Twisting The Threads Of Fate — Reviewing ‘Panya: The Mummy’s Curse Continues’ #3

Welcome to the table,

I often find myself swamped with work. In some ways, I love it because it means I am making the most of every moment. In other ways, it causes me some stress. As I turn around and see a string of days checked off the calendar, the time I will never get back is just gone. I have spent that time speaking to the glory of others and not working on my own creative aspirations. This is often made more difficult when it feels those in positions of power are monolithic and unmoving on things that should be moved upon for the betterment of all involved.

These worries and stressors hang around my neck, like weights dragging me down. It is in those moments I reach for something that brings me comfort to refill my batteries and push forward.

One of the things that is a true spark of joy for me is the world of Hellboy. 

Panya: The Mummy’s Curse continues to be an absolute delight. It’s a vision quest story in a lot of ways, and as I am reading the B.P.R.D. Omnibus Volume 4 in my free time before bed, it’s really fun to read this comic and see all the parallels from Panya’s introduction into the series all those years ago. This issue is especially good about moving the passage of time along, never lingering at any one place, and still feeling very rooted in a single moment in Panya’s life.

This book is stuffed with truly stand-out moments in this book though. A strange giant multi-eyed sand serpent erupts from the dunes and is eliminated by hidden powers that even Panya does not understand. There are many spirit guides and portents of things to come that drive her towards her eventual fate. There is a fallen statue in a crumbled city that, even though you can see but a portion of it, made me deliriously happy as it connects story threads from Miss Truesdale and the fall of Hyperborea and Hellboy in yet another delightful way.

That’s where these books shine for me the most. Everything is its own story but the trappings, the world, it’s not like books in other connected universes where The Flash shows up at the place where Superman is having a hamburger and says he has a message from Aquaman about Blue Beetle’s birthday party. You get these little quiet moments that someone who has wandered the halls of the Mignola-verse can point to and say “Oh yes, I know what that is,” but it does not disrupt or feel tossed in for film synergy or clout. It’s not something that is done to sell books, it’s just a byproduct of a world being well constructed and I love that.

The world is of course a product of Mike Mignola, and this story is written by Chris Roberson with steller art by Christopher Mitten, letters by Clem Robins, and really dazzling colors by Michelle Madsen who is quickly becoming one of my favorite colorists in the game right now.

Panya: The Mummy’s Curse continues to be a story that feels like you are in the eye of a sandstorm. All around you the webs of fate swirl and twist and at the center is a character navigating a land of gods and monsters as she moves towards her glorious purpose.

Until next time, this is the place I will sit and dwell with my cats, with my friends, and the hounds of hell.