Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1957

Demonic possession in suburbia.  A restless spirit haunting a rural graveyard.  A rookie agent hoping to spot his first cryptid.  Assaults from a possessed tiger in India.  Reports about a haunted sawmill in Oregon.  A seance to contact the spirit of a devil-worshipper.  These are the things that Hellboy, his father Trevor Bruttenholm, and various other agents of the B.P.R.D. investigated in 1957 and most of them are pretty vanilla by the standards of the Mignolaverse.  Co-writers Mike Mignola and Chris Roberson give us some tales that are ostensibly weird in their setups, yet wind up with straightforward explanations that are less satisfying than you’d think they’d be.  All the stories showcase decent art from veterans like Shawn Martinbrough, to newcomers like Alison Sampson, but that’s been the standard for this fictional universe from the jump.

Given that this follows the other “yearly” “B.P.R.D.” stories co-written by Roberson, I was expecting it to offer some proper closure to the conflicts he’d been teasing in previous ones.  Looking back on what I wrote about “1956” (Over four years ago!) it’s clear that I was a fool for expecting that.  While Roberson has done some decent work over the years in the Mignolaverse, this volume really makes you feel like he’s overstayed his welcome here and should be moving on to other projects which will hopefully recharge his creative energies.  It would also open up the door for new writing talent in the Mignolaverse, or force the man himself to get back to full writing duties more often.  If nothing else, “Happy New Year, Ava Galucci” with the always-welcome art of Ben Stenbeck shows that he hasn’t lost his touch here.