Ok, so the whole thing was all about the Professor paying more attention to Hellboy? I mean, obviously, it can’t have been, what with little Hellboy only appearing in four of the five issues… oh, wait.

The final issue features an utterly useless battle between a priest and the two vampires who messed up the Professor’s agent. Except the vampires were, near as I could tell from them being staked to the wall, dead as of last issue. But now they’re not vampires, they’re demons.

Why are they demons? So the priest can imply the Professor should kill little Hellboy and the Professor can instead show him love (instead of ignoring him).

It’s a disastrous series.

Didn’t anyone sit down and read the scripts and, after being done reading in three minutes, think they should do something else? Work on them some more perhaps?

There’s nothing here but wasted time.

It’s almost over. I’m going to make it! (I never thought I’d be making that comment about something Dysart wrote).

This issue has less to recommend it than the previous one and it moves even faster. The pacing is accelerating. There’s even a lot of little Hellboy in this one and, while he’s cute and all, it’s not the comic book I bought.

Not having the Professor be the protagonist–not really having a protagonist–is doing this series in. I can’t remember the story of the sort of protagonist now, just because the guy who’s been kidnapped by vampires has such a better backstory.

Speaking of vampires, in the B.P.R.D. universe, do they or do they not appear human? I mean, when they aren’t making people hallucinate. It’s complicated and seems to go back and forth.

One issue left. Almost want to skip it, imagine it redeems the series.

I wish I’d timed how long it took to read that issue. I’m sure I’d be disappointed.

Here, at the end of issue three, I’m to where the first issue should have been ending. Now the actual story can kick off. Maybe. This issue kind of ends the story’s dramatic vehicle, so I guess maybe not.

The issue ends on a reference to the first series, which is why it should be where the first issue, not third, closed. It’s such a slight story, however, it’s hard to imagine the final two issues provoking any interest. I was excited for 1947 and now I’m dreading 1948. Whatever came together on 1946 is absent here.

The plotting seems to be the culprit. The mission isn’t bad, but the first step in the investigation is boring (visit a tranquil French village to do research). They don’t even do the research.

Uh oh.

There’s no setting. It’s messing up the pacing. As much as I dislike comparing one thing to another for the purpose of a “review,” it’s pretty clear this series is breezing by because there’s no setting. It’s some guys in France. There’s nothing to the town–nothing about the French recovering from the war, for example; in fact, this issue, I don’t think a native gets any dialogue.

There’s interesting plotting–the hero in peril speaks his mind, without thinking, and it promises to be interesting–well, next issue it’ll be interesting, this issue it’s just a cliffhanger. Except it’s not at the end of the issue, as there’s still more busywork to do.

The “real” cliffhanger should have been in the first issue, since it’s just explaining something not in need of explanation.

I’m trying to remain upbeat, but it feels like a setup for B.P.R.D.: 1948, nothing else.

I don’t have an opinion yet. Of the story, I mean. The art is wonderful, obviously, it’s Bá and Moon.

But the story… is a pickle. It’s not the Professor’s story, it’s the story of his agents, his agents who are very likely expendable. So we open this new story knowing the four men we meet may all die by the end. A sole survivor situation seems likely as well but five issues isn’t enough to bother trying to guess.

So what do the writers leave us with? There’s a cliffhanger, a couple really, one quiet, one loud, both adding up to the same thing. Once again, there’s a deliberate carefulness to how the period is presented. It’s accurate and informative, without any exposition. It’s masterful storytelling to be sure, it just doesn’t compare well with the first series (yet).

I wish I could be more upbeat; it feels perfunctory.

Mignola, Dysart and Azaceta pull it off.

They don’t exactly pull it off the way I expected (I’d forgotten the conclusion) but they still come through.

Instead of doing something collected, they go all out with a Nazi space rocket and vampires fighting robot gorillas. Let’s not forget the cybernetic Nazi monkey, he was kind of my favorite. I can’t believe a monkey being a Nazi though. They must have brainwashed him.

In other words, they go crazy. It’s a big lunacy absurdist piece. The craziest thing in the comic might just be the decapitated Nazi mad scientist flashing back to loading up all the vampires with his gorilla and monkey sidekicks. It’s just crazy.

But it’s still serious. The scene where the sergeant saves the Professor, it’s amazing. The scene where the little demon Russian girl plays with her doll because she’s upset, amazing.

The whole thing’s just amazing.

I’m going to have a hard time on this response. There are monster gorillas at the end. Monster, cybernetic, Nazi gorillas. It must have been murder waiting for the final issue.

The thing I like most about this issue is when the soldier, the regular soldier, finally loses it on the Professor. He gets knocked down by his CO and all, but it’s been a couple issues coming. There’s a lot of emphasis on reality in 1946 as evidenced this issue with the Nazi general who reminds his interrogators the Nazis were a working class revolution.

It’s a convoluted issue–not in a bad way, I just can’t figure out how one issue’s going to be enough to wrap it up. This issue has the second issue’s villain returning, plus a new villain.

I like how the comic’s conscious of the situation in Berlin, just doesn’t try to make metaphors.

And, after the glorious response to the previous issue, this one….

It’s a very confusing, all action issue. The writers now expect the reader to remember all the disposal army guys, but additionally some Russian ones too. There’s still a lot of content for Azaceta to make fit. But he has to sacrifice establishing panels, which means there’s little frame of reference.

Except the utterly disposable, soon-to-be-dead soldier.

I try to be an attentive reader, but I can’t tell a bunch of guys who look alike (the sergeant’s balding and mustached) apart from a bunch of other guys who look alike–when the soldiers are in horrific situations, Azaceta goes for a close-up, so no telling Russian or American; their uniform’s aren’t visible.

I don’t even know if I’d be harping about it if the series hadn’t raised the bar so high with the last issue.

The cartography of this issue is simple. It opens in this secret Nazi asylum, then they go to a bar, then they go to a house, then they go back to the asylum. However, a whole lot happens at the bar, even though it’s all in conversation (the army guys come to respect the Professor), a whole lot happens at the house (the series’s hook, Nazi vampires, is revealed) and then a lot happens on the way back to the asylum (the history of the Nazi vampires, the history of the “little girl” who runs the Russian investigation team).

It’s a full and rich experience and completely unlike not just other mainstream books, but it’s unlike almost every comic book. The plotting seems more based on television than comic books. It’s not an issue, it’s an episode.

Here’s where I, on my first read, decided it was a great comic.

I’ve read this series before and mostly remember it (no, I don’t), but I’m shocked how little reaction there is from the Professor over his Russian counterpart, Varvara (who’s apparently a little girl).

It’s a strange scene, the most striking before the last one and the last one is a lead-in to a cliffhanger. Seeing as how 1946 is the only B.P.R.D. series I’ve read, it makes me wonder if this kind of strangeness is common in the franchise.

The issue’s incredibly solid–I love Azaceta; it’s really traditional too. It’s a first act, an introduction. The cliffhanger comes as a surprise even, since there’s so little action or hint at action until that point. Instead, the comic’s a lot of history. It really appeals to the historian in me, I suppose.

There’s also a particular way the writers deal with groups. It’s very three dimensional, very well done.