The Crown: A Tale of Hell #1 – A Game of Crowns

With the thrill of betrayal and family drama soaked into every page of this comic, I was caught off guard by how cozy a story The Crown: A Tale of Hell #1 turned out to be. With Mike Mignola helming this, and the promise of finally exploring the brothers’ war that led to Hellboy’s creation by Azzael, I was expecting something more epic in execution—and I would have been pleased with that. However, Mike and Todd Mignola went a far more interesting route, focusing on the familial meeting between Azzael and his imprisoned wife as they work together to decide which of their sons will inherit the Kingdom of Hell.

It’s political in the sense that it’s all about people in rooms talking through the nuances of kingmaking, showcasing how it can devolve into petty drivel when family is involved. You come to understand just how venomous all the members of Azzael’s tribe are as they work to undercut one another, their insecurities formulating into half-hearted compromises. There is very little of Hellboy himself here, but the richness of this story comes from witnessing the drama and lack of love that eventually bring Azzael to create him.

What really sells the intimate nature of this story is the art. Cadwell evokes those early Hellboy days, but with less emphasis on heavy shadowed inks and more focus on ensuring visibility of character expression. Many of the best beats in this half of the story come from the characters’ distinctive personalities clashing, and while the writing team does a great job rendering that in a naturalistic voice, seeing the differences in demeanor presented in such a simple art style goes a long way toward immersing readers in the drama.

This is the first of two issues in what might have been better packaged as an original graphic novel or an oversized one-shot. Where we wind up by the end of this issue is still satisfying and has me actively foaming at the mouth for the climax of this tale, but it feels antiquated to divide this into two separate, standard-length issues when it’s clearly one complete narrative without any real need for serialization. That being said, this doesn’t factor into my scoring of the issue as a standalone installment.