‘Hellboy in Hell: the Hounds of Pluto’ Part 1 Comic Review

Up until now, my knowledge of anything in the Hellboy franchise really didn’t extend much farther than the 2004 film. So I didn’t have a whole lot of context going in to Hellboy in Hell: The Hounds of Pluto part 1 other than more or less who and what Hellboy is. Regardless, I did still find it to be an interesting read, though perhaps not quite as much as if I had been following the comic regularly beforehand.

The issue starts out with Hellboy waking up “somewhere in hell,” and he looks like he’s in pretty bad shape, to say the least. As he awakens, he meets two doctors, who give him some unknown substance to drink.

Upon drinking this substance (presumably), Hellboy experiences some kind of dreamlike vision. In said vision, he is in a verdant forest with a woman named Alice telling him about the state of things. She gives him a vague narrative about a new world tree that has sprung up from his blood and sacrifice and that something bad is on its way.

Hellboy in Hell PT 1 1

The vision ends, and Hellboy wakes up to the two doctors in hell, where we see they’ve lain Hellboy down in a room full of corpses in varying states of decay. The doctors inform Hellboy that he is ill somehow—despite being already dead—and it’s implied that this illness is a fate worse than death. They are unable to help him any further though, so they take him to meet an acquaintance of theirs.

We find this acquaintance on trial in a public square for an unknown reason. Hellboy and the two doctors arrive just as the jury announces they cannot decide a verdict. The judge is strangely okay with this, and decrees that the matter is settled and the defendant can leave. The prosecutor, a Dr. Wilhelm Coppelius, is outraged. Coppelius attacks the defendant, but Hellboy steps in and uppercuts the guy.

The two doctors and Hellboy follow the exonerated man back to his home, where he explains why Coppelius hates him so much and how he may be able to help Hellboy with his mysterious illness.

The comic’s art is very vague with the characters’ features and sports a lot of brown and grey hues in both the background and character design. For some reason, even Hellboy is a dusty brown color instead of red. I came to the conclusion that he’s missing his regular red hue because he’s dead, and brown is Hellboy’s version of pallor. He does revert to his normal coloring when invigorated, however.

Hellboy in Hell PT 1 2

The other characters often start out as looking like regular living people (albeit ones dressed like they’re from medieval Europe), but devolve into skeletons wearing clothing. This provides an interesting concept regarding the version of hell they’re living in, and solidifies the fact that all of these men are dead. They also appear to be quite casual about the whole state of affairs, which gives off the impression that they’ve all been dead and in hell for a long time.

The story is definitely an intriguing start to what appears to be a larger, more sinister plot. It doesn’t have a whole lot of action or fighting scenes, but the place where the issue ended gave off the implication that there would be more action taking place in the next issue.

As I mentioned at the start of this article, I feel like I would have been more engaged in the whole plot leading up to some big world-changing event or battle had I been more involved in the story beforehand. Despite all that, I did still find it interesting, and while I may not recommend it for first-time readers like myself, I feel like veteran readers of this series would enjoy it.

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