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4.0étoiles sur 5
Hand of doom, crown of fire, Janv. 11 2009
When Hellboy isn't saving the world from imminent destruction, he's doing a lot of little odd jobs across the world.
And by "odd jobs," I mean brief paranormal cases involving vampires, flying hunters, homunculi, "pamcakes" and disembodied heads. "Hellboy Volume 4: The Right Hand of Doom" collects a number of the demon anti-hero's assorted adventures, ranging from a new and unknown breakfast to a devilish plot to conquer the world. All in a day's work.
It opens with a baby Hellboy being given a plate of "pamcakes," which he pronounces to be "yucky." But when a general sternly orders him to eat one bite, the consequences are literally hell-raising.
Seriously, isn't that the cutest thing ever?
Many years later, Hellboy is called on to deal with mythological creatures large and small -- the Saint Leonard worm (a dragon) running amuck in a forest, a spectral huntsman followed by berserkers in wolf pelts, a Japanese house full of bouncing heads, a seance gone horribly wrong (with Lovecraftian tentacles!), and the supervampire Varcolac who is so large he can "eat the moon."
And though Hellboy tries to ignore his past and supposed destiny, he learns something quite disturbing when a kindly priest gives him an ancient, mysterious drawing of the "right hand of doom" -- which looks suspiciously like Hellboy's big rocky hand.
And a demon (which looks suspiciously like a housefly) sealed into a box is stolen from a secret compartment, and is soon "serving" a human master. Turns out they want to lure Hellboy to that place, in the hopes of stealing the evil, apocalyptic powers that he has already renounced.
Mike Mignola is awesome at full-length graphic novels, but his shorter works are even better -- these are lean, compact little action stories with nothing more or less than they need. And it's sort of nice to see Hellboy's more ordinary cases -- if you can call these ordinary -- with foes like a "Wild Huntesque" horseman, a dragon and even some traditional Japanese hobgoblins.
And Mignola's writing doesn't suffer from the shorter format, especially since he happily adapts some folktales to fit his world (legends, folk tales, saints). There's wonderfully sick moments ("Hey, that's not my spine!") and some poignant moments (Hellboy musing on his "destiny"). Naturally, also plenty of nastier moments including bouncing heads, giant monstrous tentacles from the "deep end of the pool," a vampire that can "eat the moon," and a man turning into a giant lizard.
Hellboy is basically your average investigator in most of these stories -- he goes in, gets the job done and fixes things (although sometimes he can't quite fix EVERYTHING). He's a nice straightforward kind of guy with a gruff manner, but Mignola reminds us at times that he has some unhappier facets ("You know how I live? I never deal with what I am"), and a destiny he keeps rejecting.
"Hellboy: The Right Hand of Doom" follows the example of the prior collection -- lots of solid standalone adventures for our horned anti-hero. Lovely read.
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5.0étoiles sur 5
A grand short story collection, Aoû 16 2003
"Hellboy: The Right Hand of Doom" is Hellboy at its finest. Like HP Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe, it is in the short story that Mignola really shines with his hell-born characters.This short story collection contains a host of odd and enjoyable adventures for Anung Un Rama, otherwise known as Hellboy. Making his way through the mythologies and folklore of several countries, he encounters beasties like Japanese vampires, King Vold and Roger. Well-researched, Mignola threads together these various traditionals into a cohesive story, with the Christian God and Devil at the center, and Hellboy bridging the gap. By far some of the most intelligent and well-written stories in modern comics, Hellboy never disappoints. Non-comics readers as well enjoy Hellboy, and my copy has been well-read by many people. "Hellboy: The Right Hand of Doom" is an excellent starting point, and can be read with no previous knowledge of the characters. "He has eaten the pancakes. He will never come back to us now."
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4.0étoiles sur 5
For any fan of the comic books!, Avril 30 2003
When hellboy came out I thought he was one of the coolest things to come into the world of comics in a long time. I was takin a liking from the first page to the last and I have alot of the hell boy editions but this one is just as good as the others but it's certainly not the best!
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