Monday, August 04, 2008

Hellboy: Darkness Calls by Mike Mignola and Duncan Fegredo

Hellboy left the B.P.R.D. six years ago, and has been wandering ever since. But now Baba Yaga decides that she wants revenge on Hellboy for putting out her eye. She decides putting out his eye and killing him would be an appropriate revenge, so she calls up her minions to do him in.

Meanwhile, the Goddess Hecate Queen of the Witches, also known as Ilsa Hauptstein, is imprisoned by a conjuror. This causes witches all over the world to have to find a replacement for her.

Hellboy is staying with an old friend, Harry, who was a friend to both him and his mentor, Trevor Bruttenholm. Harry gives Hellboy a replacement for his gun, which was lost at the bottom of the sea, and Hellboy takes a walk on the island where he is staying before dinner. On the roads, he meets three unusual people, who turn out to be minions of Baba Yaga- a cat woman a frog man and a raven-man. They lead Hellboy to the grave of three witches hung for sorcery, all to attack him, but Hellboy is helped by the spirit of the witch-hunter who tried and condemned the witches to death in the first place, but then, seeing Hellboy's unnatural form, the spirit turns on him and starts attacking him as well.

Hellboy is saved by the witch spirits, who take him to a gathering of witches who tell him about what happened to Hecate/Ilsa, and the sorceror Bromwitch who tried to imprison her. They offer to make him King of the Witches, as his mother was a witch, and his father ruled the witches ages ago, but he rejects their offer. They are then approached by Baba Yaga, who offers to take Hellboy off their hands and make him disappear forever. They agree, but still have to find someone to lead them. They decide to go with a being imprisoned in a great hole in the earth, someone who can lead the witches back into prominence.

Hellboy, meanwhile, is yanked into Baba Yaga's kingdom of endless winter. First he is attacked by her army of dead warriors, but when he realizes that he can't win a battle with them, he runs. Right into a wood, where the army is attacked by huge wolves, making them scatter and run. The wolves take him to their master, the Leshii, who gives Hellboy a night in his woods for free because he hates Baba Yaga, Ignoring Hellboy's questions on how to get home, he calls up a storm that freezes the army, returning them to death.

The next morning, Hellboy is awakened before the sun rises, and told the night is over, and to run from the forest. He does, and finds the remains of the undead army. Baba Yaga, having lost her army, goes instead to Koschei the deathless, promising him an end to the misery that is his endless life if he kills Hellboy for her and brings her back his head.

Hellboy finds an abandoned house, and is attacked by the Domovoi, or Russian House spirit, that still inhabits it. But he is able to reach an accord with it, and talks with it about what happened to him. The Domovoi tells him he is a mighty warrior and favored one of Perun, god of storms, but that Baba Yaga has sent Koschei after him. However, the storm should slow him down.

Baba Yaga doesn't tolerate Gods other than herself in her world, however, and when she realizes Perun has helped Hellboy, she kills him. Back at the House, the storm passes, and Hellboy is attacked by Koschei, After a titanic fight, he cuts Koschei's head off, but Koschei merely reattatches it, being deathless. Hellboy is saved from his dilemma by a little girl wielding a flaming skull on a legbone, and Hellboy pins Koschei to the floor with his own sword. The girl leads Hellboy to a portal where he can return home, but she is killed by the Koschei's arrow, and becomes a mere doll. Before she dies, she gives Hellboy a cloth and a comb as presents. Hellboy is hit by more arrows, but is still alive. He throws the comb at the Koschei, but he is unaffected. When he tosses the comb aside, however, it turns into a great stand of trees that pierce his body and suspend him in mid-air.

Realizing her agent is failing, Baba Yaga gets the goat that holds Koschei's soul and breathes power into it, burning the trees around him and setting him free. Hellboy and Koschei clash again and again, but neither is able to kill the other. Hellboy buries him under a rock, but he breaks it, and while he still fights, he begs Baba Yaga to let him go, but she will not let him die, and he knows it. Finally, out of strength, he strikes one last blow at Hellboy, flinging his dagger at him. It hits, but Hellboy doesn't die. He drops the cloth, and it becomes a great lake.

Back in England, the witches have freed their new Queen. The God Dagda tells them to rethink what they are doing, but they refuse. One of the spirits kills Dagda, and realizing what he has done, kills himself. The voice from the box where the new Queen is imprisoned says the world should fear, for her day is come. And back at the B.P.R.D., they get a letter from Hellboy, where he says he is staying with Harry. But Harry died over 20 years ago... And Hellboy attended his funeral.

This was a great comic, setting up a situation for stories to come. I have the idea that Hellboy, and whoever the "Queen" is that the witches freed, will come to blows in the very near future, and the rest of the B.P.R.D. will also get involved. All I know is that I really love the Hellboy stories of Mike Mignola, and even if this particular comic features the art of Duncan Fegredo, his art is very much like Mignola's.

The story is wonderful, and all based on Russian myths and stories. Most readers will not be familliar with them, but for those that are, it will resonate strongly in their minds. The imagery, too, is iconic, with Baba Yaga mortar and pestling herself through the sky, and the castle of Koschei the deathless, of the comb that becomes a forest, and the cloth a lake or sea. All of these evoke images of the original Grimm's fairy tales, before they were made toothless and acceptable for children.

Any fan of Hellboy will love this book, and anyone who loves myths, faerie tales and stories will also love it. Check it out.

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