B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth Volume 6: The Return of the Master

Good product. Great and secure package!

Also still great

great book

It’s been awhile since I returned to the B.P.R.D. Universe. I’ve missed you guys and gals, and cosmic gods, zombie giants, and those crazy Russians.Volume 6 has members of the B.P.R.D. team visiting Scotland. Unpleasant vacation.My favorite Russian/pickle jar, Nichayko sings, sips vodka, and converses with his bottled snowflake, Varvara.The hunt for the escaped Dr. Lazlar continues to Scotland. He carves his flesh, amasses a cult following that includes zombie giants. Bad news for the vacationing B.P.R.D.At home, Fenix and Panya do not get along. Fenix exits.Still recovering from being shot, Abe remains silent in his aquarium.A Nazi group manages to resurrect not the intended Rasputin but… What the Hell… the Black Flame returns. The time off did him justice. He’s looking great and meaning to take care of unfinished business.All over the world, giant monsters emerge and lay waste.But in the debris of a fallen Utah, emergency workers find a surviving Liz Sherman.The world has hope. And more volumes to read.

ARC provided by NetGalleyFirst of all I have to say I haven't caught up on Hellboy...and that definitely affects the reading of the story as I have no idea what happened in the rain of frogs or who some of the characters are or their relationships with each other, but I'm doing my best to catch up quickly. The overall story in this volume is quite excellent and its quite easy to follow and get caught up in the excitement and the mystery. Having "The Master" come back from the dead after so many years away and the twists and turns of trying to figure out which is the true master and which is a fake is most intriguing. I find it interesting that one of the folks that might be The Master has the power to mutate creatures, just a look at a dog can turn him into a wild ravening beast bent on destruction.One of the things I enjoy most about the Hellboy universe is that even though they all work of Mignola's original design, the artists always bring their own unique twists and talents to the world and this collection is no exception. I love seeing how they capture the characters in watercolors, pen and ink, and the other mediums and the unique elements they provide to the characters. And the art in this collection is no exception. Some of my favorite scenes deal with the ghosts haunting the shores of Scotland as the agents attempt to take out The Master. The imagery created in these scenes is just fantastic.If you're an avid Hellboy/BPRD fan then this is definitely the book for you. I give the book 4 out of 5 stars.

Since this is book 6 of the series, you've likely read the other books and ready for the continuing story. If you haven't read the other books in the series, this will probably be confusing and a lot of the punch will be lost since you won't have backgrounds on the characters from the Hellboy universe.This issue continues the long story arc, dealing with The Master who has amassed a cult following and is trying to dredge up all kinds of nasties. A group of human BPRDers fight through most of the volume to get to The Master's lair in Scottland - and end up having to fight wave after wave of difficult humans, monsters, beasts.Meanwhile, things aren't so peachy back at the BPRD office. Dissent, unhappiness, and a lot of mysterious goings-ons and strange characters are complicating the plot even more.I think die-hard Hellboy fans will likely be a bit disappointed since Abe Sapien, Liz Sherman, and others are noticeably missing from the story. But the artist and writers do a great job of creating a fantastical story despite - and keep the reader interested as a result.Received as an ARC from the publisher.

A Russian Special Sciences agent has been possessed by an Ogdru spirit. The B.P.R.D. wants to track him down in Scotland and Carla Giarocco gets the assignment. Mayhem ensues. Meanwhile, ersatz Nazis are trying to restore Rasputin's soul to a new body. Demons and monsters arise on several fronts, including one that looks like a large, multi-legged penis.Unsurprisingly, there's quite a bit of blood and gore to round out a plotline that's heavy on mumbo jumbo and light on character development. All the chaos and destruction is fun, but the "to be continued" nature of the story is disappointing. The many pages devoted to "bonus art" and sketches could have been used to further the story.Some of the artwork is ordinary and some is a little goofy (a monster that looks like a penis fish with herpes had me chuckling), but some pages are chilling. On the whole, I enjoyed the art and the story so it merits a weak four stars, but this volume is a lesser entry in the series.

Arrived just as described clean no creases bought this as a gift for my boyfriend saved money and a trip to comic shop

In theory, BPRD's 'Year of Monsters' in 2012 seemed like a great idea - a glut of stories by different creative teams to 'celebrate' that world literally and metaphorically going to hell. More BPRD could only be a good thing, right? In practice, it muddled the main narrative and, in conjunction with the increasing numbers of spin-off series (Witchfinder, 1947, 1948, Vampire, Lobster Jonhson) rather diluted the brand. There were so many mini-series that very few of them were getting resolution, and coming so soon after series artist Guy Davis' departure, it all all contributed to a sense of a series going through a bit of an identity crisis.This book, number 6 of the Hell on Earth arc, finds the series firmly back on track. The quality of some of the mini-series was very high indeed, but there wasn't much sense of foward momentum. Never did this feel more apparent than in the wool-gathering previous volume. It's only here in this book that the (many) different plot threads are all tied back together into a single narrative, and it makes all the difference. Devon finally makes it back to the Beaureu with Fenix (who they've been trying to get hold of since Book 2!), the Zinco plotline that's been bubbling away for a while comes to major prominence, the ongoing story of Johann's vat-grown body gets some resolution and plot points and loose ends from as far back as 1996's Wake the Devil are touched on. For long-term fans there's a lot here to enjoy, not least with the return of two very old former foes...It all makes for some satisfying reading, as the series seems to know where it's headed again. For every storyline resolved, there's another new one set up for the future, of course, but the series seems more confident about where it's taking them long-term. Tyler Crook is on art chores here, and he too seems reinvigorated since his last series, handling the characters much more confidently (Some of them had seemed a little 'off-model' in his previous books - Kate Corrigan in particular looked a little 'potato-faced' in BPRD: Russia). All in all it's one of the best arcs since Hell on Earth began, and bodes well for the future of this series.