Product Description

Nazis. Harpies. Vampires. All in a day's work for Hellboy, the world's greatest paranormal investigator...but now our hero is the unwitting centre of a vast, deadly plot, a plot that hinges on Hellboy's shady origins...Join our hard-punching hero, the pyrokinetic Liz Sherman, fish-man Abe Sapien and a cast of demons, devils and much, much worse, as they battle through a ruined Romanian castle, and across creation itself, with Hellboy himself - unwilling avatar of chaos and destruction - as the ultimate prize! This book also includes a Hellboy gallery, with pin-ups by Bruce Timm, P. Craig Russell, Derek Thompson, Dave Cooper, Jay Stephens and Olivier Vatine!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #174567 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

Review
Ottakar's Outland Magazine Issue 31, Autumn 2004 : "Rather like an X'-File' investigating the 'X-files', the lantern chinned, wisecracking Hellboy is one of the most endearing heroes to have emerged in comics for a long time, coming across as fresh, inventive, and, above all, highly entertaining."

About the Author
Mike Mignola is the acclaimed creator of Hellboy and Zombieworld, and has drawn Batman: Gotham by Gaslight, Aliens and Cloak and Dagger.

Customer Reviews

Info. for Prospective Buyers
For anyone who doesn't know Hellboy - imagine Sam Spade as a demon superhero investigating supernatural threats H.P. Lovecraft might have written and you're somewhere close.

Admittedly this is not the best of the Hellboy stories - Mike Mignola admits in an afterword that he lost control of the plot (the comic originally appeared monthly) - and if I were only marking the story I'd probably have wanted to give it 3.5 stars. Nonetheless, it is definitely worth reading with the trademark Hellboy mix of humour, action and horror, and the noir art as ever is wonderful (pushing it from 3.5 to a deserved 4).

A word of warning: although this is marked as vol.2 of the Hellboy series, there are stories in vol.3 'The Chained Coffin and Others' which precede 'Wake the Devil' chronologically.

Mignola is GOD!
Mignola is God! Or should I say that he is the Devil who brought from hell the best super-hero of comic history! This stuff is very hot, oh boy this is so hot that you almost burn your fingers when you read such a quality story. Everything which make the universe of hellboy so exciting is at the rendez-vous: monster, gouhlish legend, mega fight with nazis...you will read it over and over again. In this volume hellboy is on mission to save the earth and hunt down Raspoutin the mad Russian monk and his Nazi troop .The ideal program to keep you awake all night!

Wake the devil side

"Hellboy Volume 1: Seed of Destruction" pitted our devilish anti-hero against the evil Russian sorcerer Rasputin.

But that adventure is not the end of Hellboy's clashes with Rasputin. "Hellboy Volume 2: Wake the Devil" ups the ante, with plenty of horrific action and a more complex three-way storyline. And Hellboy himself gets to see a bit more of the nature he's determined to deny completely -- and a destiny he wants no part in. Poor guy.

The BPRD sends three squads out to to find an ancient vampire in Romania ("Paprika chicken, baby!"), and Hellboy finds himself working solo. But soon he runs afoul of a bunch of Nazis who serve Rasputin's spirit -- and a bunch of mythic creatures that lurk in the castle's depths, including the vampiric Giurescu and a bunch of savage giant birds, who serve a ghastly, immortal lamia in the depths of his castle.

Elsewhere, Abe is falling into a trap of Rasputin's (since he stabbed the guy to death), and Liz's powers run amuck when her team finds an alchemist's lab with a seemingly dead homunculus. And Hellboy's fight with the lamia has shocking repercussions, when he finds himself hurtling into a darkness where his true purpose is revealed -- and he must choose what his destiny will be.

Lamia, skeleton vampires, Baba Yaga and Nazi heads -- Mike Mignola knows how to craft a monster-filled universe, where a demonic anti-hero seems downright normal. And while the first two books about him are technically separate stories, "Wake the Devil" seems more like the second half of the story started in "Seed of Destruction." It's also graced with a more complex, gradually-unfolding plot that branches out in unexpected directions.

Mignola does leave some plot threads hanging (what happens with Liz and the homunculus?), but he knows how to pack the story with plenty of creepy moments, warped humour and gory violence. He also knows how to use dialogue for atmosphere as few authors can ("Witches, striges, vampir... ghosts come forth from their tombs..."), but also utilizes Hellboy's acid wit to lighten the mood ("Not gonna happen... 'cause you're very very ugly and YOU HAVE A GIANT SNAKE BODY!").

Hellboy himself is a classic anti-hero -- despite his red skin, bulky body and sawed-off horns, he's very human in attitude, with a good heart and unselfish outlook. After being attacked by the iron lamia he's faced by what the infernal players want to use him for, but his good heart won't have it. And his snappy wit ("Insolent beast! Troglodyte!" "Big talk for a guy with no pants") only makes him more lovable.

"Hellboy Volume 2: Wake the Devil" is a suitable sequel to the series' debut, and nicely rounds off the first arc of Hellboy's story.