u/Acepokeboy

Conquerer Worm was instantly my favourite Hellboy book in the series thus far & felt like a climactic amalgamation of everything that came before. Which perfectly setup the uncharted waters of The Third Wish which I didn’t expect to love as much.

It started a bit scatter brained & hazing with Hellboy drifting about in Africa but once the actual story kicked in.

His capture, the chains of a past enemy, demons in the underworld spectating & arguing about him. The giant fish lady killing off her mermaid granddaughters before the last one lives to become an ally to Hellboy.

Then the whole climax before setting all the lost souls free from Davy Jone’s locker (which was beautiful). The fact her & her dad & now just awaiting the end of the world in that cave together was such a somber note to end on.

This feels like a shift for Mignola narratively & I look forward to seeing how the stories develop from here onward.

I don’t typically care for underwater stories but this was refreshing & I ultimately loved it almost as much as Conquer Worm.

Wasn’t expecting this to go as hard as it did, but Hellboy losing his crown before duking it out with his cousin in the Usher mansion, while Abe gets tortured by a monkey, is high key peak Hellboy.

On top of all that, it doesn’t end abruptly or start suddenly. It opens like a typical villain of the week situation before doing a complete pivot and ultimately ending on a heartfelt epilogue.

Box Full of Evil 🔥🔥🔥

Just ordered the short story volume 1 since I finished reading Wake the Devil yesterday & I’ve noticed nearly every reading order list i’ve found online puts The Chained Coffin after Wake the Devil which makes zero sense to me.

Hellboy references The Chained Coffin multiple times in WTD but also it just works thematically that he’d go out & do some solo investigating after the events of Seed of Destruction.

Also the events in Chained Coffin foreshadow some of the stuff in WTD nicely.

My copy thankfully put these stories in order but it makes me a little cautious about some of these reading lists in future 🤔.

Mignola got his first laugh outta me with this scene right here. It was already funny but the fact it exploded on the next page kinda caught me off guard.

Wake The Devil is that turning point where the veil of what this series is building to finally lifts.

Chained Coffin felt like a little tease but i’m all in on this prophecy stuff now.

Just finished Seed of Destruction.

Very barebones but an excellent introduction to this character & world. I was kinda surprised by how it was effectively a speed run of the first film. Hellboy’s dad just kinda dies off before we even get the chance to care, which caught me by surprise.

I’ve often heard people say the first film isn’t a super faithful adaptation but after finally reading this, I feel like they pretty much got all the essentials.

Mignola’s art style & atmosphere is second to none, love the shadows & black pages.

Wolves of Saint August up next!