The Good
Who is Ab Sapien? That is what the current story has been dealing with. Abe's creator, Mike Mignola, has been gradually exploring the character's identity and backstory in an effort to give audiences a better understanding of his identity, who he is and where he has come from beyond his association to the B.P.R.D. Yet, in order to chain an understanding of who he is, Abe must return to B.P.R.D. headquarters to begin his journey.
This is one of Mignola's wordier issues in that there is a lot of dialogue explaining what is going on. For Mignola this is rare: he often creates very elaborate, drawn out panels that are focused on the art and allow the artist to tell the story: this is not so much the case here. Well, not as much anyway. In this case having plenty of dialogue can be a good thing: Abe Sapien's story is one that many readers and fans of HELLBOY and B.P.R.D. have likely been interested in discovering, so to get a bit of his story and to further discover his identity is actually very interesting.
After the first few pages the story picks up where the previous issue left off: with the B.P.R.D. in a search for Abe Sapien. There is a very quick shift away from this and back to Abe, who is at present in search of some shelter. Readers become better acquainted with recent events in the region where the story is taking place, before delving into Abe once again.
The Bad
Although I thoroughly enjoyed the pencils, I didn't like the colors in this issue very much: a lot of it seemed very blasé and dull. There were also moments in the story that felt a bit less engaging than the usual stuff we get from Mignola. The good news? Even when he isn't delivering his absolute best, it is still really, very good.
The Verdict
Although the story might feel a bit all over the place (you move rather quickly from one setting to another), it is still very well written and organized in a way that is easy to understand. The art by Scott Allie is really fantastic: there are moments where Mignola lets Allie tell a bit of the story and the way these particular panels are organized is in an organized and well structured way. It is, in general, very well done. Overall the story is entertaining and is definitely worth a look if you enjoy Abe's character and are a bit curious about his identity.
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