The Visitor: How and Why He Stayed

Mike Mignola’s “Hellboy” is home to lots of random bits of weirdness.  The series was designed accommodate this, but there’s one bit that has always felt more out of place than others.  That would be the alien spirit Hellboy met back in vol. 5, “Conqueror Worm.”  It’s one thing to have the character encounter all manner of supernatural creatures from all over the planet, but to bring in aliens to the mix?  That just feels a step too far.  Still, the alien’s presence is something that fans have wondered about for years.  One such fan in particular, Chris Roberson — a seasoned veteran of the Mignolaverse, put the question to Mignola a couple years back and wound up with the chance to finally tell its story.

The problem with this is that I don’t think the alien was ever meant to have any real significance to Hellboy’s story beyond that bit role.  “Conqueror Worm” was a story where the Nazis sent up a dead man into space in the hopes of bringing back a spirit of great power and Mignola probably thought he could get away with putting an alien in the story as a result.  Roberson and Mignola don’t really make a solid case for the Visitor having a larger role in the Hellboy mythos here.  There’s not much of the character’s story to flesh out beyond what he talked about in “Conqueror Worm” and the adventures he has feel slight by the standards of this particular universe.

At least the creators’ hearts are in the right place with the thread that binds the miniseries together.  We learn that after the Visitor decided to stay on Earth to monitor Hellboy, he wound up meeting and falling in love with an African-American woman named Grace.  The matter-of-fact nature of their interracial relationship is refreshing and they make for a cute couple as Grace takes her husband’s alien nature in stride.  Yet it’s not all happiness and sunshine for them as the Visitor is forced to bear witness to the ravages of age on his wife.  Their relationship is the real heart of the miniseries, more affecting than anything Hellboy-related in it.

“The Visitor” also has the benefit of art from the always-welcome Paul Grist.  He’s got a clean, open style that’s a nice chance from the detailed work usually seen in most Mignolaverse projects.  Grist’s characters are also emotive in a somewhat deadpan way.  This may sound like a contradiction, but it fits the nonchalant way the Visitor and Hellboy tackle the various threats they come across over the course of the miniseries.  Grist’s style also brings an air of sadness later on to allow for the challenges Ruby faces later in life to really hit home for the reader as well.

This isn’t a necessary read for longtime fans of the Mignolaverse.  In fact, I’m willing to bet that anyone who has been waiting these past two decades for an explanation of just what the alien was doing in “Conqueror Worm” will likely be disappointed by the slight answers found here.  Still, Roberson and Mignola do weave a heartfelt romance through this miniseries with some excellent art from Grist.  “The Visitor” may be inessential in the larger picture of the Mignolaverse, but it’s still a quality read nonetheless.