The last story is a 5 star read and the first, though not bad by any means, lacks cohesion even as it’s trying to tie together some of the more disparate threads from other volumes. There really does feel like a lack of through line and overall arc due to how the content was generated.

It shines as the last volume threads together the stories and presents a coherent and interesting arc that continues to the next volume. It may feel more traditional compared to the disjointed stories, where the reader just finds Hellboy in medias res and goes with it in a short story manner, but the change by this volume is a very welcome one—at least for me.