Writer/Artist: Mike Mignola, Dave Stewart(c) Publisher: Dark Horse
Plot: The Conqueror Worm raises its seriously ugly head.
"Goddamn, Nazi-Frankenstein Monkey!"--Hellboy
If you can't laugh at that line, your sense of humor is in serious need of repair, but it's an atypical moment in the eerie, freaky Hellboy: Conqueror Worm.
The Lovecraft comes fast and furious in Mike Mignola's latest Hellboy excursion. The key to Lovecraft's horror was metamorphosis: intelligence is given to make men mad, skin becomes scale, people begin to see other colors of the spectrum, and it just grows worse from there. Hellboy isn't just about a big red hero beating the pus out of surgically-enhanced apes. It's one of the few comic books that can instill genuine fear and just with a series of pictures.
The monster of the piece repels, and it's method of extinction is a nightmare. Perhaps, it's so frightening because the beast's functions make so much sense. Of course, the mere appearance of the title character can make one wary of the odd creak in the home.
The Conqueror Worm is one of many terrors to be found in Hellboy. The way in which the beast was contacted disgusts, and the betrayal of one of the central characters comes as a shock.
