Editor’s Note

This is our first opinion piece on Mignolaverse.com, and we’d like your feedback on it. Hopefully it goes without saying, but this is the personal opinion of one of our writers, and does not necessarily reflect the views of anyone else associated with Mignolaverse.com. That said, I think it’s a very well-written and logical piece, and that Brian makes a good case for himself in doing this.

Because this is such a polarizing topic, we’re going to invite another staff writer to give an opposing opinion later this week. You are invited to consider them, and weigh in via a Facebook poll once they are both published. Links will be attached to both posts at that time, so please come back and make your voice heard.

This article is presented complete, in its original format.

All said. Enjoy the read.

-Kevin



SPOILERS TO FOLLOW

The Mignolaverse has some of the deadest characters in comics. It’s the rare ongoing series that attaches real consequences to big events while offering a type of closure that you don’t often see in mainstream comics. Lately though, we’ve had a string of high-profile returns of some of the Mignolaverse’s most-dead characters. Are the Hellboy books edging closer and closer to more conventional comics as they near the grand finale? I don’t exactly think so, but it’s complicated. Let’s dive into it.

Mike Mignola exemplified his ability to craft a rich narrative with a clear beginning, middle and end with the story of Rasputin, our very first antagonist. The first few issues of Hellboy saw him try to bring about the end of the world as a powerful Nazi affiliated sorcerer. He was defeated but returned as a ghost, whispering his influence in the ears of those who would listen. He was reduced then to nothing more than a piece of bone in an acorn, which was then discarded, with others like Memnan Saa and Asteroth taking his place as primary antagonists. This evolution (or devolution) went on for years, with Rasputin growing more interesting with each appearance in ways he couldn’t go back from until finally, he seemed to have died a real death and was written out of the story. It would have been fine to have never seen him again. When Rasputin’s soul was tossed into Hell, it felt like a fitting end for him. We got closure. His evil ambition brought him nothing but degradation in the end.

Similarly, Hellboy himself had what felt to me like a complete story. The last few issues of Hellboy in Hell have an incredibly strong sense of finality to them. Even though Hellboy has been promised over and over to need to do specific things by the end of his story and hadn’t done any of them yet by the end of Hellboy in Hell, the 10 issue series felt like a proper sendoff to the character. During this arc, we see him at what could be considered the end of his story not once, but twice. Mike Mignola has said that the last panel of Hellboy in Hell #8 feels to him like the end of the story. In the Library Edition, that panel even has a “The End” box on it. It could have ended right there. Hellboy could have just sat in that forest with his cigarette and that would have been it. It couldn’t have been, but it felt right. Two issues later after Hellboy has utterly destroyed the demon order of Hell, we’re treated to another end. Intercut with his arrival on Earth, Hellboy, seemingly free from his destiny, wanders through a peaceful Hell and finds a cottage by the sea. He walks in to find three glowing shapes, which readers of Mignola’s short story The Wizard and the Snake know to associate with acceptance of death and a life well lived. The house glows. We see the light overtake Hellboy. The end.