B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: The Long Death

[Clayton]

This was such a great story and seeing it unfold as it did still shocked me, even though it went the way most of us thought it would. Does that make sense? Funny thing, thinking about all of this the day after reading it and I am even more curious about what this all means for the spirit of ___ being inside the body of the ____ . When this should all be over with for this character, maybe it really isn't.

[cantide]

Any chance we can mark this thread as "Spoilery" and discuss without hushed tones..?

All I can say without giving anything away is that in one issue Daryl has become one of my absolute favorite characters in BPRD. Just jesus. The implications of this issue for him...

[thwhtGuardian]

That was probably one of the best fight scenes I've ever seen in a comic.

The comic was really evocative of Age of Reptiles for me, with its cinematic style and heavy use of art to carry the narrative. It was just a very different book than most issues in the Hellboy universe, I mean when was the last time we saw a full page spread? And there were two in this issue.

I was blown away by the end, I mean I think we all saw it coming but it didn't make it any easier.

[Jr. Wormwood]

This was such a great story and seeing it unfold as it did still shocked me, even though it went the way most of us thought it would. Does that make sense? Funny thing, thinking about all of this the day after reading it and I am even more curious about what this all means for the spirit of ___ being inside the body of the ____ . When this should all be over with for this character, maybe it really isn't.

SPOILERS


So Daimio's spirit is now in the wendigo, is this correct? While I will miss Daryl's personality, having a bad ass military leader in the body of a demon beast is pretty exciting. But only if Daimio's will is somehow strong enough to keep from disappearing, as has been stated is what happens.

I don't have the issues in front of me, maybe it's in there, but do we know what ended up happening with that blade?

Now I have this fantasy BPRD team in my head. Something like - BPRD: Monster Unit, made up of Daimio/wendigo, the future form of Abe Sapien, and Panya with her menagerie of strange creatures. That would be a pretty bad ass heavy hitting team.

[Middenway]

SPOILERS

...Well, that didn't resolve anything! Is Daimio dead? If the wendigo curse worked, then no, he's a wendigo now and Daryl has passed on. Of course, this wendigo hasn't been working properly for some reason, so maybe Daryl is still in there and we really have said goodbye to Daimio. But I wouldn't know from that ending. This just feels like a lot of dangling threads for the future here.

OK, one thing was resolved, Johann's drive to kill Daimio. We'll see how that plays out. Also, I wonder what happened to that knife that could kill ghosts? Was it recovered or lost in the snow?

A cool story, but as is usually the case, it'll read better in the trade. Action-orientated issues always go by much to fast. They feel like ten pages, even though this one actually had an extra page in there. But if I waited for the trade, I'd miss all these post-story conversations, and that'd suck.

[Clayton]

Yes, Jr. Wormwood. BUT... Daryll, it was suggested is not a murderer. So, how did he become the wendigo when the "rules" of the wendigo did not apply in his case (unless, the BPRD are wrong about Daryll's history and he was in fact a murderer). So, to me it raises the question: if Daryll/wendigo kills known murderer Ben/were-jaguar will the "rules" of the wendigo-possession still apply? Crazy!

Maybe I'm just over thinking it. Ben is now the wendigo and he goes back and finds the ghost-killing knife in his new body and ends it all.

[Jr. Wormwood]

Or, if Ben/wendigo has the blade that can kill ghosts... Johann better be veeerrrrrryyyy careful.

I'm glad this story has left some new plot threads. The intrigue surrounding these three characters is so rich. I want more!

Oh, and that sequence of panels where it looked for sure that Ben had killed Daryl... The way the arms of the wendigo fell away from the were-jaguar as it turned away. Simply marvelous! I thought for sure Daryl was dead, but then turn the page and... BAM!!

Such a great, great story.

[Middenway]

SPOILERS

It's interesting. This story was clearly an end of something/someone... we just don't know what yet. Though it's probably safe to say the were-jaguar thing is no longer a problem, Daimio still has his grandmother's history and the Noh Monkey to contend with.

