mysteriousmre's Reviews (1.22k)

I've read A LOT of Hellboy stories this past week, and maybe this is because I was just tired of multi-issue stories, but I always dug the single-issue, one-and-done Hellboy stories. I just found the simple ghost stories waaaay more interesting than the lore behind Hellboy himself....

...Until this volume. I REALLY dug this volume, not just because of the plot twists, but because it's nice to see Hellboy with a companion and regularly interacting with them. It's a good change of pace from the past few volumes. The art is top notch too. Fegredo's uses semi-blocky characters and heavy shadows in a manner that's different but very similar to Mignola. He's a perfect fit for the style the series is known for and there's a ton of panels in this book that are drop dead gorgeous. In my eyes, this is a must read.

Pacing picks back up with the main plot. The main cast is still pretty static, and I saw some of the twists coming, but a lot of stuff from the past few volumes finally pays off here and I'm REALLY interested to see how that plays out next volume. This is probably my favorite volume since the first one.

I realize most people enjoying the main plot will be frustrated that this is another collection of individual Hellboy stories, but I loved this volume. I don't want to spoil too much, but it has 2 of my favorite vampire stories and the guest artist on the second one was fantastic. He did a great job of capturing the blocky physique off Mignola's designs while keeping them in a more realistic setting. If you're a fan of horror stories this volume is worth a look.

This volume's a bit of a mixed bag if I'm being *completely* honest, but I think there's way more good than bad. I noticed a pretty significant shift in the art this volume (it's not bad, there's just some VERY weird posing that looked very *ahem*...gratuitous compared to last volume), but I still love how Simone writes Barbara Gordon. Barbara's ability to show empathy, even to those who minutes prior tried to hurt her, is surprisingly endearing and really sets her character apart from the rest of the Batfamily. The new origin for Batgirl is miles better than the original and the direction Simone took the story revolving around one of Joker's henchmen was surprisingly touching. I was not expecting that from a story related to Killing Joke. The one-shot story revolving around the Court of Owls was really cool too and referenced a real life event from WW2 that I didn't know existed. Knightfall's dialogue was pretty hammy at times, but she's probably the best of the villains so far. Most of the flaws from volume 1 are still here, but the highlights are still here too and that's good enough for me.

The overall plot of this series I think is pretty good, but I don't think it was paced very well and I wish Lemire had fleshed out the characters more and their relationships to each other. Would have made this volume much more impactful and made me more excited about Descender's upcoming sequel series: Ascender. Still love the art, but it didn't make up for the story. Really disappointed by this series. I don't see myself coming back for the sequel.