Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: The Return of Effie Kolb #1 Review: Not Up TO Snuff

One thing about long-running comic series is that characters tend to go back and visit characters they’re meet in previous stories. Sometimes a new character is even introduced. “Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: The Return of Effie Kolb” by Mike Mignola and art by Zach Howard is one of those stories and it’s pretty basic.

Hellboy finds himself in The Appalachian Mountains where he fought alongside Reverend Nathaniel Armstrong Watts to defeat witches and the crooked man in 1967 where he’s reunited with Tom Ferrel because there’s a local girl who claims “something big” is about to happen.

While it’s nice to see Hellboy return to some old haunts to see how the characters he’s met there are doing, sometimes it feels like the plot for why he’s there is weak. This comic, scheduled to be only two issues long, seems like it’s just there to add in a new character. There’s nothing wrong with adding new characters, but the way they’re introduced should be memorable. Here, it just seems like “oh, Hellboy’s back in this location and there’s a situation that can be quickly fixed, unlike the last time.” It’s not terrible writing, it’s just not as amazing as many other “Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.” stories.

The artwork has some nice visuals. The drawings of the cabin and especially the woods are amazing. There’s also a lot of detail put into inside the cabin that harkens back to Hellboy’s previous stay there, including the shovel used by Reverend Watts. The rest of the artwork is fine. Nothing terrible and nothing grand.

“Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: The Return of Effie Kolb” is an OK two-parter with some nice artwork. While not the greatest story out there, this is more for those fans who want to read every Mignola has to offer even if the stories aren’t up to snuff as his other works.