allmächtiger!

This, the second collection in Dark Horse’s B.P.R.D. series, features five stories starring Abe Sapien, Liz Sherman, Johan Krause and Roger. As an added bonus, the story “Night Train” has it’s roots in Lobster Johnson’s time. They were originally published as one-shots back in the day when Mike Mignola was in Prague working on the first Hellboy movie. More than the previous collection, this book has more of an “in the spirit of” feeling, as Mike was only directly involved in “The Soul of Venice” and “Another Day at the Office”.

In that story, the crew head to Venice to face an unknown evil that is creating havoc in the formerly beautiful canal city. When Johan searches for the soul of the city to get some answers, they are led to a house that has been home to an ancient evil for centuries. The vampire lord Romulus Diovanni,  has captured the spirit of the goddess Coachina, as an offering to Lord Shax in exchange for more power. Shax ain’t buying it, though he does ask Roger to give a shout-out to Hellboy. Roger does ultimately destroy Diovanni but the case seems to have left him a little more melancholy than usual. That homunculus is really a sensitive dude. The art by Michael Avon Oeming is lively and clean. The next story, “Dark Waters” by Brian Augustyn and Guy Davis is my favorite of this collection. Guy’s art is creepy and weird and the story, set in a New England town, grapples with the tortured souls of three sisters who were victims of a witch-hunt. “Night Train“, by Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins, has Liz and Roger investigating a ghost train, which was destroyed by a German saboteur back in the thirties. The train had been carrying troops and  the original group of scientists working on the Manhattan Project. “There’s Something Under My Bed” was the weakest by far. Maybe because the art was meh, but mostly because, ugh, little kids who are being kidnapped by some slightly evil toys because their parents don’t pay enough attention to them. “Another Day at the Office” takes us to Moldavia where a medium has taken on the spirit of an evil count, unleashing zombies.

This book started out strong, but the weakness of the last two stories really put a damper on things. I am really looking forward to the next one, Plague of Frogs, since that will be all Mike Mignola and Guy Davis.