Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: The Monster of Nivola #1 is like a lot of other Hellboy stories in that it’s all about monsters. Fangs, fur, and fury are usually the tell-tale signs you’re staring down something monstrous, but what this issue does so well is peel that idea back and examine intent as measure for the monsters in our midst.
As an on-again-off-again fan of Hellboy over the years, returning for this one-shot felt like putting on your old favorite jacket and finding, delightfully, it still fits like the day you bought it. There’s a comfort in returning to such a well-realized character and discovering that you weren’t just overly fond of them, that they’ve remained consistent all these years later, even when you weren’t around to notice.
Dark Horse
While in Austria for another case, Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. are called into the small, charming town of Nivola – or rather, it would be charming if it weren’t for this damn monster roaming about. An outside land developer thinks it can make the town wealthy by turning it into an authentic feeling Italian resort town for people on holiday. However, that aforementioned monster keeps making mess of things, knocking over equipment, derailing plans, even accidentally killing a worker on the crew, and eventually also killing a young woman who was in the wrong place at the wrong time and startled the monster.
So, here’s Hellboy to save the day and take out the big bad monster but through the women of this town, we quickly learn that not everything is as it appears. Monsters have fangs but they’re often still loved. They have claws but they’ll often still be missed when they’re gone.
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This was my first Mike Mignola book in a minute and I’m happy to report that the dude still has his fastball, painting the corner at 98mph with snappy dialogue set in an extremely interesting backdrop of coastal, but miserable, Italy. Mignola came up with the story along with Christopher Golden and together they craft a tale about the pain in everyones words as they mourn the loss of life, the loss of identity, and the loss of their past. It’s heartbreaking yet truly heartwarming at the same time, to know what they’re really mourning is the loss of love in their small village.
All this is realized to an exceptional degree by artist Daniele Serra, whose gorgeous watercolors really add a layer of both pain and prestige to the story. The darkness you see in the corners of a panel or cast from the shadows of trees feels blacker and more lonesome than a lot of the more contemporary coloring techniques seen in current books.
Dark Horse
But where Serra really excels is in facial expressions. I mentioned the pain in people’s words earlier, but the distress in their eyes, in the way their lips are stiffened, is truly beautiful to behold. The action sequences, though sparse, are excellently choreographed and the sense of space is always clear to the reader. You really feel like you’re watching two pillars of mythology smash against each other like action figures from your past. Couple the amazing art with dynamic lettering by Clem Robins and I was extremely satisfied with such a well rounded book by creatives all operating at a very high level.
Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: The Monster of Nivola is a gorgeous one-shot that feels extremely comfortable for a lapsed Hellboy reader like myself to jump back into after years away. With a tight script, stunning art, energetic letters, a cool setting, and a powerful message, this Hellboy oneshot is a home run in every meaningful metric a comic fan like me cares about. I might have to keep an eye out for future Hellboy stories, I forgot how special they feel to read.
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