Miss Truesdale and the Fall of Hyperborea #1: Siren Visions

The Hellboy Universe has been on a really solid quality kick as of late. Hellboy in Love and Koshchei in Hell were both masterful works from the Hellboy team that released this year, with two other well received books, Castle Full of Blackbirds and Lady Baltimore: The Dream of Ikelos. As such, it was hard to quite place where this year’s fifth Mignola-lead project, Miss Truesdale and the Fall of Hyperborea, would fall into place.

Needless to say, this book starts off on the right foot with a slim but well-crafted issue dedicated to the soft, quiet setup of a story yet to come. It follows Miss Truesdale, an unassuming member of the Heliopic Brotherhood of Ra as she wanders through a gloomy life in Victorian-era London. Almost incidentally, she finds herself on the receiving end of a vision seen by the Brotherhood’s leader, Tefnut Trionus. This vision ends up sending her down a road where the power to change past and future remains just within reach.

It’s in that vision that the issue spends most of its time, and the story there does a lot by sitting very little. This is a book where most of what is being communicated to the reader is done through the art, and Jesse Lonergan’s work on this gets the job done with flying colors. So much is said through the way in which he illustrates emotions and how he uses color to define key character traits. Color also does a lot for the book’s tonal atmosphere, which is grounded in its fantasy but still magical.

Its difficult to fully evaluate this book at the first issue, as there was not enough meat on this hook to have a true understanding of where the story is going. However what is here has enough craft behind it to demand the reader stay for the next issue. Mignola’s writing is as quick and crafty as ever. A near issue long flashback saddled with exposition should not be as an engaging as this, but a certain amount of character is injected into the blatant lore dump to infuse it with importance outside of just basic plotting.

The book is filling a certain niche within major indie comic books. It’s a fantasy story that takes itself seriously, with an earnest love for subtle character work and isn’t afraid to be a story without a gimmick. Even though this issue lacks any moving plot developments, the setup and subtle art ques are strong enough to be a book I’d strongly recommend. As a chapter within the Hellboy Universe tapestry, it is super accessible for new readers in a way Castle Full Of Blackbirds wasn’t. If Victorian, character-focused fantasy is something you’ve been itching for, this book will have you covered.