Hellboy, Vol. 5: Conqueror Worm (v. 5) (Paperback)

~ Mike Mignola (Author, Artist)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Winner of the 2002 Eisner Award for Best Limited Series, this story promotes Guillermo del Toro's upcoming film by reminding readers how fine Mignola is as a visual creator and how skilled he is at setting up outrageously melodramatic scenes to illustrate. Hellboy was a baby demon retrieved by psychic investigators who couldn't bring themselves to destroy the little imp. They brought him up to be a not-especially-secret agent of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. In this story, the massive, red-skinned hero is sent to investigate the ruins of a castle where Nazis conducted occult/scientific experiments, accompanied by his colleague Roger the Homunculus and supposedly aided by a blonde Austrian agent who isn't what she seems. They soon encounter undead Nazis, space aliens and the early 20th-century costumed crime fighter Lobster Johnson. Meanwhile, a space capsule launched from the castle in 1939 is about to land, containing an evil spirit from the stars. From here, the plot sails into even weirder territory. Readers who let themselves be carried along, however, can enjoy beautifully designed pages full of dark shadows and images of skulls and gargoyles. Hellboy might look silly on a midtown street corner at high noon, but it's hard to laugh at him as he fights monsters in dark gothic crypts draped with tattered swastika banners. Mignola counts on the power of the art to push his readers through thickets of absurdity until they come out the other side, into a state of delirious wonder. Sometimes he succeeds.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Description

At the end of World War II, American costumed-adventurer Lobster Johnson led an Allied attack on Hitler's space program, but not before the Nazis were able to launch the first man into space. Now, after sixty years, Hellboy is partnered with an artifical man - a Frankenstein's monster implanted by Bureau scientists with a bomb - to travel to the ruined castle in Norway to intercept the returning capsule, and its single passenger. . .the conqueror worm.

Product Details

• Paperback: 168 pages
• Publisher: Dark Horse; 2nd edition (February 4, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593070926
• ISBN-13: 978-1593070922
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 6.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #82,049 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #12 in	Books > Comics & Graphic Novels > Characters > Hellboy
  #20 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( M ) > Mignola, Mike

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Hellboy versus big monsters. What's not to like?, March 12, 2010

By	Joseph P. Menta, Jr. (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (VINE VOICE)

There's lots of decent content in "Hellboy, Volume 5: Conqueror Worm", but my favorite story in here was the one used for the volume's title. The long, meaty (pun intended) "Conquerer Worm" takes themes and set pieces from a variety of other Hellboy adventures and does them over bigger, better, and more intensely, almost as if Mike Mignola was making his own little Hellboy movie. So, even though you might say to yourself, "Hmmmm, hasn't Hellboy fought a big worm before?", you won't care because this is a bigger and better worm and there's lots more drama and danger. Anyway, the whole book is good, but you'll especially want to curl up with the "Conquerer Worm" epic. Keep these Hellboy collections coming.

5.0 out of 5 stars Epic Hellboy..., August 10, 2009

By	DevPool "DevPool" (Hawaii) - See all my reviews

This is a damn good edition in the Hellboy series. Riddled with quotes from Poe's poem "Conqueror Worm", and saturated with Mike Mignola's genius, this book does not disappoint.

Some of Mr. Mignola's best artwork can be seen here, and the writing is perfectly in step with it. The artwork and writing are almost too simple, and yet there is an incredible depth to both. It astounds me every time I read a new (to me) Hellboy!

This story is an important part of the Hellboy saga, and while I suggest that readers ought to have read volumes 1-4, it's not "mandatory" as there is enough expository dialogue to get the reader up to speed.

If you're not reading Hellboy, you should be!!!!

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite Hellboy Volume, May 2, 2009

By	Marie Ooley "& Modest Max" (Oklahoma, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have always loved Mike Mignola's art, but this volume of Hellboy is the ultimate in the collection in my eyes, with its culmination of such magnificent art and intriguingly frightening storytelling.