Big Love In Small Moments — Reviewing ‘Hellboy In Love: Obsidian #2’

Welcome to the table,

Hellboy in Love maintains its historic occult ties, while continuing to be a really charming story with a ton of emotional resonance.

Let’s get into it.

The story is written by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden, with art and colors being supplied by Alex Nieto, and letters being done by the man of a thousand books, Clem Robins.

The last issue of this two-part story left us on a fairly intense cliffhanger. Hellboy’s girlfriend, Anastasia, had been snatched by the possessed historian Sheffield at the behest of the Obsidian Danse, a Greek Spider Entity of considerable power.

Hellboy, as you can imagine, is less than pleased, but the story gets more tense when Sheffield shows up to taunt Hellboy, as he believes he is untouchable due to the fact that Anastasia is captured and is currently serving as leverage.

It’s always amusing when villains are written in typical comic book fashion in a Hellboy story. Our big red B.P.R.D. agent does not play by normal rules, and rather than having a rational conversation, he immediately punches Sheffield down a flight of stairs.

Hellboy is written so perfectly flawed. There is an earnestness to him, a really grounded in “lived experience” feel that makes things like punching a possessed jerk across the yard because he was being a little bit cocky just feel natural.

It’s the small moments that get crafted in Hellboy in Love that really speak to the emotional weight of the storytelling within these pages that keep me coming back issue after issue.

The punch doesn’t end the possessed scientist by any stretch, mind you. Once the thing picks itself up and dusts itself off, it explains that as long as Hellboy leaves the dig site alone so its companions can complete the ritual, Anastasia won’t be used as part of the blood sacrifice needed to complete it.

-Spoilers Follow-

Hellboy, of course, immediately sets out for the dig site because the man thinks with his fists and, let’s be real, none of us trust possessed science folk in the first place, but not before he gives a call to his dad back at B.P.R.D. headquarters in one of the most honest-feeling “haven’t called home in a while” moments in media.

We soon find ourselves at a ritual that ties a slew of the past stories from Hellboy in Love together, revealing that the work Anastasia has been doing has actually provided the Secret Fire with sorcery that allows them to talk through time and summon the banished children of Hephaestus.

The story draws to a close with Hellboy destroying the ritual site, the resulting calamity crushing pretty much all the bad guys, and Anastasia being left with the lingering question that is going to plague us, readers until we have a new announcement … “What comes next?”

Until next time, Hellboy In Love consistently feels softer in a lot of ways than the traditional folk horror storytelling we get in issues of Hellboy or the B.P.R.D. I am not a huge fan of romance stories because they often feel inauthentic and trite. As someone who is deeply and hopelessly in love with my partner, it’s always difficult to judge someone else’s relationship, as they are very multifaceted things. The stories in the pages of Hellboy In Love, though, feel honest and authentic in ways that make them charming and compelling, and until that stops, they will continue being on my pull list.