I like the art, love the Hellboy character and enjoy Mike Mignola's introductions to the stories, but overall, I wasn't thrilled with this volume. Too much yap yap yapping from the baddies and not enough snappy lines from Hellboy to provide some comic relief. It was all pretty heavy this time around, and I just wanted everyone to shut up already. ( )

Well that's a crazy story. In one part you have a battle with an undersea witch who is trying to save the world from the Hellboy prophesy, twisting wishes to kill people, getting saved by (essentially) the OG Little Mermaid (she wants to be foam on a wave).

In another, you have a bunch of cool African mythology I'd never heard of:



I need to start collecting and reading mythology. There's so much there to make stories out of. Speaking of awesome imagery? Chains made of a dead man's bones:



Also, worldbuilding on the main storyline. The Dragon. And why/what Hellboy's hand is. It's a nice mix of the one offs and bigger stories. It's starting to grow on me. ( )

A bit of a letdown after the past few collections, the repetitions and rejections of Hellboy's Big Destiny are starting to wear a little thin. But it's still Mike Mignola so, you know, stick around. ( )

I think this is quite good but its strength is all in the reveals about Hellboy's real creation all the way back through time as a vision quest.

If you don't mind just having him question his motives or reaffirm his chosen destiny versus being the bringer of the apocalypse, this volume is just fine. The art's interesting and the twists aren't unexpected, but it's still very satisfying. ( )

My favourite Hellboy collection so far. Loved this from start to finish.

The first story, The Third Wish was just so sad, the ending is the closets to tears I have ever been reading a Hellboy story. Other than the emotional impact this story just had a lot going for it. It was fun seeing the African spirits reacting so violently to having the bringer of the apocalypses on their continent. And it was nice seeing the monsters of the world wanting Hellboy dead because they don't want the utter annihilation of the world. Yeah, they're horrible things that go bump in the night, but this is their world too, and they want it to stick around just as much as humanity does.

The second story in this collection is The Island, which I enjoyed but found a bit confusing in some places. I liked that we get more back story to the creation of the Ogdru Jahad and why Hellboy's right hand is the only thing that can set them free. But there were some bits about Hellboy's blood I didn't get, and I have no idea how the big bad was killed, apart from the fact that Hellboy's blood had something to do with it (I think?). But even when I was confused, I was enjoying the story. ( )