It's the beginning of act three for the Mignola/Fregredo saga on Hellboy and this did nothing but excite me for the rest of the series and the follow-up next year. The whole book has taken a "Scott Pilgrim left turn" since Hellboy was revealed to be the King of Enlgand, and this series is jumping right onto that idea.
This is something odd for Hellboy, opening in an actual English town, usually Hellboy is in ghost's houses and in rural countryside of England but for once we see cars and the general public in Hellboy, a rarity.
The noble dead are rising and gathering somewhere, the current aim of the series as of yet is to find this location. I loved that the traitors stay in their grave, a nice touch which could come in to play later in the series as they ask for forgiveness.
Even though the story is set up to be epic and grand as Hellboy is now the King of England, the juxtaposition of the important role alongisde the fact he is travelling the country via a "crappy rental car" and the back seat is Excalibur.
Even this far into the series Hellboy still seems to be denying his role as he leaves behind his sword in favour of fighting with his fists as he has done for quite some time, often telling those who fortell his destiny to "shut up" and running away from the intentions of higher powers.
The art still keeps up the blend of Mignola with Fregredo's own style especially through all the jumping around in this issue from a convincing Enlgish village, an African plain and multiple forests which are all pulled off without any struggle throughout this whole issue. When Mignola returns to drawing the main arc of Hellboy, after The Fury miniseries next year, then I hope Fregredo draws some one-shots, similar to Richard Corben's current relation to art of Hellboy as I will be miss him on the main title.
This was aided of course by the stunning colours of Dave Stewart, the colour is used perfectly to indicate a change of scene or a flashback causing no confusion in the issue. Another great colouring job was the page of Queen Mab's murder as the yellow blood ran across the ground.
The lettering was flawless as usual in the Hellboy series, Clem Robins creates the impact of the sound effects throughout the issue, especially the lightning and thunder effects in "booom" and "bra-bram" which creates the tension for the war to come. The word balloon of Grugach (the pig from the end of the issue) simply saying "you" was great with the large border around the balloon.
That ending cliffhanger really intrigued me as a new seemingly important character was introduced and I am fully excited for the rest of the series due to the impact of this first issue.