Book Review: Young Hellboy: Assault on Castle Death by M. Mignola et al.

Young Hellboy: Assault on Castle Death story by Mike Mignola and Thomas Sniegoski, art by Craig Rousseau, colors by Chris O'Halloran, and letters by Clem Robins

In 1947, the B.P.R.D. Headquarters moves from the New Mexican army base to an abandoned movie studio complex in Connecticut. Young Hellboy is not so comfortable there. He even gets some sort of sickness. A fever dream has him as a sidekick to Lobster Johnson, who needs his protege's help to stop a Nazi attack on America. Hellboy gets out of bed and starts wandering around the buildings. Meanwhile, an agent from the Brothers of Desolation (an order founded to stop the Apocalypse, which they assume Hellboy will cause) has come to the new HQ to kill Hellboy. The agent sneaks onto the base the same night that Hellboy goes wandering around.

The story is charming for the most part. The agent trying to kill Hellboy has got to be the slowest moving assassin ever. Other than that, the fever dream action is a fun excursion into childhood fancies. The art follow the lighter tone of the previous Young Hellboy even with a somewhat darker storyline. 

Recommended, highly for Hellboy fans.

Book Review: Hellboy: The Bones of Giants by M. Mignola et al.

Hellboy: The Bones of Giants story by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden, art by Matt Smith, colors by Chris O'Halloran, and letters by Clem Robins

Hellboy, Abe Sapien, and a few other agents travel to Sweden where a remarkable discovery has been made--a dead man of large proportions with an unliftable hammer nearby. Hellboy can lift it with his Right Hand of Doom. Two problems ensue--he can't let go of the hammer and he occasionally gets possessed by the spirit of the thunder god Thor. As they investigate what is going on, a lot of classic Norse mythology is drawn in, leading to battle with dwarves and frost giants as the B.P.R.D. agents head farther north and further into the mystery. 

This graphic novel is an adaptation of Christopher Golden's text novel The Bones of Giants (which I have not read). The visual style matches Mignola's very well and the story reads like a classic Hellboy adventure. It's a fun read.

Recommended.