Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: Her Fatal Hour & The Sending – Married to Your Grave

Get ready for an action-packed double feature of the one and only Hellboy! Mignola delivers not just one but two utterly enjoyable stories with both Her Fatal Hour and The Sending, brought to life in glorious fashion by first time Hellboy artist Tiernen Trevallion with Dave Stewart’s timeless colors and Clem Robins strong lettering.

Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: Her Fatal Hour & The Sending is without a doubt yet another strong outing for the Hellboy franchise. However, they each pick up on narrative elements found in other stories that longtime readers will be eager to see play out. For Her Fatal Hour, we see a near direct continuation of The Beast of Vargu which released in June of 2019. Check out our full review of the spectacular issue HERE. In this follow up, Hellboy is brought back to fight against a demon born from the struggles of the old woman who helped nurse him back to health named Violca. Mignola weaves a tragic tale about Violca’s daughter and a marriage destined for the grave in this story.

The premise is once more familiar for the series, seeing Hellboy brought in to be the ill-prepared muscle against dark forces but this particularly story capitalizes on the familial legacy of tragedy which helps to set it apart. The tone is one of an inevitable horror as our own time ticks away and Mignola uses this to carry the story with an emotional toll. Tiernen Trevallion injects a classic vision of the Hellboy Universe with artwork that resembles some of Mignola’s own earliest work on the now iconic character. Trevallion’s aesthetic suits the series remarkably well and shows how you can do a fresh take on a timeless look without sacrificing what fans originally fell in love with.

There have been quite a few different artists on Hellboy titles as of late, including Duncan Fegredo who worked on The Beast of Vargu. Trevallion somehow manages to find a way to fit this story within both Mignola’s greater universe as well as giving it a natural feel as a continuation of the first story. With Dave Stewart delivering an ominous color palette to ground the story in tragedy, every page feels like a testament to the timelessness of the franchise. Even Clem Robins’ letters tap into that early Hellboy vision while carrying readers throughout the story with remarkable clarity.

The follow up itself does follow a typical formula for Hellboy comics. The twists and connective tissue to the greater universe gives it a worthwhile feel but even on its own, Her Fatal Hour is an awesome experience. Seeing naked Hellboy is fun, but watching him take on a monster in what looks like a bathrobe is even better!

In the next story titled The Sending,  we find a story more deeply inspired by the roots of Hellboy’s great cast of characters. Harry Middleton, longtime friend of Professor Bruttenholm, makes a heartwarming appearance and ultimately steals the spotlight even from Hellboy. This shorter story could have easily been expanded into a single issue itself, but in a more compressed format it does find strength in a more rapid pace. While it also follows the expected Hellboy formula in bringing Hellboy to investigate, fight a monster with a mythologically inspired twist and ending with a sincere note, it’s a story that takes that formula and shows it can be done with awesome appeal.

While, on their own, these stories are wonderfully fun to read for any fan of Hellboy, it’s interesting to note the significance of lasting bonds despite how many years tick by. Friendship and family are the driving forces in each of these stories and offer just the slightest bit of connective tissue between them. Hellboy’s influence in each of the stories is actually quite minimal, but it’s punctuated by the constant dilemma of good versus evil and the very intent of each no matter where in the Universe’s timeline we find ourselves. That’s where the issue as a whole finds its greatest success. Readers may be excited to dig into yet another spectacular one-shot, but they may be surprised at the narrative and emotional depths the issue undergoes within such a short time.

Yet again, Mignola and the rest of the creative team has delivered a can’t miss Hellboy comic.