The “Hellboy” universe has so many societies that you can throw a ball in a room full of them and hit a dozen of them. One of these is the Goolden Crane Society and Mike Mignola, along with Chris Roberson and artists Michael Avon Oeming and Chris O’Halloran created a new story called “Shadow of the Golden Crane.”
Susan Xiang grew up listening to her grandparents’ stories about the Golden Crane Society. She thought those were just stories, until one day when a monster appeared that gave Susan visions of the past that confirmed they are real.
We do learn a little bit about the Golden Crane Society, but not enough to care about them yet. The story is also mediocre. There isn’t much to make the reader care about the story or Susan’s role in the story. Lady Bai Lian seems like one of the main people from the past but the first issue doesn’t make anyone want to be fans of hers. That could change when the rest of the story is published but for now no hype for the story.
The art is the only bright note. While not the best “Hellboy” artwork out there, there is plenty to like. The character designs are nice to look at, the action scenes are well thought out and the colors are used in clever ways. One of these is the use of green whenever Susan has a vision, which includes her eyes glowing green.
“Shadow of the Golden Crane” starts with a stalled engine by having a mediocre story and characters that don’t entice the reader to read more. The nice artwork shows off Oeming’s skill as well as O’Halloran’s eye for color but not enough to save the comic. The next three issues have a lot of work to save this comic’s story.
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