Summary
- Hellboy has been transformed into a giant robot to explore an island infested with dangerous kaiju.
- The story starts with Hellboy being kidnapped and attached to a device that transfers his brainwaves to the giant robot.
- The design of Hellboy’s giant robot form had to feel real and include clunky finger joints to convey the mechanical nature of the robot.
WARNING! Spoilers ahead for Giant Robot Hellboy #1Hellboy has been turned into a giant robot in his latest three-issue miniseries, and now the reason for his new mecha form has finally been explained. Giant Robot Hellboy tells the story of Big Red being recruited by a mysterious organization to explore an island overrun by dangerous kaiju. How is Hellboy supposed to accomplish this task? By transforming into a giant robot version of himself, of course.
Coming from the creative team of Mike Mignola, Duncan Fegredo, Dave Stewart and Clem Robins, the story starts with Hellboy in 1967 London. There he is tranquilized and kidnapped by an unknown organization that needs to retrieve valuable information from an island full of kaiju.
Hellboy is then unknowingly attached to an apparatus that transfers his brainwaves to a giant robot version of himself. And, because this is Hellboy we’re talking about, it isn’t long before he finds himself in a fight against equally giant monsters.
Giant Robot Hellboy started out as part of a series of sketches creator Mike Mignola did during quarantine.
Giant Robot Hellboy Sees Big Red Get Even Bigger
Speaking with CBR, series artist Duncan Fegredo talked about the challenges of bringing Mignola’s original design to life on the comic book page. “I just had to make it feel like a huge action figure because I understood action figures!” Fegredo says, “I felt it necessary to make the finger joints more clunky, suggesting a mechanical articulation that felt possible.” For the artist, the design had to be real enough so that he could actually hear the heaviness of Hellboy’s giant robot form in his mind. “I know when I was drawing it, I could hear those huge metal joints clanking and protesting. If I couldn’t hear it in my mind, then it wasn’t working.”
When first waking in his new body, it takes a while for Hellboy to get used to his giant robot form. Big Red stumbles along the island’s beach for a time before he’s attacked by one of the island’s many kaiju. The scientists and techs watching the action from their lab mention an arsenal that Giant Robot Hellboy can draw upon, including hand-cannons and missiles. Hellboy doesn’t seem to be aware of any such weaponry, however, and quickly takes a thrashing from the kaiju that knocks Big Red on his ass.
Giant Robot Hellboy Takes a Kaiju Thrashing
Who the mysterious organization that’s kidnapped Hellboy is remains to be seen, as does their reasons for sending him to the island full of kaiju in the first place. Another agent named Jian appears in the issue, where she recovers important documents from a bunker that’s been overrun by giant spiders. Whether or not Hellboy gains control over his new giant robot form to help or hurt this unknown organization remains to be seen, but fans will definitely have to keep reading Giant Robot Hellboy to find out.
Giant Robot Hellboy #1 is on sale now from Dark Horse Comics.
Source: CBR
