B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: The Abyss of Time

[Junior Wormwood]

I absolutely loved this issue. Wasn't too hot on the opening set of pages in modern day Chicago, but as soon as they went back to the tribe people, I was fully on board. I'm a big fan of the smaller moments, the history, and how Mike, John, and Scott tie everything together so wonderfully. I get the feeling those not liking this issue will have a different opinion once issue 2, er... 104 comes out.

[cantide]

I absolutely loved this issue. Wasn't too hot on the opening set of pages in modern day Chicago, but as soon as they went back to the tribe people, I was fully on board. I'm a big fan of the smaller moments, the history, and how Mike, John, and Scott tie everything together so wonderfully. I get the feeling those not liking this issue will have a different opinion once issue 2, er... 104 comes out.

I actually really enjoyed the modern-day parts! And now that I'm thinking about that and not the prehistoric stuff--I am really glad to see the Heliopic Brotherhood of Ra back in the picture. Those guys were crazy. I liked the photos in the book--one involved that masked guy from Witchfinder and was the other a photo of some of the older Wild Hunt guys?

I can't say I didn't like this issue, it's just a rough transition between stories. But I'm definitely looking forward to the next one!

[thwhtGuardian]

For me, this held up amazingly next to the last arc, and I thought that was easily one of the best BPRD stories of all time. For a little while there last year I didn't particularly care for BPRD but lately it's been back at the top of its game, I anticipate each issue's coming and and each one feels better than the last, and this is no exception. It doesn't build upon the reveal of the last issue but honestly that doesn't bother me one bit. The world building in this issue was just as satisfying as the end of the last, I loved the caveman part(it reminded me a lot of Joe Kubert's Tor) and the line about the room reminding them of the one Hellboy stumbled into in Dr.Carp's experiment was perfect as I was thinking that exact same thing as I was reading it.

[Middenway]

I was discussing this story on Facebook when Mike Mignola decided he'd chime in:

"I could do a hundred issues about the prehistoric Hellboy world--I just didn't know how it was going to go over in BPRD. Trust me guys you will be seeing more of it--Promise."

Obviously this made me very happy.

[Neil Hill]

I was discussing this story on Facebook when Mike Mignola decided he'd chime in:

"I could do a hundred issues about the prehistoric Hellboy world--I just didn't know how it was going to go over in BPRD. Trust me guys you will be seeing more of it--Promise."

Obviously this made me very happy.

Learning more about Mike's cosmological version of the earth's history and how all of the various mysteries of the world fit into that view is what makes his world so exciting and rich. I'm onboard for any more stories like this one. Loving how the past and present are being tied together thru the conduit of this mysterious tribal axe. Obviously we've seen it (or something similar) before, so seeing its history revealed- which in turns ties back to other characters from Hellboy world- is like a warm and comforting feeling of familiarity edged with more than a hint of mystery. Love it.

[cantide]

"I could do a hundred issues about the prehistoric Hellboy world--I just didn't know how it was going to go over in BPRD. Trust me guys you will be seeing more of it--Promise."

Knowing that he has so much material for the prehistoric world makes me want an ongoing for it, and I wasn't even really interested in that time period before this issue!

That's awesome to hear!

[Middenway]

From Mike Mignola's Paste interview:
"There are two different books that I’m going to be writing. There are things that I’ve touched on in Hellboy that have never really been fully explored, so that’s one of the things on my list after I finish this first arc of Hellboy in Hell. I’m really looking forward to writing these two. They’ll probably be two 5-issue miniseries. And I don’t want to say what they are yet, but they’re stories that take place previous to what we’ve been doing. They’re slotted in a time period that we underdeveloped, dealing with those characters who haven’t gotten as much of a spotlight as maybe they should."

It's possible one of these stories could be a prehistory story.

[thwhtGuardian]

I'm down for more pre-history stories.

The only thing that saddens me about them is that Joe Kubert passed away too soon to collaborate with Mignola on this kind of story. After reading the Abyss of Time last week I dug out my issues of Tor and had a cave man read-a-thon. The two were very complimentary, as soon as it flashed back to the cavemen guys Kubert was the first thing that crossed my mind.

[Angilas-Man]

This book kinda snuck up on me. I wasn't expecting something this cool.

[Middenway]

I'm curious to see how this one wraps up, given what we know from The Return of the Master. Johann was sent to find Lehane's crew, all of which went missing. From what we've seen so far, only Howards seems to be in any actual danger, but I guess the other two are soon going to find themselves in trouble...

Plus, Page 1 raw inks:

[Middenway]

Preview for issue 2

[Gary_B]

Wow! James Harren's art is so good! I can't wait to read this!

[Middenway]

Here's the review from Mignolaversity on issue two. Scott Allie drops in for a question at the end too:

Scott, to some, Abyss of Time might seem like a random tangent given the conclusion of The Return of the Master, but having read it, it seems pretty apparent that a lot of the threads involved with AoT are going to be important going forward in the series and in others like Abe Sapien even. For those that read Abyss of Time and wonder why now for this story, what do you have to say? Why now for this story in particular?

Scott Allie: The story connects deeply to a lot of things that are going. People felt like it was coming out of nowhere because they were looking in one direction—backward. It felt like a real detour after Return of the Master. But Return of the Master was a big turning point leading to bigger things. Threads that go really far back are starting to come together. Most readers have already figured out the connection between Abyss of Time and Hellboy in Hell, but there’s more to come.

I feel a bit dumb, because I haven't figured it out...

[Storey74]

I feel a bit dumb, because I haven't figured it out...

No worries, neither have I.

Either way it was a great read... looking forward to revisiting this time period again. The Mignolaversity review also mention a tie in the the new Abe Sapien series. Looking forward to see what the connection turns out to be.

[Middenway]

My guess is it's vampires since Scott Allie has been writing all the vampire stuff in B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth and he's taking the lead on Abe Sapien. Also John Arcudi doesn't like writing vampires.