With Abe Sapien on the run and Hellboy in Hell there aren’t a lot of heavy hitters in the B.P.R.D. these days. That being said, there is no end of demons still plaguing our planet and humanity has gotten really used to trying to deal with it ourselves to varied degrees of success. In the current ‘A Cold Day in Hell’ story arc we are following a group of B.P.R.D. who are working with their Russian Counterparts to try and put an end to the demonic menace trying to overrun our planet.
As Agent Giarocco returns from a mission she quickly realizes that the Director of Russia’s occult division isn’t there from his portion. The pilot tells her that the orders are to leave at their appointed time regardless of who is and isn’t there though Giarocco will have none of that. She makes it clear that no man is going to be left behind and with the pilot being a self centered prick she explains that he saved her life and there is no way they are going to leave him behind. Her explanation ends up including a gun and she drags the pilot with her to go save the Director.
They go back and forth as they follow the Director’s tracks on him trying to leave and her saying they are going to continue on. Finally they find him seated frozen in a room with a memory card in hand and no hint at what had happened. It quickly makes sense as a demon attacks them. Said demon is also shown at the beginning of the book as a quick tie in to “Hellboy in Hell’ has these demons being brought out of Hell by one of Satan’s few remaining warlords.
While Giarocco and the demon fight the pilot finds a voice recorder. The first human host for a demon is dispatched while a few of them gather in another body and are about to eat Giarocco when the pilot puts the memory card into it and hits play. Instantly the demon’s body drop and they are flung from our plane of existence. The chant that was on the card appears to be able to stop the demons in their tracks.
Right as the demons drop the Director also is let go of whatever spell was holding him. He explains the chant is what was keeping the area safe having it played over a local radio station that had been knocked out by the demons through the bodies they had stolen and just attacked with. He isn’t sure why they kept him alive though suspected that they had torture in mind.
With the Director free all three of them hurry back to the ship and hightail it out of there, voice recorder in hand.
The art in this novel is not the typical art you’d find in a Mike Mignola book. While the story itself was top notch it almost felt like it was taking place in a different world without the usual style found present in the books he writes. It has more detail and color then what we would usually see and while it looked good it just didn’t feel right. Still a fun read as always from the mind of Mignola.
Writer: Mike Mignola, John Arcudi
Artist: Peter Snejbjerg
Colorist: Dave Stewart
Cover Artist: Dave Johnson
