The Hidden Land(4 issues, 1st pub Feb-Jun 2021) Timeline: Hidden Land, 1947 Team: Trevor Bruttenholm, Hellboy, Scarlett Santiago Antagonist(s): Vesperra, monsters, dinosaurs, zombies, Brothers of Desolation Summary: After their plane crashes on the way to South America, Professor Bruttenholm and the young Hellboy find themselves washed up on a strange island where at first it seems everything wants to kill them. After stumbling upon a surprising ally with an even more surprising secret, they soon learn that the islands stands guard over a terrible evil, and their arrival may have unwittingly unleashed it!
Review: If you're looking for non-stop action in the vein of a Saturday matinee monsterfest, look no further than this story. It packs a surprising diversity of elements into a mere 4 issues while still telling a coherent story. It just . . . doesn't tell a story that has a lot of depth or connection to any larger mythos. For a lot of reasons, this particular Hellboy tale stands very much on its own. It's fun and very entertaining, but I'm starting to itch for a return to the major story arcs of the series. Still, this is a pretty great take on the "Skull Island" shenanigans of other series....more
Sledgehammer 44(2 issues, 1st pub Mar-Apr 2013) Timeline: France, August 1944 Team: Captain Ledro Fields, CHellboy Reading Guide #36
Stories
Sledgehammer 44(2 issues, 1st pub Mar-Apr 2013) Timeline: France, August 1944 Team: Captain Ledro Fields, Corporal Dale Glesham, Larry Bunkers, Ivan Muralla, Patrick Redding Antagonist(s): Nazis Summary: A squad of American soldiers deep in enemy territory are tasked with supporting the deployment of a new secret weapon: Sledgehammer, a second-generation suit powered by Vril energy. When the suit is damaged, the group must try to get it back across enemy lines before the Nazis can claim it.
Sledgehammer 44: Lightning War(3 issues, 1st pub Nov 2013-Jan 2014) Timeline: Austria, October 1944 Team: Sledgehammer, Trevor Bruttenholm, Doctor Helena Gallaragas, Frank Zinn, Thomas Martino Antagonist(s): The Black Flame Summary: After a Nazi supervillain seizes an experimental aircraft, Trevor Bruttenholm and Helena Gallaragas convince the entity that inhabits the Sledgehammer armor to recover the weapon and its pilot before the Nazis can torture vital information out of him. But this time, Sledgehammer may have met his match against an Axis counterpart who seems to anticipate his every move.
Review: One of the kinds of stories Mignola excels at is taking a really awesome high concept and then just going all in on it without getting bogged down in exposition. Nevermind how this situation came about, it just is and it's really cool. "A metal super suit battles Nazi hordes by punching them and melting their faces off with lightning." And that's basically it! But then he sneaks in and layers on a few extra points of dramatic characterization (and a few callbacks to familiar characters) to really keep you hooked in on the people involved.
It's a winning formula, and I enjoy it, but . . . at this point I've come to like a lot more the other kind of story Mignola excels at: Stories that are rich in lore (both world mythologies and his own in-universe) and deeply interconnected with each other. And there's not a whole lot here for me in that respect. Sledgehammer 44 is perfectly fine for what it is (and Lightning War even more so), but . . . I want more than what it has to give....more
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