It has been a long and strange ride. We've seen Hellboy at his worst: No friends, demons and monsters all around him, and now his true fate is brought to him. The fact that Hellboy is the true heir of King Arthur is just mind blowing. There's so much that Mignola could do with this plot and this final issue shows where it might take us. Sadly, it's been a bit of a boring ride as well just to get here.

This 'final' issue is just a long winded moment of Hellboy finally embracing his fate. I put final in quotes because this is obviously not the end of this particular story. It's annoying to think that we went threw eight issues just to learn that we need to wait next year for another installment. But that's something to think about when the whole collection of this mini comes out. As a whole, this issue was exciting to read because you had no idea what Hellboy was gonna do. You didn't know what was gonna happen if he pulled the sword out of the stone, it was a real exciting couple of pages to see what could happen. I am a bit confused on what happened to Alice. How did she die and why is she suddenly a skeleton after a couple of hours? Was Hellboy lost in time again during these two issues? Or was that all a dream? I don't know and it kinda bugged me just thinking about it. But other moments like with the Blood Queen and the Osiris club rears it's head again. What I always liked about Mignola is that he's now fitting in small peices to this huge storyline. The Osiris club and the Blood Queen have been shown periodically (at least mentioned for the Queen) threw a lot of short stories of Hellboy. So in that regard there is a lot of depth with this issue.

The real constant of this mini was the art by Duncan Fegredo and Guy Davis. Fegredo has totally shown why he is one of the best artists in the industry with this. He makes the tone of this comic bleak by adding in skeletons, dust, and other grim aspects to the castle. But he also does a great job with open fields and more of like a pleasant setting. When Hellboy and Alice end up back in Ireland, that is such a beautiful looking page. It looks even more beautiful with the coloring by Davis. Always great with the colors of red, orange, and black. When the Blood Queen is shown for a couple of pages, she really stand out because of the bright reds used. So if there is one thing I can stand by with this mini with good feelings is the fantastic art.

The last couple of pages really explains my thoughts on this entire issue and mini. It leaves off with an exciting premise and seeing just a tease of what's to come really makes me want more. I just hope in the next mini to further this story, it has much better pacing then what we got here. I could've enjoyed this mini more if Mignola trimmed some of the fat out of this entire story. Still, what's to come is very exciting and if Fegredo is still going to be artist....I'm on board for another go.