B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: The Reign of the Black Flame

[middenway]

If you haven't read them yet, check 'em out:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4

The last issue will be coming out on the 14th of May. Don't miss it.

[Storey]

What a great final issue… This arc truly delivered. Man, I can't say enough good things.

Curious to see how the events of the issue fold out over the next few arcs.

I loved the last page… *SPOILER*


My favorite head-in-a-jar was not thrown out with the trash!

[middenway]

Yeah, we at Multiversity loved it too.

I have way too many questions coming out of this one. The wait on some of these is going to be tough.

But now that Liz is out of New York, I'm wondering, since Kate knows where Abe is likely going (Abe Sapien #11), if she'll tell Liz? And will Liz try to intercept him and talk to him?

[middenway]

OK, major spoilers follow. From an issue that was full of huge stuff, this one really blew my mind.

[thwhtGuardian]

OK, major spoilers follow. From an issue that was full of huge stuff, this one really blew my mind.

Glad I wasn't the only one who caught that! I wonder how that image has spread so far?

On a more obvious note, after that last panel who's hoping Von Klempt makes a come back?

[Junior Wormwood]

OK, major spoilers follow. From an issue that was full of huge stuff, this one really blew my mind.

Holyyyyyy... Mark, you are truly a godsend for us fans. You point out things that I would completely miss, and you are SO appreciated.

This arc has melted my brain, and I think it's a huge turning point for the entire line of Mignola books going forward.

[middenway]

Holyyyyyy... Mark, you are truly a godsend for us fans. You point out things that I would completely miss, and you are SO appreciated.

spoilers:

I can only take partial credit for that. I noticed the ichthys, but somehow I missed that Enos drew it until someone commented on the review. I don't know how I missed it. I guess both times I read it I was too caught up in the story. Also, the second time it was after midnight, while I was writing the review. The misalignment of time zones leads to some crazy hours sometimes.

end of spoilers

This arc has melted my brain, and I think it's a huge turning point for the entire line of Mignola books going forward.

It's been a damn good month. I loved Hellboy in Hell: The Death Card, Abe Sapien: The Garden was an incredible punch to the emotions, and this was a stunning finish to one of the best B.P.R.D. arcs ever.

spoilers:

On a more obvious note, after that last panel who's hoping Von Klempt makes a come back? Honestly, I'm more interested in the change in Kroenen. He's been a loyalist for so long, and now he's free of those shackles, I wonder what he's going to do. And von Klempt, he'd gone completely insane by the end of Conqueror Worm. Even if Kroenen succeeds in bringing him back, I doubt he'll be all there.

end of spoilers

Glad I wasn't the only one who caught that! I wonder how that image has spread so far?

I hope not far at all. The book only just came out. I'd hate to think it'd be out there ruining things for people. I've always posted it with a warning and a clickable link so far.

[mladja48]

I think I missed something but could someone explain to me how Liz went from a firestarter, the way we know her ability works like in "Lake of Fire" and "Plague of Frogs" storylines, to Johnny Storm from Fantastic Four ?

[Rastagir]

I think I missed something but could someone explain to me how Liz went from a firestarter, the way we know her ability works like in "Lake of Fire" and "Plague of Frogs" storylines, to Johnny Storm from Fantastic Four ?

This didn't sit well with me either. For some reason, while Howards "superhuman" abilities don't bother me, I have some minor issues with Liz evolving into a superhuman.

A great conclusion for a great arc.

Also, what is the deal with ichthis? Where we have seen it before?

[mladja48]

We've seen it in the previous story "Lake of Fire" . But it all started in the Abe Sapien series where a nutcase started a cult centered around Abe.

[Storey]

I didn't pick up on the graffiti at all! Wow… good catch indeed. I guess some within the BPRD feel Abe is the second coming as well. As for the suggestion, that Liz may track down Abe… I love the sound of it! They have been so important to each other for soooo long. I am looking forward to the inevitable reunion between the newly evolved version of themselves.

As for Von Klempt, BRING ON THE KRIEGAFFE!!!

I am tempted to start putting the Abe Symbol up all over LA...

[middenway]

#5, Page 7 inks.

[cantide]

Liz has flown (or levitated) at least three times before. First in meditation in Hollow Earth, then to kill Kathahem, then in meditation while with Memnan Saa. So that is a thing that she's always been capable of doing, and has known that she is capable of doing at least since Agartha. And the full destructive power of her fire has, I think, been previously mentioned as capable of scorching the surface of the entire earth.

Liz's career with the BPRD has involved a lot of being captured, used, and exploited for her powers. And even before that she was always cautious with the Vril, always hiding it or running away from it until the monks at Agartha helped train her how to use it. In the frog war, she was pretty destructive, but not to the same extent as in RotBF--because she was still not yet at peace with herself or with the fire. At the end of King of Fear, she took charge of her own power and caused unprecedented destruction with it, but then she ran off because she didn't want to fight anymore. She wanted to be done. She still had to take time to accept her own destructive power and to recognize that the Vril is a part of who and what she is--and she did that during Lake of Fire before returning to the BPRD.

Now that she's done that, she has become the person (creature?) she has always been capable of becoming. What we're seeing in RotBF is something we've never seen before--Liz finally fully utilizing her abilities. Flight, fire, apparent invulnerability. Maybe still more to be discovered.

I don't think the massive jump in her power level is unrealistic when you consider what she's done in the past when under someone else's control. I used to be disappointed at how often Liz was simply exploited as an unconscious tool (Rasputin, Memnan Saa) and how often she needed encouragement before she could or would act (Shonchin). Both of those situations are tropes that often keep women with "powers" from gaining full agency as characters. But I'm so glad and proud to see the way she's owned her identity in RotBF. And her previous uncertainty, fear, and weakness now all factor into the life that's made her who she is. She's had a remarkable arc so far as a character.

Editing to add: Liz and Abe have had by far the most detailed and complex evolutions as characters in BPRD, with Johann and Kate coming in close behind. I see a lot of possibility for that in Devon and Fenix, too. Basically I'm just saying I love the way Arcudi writes these folks.

[mladja48]

So you're saying that she could have done these things all along but held herself back because she rejected this power or held herself back subconciously ? I remember her levitating in the temple with the monks and that time she used that spark plug as a power boost to kill that giant thing in "The Black Flame" but that's leagues away from flying through the sky like a fighter jet as Nichols puts it.
Her finally taking control of her abilities makes sense especially after "Lake of Fire" but I thought she would gain some precision and control with her power like she's shown on that mad doctor when she burned that tube and then his eyes and a greater intensity of her fire but still a firestarter meaning a human who can control and manifest fire.
This here was some superhero stuff.

[cantide]

So you're saying that she could have done these things all along but held herself back because she rejected this power or held herself back subconciously ?

At least that's my take on it. I'm also taking into account how so many mystical characters have considered her to be so important or powerful, like Memnan Saa proclaiming her "Heca emen Ra" or Hecate telling Liz that she's actually stronger than Hellboy.

Have you read Sledgehammer 44: The Lightning War? Reading that before coming into RotBF kind of prepped me to expect "superheroic" power from Liz, given that the Sledgehammer suit is powered by Vril too.