It’s the crossover event years in the making.
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They said they could never make such a crossover event happen. It would be impossible with that kind of star character power, not to mention licensing issues.
But happen, it did.
No, not “Avengers: Infinity War.” Not “Justice League/Avengers.” Not even “Archie Meets the Punisher.”
I’m talking about the two glorious issues of a crossover so seemingly random that it’s like someone at DC and Dark Horse took turns throwing darts at a board to choose the characters.
This week, I’m looking back at the gloriousness of “Batman/Hellboy/Starman”.
Where Did This Come From, Anyway?
I imagine Mike Mignola and James Robinson had drinks at San Diego Comic-Con in 1997, and this crossover was born. In the late 90s, we still had crossovers between companies. DC and Dark Horse had combined for plenty of them, notably some combinations of Predator and Aliens with Batman and Superman.
James Robinson had the hot hand on the now legendary “Starman” book at DC at the time. Mignola was a few years into his career as Hellboy’s storyteller.
And who doesn’t like Batman? Both had worked on Batman before. Mignola, notably, did the “Batman: Gotham by Gaslight” special (that I recently reviewed), and Robinson wrote a much-beloved “Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight” three-parter with Tim Sale called “Blades”.
The story hits all the beats you’d want it to. Some, no doubt, would complain that that makes it “by-the-numbers” or “formulaic.” No, that’s what makes it so darn fun. Most everything you’d want out of a crossover like this happens in the book. What more can you ask for?
Hellboy’s interactions with the two DC characters coming at magical Nazis from different angles is perfect. The quips are all there. The individual points of view are maintained without creating false drama. The characters actually get along. (OK, Batman is a little gruff at first to Hellboy, but he recognizes him for his experience and his specialty quickly enough.)
There’s a plot here that exists for the express purpose of bringing these characters together and letting them bounce off each other. That’s perfect.
The Bat, the Boy, and the Man
The first book opens with Batman chasing the Joker through Gotham because you can never get enough Joker, I guess. But any excuse to have Mike Mignola return to Gotham to draw that cityscape is OK by me. Robinson did the comics world a favor by staging this opening gambit on rooftops across Gotham. It gives Mignola the perfect opportunity to show off his angular art, with his strong sense of shadows and light.
After 25+ years of seeing Mignola draw only Hellboy stories, there’s a weird disconnect in my mind seeing that storytelling being applied to a Batman story. It works just because Batman can be so dark and pull off that style well.
In other words, it’s not something crazy like asking Mignola to draw an issue of “X-Force”… Can you imagine?!?
Then we move to Jack Knight, scientist, who shares some awkward and horribly expository dialogue before being abducted in front of Batman by some magical green-glowing Nazis. You forgive the exposition because, though clunky and obvious, it pushes the back story out of the way so you can move forward and enjoy everything else.
That’s when Hellboy jumps in to help. Literally, he jumps and falls. A lot. It’s a thing with him.
I don’t know of Mignola script doctored this thing or not, but I love Hellboy’s voice in this series. It’s got a good mix of the flippant and the knowledgeable of arcane matters.
That’s really where this book excels. It’s in the dialogue between the characters. Batman is anti-magic. Hellboy is all about magical stuff. Starman accepts the magic, though his father doesn’t despite a lifetimes of experiences with it. They each stay in their lanes, but they crossover enough to make things uncomfortable for themselves and interesting for us.
The “unfortunate” part of this crossover is that the three characters spend almost no time together. The first book is Hellboy and Batman. The second book is Hellboy and Starman. It would have been interesting to get all three together more, too.
Did I Mention the Nazis?
The bad guys in this book are some green-glowing nazis who are trying to pull a demon out of the earth with some cosmic rays. Something like that.
Given all the talk about Nazis in the last couple of years, seeing superheroes punch out Nazis is a cathartic release of sorts. Yes, they all like to punch Nazis.
Don’t overthink this too much, though. It’s Nazis and demons. This is a perfect Hellboy story, really.
The Art of Mignola
It doesn’t get more Mignola than this:
I already mentioned it before, but it’s beautiful in this book. I’m not a huge Mignola fan. I understand what he’s doing and he’s very good at it. I can appreciate it. I just don’t go out of my way to buy it.
That said, I would go out of my way for this book. Everything clicks in it. Of course, he has Matt Hollingsworth coloring him, and they printed the two issues on the perfect paperstock. It holds the solid colors beautifully. Hollingsworth used simple bold colors. There’s no fancy tricks here. Photoshop was still new, if it was even used on this book.
The lettering by Willie Schubert is distinctively his, and I believe is still hand-lettered. Honestly, I had to inspect it pretty closely to figure it out, but I think he’s just that good and consistent…
So, Yeah, Good Book
One last thing: whoever wrote the “This Old House” joke at the end deserves a raise, too. I have never laughed so hard at a Hellboy book in my life.
This story is collected in Dark Horse’s “Hellboy: Masks and Monsters” trade paperback, alongside a Ghost story that Scott Benefiel drew. I don’t see it in the digital archives, but a title like this can be hard to search for.
If you’ve never read it, hunt it down. It’s a fun time.
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