B.P.R.D. The Black Goddess by Mike Mignola, John Arcudi and Guy Davis

Liz Sherman has been kidnapped, and her comrades at the B.P.R.D. have been looking for her. The one clue that they have come up with is that it may be someone once known as Martin Gilfryd who abducted her, now known as Memnan Saa. A man named Lobster Johnson once tried to track down rumors about this man, but when accidents started happening to the people who uncovered information about Memnan Saa, he stopped looking to protect the man remaining to work for him.

Now, while Abe, Johann Kraus and another B.P.R.D. agent track down Lobster Johnson's headquarters in the sewers to look through his files, Kate Corrigan tracks down the ex-FBI man Harold McTell, the only remaining man of Lobster Johnson's agents, to hear it from the man himself. And far from leaving it alone during the war, he kept following Memnan Saa as he moved through Euope. He gives her the directions to the last place he heard of Memnan Saa existing, in a monastery on the China- USSR border.

When they travel there, they discover that Memnan Saa has Liz all right- he's turned her into a weapon against the army of the old ones soon to be knocking on the door to the Monastery. But the monks that Memnan Saa lives with aren't human, although they can take human form- they are Yeti. And when the forces of the Old Ones come to take over the monastery city, the forces of the US Army that accompanied the B.P,R.D. agents must fight with the Yeti against the Forces of the Old Ones.

Meanwhile, inside the city, Memnan Saa tells the agents that only he and his forces can win the Fight with the Old Ones, because all the Kings and Presidents are not cruel enough. They will seek to save everyone, and that way lies madness and death. He tells them of the secret Hyborean Power he has tapped through Liz, the living fire, enabling him to summon dragons to fight the old ones. But when he gets too presumptuous with Liz's power of flame, she turns it against him, speaking in an unknown language, destroying him with her fire.

Meanwhile, as Johann makes his way inside the city, he is overtaken again by the spirit of Lobster Johnson. But why has the spirit shown up now, and what is happening to Johann that he is completely taken over by the body of a dead man? And what role does this spirit have to play in the Apocalyptic war that is coming?

I found this an interesting, intriguing graphic novel in the B.P.R.D. series. Although I confess I didn't really understand a lot of the Old Hyperborean stuff that was going on, I do understand that some sort of Apocalypse is coming that is going to change the fabric of the world in which Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. exist. I am kind of wondering what is happening with Hellboy right now, as it seems incredible that this stuff would be happening and he not decide to take part in it- on the side of his former colleagues. And how does this fit in with Hellboy being Anung an Rama, the doom of the world?

I'm hoping that we see Hellboy coming back to work with the B.P.R.D. at some point in this massive epic story, because I don't think it's in his character to sit something like this out on the sidelines. Yeah, I know he hasn't been part of the B.P.R.D. for some years (in real-time rather than story-time. I'm not sure how long it's been in-story.) and he recently had another graphic novel of his own where he finally settled accounts with Baba Yaga, but where is he in all of this? Some kind of update would be nice.

In short, I am looking forward to the rest of the storyline, with both anticipation and trepidation, as it seems Liz will never really make it back to the B.P.R.D. Whether that means she dies or leaves as Hellboy did, I'm not sure, but her relationship with Abe doesn't look like it will ever be the same. This book is highly recommended, if a bit depressing, and ends on a cliffhanger, so be aware of this before you buy.