[Kelly Tindall]

Crazy stuff. I can't imagine anticipating a comic book more this whole year.

Daryl is my spirit animal.

[Artie Ness]

After reading Mignola's words about these pages exceeding his expectations I had very high ones: they were fulfilled beyond my dreams.

This was truly magnificent in every sense, the art, the atmosphere, the mystery, the action. Wow. I didn't read it, I drank it in less than an eye blinks.

And-

***SPOILERS

-it opens indeed great plot lines. Really left me more thirsty than before. All those questions... Jr. Wormwood Middenway's posts already summed them all up and helped rise new ones!
I do wonder how much of Daimio was left though to inhabit the Wendigo, he did scream: "Look at me! It's all gone! There's nothing left!"

***

Funny that about the whole "Daryl not being a killer" subject... well, poor naive Bambi lover such as me always thought "oh, but he is, he was hunting when his soul got taken!"
Which I guess it'd be such a Vegan thing to think, maybe I should become one.

[cantide]

SPOILERS



The way I read the issue... Daryl was still human inside the Wendigo, even if he couldn't tell anyone about it. That's why he chose to hunt and eat things, and maybe why he reacted the way he did a long time ago when Ben made the offhand comment that "Nobody thinks about ol' Daryl anymore"...

So if Daryl was still there inside the wendigo, he must have made the conscious choice not to kill Ben at any point before. He could've easily done it while he was asleep or weak or at any other point in time. At the end, he seemed really, really reluctant to engage in that fight with Ben--but why? He had to have known that if he succeeded in killing him, his own spirit would be free (at the price of Ben's). Maybe that's why he never did it... he didn't want to trap Ben the same way he was trapped.

I have no idea if I'm right about this, but I think the most likely course of events here is that Daryl managed to kill Ben, freeing himself and trapping Ben's spirit inside the Wendigo. In which case, Ben is either still "here" (like Daryl was) or lost (like Daryl was supposed to be). Maybe this depends on whether the "rules" of Wendigos still actually apply or were ever valid in the first place and not just myth...

I hope the knife shows up again, that's a pretty powerful thing to just lost in the snow. (Do you really think Ben would hunt down Johann and try to kill him with that knife?? He has to understand Johann's point of view...)

[Gary_B]

I hope Johann finds the photo of Daryl's family in the snow and keeps it. It's sad to think of it just lying there. Although it could serve as a silent memorial.

[Thomas Uk]

SPOILERS



Wow, what an issue, the art was just visceral! I was a little dissapointed withn some of the outcome, don't know what I was expecting but I wanted more insight into Damio's state of mind, maybe more of a final conversation with Johann. A good horror story always ends with more questions than answers though and it looks like Ben's story isn't over yet. Loved the visual metaphor of Johan annointing damio's head with water and the resonance that had with his discussion on baptisms with Giarocco in #1, very clever writing.

Hope we get to see more of Nichols and the other BPRD agents, especially Giarocco. I really didn't want to get too attatched to her after Liz's vision of the future in 'king of fear' but damn it I care about what happens to her now!

In terms of trade collections, do we thin kthis will be collected alongside pickens county horror?

[Middenway]

SPOILERSLoved the visual metaphor of Johan annointing damio's head with water and the resonance that had with his discussion on baptisms with Giarocco in #1, very clever writing.

I didn't even notice that! That's incredibly awesome!

In terms of trade collections, do we thin kthis will be collected alongside pickens county horror?

That question has been asked before. Scott Allie's answer was:

Your assumptions about how things are being collected are not accurate, but I think you'll agree, reluctantly, that what we're doing will make sense.

[Kelly Tindall]

SPOILERSLoved the visual metaphor of Johan annointing damio's head with water and the resonance that had with his discussion on baptisms with Giarocco in #1, very clever writing.

Nice catch! Didn't notice that, but I loved that little moment.