Monsters and Masks collects two older, out of print Hellboy crossover stories that pair Mike Mignola’s demonic paranormal investigator with some rather unlikely partners.
The first story, penned by James Robinson and drawn by Mignola, begins in Gotham City, with Batman. In the wake of a typical frustrating encounter with The Joker, Batman fails to rescue the original Starman, Ted Knight, from a kidnapping attempt. Much to Batman’s surprise, he’s summoned afterward by Hellboy, who tells him that the kidnappers are from a secret Nazi group based in South America – and that they’re magic users. Why they want Knight, he doesn’t know, though. The pair team up briefly to try and prevent the Nazis from leaving the country with Knight, but fail. After that Hellboy teams up with the current Starman (Knight’s son), tracking the group back to their base, where it seems they intend to use Knight to raise an elder god (think H.P. Lovecraft). Hellboy and Starman foil their efforts, rescuing Knight and saving the day – for now. The ever-solitary Batman returns at the end to give our heroes a lift home.
In the second story, Hellboy finds himself in Arcadia, investigating the violent activities of a gun-toting ghost or rather, Ghost, as she’s know in the Dark Horse universe. The B.P.R.D. want to help Ghost, but she’s having none of it, due largely to the machinations of a masked man who tells her Hellboy – and his right hand in particular – is her key to freedom. The site of a particularly brutal mafia killing draws both Hellboy and Ghost into another dimension, where they must confront this mysterious masked man, who seems bent on world domination more than ghostly salvation…. This time around Mignola provides the story, while art is by Scott Benefiel and Jasen Rodriguez.
Included after the stories are a few notes from Mignola, and, more significantly, his first efforts at character design for Hellboy (since Benefiel needed something to work with). Benefiel did a great job, making the artistic transition from the first story to the second seamless. While neither story is particularly a stand-out, they are fun reads, full of wit and action and sure to entertain fans of Hellboy, Batman and the other characters.
(Dark Horse, 2010)
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