And we'll done to Campbell - and Stewart too. Wonderful art. Amazing issue. Need to read the five issues in a row now. And maybe dig a few old issues too.
And we'll done to Campbell - and Stewart too. Wonderful art. Amazing issue. Need to read the five issues in a row now. And maybe dig a few old issues too.
Obviously none of us really know where this is going, but the timing of this break is really telling I think. Things are about to get turned upside down in a big big way.
This story is also really vindicating for me personally, possibly confirming a load of my existing theories about where this whole thing is going. I’m just far too excited right now. I need to put my head in a sink full of cold water.
After #5, I can't help but think of Liz's vision from King of Fear...again.
Just read the issue and WOW!
spoilers:end of spoilers
I was shocked to see the ending. I actually believed Mignola when he said he wasn't bringing Hellboy back. But now he's saying that he had this planned all along and just didn't want everyone to know. He wanted it to come out and be a surprise like in the good old days before the internet. I am SO glad he's back. I really missed him. Thank you Mike!
“Now faith, hope, and love remain, and the greatest of these is love.”--1 Corinthians 13:13
“You had a dream; I have a plan”--Cyclops
“There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes.”--The Doctor
spoilers:end of spoilers
So much is starting to make a bit more sense now...
Ever since they announced this last part of the trilogy was to be titled "The Devil You Know", I had a feeling HB would be back. What other devil do we really know?
And Hellboy in Hell had to be wrapped up quicker than anticipated because BPRD was heading to where we find it now.
And lastly, I have a strong feeling Mike will be on art duties for this book at some point. But if not, I hope it's all Campbell. Duncan would be the one exception.
But what is the Roger connection? Are the shapes somehow involved? Roger had a ball he loved... Hmmmmmm...
The mind reels.
Hello all,
It has been a while since I last posted here. I just finished issue 5 of BPRD "The Devil you know".
It was an okay little mini series, I liked the references to previous mini series and issues such as the vampires who are now emerging and discovering that they are mutating because of exposure to the Ogrum Hem (and what happened to buried vampires in a previous mini series), Abe being brought up to speed by Liz though I never expected her and Howards to get together, and of course more on what Varvara is up to.
But it is clear that this mini series is set up to start the next mini series rather than containing any real story of its own other than some side characters from the BPRD now being retired.
I also read the third issue of Rasputin, and while that may go back to the old WW2-Nazis involved with the Occult which probably has been played out for some time now, I could not help to enjoy that a little more so far.
I don't know how I feel about this development, to be honest.
I suppose I trust Mike enough at this point, that if it was planned long ago he has a reason for it. Guess we'll just have to see where it goes.
I can't help feeling that things are in place now for having the ending to it all be to play out.
The Ogdru awakening seems nigh fully complete for real this time, so much that that Vigrid field feels just around the corner.
Even if Roger is still gonna speak or the Vril weapon gets handed down, or Abe is gonna have some final episode, I feel it's gonna go down now.
SLINT / Mike Mignola / Walt Whitman / Arthur Lourié / Dr. Pepper
I’m not too worried.
Don’t read below if you haven’t read up to B.P.R.D The Devil You Know #5, or if you don’t want to know what my theory is. Seriously, it might be pretty spoilery.
spoilers:end of spoilers
Hellboy has been on Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey since day one, and I mean every single step of it, in the exact order that it is described with extra steps drawn from other theories of the Heroes Journey weaved throughout.
He has a call to adventure (the revelation of his own past) in Seed of Destruction but chooses to ignore it. He stays in this state until he unconsciously sets out into the world after Conqueror Worm. He receives aid from Molohmi, who is a mentor and guide of sorts who sets him back on the path. He then enters the realm of abundant fantasy, is captured in “The Belly of the Whale” (literally trapped under the sea by a sea witch.) Once he escapes that, he begins his road of trials, experiencing a death, a romance, a betrayal, a temptation of power, a fight against an unconquerable enemy, dancing between many planes on his way. He then encounters a goddess who reveals the truth of his birth to him. He then faces the temptation of his life with Alice and the burden of his responsibility to the world and chooses the latter, but only in the way that he can. He realises the power of his own Arthurian blood, and while he is at peace with it, he leaves it behind. This realization, the abandonment of his dual birthrights, is his apotheosis. He goes to face the dragon, receiving the Baba Yaga’s boon, fights the dragon at the end of his quest, dies and falls into the underworld.
He wanders in hell not looking for a return, and continuing to refuse his place in the order of things... but that cannot last. By hook or by crook he takes a magic flight (those shapes man) is rescued from without (dug up by his friends, guided by Eris (Ereshigal? I mean, that name is conspicuous, right?) and Fenix) crosses the return threshold back to life and then, if the Heroes Journey plays out, becomes the master of both the world of the real and the world of fantasy, finally providing him with the thing he wanted all along; the freedom to live. He became the Beast of the Apocalypse to free himself from those shackles in hell. Will he do the same on Earth?
The fractured storytelling technique still bummed me out because you get so little actual time with the characters or the plots they're involved in but man was that ending stunning!
"Worried" would be too strong a word, but I do sense as if I'm reading a book with reaching the end of it, like with only one mini-series or one final chapter to go.
I like your theory and thanks for mentioning Joseph Campbell (hadn't heard of him) but my theory is different from yours a little,
basically due to how I feel stories need their endings, in order to have weight and scope and depth:
spoilers:end of spoilers
To me it seems like in finding Hellboy's grave, the B.P.R.D. will come to terms with how Hellboy is no more, and that therefor the Bureau's role will similarly come to its end.
Which isn't weird since with Hellboy's end, his World and thus every existence both as any of his entourage will end. As what existence does: it starts and it ends.
I don't think Hellboy ever 'became' Beast of the Apocalypse nor would he seek to 'master' anything, but he is what he is.
Like every (non-evil) entity Hellboy just followed his gut without misbehaving as good as he could.
With the catch or allegory to his existence being that he was destined to set in motion the end to every and all existence once such comes to pass - in the end.
Hellboy's World being the creation cycle of the Ogdru Jahad awakening in seven steps, which has become realized and fulfilled,
so the World's End now appears the final thing for the B.P.R.D. to come to terms with, I would believe.
SLINT / Mike Mignola / Walt Whitman / Arthur Lourié / Dr. Pepper
ok, so what is going on with the BPRD?
i don't see any new comics in the immediate future
I guess it's OK for me to say this, but basically #5's reveal is a big deal and Dark Horse wanted to do as much as they could to preserve the reveal for trade readers. That's why The Devil You Know isn't coming back until after April.
spoilers:end of spoilers
Personally, I admire the way they're handling this. I mean, they could have run pieces in advance saying "Hellboy is coming back" (not that he is necessarily back, mind you) and all that nonsense, and instead they've opted to be quiet on it not only for the single issue, but for the trade too... an extra four months of silence on the matter. It just shows how much they care about their readers.
Last edited by middenway; 02-01-2018 at 04:23 PM.