Hellboy: The Wild Hunt

Mike Mignola once again teams up with Duncan Fegredo to bring us another Hellboy adventure. Their previous installment, Darkness Calls, was an epic and complicated high fantasy adventure filled with Russian Folklore reference and influence. The Wild Hunt, on the other hand, though equally grandiose, introduces more familiar influences, such as King Arthur's court and plays out more like a chess piece drama, seemingly setting things up for bigger things to come. 

While in Italy, Hellboy receives a letter summoning him to England where he is invited by some stiff Aristocrats to join them on a giant hunt, a tradition which Professor Bruttenholm once also took part in. Always up for a bit of fun, and validated by his adopted father’s experience, he duly accepts. It doesn't take long for Hellboy to realise, these overly friendly men have some ulterior motives and nothing is quite what it seems.

To add to the fallout from the hunt, things become further complicated when a vengeful queen is raised by the blood offering of a village worth of innocent lives. With a millennium of pent-up anger and the whole of England at stake,she duly begins planning to take her throne.

Hellboy learns he is a descendant of Morgan Le Fey, the Witch of King Arthur's court who has kept the Pendragon bloodline alive through generations all the way to Hellboy himself. Now with an army gathering to join the blood queen, Hellboy is left to choose whether to take Excalibur from the Stone, an act which foreshadows his right to the throne of Hell. Concerned that taking Excalibur will be a step down the path he's tried to avoid his whole life, he is left with a difficult choice.

The Wild Hunt features real growth for Hellboy and adds a new dimension to his eternal temptation by the forces of darkness to take up his hellish crown and bring doom upon the world. The blending of English legend by adding characters from King Arthur's court into Hellboy's ancestry adds further intrigue to the already rich tapestry that this modern classic series has already weaved. The Wild Hunt is a story of self acceptance, destiny and the power of will to overcome nature.