Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Hellboy The Wild Hunt #7Hellboy: The Wild Hunt #7 of 8
Dark Horse Comics
Mignola & Fegredo

Hellboy is at the crossroads in this issue. I’m not sure there has ever been an issue quite like this one in the history of Hellboy. He has always been tempted by the forces of Hell to lead them as the king. Even the movie dealt with this concept. However, now his other path is presented before him. As a descendant of King Arthur he can lead the Knights as the King of England. All he has to do is draw the sword, Excalibur. But it’s never that simple with Hellboy. This issue deals almost exclusively with the fallout from last issue’s reveal. It’s an excellent issue.

Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle ReviewsThe issue begins with Hellboy discussing with Alice some of the occurrences of the previous issue. However, it’s Alice who seems to know all about Hellboy’s destiny. She tells him of the conversation she had with Arthur about how Alice’s life was tied to the sword and that she would be the first person to see the new king. This is important because if you parse out the words it doesn’t necessarily mean that Hellboy is to become the next king.

Hellboy has Arthur’s blood in his veins. If he were to have any offspring they would also have Arthur’s blood. We’ve seen how Hellboy and Alice are developing a bond. It could even be the blossoming of love. Perhaps Hellboy isn’t the one who will become king but their son. It’s something to ponder as Hellboy fights his fate the remainder of the issue.

As Hellboy is given pointed advice by multiple voices about why he should take up Excalibur he seems to regress back to his roots of simply punching something. The obvious thought here is that he’ll resist taking the sword, but still fight Nimue and her army. Hellboy seems to reject anything that has to do with any kind of responsibility regardless of the source. Yet, he always seems to do the right thing. This issue puts all of those emotions and actions on the table in front of the reader. It doesn’t spoon feed an answer to the reader, but it does make it clear that Hellboy and destruction usually goes hand in hand.

The artwork is tremendous yet again. The issue plays with a lot of Arthurian lore and much of the setting is draped in death. The artwork successfully mergers the elements of Hell, Arthurian times and death in this comic book to help to tell a comprehensive story. There is an amazing amount detail in the dead knights as well, that shouldn’t be glossed over. The coloring takes a muted tone in this issue but plays an important roll playing with the dark shading that adds some incredible depth to the panels.

The finale is next and it seems impossible that the comic will tie up every single plot. However, I would suspect Hellboy will give his initial answer about the sword and I would expect the battle to begin. This issue includes a dark backup about Henry Hood that may also play into the finale, but we’ll have to wait and see on that one. This is shaping up to be the best Hellboy mini series in years where the ending could go any number of ways. I highly recommend this comic.

5 out of 5 geek goggles