“You wanted fighting!? FINE! Here’s some fighting damn it!”-Mike Mignola

Okay, he never said that. Considering how many people seemed to be upset that this new story arc didn’t start with Hellboy beating the crap out of anything it feels like he would have said it when writing this issue. (Of course I know he would have written this long ago making this opening paragraph meaningless! Moving on…) I, on the other hand, have been loving the approach with this story. Go for the mood right off the bat and try something different for a change when it comes to Hellboy. That’s what made the first two issues, and now today’s, so damn fun to read.

It bares repeating just how easily Mignola and Dave Stewart can set the mood with each issue. Dilapidated castles, a snowy landscape, and jellyfish (yes, I said jellfish) are all unnerving to look at. It’s always hard to describe but it is always amazing how the simplest deigns can evoke the tone. Let me try and explain with one simple panel in the middle of the issue. In one panel, Hellboy is fighting a big demon on top of a lake of ice. The design of both men are crude, very simple in design, but you can easily tell what is going on. Add in some detail to various boulders surrounding them and the light blue’s by Stewart and you can feel the cold coming from this sequence. You see these panels throughout the issue and then they’re mixed up with some really impressive pages. When the creature Leviathan comes into play at the end of the fight it was so breathtaking to look at. It is really amazing how two men (along with letterer Clem Robins) can do all of this on a monthly schedule.

Yes, there was some punching going around and some big creatures peppered in to make some specific fans happy. But this issue continues to have the bleak tone that has really entertained me since the beginning, I know ‘bleak’ and ‘entertained’ are weird words to mix together but that’s what makes me love this story arc. Mignola and Stewart are exceeding expectations and I still have no idea what’s going to happen next. Considering how simplistic the title is for this series that is impressive in my eyes.