Writer: Mike Mignola & John Arcudi
Artists: Guy Davis, Dave Stewart(c)
Publisher: Dark Horse
With the speed of a quadriplegic puppy and the wit of a brain dead slug, BPRD exemplifies the worst kind of padding. Once you remove the non-recyclable Styrofoam, it fills up your garbage bag, and in the box of storycraft, you find not one sliver of useful goods.
Characterization is at an all time low due to the abrasive zombie Captain who was just thrown into BPRD for no good reason. Liz has little to do. Roger the Homunculus acts off his model, and Johann is the only cast member who does a little digging, and I do mean little.
Suspense is artificial. You can see where the creative team were shooting, but they miss the mark by a good ten meters. Gasp as Johann enters the records room of doom. Dum! Dum! Dum! Contrast this scene to say the scene at the library in Ghostbusters or the discovery of the files holding the info of UFO abductees including Scully in The X-Files.
The Nazi subplot that usually threads the Hellboy adventures doesn't remotely interest mainly because Mignola mentions his original and closed case Seeds of Destruction, which is simply more sinister and more resonant due to the presence of Rasputin and his goose-stepping cohorts. This parallel attempt by Nazis to gain power ultimately reads like a discard.
As to Abe's predicament, I guess you'll have to wait even longer because he and Kate Corrigan only get a cameo of two pages. More time is dwelt upon characters for whom you do not care one whit.
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