About Heroes

Writer(s): Mike Mignola & John Arcudi
Art: Guy Davis

The story starts off with a flashback to London, 1859. There is a mummy’s unrolling at the focus of a socialite party, upon unwrapping though….well… the mummy is found to still be ALIVE. Flash forward to present day wherein Abe Sapien receives a delivery, a cigar case with the intials L.E.C. In past stories it has been hinted that Abe Sapien once was a man named Langdon Everett Caul, what’s more Caul also was at the “unrolling” party in 1859. As you progress through the issues bits of story slowly start coming together more and more, until Abe reaches an island where he hopes to have some questions answered. There is more but, I’d rather not ruin it for you.

So bottom line, is this worth taking the time to pick up? Maybe. The story starts off a bit rough, you have three or four different plotlines in the works which makes it hard, for a “newb” to BPRD, to understand what’s going on. The inside cover page breaking down each member of the BPRD and their current status helps a little but…yeah…this is not a book to just pick up lightly. By the third issue you get a little more of a understanding of what all is going on and more depth/insight into certain characters. What’s a tad disappointing throughout the whole story is, your never really given a clear concise background on what type of person Abe had been before his transformation, sure there are bits but, I just wanted more. The side-plot involving Liz Sherman didn’t seem to really connect to anything relative to this story. Captain Benjamin Daimio’s story while interesting seems a tad underused, and better utilized in a story focused more on his own past, then in a storyline that seemingly is about Abe Sapien’s past.

The artwork within these issues is great. Guy Davis draws some tight, sharp lines, helping to give each panel the hard grittiness that has become a staple in Mignola projects. Oh as a complete aside…Davis can draw some bad-assed ole' school robots (before it was all the cool “new-thing” in Bioshock)

Kudos go to Dave Stewart and his coloring of these issues as well.

So, in closing, though intriguing in story and in art, this story is intended for those already grooving on the BPRD mojo, all of you new to BPRD, read BPRD: The Dead first, then come back and read this sucker. B+