and his fellow travelers.

Rating: 8.5/10

Shade: The Changing Man #54

Reading and reviewing comics at the airport in Mumbai, India! First of the last two in that stack I've been working my way through.

Title: Shade: The Changing Man
Issue: 54
Date: December, 1994
Publisher: DC Comics (Vertigo)
Writer: Peter Milligan
Penciler: Mark Buckingham
Inker: Rick Bryant
Colorist: Daniel Vozzo
Letterer: Todd Klein
Editor: Shelly Roeberg
Cover: Duncan Fegredo

Lost in grief, Shade moves to New York City and becomes a dance floor. Literally. But when the routine of peaceful days and raucous nights is broken by the arrival of a woman who wants to dance alone to any music as long as it's loud, Shade discovers the possibility of human interaction again.

There is also a man who claims to be the reincarnation of Nikola Tesla, and who may have invented a perpetual motion machine that he's just not quite ready to turn on.

There are some great lines and some cool surprises in this story, although it lost me a bit when Shade got a bit too far into creep-stalker territory with the potential new love interest that is introduced here. His actions all make reasonable sense given his mental state, but the Edward Cullen routine is still problematic.

And in spite of that, there is a lot to love in this story, including the whole concept of becoming a dance floor, which is handled beautifully. The Tesla subplot is also very clever, and provides a nice parallel to the difficulties that Shade is going through.

Rating: 5.5/10