Calum Petrie reviews Young Hellboy: The Hidden Land #3…
Issue #3 of this bizarre caper takes us from the strange and the alien, straight into the darkness and horror. This penultimate issue ramps up the story, action and events to turn this naïve tale of a younger Hellboy into a tale with consequences – and a powerful Vampire.
The series has been a tad on the slow side with the end of the last issue showing a turning point to a darker story being told. Now we open with the events unravelling and finding our characters are quickly having to react to actions they have stumbled into.
The Hidden Land #3 was a pleasure to read, with the story pacing at a steady and consistent level. The characters all played their pre-conceived parts extremely well – I am still waiting for the younger Hellboy to punch, smash and shoot something, but I feel I am going to be sorely disappointed. The innocence of the young Hellboy is refreshing where he is trying to communicate and teach the primates how to play simple games, purely because he sees them as his peers.
The professor is the lacklustre character within this story, where even his intellect is put to shame by our female guardian’s supernatural understanding of hieroglyphs and cave drawings. The characters do bounce off each other very well and create a brilliant blend of storytelling and light comic relief. The artwork within issue #3 presents a wonderful blend of darker shades to indicate the passage of day to night, while possibly suggesting a darker story arc coming into the series (though I might be reading far too much into this).
Young Hellboy: The Hidden Land #3 is shaping up to be a more classic tale of good vs evil than I originally considered it to be, which I am pleasantly surprised by. I am learning never to underestimate a Hellboy comic as they always turn around and impress me with a simple twist to the story. The climax definitely sets up the final issue in the series to be an action packed adventure of quick thinking and hopefully surprises. The team will have their work cut out for them, so lets await issue #4 patiently.
Rating – 8/10
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