I wanted to read something new this week and so went with this one, because it has an old school title. My instinct proved well.
#spoilers
Hellboy tracks an abducted young woman in Europe to a satanic ritual as she is offered up as the devil’s bride. A winged beast arrives to claim her, but big Red intervenes and whisks her away to sanctuary in an old grave site where a priest resides. The priest relates a convincing legend about knights that were plagued by this beast and that Hellboy ought to seize the opportunity to finish the thing off.
When Hellboy finds the monster, it turns out to be none other than Lord of Hell, Asmodeus. He relates his own sob story to Hellboy and that the knights were the bad guys that slayed his many wives… and that the very girl Hellboy rescued is a willing advocate.
Hellboy slays Asmodeus and rushes back to the girl too late, for she too is slain by a spirit of one of the knights. It also turned out that the priest was a ghost too. No duh. A priest lingering in a lost graveyard in the wilderness? Saw that coming a mile away.
It was cool. This was also the first time I read a Hellboy book not illustrated by Mignola. Richard Corben’s art was pretty unique and fitting for the story. It was a colorful perversion of reality. I also find it funny that he drew Hellboy just like Mignola would, but I’m not complaining. All in all it was good.
TL;DR Score: Like most Hellboy comics, a fun one-shot. A predictable twist, but well delivered.
TL;DR Comics 