B.P.R.D. Killing Ground #3

Dark Horse Comics

Writer: John Arcudi and Mike Mignola

Artist: Guy Davis

Colors: Dave Stewart

How is this review like a total bunghole’s Honda Civic? It has a big, fat spoiler. You’ve been warned.

The Obligatory Warning: Blood and guts. All over the floor and walls, thanks to a ghost-monster's appetite.

In BPRD Killing Ground #3, the team at the BPRD goes on lockdown. Daryl the man-eating Wendigo has escaped his cell, and the entire base mobilizes to try and imprison him--again. Liz Sherman is visited by the eerie YOU HUNGRY FOR HOT POCKETS guy who’s plagued her dreams for months, and Johann Kraus is off base socializing with women of questionable character.

Ok, now for that SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER. BPRD mainstay Benjamin Daimio may be dead. His room explodes while he's in it, so…yeah. Doesn’t seem good for him. Since BPRD already has a (formerly) disembodied character, this may not be the end for Daimio. That said, the issue’s saturated with hints that Daimio is gone. Early in the story, Daimio destroys that bizarre monkey-in-a-flask thing that keeps taunting him, creating personal closure.  Daimio's (perhaps final) exit has the significance of a Noh drama, each movement richly suggestive of what has been and will be.

Then again, he is on the cover of next month’s issue.

Daimio's attacker/murderer is the same weirdo who snuck into BPRD headquarters with a screwdriver last issue (that still doesn’t make sense). The story still doesn’t say who screwdriver-man is, but my money’s on him being a former member of the military unit Daimio led to their deaths.

It’s to Mignola and Arcudi’s credit that they can still pack a transitional issue with important material like Daimio’s death (?). That doesn’t change the fact that there are still a million loose threads in this story, and I’m betting Mignola won’t resolve them by the denouement. That tendency to leave things as open as a poorly written middle-school essay adds a mysterious, enticing quality to Hellboy, but it frustrates in BPRD.

Give Guy Davis enough monsters and explosions, and he’ll do fine, like in this issue. Daryl the Wendigo’s escape is impressive, and Daimio’s (final?) walk into his room is appropriately dramatic. Davis also fosters a sense of heavy claustrophobia that contributes about half of the story’s mood.

Worth the money? If you’re following the story, sure. If not, save those extra dollars for a car without a humiliating airfoil.