Hellboy: Wake the Devil
Encyclopedia
Hellboy: Wake the Devil is a five-issue comic book
mini-series
in the Hellboy
franchise, conceived and illustrated by Mike Mignola
and published by Dark Horse Comics
. Various elements and section of plot were later used in the animated film Hellboy: Blood and Iron.
, inside the Arctic Circle
, where a Zinco helicopter is landing in front of the castle that was seen as the end of Seed of Destruction
. The head of the company, Roderick Zinco, breaks into the castle and is confronted by Karl Kroenen, Ilsa Haupstein and Leopold Kurtz but Zinco explains that he saw Grigori Rasputin
on his private beach and left behind the words Ragna Rock and disappeared, Zinco promises them that they can use anything he has.
One year later, in SoHo
, New York City
the Nazis kill the curator of a wax museum. At the B.P.R.D Headquarters in Fairfield, Connecticut
, Tom Manning and Kate Corrigan brief the agents about the life of Vladimir Giurescu and the fact that he could never die because when the full moon shines down on him at Castle Giurescu he heals himself. In 1944, Heinrich Himmler
proposed project Vampir Sturm and a Nazi delegation, led by Ilsa Haupstein was sent to recruit Giurescu, after meeting with Hitler
, Hitler ordered the arrest and execution of the Giurescu family. They revealed that the museum curator, Howard Steinman, real name Hans Ubler, could have smuggled Giurescu's body out of Germany before his corpse was burnt and that someone could have the intention to take the corpse to Castle Giurescu to re-animate his corpse, but there are three possibilities as to where Castle Giurescu is, so Tom Manning splits them up into three groups. Hellboy on his own, Clark with Abe Sapien, and Bud Waller with Liz Sherman and Leach.
In Romania
, Isla Haupstein opens the stolen box with Giurescu's corpse in it and orders the soldiers to take it to a specific room. Meanwile, in Norway, Kurtz and Kroenen watch Ilsa and it is revealed that they are maufacturing their own army. Back in Romania, The agents are all in a plane where Abe Sapien talks to Hellboy about the involvement of the Ragna Rok Project because he thinks it's worrying Hellboy. Hellboy jumps out the plane with a jetpack which explodes when he tries to click it and Hellboy lands in the same castle that Ilsa Haupstein is in.
In a near-by village, an old man tells his daughter to leave with her children and to never come back and that it is "too late" for him to leave.
Hellboy follows a trace of blood and finds a man eating the Nazi's leg and reveals that he is Vladmir Giurescu's father, and that it is the goddess Hecate
who brings Giurescu back to life because Giurescu is her son. When Hellboy asks where Giurescu is, the man refuses to tell him and hellboy burns him to death. When Hellboy leaves the room he remembers the old man said something about a moon door and sees a door with a moon shape on it, and inside is the box with his corpse in and the three soldier's heads in front of it. But he is surrounded by ravens who turn into the Women of Thessaly and start attacking him.
In the Ruins of Czege Castle, Romania, Liz Sherman, Bud Waller and Leach find a door. Leach, a human metal detector, is able to detect the hinges and open it. They find a huge room with a dead homunculus inside. Liz touches a hole in its chest and is unable to let go. The homunculus draws energy from her and awakens. Bud shoots her arm to free her. The homunculus panics, snapping Bud Waller's neck during its escape.
In Norway, Roderick Zinco has a head in a jar, who is revealed to be Professor Herman Von Klempt. Kroenen asked Zinco to find Von Klempt and form an alliance. At the Monastery of St. Bartholomew in Romania, the old man from issue 2 tells his brother, a priest, that the town will go back to its "old ways" because he can sense Giurescu. However, his brother doesn't believe him. Back at Castle Giurescu, Hellboy finds a room full of explosives and sets them to go off in one hour.
Abe Sapien and Clark report back to B.P.R.D. HQ from the ruins of Szentes Castle, telling them they found nothing but see a pillar of smoke from Hellboy's location. They are told to go and find Hellboy.
