Wow! This blog is still on!? - Hellboy thoughts.

Hello again! I'll dispense with the usual excuses as to why I haven't posted in, like, forever. Just know that I got a new job and that's taking up most of my time that isn't also filled with baseball and Netflix.

Anyway, here we go.

I am slowly catching up on Hellboy via the trades. Most recently I finished Book 6, "Strange Places" and I was reminded once again just how good Hellboy is.

Let's compare Hellboy to a standard story by the Big Two. There is almost no comparison. As I was reading somewhere (I think in an interview with Mignola) the Big Two offer the illusion of change. It happens every month. Plastered on the cover of Brightest Seige: Frontlines: The Return (or whatever) are scrawled the words "Nothing will ever be same again!" Except it always is the same again. Batman or Captain America 'die' for awhile, but then they get better.

In Hellboy, as far as I have read (no spoilers please) Professor Bruttenholm dies, and stays dead. Roger the Homunculus sacrifices himself and it actually means something. It haunts the characters years later. Hellboy discovers more and more about who he is on his journey, and we feel that it has weight, that it is all leading to something. Real change and growth in characters as the status quo is allowed to shift.

This may mean that at some point the story may come to an end, but I'm ok with that. Ultimately, at the end, I think it will all feel more rewarding.

News Links

It's good to see Mike Mignola, creator of Hellboy, getting back to comics full time. Very excited for the Amazing Screw-on Head collection!

Never read Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead? You can read the first issue here for free, but be warned, once you do you'll want to go out and buy the rest. AMC is looking to make it into a series, which would be awesome.

Purchased Superman/Batman: Public Enemies DVD. It was quite good. Once again Bruce Timm and legendary voice director Andrea Romano deliver a great animated movie. It doesn't hurt that Kevin Conroy and Tim Daly reprise their roles as Batman and Superman respectively, which fans of the DCAU should be psyched about. (Which I am.) I cheaped out and bought the non-special edition DVD, and it really is bare of special features. Some very interesting cameo appearances, as well as Levarr Burton as Black Lightning, which is awesome.