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Hellboy 2

Ron Perlman, Selma Blair

Even though comics might be the most creatively alive medium in our contemporary culture, almost no superhero has broken out of the fanboy ghetto into mainstream consciousness and popular culture since the late 1960s and early 70s, since Stan “The Man” Lee and “Jumping” Jack Kirby were creating Marvel zombies by introducing young readers to the X-Men, The Hulk, Spider-Man, and The Fantastic Four. Yet, the shear avalanche of new and interesting characters introduced to the world almost every day is mind blowing. Most of this isolationism is due to small readership, but more importantly the small demographic, that picks up comics today. In the 1970s, a child accompanying their mother to the grocery store often camped out in front of the magazine rack reading the adventures of Batman & Robin, Iron Man, and Spider-Man as his or her mother did her shopping. While not making huge sales with these crumb crunchers, Marvel and DC, the big two, were recruiting new readers.

The problem with this kind of marketing was grocery stores and newsstands had a long standing practice of returning to the publisher all unsold product. In turn, it often took months for publishers to learn how successful a particular comic book was. A miscalculation of readership could cost thousands of dollars. Also, in order to save mailing costs and space, it was a common practice among retailers to only send back the front cover for refund which produced a huge black market of comics sold from under the counter. It was then that publishers found the answer to their age old problem. Shops specializing in solely selling comics began opening up across the nation. Not only could they carry a wider selection than the magazine racks but the owners of these establishments were not allowed to return unsold product thus putting the burden on retailer to know their client base instead of the companies. The number of monthly adventures and titles of superheroes could increase dramatically and sales numbers known right away which would allow the companies to better meet the tastes of their clients. Plus, the black market for comic books was effectively closed and independent companies could get their titles in front of readers. Add to this, owners of such establishments were usually fanboys themselves and could give better service to helping their readers find what they desired.

It seemed like a win-win situation for everyone, except for one little problem, new young readers were not being cultivated. A person had to purposely go into a comic book shop to pick up their monthly titles, and busy mothers are not going to take their child who has not yet discovered these colorful adventures to specialized shops for an hour or two a week. There was a more relaxed atmosphere in the grocery store as youngster learned who Superman, Green Lantern, and Thor were. Mothers are more willing to purchase a copy of Wonder Woman or Ghost Rider that their youngster has just discovered as she is putting her groceries on the cash register stand to be rung up to keep the ankle biter quite than anything else. Once that element was removed, new readership started to dry up and comic readership aged and consolidated. With the influx of superhero films, the Internet, graphic novels being introduced into book stores, and niche marketing, this situation is changing quickly but no newly created superhero has become a pop culture icon.

The two that have come closest are Todd MacFarland’s Spawn and Mike Mignola’s Hellboy. While Spawn has been losing popularity over the course of the last decade, Hellboy’s fan base has continued to grow in readership since his creation in 1993. For those of you who do not know who Hellboy is, he is a combination of an old EC horror comics character and a modern superhero, a cigar chomping red-skinned demon complete with tail, filed off horns, and an oversize stone right hand. (Mignola claims the look and personality of Hellboy is based on his father.) Brought to earth by Nazi occultists, he was rescued by Allied forces and handed over to the United States’ Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD). Although being a bit crude, he shows no malevolence of his heritage and works with others misfits and strange beings to take care of paranormal creatures that the BPRD come across. Possessing superhuman strength, amazing healing ability, and an ability to comprehend ancient and magical languages, nearly fireproof, ages slower than normal once he reached maturation, and often dispatches his foes with an oversized gun he calls “Samaritan” as it is made from melted church bells and pieces of the true cross. It fires bullets that contain fragments of garlic, holy water, silver shavings, and other material that affects supernatural creatures. Drawing on ancient folklore across the world and influenced by the work of Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, and Jack Kirby. Among his cohorts are Abe Sapien, a man-like amphibian, Liz Sherman, a young woman whose pyrokinetic abilities are often out of her control, Roger, a large homunculus, and Kate Corrigan, a expert in folklore. With adventures spanning for over sixty years, Hellboy has battled ghosts, witches, vampires, werewolves, sorcerers, and other occult figures.

Director Guillermo Del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Blade 2), a master of modern horror, loves the character and fought long and hard to cast Ron Pearlman as Hellboy when Sony and Revolution Studios wanted a bigger named actor in the role. While well received by critics, the original film did not find the audience in the theater it was looking for. Much like the original Hulk film, audiences and fans seemed to believe the movie lacked the action that they were expecting from a comic book and dove too much into character development. When everything was said and done, the big red dude took in a little over $59 million in the US box office, about $1 million less than production costs. Yet, Hellboy found a whole new audience on DVD and is now back on for a second bite of big screen success with Hellboy 2: The Golden Army.

Superhero movies usually break the golden rule of movie franchises, which is with each successive film, the quality of entertainment lessens and usually by the third film, the movie is almost unwatchable. This rule can be seen in such franchises like Lethal Weapon, Rambo, Crocodile Dundee, and Rocky. When it comes to superhero films as of late, usually the second film is better than the first, and then the quality degenerates from there. This is because the opening film usually has to tell the origin story and then shoehorn in a villain for the protagonist to defeat before the closing credits. The second film usually involves a straight forward, action packed battle between good and evil. By the third film in the series the studio is throwing everything but the kitchen sink at you for dismaying results. The X-Men, Blade, and Spider-Man franchises illustrate this phenomena. Hellboy appears to be no different so far. The second film is the franchise is light years better than the first and I really enjoyed the first. With the cast, especially Selman Blair and Ron Pearlman, signed to low cost contracts and shot in the rather economic Czech Republic, means almost every dollar of the budget is seen on the screen and there is more action in the opening minutes of this film than in the entire first film.

Okay, okay, the following sentence is going to determine if this is a movie for you or not. Hellboy 2 tells the story of a battle between the surface world, humanity, and an invisible fantasy realm populated by magical bad-ass fairies, elves and other mythical creatures. If you are thinking that is the dumbest thing you have ever heard, who the hell would want to see that, this movie is not for you. If you are willing to go with the premise, even think that it sounds pretty cool, you will not regret going to this film. In my opinion, it is the second best superhero film of the summer, right behind The Dark Knight.

Mexican born Guillermo del Torro might be the best director in the business today this side of Peter Jackson when it comes to using CGI and special effects. His Pan's Labyrinth might be the most underrated powerful film of the last decade. It is one of the reasons that Entertainment Weekly ranked him as the 37^th smartest person in Hollywood and he has been asked to take over the reigns of the next two The Hobbit films, The Lord Of The Rings prequels and Marvel Comics’ Dr. Strange movie franchise. When it comes to making a fantasy world, there is no one better and it can be seen in this film.

Verdict: Better than the First Film