Hellboy

• Title: Koshchei the Deathless #2 (of 6)
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Mike Mignola
• Artist: Ben Stenbeck

In the second issue of the six-issue mini-series, Koshchei continues his tale. After making a pact with Baba Yaga, the warrior (and his few remaining soldiers the witch didn’t kill) journey through a woods and beyond on their quest to kill dragons before a new generation can be born. Along the way they will meet Yeshii the woodsman, the grown human son of a cow, and a cursed man now living out his existence as a snake. They also follow a magical ball of yarn for a bit.

The odd journey will eventually lead them to the ruins of the once great Kingdom of Dragons, the unhatched eggs the witch told Koshchei about… and their protector who isn’t so keen on visitors.

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• Title: Koshchei the Deathless #1 (of 6)
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Mike Mignola
• Artist: Ben Stenbeck

With the first issue of the new six-issue mini-series Hellboy creator Mike Mignola turns his attention back towards Koshchei, the cursed immortal sent to kill Hellboy by Baba Yaga in Hellboy: Darkness Calls. Opening with Hellboy and Koshchei in Hell, Koshchei the Deathless #1 takes place mostly in an extended flashback of the immortal sharing his tale including his apprenticeship under a dragon, his fame as a warrior, the tragedy of his marriage leading to death and immortality, and his first meeting with Baba Yaga.

Ben Stenbeck is a good choice for the comic’s artist, fitting well into the look of the Hellboy universe. Although we don’t get much of Big Red, I do like the look of Koshchei, the dragon, and the various others to pass the immortal’s path.

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• Title: The Visitor: How and Why He Stayed #4 (of 5)
• Comic Vine: link
• Writers: Mike Mignola, Chris Roberson
• Artist: Paul Grist

The penultimate issue of Dark Horse’s five-issue mini-series offers a further look into the life of the mysterious Visitor. Set decades after the first issue, Hellboy has grown into the hero that the alien always hoped he could be. However, he and the B.P.R.D. still need his unseen help from time to time with anonymous tips and even taking down a cult leader when needed.

Much of The Visitor: How and Why He Stayed #4 focuses on the Visitor’s life away from Hellboy and the life he made with his wife Ruby. Although the issue is a celebration of the pair’s life together, in spite of what society of the times thought of them, there is melancholy feel in this issue as Ruby’s memory slips.

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• Title: The Visitor: How and Why He Stayed #2 (of 5)
• Comic Vine: link
• Writers: Mike Mignola, Chris Roberson
• Artist: Paul Grist

The latest Hellboy-adjacent mini-series continues here with a longer look at the alien visitor sent to destroy Hellboy as a child and instead chooses to watch from afar while the demonic creature destined to destroy the world develops into a hero. We get panels of Hellboy’s heroics in various times here and there, but it’s the Visitor who is the real focus of this issue.

Although he has mixed emotions about humanity, the Visitor decides to take a wife and build out a life for himself as he watches time pass and Hellboy grow into the type of man the alien hoped he could become. The subplot fleshes out the character more than I expected as it appears our watcher is spending equal time watching both Hellboy and humanity. While the later has disappointed him from time to time, with the mini-series now into the 1960s, our visitor hasn’t seen any signs of the creature his people expect to destroy the world.

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