The Pull List – Rasputin: The Voice of The Dragon #5
As the Tomb of Ra is cracked up, it is only a matter of time for Rasputin and his scientist team to break the protective barrier on Ra’s sarcophagus. Trevor Bruttenholm and A.N. Sandhu successfully infiltrated the Tomb, but finally encountering the puppet master that has been hiding in the dark for so long. Bruttenholm investigation has lead him on a trail that started in a cryptic clues left behind in a haunted mansion, meeting a German zombie, finding cult members for a long forgotten god, and also becoming a Nazi experiment. As Bruttenholm tries to complete his first mission, he’s conformation in the tomb will set the course of many more adventures with the evils of Rasputin.
Rasputin: The Voice of The Dragon #5 is the wraps up the early years of Trevor Bruttenholm and his first mission as an S.O.E operative. The writing by Mike Mignola and Chris Roberson had bits of comedy, action and sci fi to entertain any comic fan of adventure stories, and is a welcome addition to the main narrative of the series. One of the very creative part of the Hellboy series is that any point of series history can be explored along side the main narrative. The writing teams have come up with very entertaining ways links the different stories. Mike Mignola and Chris Roberson made Bruttenholm early role with Rasputin an easy understood adventure that didn’t need so many required references. However, veteran fans will benefit from the reading other story arcs of course. The art work done by Christopher Mitten and Dave Stewart retains the look and feel of the previous works done in the series; the colors have a gritty matte tone and everything has a darken hue that make the pages feel a bit foggy to look at. It makes every panel looks more mysterious, and it totally works for us.
These experiences and engagements with mystic forces and villainous people would later give Bruttenholm the wisdom to later pass on to the Bureau Paranormal Research Defense. Major characters like Karl Kroenen, Leopold Kurtz, and IIza Haupstein have their first encounters with Bruttenholm, and leave him with a terrible first impression. Rasputin: The Voice of The Dragon is part of a larger interconnecting stories that take place in the 1940’s, and plays like a small epilogue for Rise of the Black Flame as it fits in nicely with A.N. Sandhu adventures.
New comic fans looking to jump in other Hellboy series can use this as a good base to spring board to the next story arc. Long term fans will welcome this complete story as part of the naive Bruttenholm becoming a slightly harden operative.Hopefully there will be more stories similar to this, leading to more discoveries of Bruttenholm past and his fated adventures in the B.P.R.D.
Rasputin: The Voice of the Dragon #5 will be released March 7th 2018