Hellboy: The Wild Hunt #7

When the eight-part story arc The Wild Hunt started, the editors were spreading the word that at the end of it, neither Hellboy nor the world would remain the same. Mike Mignola sends the reader on a wild roller-coaster ride through much of British folklore - past witches searching for a new queen, giants, the Daoine Sidhe and the Wild Hunt itself - straight into the mother of all British legends, the Arthurian saga. Both the witches' new queen and Hellboy's fate (and origin) are directly linked to people and events taken from the stories surrounding the mythical King Arthur. In issue 7, we (and Hellboy) are given titbits of the fate that supposedly awaits Big Red, and in the end he does indeed seem to be on the path leading to that destiny. As so often in Mignola's comics, visions and real events are intertwined in a complicated, dream-like sequence of events which leave much open to interpretation. And indeed, the Hellboy saga moves forward for the first time in many years.

Duncan Fegredo's art is fittingly dark and brooding, and he has now made the Hellboy character his own, drawing him with the same certainty as does Mignola himself. Dave Stewart's colors are as always top notch and so much an integral part of the Hellboy comics.

The backup story, by Mignola, Scott Allie and Patric Reynolds, tells of the a 17th century witch-hunter, Henry Hood (a character introduced in earlier Hellboy stories); a solid short story (as were the backup stories in the previous issues).

Issue #7 confirms The Wild Hunt as an imaginative, brilliantly rendered piece of storytelling; comics at their best.

Rating for the series: 5 of 5.