Hellboy Vol 1: Seed of Destruction
Review by Isaac Magaña
October 1, 2008

Writer: John Byrne
Pencils: Mike Mignolia
Colors: Mark Chiarello
Letters: Lois Buhalis
Editor: Barbara Kesel
Published by Dark Horse

Reprints: Hellboy Vol 1, #1 - 4, San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2, and Comic’s Buyer Guide #1070

It took two Hellboy movies for me to finally get the motivation to try out this book. I don’t know why, but I was expecting the comic character to be very similar to the movie character. I was wrong. I forgot to tell myself that comic movies aren’t always the best for translating comics. This wasn’t the only surprise in this book, but I can tell that whatever incarnation the movie was based on this was the very beginning of that.

The story starts off like a standard first-issue. We get a very simple origin story for Hellboy in that he just appears and is discovered by a paranormal research team. We then skip forward to the immediate present where Hellboy is grown and has become a part of the same team. We don’t know much of what has happened to Hellboy, only that one of members of the team became his adopted father.

It is this relationship that kicks off the story. Hellboy is summoned by his father only to see his father murdered by a strange reptile-like creature. Hellboy retraces his father’s footsteps and learns that he just returned from an expedition to the North Pole. His father accompanied a family who has been traveling to the North Pole for a number of generations in search of something about which the family is not truly aware. It seems that with Hellboy’s father on the team this generation did find something and it came back with them. What follows is a strange adventure story along with a small glimpse of Hellboy’s purpose and origin. Hellboy’s supporting cast is introduced as well and given proper introductions to the audience by a voiceover done by Hellboy himself.

Mike Mignolia penciled this series but it was written by John Byrne. Mike’s art seem to fluctuate a lot during these stories. Some pages seem bland but yet other pages were full of beautiful and detailed art. It’s as if Mike was drawing pages out of order or with a different mind set. Byrne delivers a good story that doesn’t leave too much absent. While there are other plot elements dropped in, they don’t drown the main story. The colors are reminiscent of the same coloring techniques from the 1980’s, solid color backgrounds and very minimal shading.

Overall, I found the book enjoyable but I didn’t walk away excited. These four issues were a basic introduction to the series. We are given no concrete reveals about Hellboy and little reveals about everything else in the book except for the main plot. A lot of stuff was planted in these four issues, so it would be interesting to see how they are followed upon. The last two issues in the book are Hellboy’s first appearances to promote the book. They’re a quick read and just fun stories, little development, mostly just action. The art was good and the story was good, nothing too amazing but nothing horrible either.  I think it earned the right score.

Rating: 6 out of 10 (Slightly Above Average)

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