Review: Hellboy, Vol. 1: Seed of Destruction

Hellboy, Vol. 1: Seed of Destruction by Mike Mignola
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The problem with reading a source novel, after watching a good live action adaptation of it, is that you keep comparing the two. Which is the case with Hellboy, Seed of Destruction.

Guillermo del Toro and his team took a good concept and just ran with it. The 2004 Hellboy movie featuring Ron Perlman drew the viewers into the rich and mysterious lore and world of Hellboy. With a dark, oftentimes ironic twist to familiar tropes of fantasy and folklore.

The graphic novel, first published a decade prior, sets up many of the lore, themes and characters which would then be fleshed out in the pages and in the movies.

Compared to the movie, I felt the story to be more disconnected. Del toro, with consultation with Mike Mignola I assume, were able to turn the disjointed parts into a more cohesive story. Particularly the aspects in regard to Hell boy's origin, as well as his relationship with his adoptive father Professor Broom, as well as his teammates Liz Sherman & Abe Sapien.

The particular arc as a whole, with benefit of hindsight, felt a bit rushed. Definitely, the character of Rasputin in the movie, had a more organic reason for his absence following Hellboy's advent to our plane.

Perhaps the word I'm looking for is that the Graphic novel is more supernatural-noir, and less 'cinematic', which makes sense as the latter is a live action movie.

But nonetheless, I dig the horror supernatural aesthetic of the story and look forward to reading more stories.


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