Sunday, September 28, 2008

Hellboy: The Crooked Man #3 Review

Recently reviewed by me at CBR: Greatest Hits #1, about which I write the following sentences: "The art here is so good, especially on the close-ups of the Crooked Man -- a demonic creature with apish features and puritan attire -- that the story almost doesn't even matter. It's Hellboy, so you kind of know what you're going to get. Except that's not completely true, not here. While this may not be a story filled with shocking twists and turns, it's an engaging tale about temptation and sin. It doesn't fetishize ancient legends or mysterious artifacts the way some Hellboy stories do. It doesn't fall into the rut of cold exposition at the expense of characterization and narrative momentum. Instead, 'Hellboy: The Crooked Man' takes time to explore the twisted choices in a corrupt world -- and Hellboy himself is merely a supporting figure for the battle of wills between man, god, and the devil. And what makes this battle work so well is that the struggle takes place on the grungy Earth, in the Appalachian mountains, circa 1958. This isn't Southern Gothic, it's Backwoods Hillbilly Gothic, and that's a whole lot more disturbing."

Read the entire review HERE.

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