As Heart Warming As It Is Harrowing — Reviewing ‘Hellboy In Love: The Art of Fire’

Welcome to the table,

There is something comforting to me about a Hellboy story. It’s weird to think a kid who spent the majority of his youth surrounded by almost constant reminders of extreme Christian ideals is comforted by a devil-man in a trench coat and a belt full of occult tokens and treasures. But I guess it speaks more to where I ended up in life than where I came from. Let’s get into Hellboy In Love: The Art of Fire.

This story follows Hellboy and archaeologist Anastasia Bransfield as they head to Iceland to investigate a network of occultists who should not have any kind of connection to each other, yet they do. Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden pen the story in this issue, with artist Alex Nieto lending their artwork to the paneled page.

There is, for sure, some occult weirdness and happenings that kick off towards the latter half of the issue. What I really enjoyed about the first half of this book is that it feels like a ‘slice-of-life story’ for Hellboy and Anastasia. It’s two people early on in a relationship, navigating the nonsense you deal with when you are in love with someone who has the same passions you do, but maybe not the same dedication to order and daily routine.

Hellboy is always on a mission in one way or another. The guy was raised in the B.P.R.D. by an adventuring professor who often fought cosmic horrors, death robots, Nazis, and ghosts in the same way we normal people saw Johnny Quest or Captain America fighting them weekend after weekend. Hellboy in Love feels like we get a really good look at what the result of that kind of upbringing results in, even if our protagonist is not traditionally “human” looking, the voice and personality feel so fundamentally grounded in that experience that it’s hard not to feel for the big red guy.

I know it probably seems weird to see someone write about Hellboy like he is real. I can assure you I have not totally gone around the bend. I’ve just been reading this character for the majority of my life, and so often he has been laden with the world-weary responsibilities of being this chosen one, this ender or savior of all things.

This is one of those rare stories where Hellboy feels like he is just able to breathe and exist outside the weight of expectation. It’s there from the perspective of the observing reader for sure. I know what is going to happen to him. I know the trek through hell he is going to make. I know the lore we will learn in the Miss Truesdale story, or the secrets that will unfold across countless spin-off stories.

Here and now, though, in the pages of Hellboy In Love, it feels like we get to see a Hellboy who is at least able to breathe a little easier and just live his life. There is something so grounding and charming about this character who goes through it all just getting this time on the page that makes me truly happy.

<<Spoilers Follow>>

The second half of the issue sees Hellboy and Anastasia heading to Iceland, where they investigate a cave full of runes and a dead witch under glass. Using some necromantic magics, they wake the witch, who, in turn, imparts some knowledge of the “fire” that runs as a background theme in most of the Hellboy stories. Things, of course, go sideways as they tend to do when you awaken an ancient, dead witch thing in a dank Icelandic cave, and the issue ends with some tree golem things waking up and looking towards the cave and camp that Hellboy and team are in.

Hellboy In Love: The Art of Fire is a beautiful blend of quiet moments between two people in a relationship and the weirdly wonderful occult lore we have come to know and love from the Hellboy universe, and I can’t wait until the next issue!

Until next time, I love this weird world, and even when the story misses for me and it has once in all these years, I delight in coming back to it. It feels like I’m visiting with my favorite people and oldest friends. I am forever grateful we keep getting new stories set here.