Rasputin: The Voice of the Dragon

Given how he’s such a pivotal character in the “Hellboy” mythos, you’d think that we’d have received a miniseries spotlighting Rasputin long before now.  Well, despite what this volume says on the cover “The Voice of the Dragon” isn’t really a story about him. Rasputin’s in it, but co-writers Mike Mignola and Chris Roberson should’ve titled this adventure “Rasputin:  The Voice of the Dragon, Starring Trevor Bruttenholm.” That’s because the focus is squarely on Hellboy’s father and founder of the B.P.R.D. as he toils at Bletchley Park during WWII sorting through all of the military intelligence to find out what the Germans are up to.  Eventually, Bruttenholm comes upon some documents mentioning an “Operation Geist” and his pursuit of what they refer to leads him into the path of a spirit stuck in another man’s corpse, the Heliopic Brotherhood of Ra, a monster guarding its master’s knowledge, and eventually deep into Nazi-held France.  It’s there that Bruttenholm will confront Rasputin’s plans, if not the man himself, as he seeks to hear the Ogdru Jahad speak to him once more.

If you’re looking to find out more about Rasputin’s character beyond him being an occultish boogeyman then you’re not going to get that here.  “The Voice of the Dragon” is really about Bruttenholm’s first brush with the supernatural and the people that seek to control it for their own ends.  From that perspective the story’s not bad even if most of the information we get doesn’t feel like it adds a whole lot to the character. Also, the miniseries contains a dizzying amount of references to other characters and events in the Mignolaverse, which is fun to see at first until you start to remember that you’ve read better stories involving them.

That includes “The Rise of the Black Flame” from the same creative team.  Artist Christopher Mitten turns in better work here with his art offering more definition than seen in that previous miniseries.  Its improved clarity recalls that of series creator Mignola, but doesn’t feel slavishly devoted to his style. Even with the improved art, “The Voice of the Dragon” still feels like a largely inessential story that will only be of interest to Mignolaverse completists.