I don’t read a lot of B.P.R.D.
and the last issue I read was a very revealing origin story for Elizabeth the
Pyrotechnic. This issue has her on her own and away from the B.P.R.D. and living in a trailer park with two random
dudes. She comes home to find a poker game in her kitchen and is really pissed
off about it, so pissed that she kicks one of the players in the mouth. After
that everyone clears out pretty quickly and Liz decides to head to bed leaving
the two remaining men to clean up the blood and mess.
She may be out of the B.P.R.D., but they aren’t out of her
dreams. She’s haunted by memories of people she’s worked with including Hellboy
and the Professor. In typical dream fashion her father suddenly shows up and with his dead eyes he stares at her and begins making a strange noise which turns out to
be the rain hitting the aluminum roof of the trailer. It’s poker night in the
trailer park again and the big guy with the broken jaw is hosting. His friends
have some reservations about going over, but decide that due to his recent
embarrassment that he needs friends now more than ever. That is until they see
him holding a gun on his old lady. They decide to get Liz and she if she can
handle the big man again. She reluctantly helps and continues her perma bad
mood as she walks over to the trailer, unfortunately she’s in for a big
surprise when she gets there.
This issue was strange and humorous all at once. You want to
like Liz due to the fondness for her character, but then she acts like the
biggest asshole on the planet making it hard to feel sympathy for her. That is
until we see her dreams and realize that she’s a very haunted person and
doesn’t know what to do other than be sad for herself and take it out on those
around her. It’s still hilarious to read her interaction with people and that
fact that she kicks a guy in the jaw after only one exchange of dialog is
completely awesome.
Mignola and John Arcudi continue to be a great writing team
as they build on the world of Hellboy in new and interesting ways. I love that
this is in a way, a follow up to the last series of B.P.R.D. and that it continues the story of Elizabeth. The story
and storytelling is very solid and nothing out of the ordinary. It’s not
amazing, but it has a great cliffhanger that will leave the reader waiting for
the second issue.
This issue marks the first drawn by new B.P.R.D. artist Tyler Crook. Crook's big debut hasn’t actually
released yet, but we covered a lot of it at this year’s Wonder Con. Crook’s
style is good, but I don’t know if I’m in love with it yet. At times it’s full
of detail, but other times it’s lacking or overly simplistic. Crook manages to
stand out from the typical Hellboy-verse artists by really staying true to his
own style which no one should have a problem with. Colorist Dave Stewart is
amazing as always, but even he seemed to color this book differently than a
typical B.P.R.D. or Hellboy book.
Overall it’s an interesting story and not bad at all for a
two issue series. It really comes across as filler before the next big B.P.R.D. storyline hits, but unlike
other series this filler is worth the read. Also it’s a good chance for Crook
to adjust to the art duties and try to find a balance between his style and the
familiar look and feel of the book. The atmosphere is half of what makes the
Hellboy-verse interesting and the art for this book isn’t there quite yet.