Ah, Hellboy. The greatest thing to happen to comics in the last ten years.
For those of you unfamiliar with this character, a brief introduction is in order. In the waning days of WWII, a supernatural ceremony brought forth a little demon child with a big stone hand and two stunted horns on its head. Taken in by the U.S. government, the creature was dubbed Hellboy, and he has since become the top operative for the Connecticut-based BPRD (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense). Basically, the BPRD is what you get when you cross the Ghostbusters with the Men in Black; a government(?) organization dedicated to investigating any hostile supernatural goings-on in the world and dispatching its agents to take care of them when. Hellboy and other BPRD operatives (many of whom are either nonhuman like Hellboy or have special powers, such as pyrokinesis) jaunt about the globe confronting a wild variety of monsters and villains, take a heck of a lot of punishment, and in the end, basically kick ass, take names, and save the world. The typical Hellboy adventure often includes any combination of Nazis, super-powered freaks, faeries, lycanthropes, vampires, Cthulu-like supergod monsters, ancient myths and legends, cool but creepy locations, occasional techno-gagedtry and tons of pulpy action.
The entire thing is brought to you by legendary writer and artist Mike Mignola, for whom Hellboy has been a crowning achievement to a career that seems to have an awful lot of energy left to it. Mignola has a distinctive art style that I am crazy about, though it might not be for everyone, especially if you are a stickler for realistically drawn figures and mild use of spot blacks. Whether you like his style or not, Mignola's pacing and use of comic frames is masterful, and many folks in the trade would do well to study how Mignola constructs a tale and carries it off. His dialogue is crisp, to the point, and effective.
"Conqueror Worm" is the latest Hellboy trade paperback, with previous titles including "Seed of Destruction," "Wake the Devil," "Right Hand of Doom," and "The Chained Coffin and Others." There are also a couple of fun Hellboy novels not written by Mignola (though illustrated by him). And, Hellboy has been covered by other artists and writers in other comics, but never so well as when Mignola himself is at the helm. I should point out that there are a few stories Mignola has done featuring Hellboy as a little child which are really funny knockoffs of his own work. Two stories about Hellboy's first encounter with pancakes and a joyride in a jalopy built for a demon lord of Hell stick out as especially enjoyable, if patently goofy.
"Conqueror Worm" begins with the revelation that the Nazis actually sent a man into space in 1939, and now the swastika-stencilled capsule is coming back down to Earth. Only it has made three course corrections in the last twenty-four hours, so it's obviously being piloted by someone...or something...back to the Austrian castle from where it was launched.
The BPRD doesn't like the looks of this one bit, and so it sends Hellboy along with a lightning-powered homunculus named Roger to the scene where they can monitor the capsule's touchdown and deal with whatever happens next. Given the Nazi's frequent dealings with the supernatural, and the ongoing attempts by long-running Nazi villains to bring about the end of the world through some freaky Lovecraftian plot, the BPRD has good reason for concern.
Almost immediately upon arrival at the castle, Hellboy and Roger learn that all is not as it seems, that great dangers of many different kinds are afoot, that neither undead cyborgs nor augmented gorillas are particularly easy to defeat in hand to hand combat, that old Nazis never die--especially when their head lives in a jar, that the end of the world is a hand yet again, and that yes, there really was and is a costumed superhero named Lobster Johnson.
If it all sounds like a crazy gumbo of superheroics, horror and science fiction...you're right. It is. Hellboy has always featured this kind of genre-mashing, and it works largely because Mignola manages to pull trim, entertaining and interesting stories out of these disparate elements. It also works because Mignola really seems to be having a lot of fun with this as he works it up. I have heard that "Conqueror Worm" is to be the last Hellboy trade paperback because Mignola is moving on to other things. Somehow, though, given the likely success of the Hellboy movie now in production (starring Ron Perlman as Hellboy), I can't imagine this is the last we'll see of our favorite demon hero.
Mignola delivers a number of payoffs and ties together many loose threads from the rest of the Hellboy stories that only a veteran would fully appreciate, not the least of which involve the recurring villains Rasputin and Baba Yaga, exactly what the deal is with those aliens in "Seed of Destruction," further development of both Lobster Johnson and Roger the homunculus and Hellboy's relationship with the BPRD. Hellboy has never really been written as a major continuity story, but "Conquerer Worm" does take full advantage of the rich body of stories that have gone down between "Seed of Destruction" and now, so some brush-up reading might be in order. Given how this story ends, it didn't strike me at first as the best entry point for a Hellboy reader. But the fellow I bought the book from began with "Conquerer Worm" and seemed to be as much in love with the Hellboy mythos as I am, so my concerns seem ill-founded.
My only gripe with the story, and it is a small one at that, is we never really get to see many of the other recurring figures from previous Hellboy stories, most notably Abe Sapien, Hellboy's long-suffering amphibious companion. Given the pace of the story, though, showing off these extra characters would only clutter things up, so it's better they made no appearance. As a writer, I can appreciate that. But as a Hellboy fan, with each additional installment I want to see more of everything, even if it's not called for. Oh, well. I gues that's what back issues are for.
As far as a resource for gamers, "Conqueror Worm" is naturally a good add-on to anybody owning the Hellboy Sourcebook and RPG, published by Steve Jackson Games. (I myself have not yet picked up a copy, but only because my local retailer keeps running out of them. I have heard very good things about it.) Aside from that, the book is chockablock with great ideas for any kind of horror, superhero, conspiracy or pulp-oriented game. There is an unabashed good vs. evil context throughout, heroes who are are simple but not one-dimensional (except for Lobster Johnson, perhaps), villains you just love to hate, and a brisk sense of action and drama throughout that never leaves you bored. "Conquerer Worm" is a quick and invigorating read that is fast-paced without being frantic and delivers more of the subtley layered stories Hellboy fans have come to expect.
For you Hellboy fans out there, run, don't walk, to your nearest comic shop and pick up a copy immediately. For those of you who read comics but haven't yet given Hellboy a try, go pick up a copy and have fun reading something that is a bit different from most comic fare these days. Even if you are not really into comics, or if the current selection has left you uninterested in most titles, "Conqueror Worm" will not disappoint you, nor will any other Hellboy title, I'll wager. Hellboy is consistently one of the best comics on the market today, and "Conqueror Worm" is no exception.
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