Hellboy: Wild Hunt #4 preview (SPOLERS)

[mattmanw54301]

OK, so the usual preview is availabe here: http://www.darkhorse.com/Comics/Previews/15-370?page=0. Here is my question: Why does HB have his horns? The cover for issue 5 clearly shows him with sawn-off stumps on his head. Is this a dream? Does he rip the horns off again? What say you guys?

[manwiththemachinegun]

When Hellboy gets pushed to his limits, he's more likely I believe to call on (subconsciously) his demon nature. When Hecate and Ulac really started batting Hellboy around, his horns grew.

According to that page, the battle lasted against those giants for forty seven hours. That's gotta take its toll, one way or another.

He does however, look incredibly badass after that battle. I'm reminded of Samurai Jack, and that's a good thing.

http://www.gamingsanctuary.com/SamJackCAPTION.jpg

[Jackson Brody]

The battle didn't last 47 hours. It is flashing back to 47 hours before the book's current thread, which is Hellboy hanging out with Alice. He most likely broke the horns off right after the battle.

I like how Mignola structured the giant battle, as a series of flashbacks as opposed to one linear scene. It's such a great reveal at this point in the story. I can't wait for next week.

It's cool to finally see the horns come out on their own, instead of being drawn out by the likes of Hecate or Bromhead.

[mattmanw54301]

It's cool to finally see the horns come out on their own, instead of being drawn out by the likes of Hecate or Bromhead.

Maybe they were drawn out by someone. I prefer the theory that the angrier HB gets, the more they grow. Like he has a literal mad-on. lol.

[gdeo]

that preview is awesome...thanks,matthew!

[TheFolklorist]

People on this forum already know how much I like to compare Hellboy to fairy-tale protagonists (having already compared him once to Peter Pan on another thread)…

…So on the subject of Hellboy's horns, I’ve always compared it to Pinocchio’s nose, whenever the boy-puppet lied his nose grew, whenever Hellboy “sins” or lets his demon nature come through his horn grow. Simple as that.

[Ontarah]

I'm out at my mom's house which is way out in the boondocks where all she can get is dial-up. Man, I just about lost it waiting for that preview to load. I feel like I'm back in the Stone Age.

Anyway, I guess I had forgotten that this part of the preview was actually a flashback so this technically happens before the events in issue 3. That's interesting and I did think that issue 3 sort of leaped forward and skipped a whole batch of stuff. One moment he's about to fight giants and then poof he's with Alice. In other words, I think something big and important happened in the fight with the giants that issue 4 is fixing to go back and fill us in on. We see some flashbacks of this fight in issue 3 and each time it's mentioned HB kind of crabs up and either looks guilty or testy. Page 4 and page 15 specifically.

Up to this point, it seems that each time his horns have grown they have been "drawn out" by Hecate or Rasputin or someone else. Heck, there was even that one bit in Weird Tales where that naked naiad type made one horn grow by touching it (but that's not canon and is mostly just meant as innuendo besides.) This might be the first time where Hellboy himself has made his horns grow on his own and that would fit right in with Queen Mab going on about how he is just now realizing the inevitability of his destiny. It would also explain why he's so closed lipped about it and testy when someone brings it up. So maybe we're fixing to get a flashback of HB's first real "demonic" episode that was not drawn out by some external powerful entity. For the first time, he is fixing to go all hellfire and brimstone on his own. That's just my guess anyway.

As to why it happens at this precise point well, there's always the chance that something really specific happened to trigger it that we will see in the next issue. On the other hand, the last little bit since the Island has probably been the most stressful in Hellboy's life, certainly the most stressful since Seed of Destruction. Now he doesn't even have a home or his friends to fall back on. He's tried to run away from his destiny but no matter where he goes, it keeps catching up with him and he's all by himself having to deal with it. Plus, people keep mercilessly trying to kill him or steal his power. Maybe, he finally just snaps. I know I probably would after being left for dead in a creek with a spear in my chest and then having to fight a bunch of giants.

Sheesh, I didn't mean to write a novel. And on a side note I almost wish he would run around with his horns grown out for a while. I think it makes him really cool looking.

[brocca]

Dear friends,

Duncan Fegredo is getting better and better all the time--just imagine how good he'd be if he would have been drawing Hellboy from the start...

Greetings--