In Romania, Baba Yaga's servant Koku brings Rasputin an Iron Maiden to initiate Ilsa Hapustein's rebirth. She enters it and is immediately killed. Rasputin tells Koku that he will be back to see Baba Yaga.
Stephen and two other men find Hellboy's body outside the ruins of Castle Giurescu to drive him to the crossroads.
In Norway, Von Klempt tries to tempt Kroenen to join him instead of going along with Rasputin's plans but Kurtz gets angry and tries to kill Von Klempt. Kroenen tries to stop Kurtz and ends up stabbing and killing him.
In Romania, Hellboy is chained to a thick wooden pole. Rasputin tells him that he is there to rot and he leaves him there with the iron maiden.
At the crossroads, Hellboy is still chained to the thick wooden pole and is confronted by a fully re-animated Vladmir Giurescu on horseback. Hellboy cracks the wooden pole and hits the horse on the head with it. The horse and Giurescu instantly turn into skeletons. The Iron Maiden assumes a snake-like form similar to Hecate's. Repeating that he cannot escape his destiny, Ilsa eats him. Hellboy's horns fully re-grow and he sees the Ogdru-Jahad, but he again refuses to help end the world and snaps his horns. He appears back at the crossroads where Kate Corrigan finds him and tells him what happened to the other teams.
In Norway, Rasputin confronts Von Klempt, Kroenen and Zinco and temporarily blinds Zinco who accidentally presses a button that blows up the whole castle. In a helicopter above Romania, Hellboy is told that there was no sign of the iron maiden. At the end of the issue, it is revealed that the skeleton of Vladmir Giurescu was in the process of being moved to BPRD HQ, but while it was temporarily placed in storage at the Bucharest airport it disappeared and has never been recovered. It is also revealed that the head of Father Nicholas Budenz never spoke again but continued to be the focus of poltergeist activities, including sudden temperature drops and the levitation of objects for weeks.
with a new epilogue:
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
mini-series
Limited series
A limited series is a comic book series with a set number of installments. A limited series differs from an ongoing series in that the number of issues is determined before production and it differs from a one shot in that it is composed of multiple issues....
in the Hellboy
Hellboy
Hellboy is a comic book superhero created by writer-artist Mike Mignola. The character first appeared in San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2 , and has since appeared in various eponymous miniseries, one-shots and intercompany crossovers...
franchise, conceived and illustrated by Mike Mignola
Mike Mignola
Michael Joseph "Mike" Mignola is an American comic book artist and writer who created the comic book series Hellboy for Dark Horse Comics. He has worked for animation projects such as Atlantis: The Lost Empire and the adaptation of his one shot comic book, The Amazing Screw-On Head.-Career:Mignola...
and published by Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
. Various elements and section of plot were later used in the animated film Hellboy: Blood and Iron.
Part One
The comic opens on the northern coast of NorwayNorway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, inside the Arctic Circle
Arctic Circle
The Arctic Circle is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. For Epoch 2011, it is the parallel of latitude that runs north of the Equator....
, where a Zinco helicopter is landing in front of the castle that was seen as the end of Seed of Destruction
Hellboy: Seed of Destruction
Hellboy: Seed of Destruction is the first Hellboy comic book mini-series, published by Dark Horse Comics. It was conceived and illustrated by Mike Mignola and scripted by John Byrne.This was, in part, the basis for the first Hellboy motion picture....
. The head of the company, Roderick Zinco, breaks into the castle and is confronted by Karl Kroenen, Ilsa Haupstein and Leopold Kurtz but Zinco explains that he saw Grigori Rasputin
Grigori Rasputin
Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was a Russian Orthodox Christian and mystic who is perceived as having influenced the latter days of the Russian Emperor Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, and their only son Alexei...
on his private beach and left behind the words Ragna Rock and disappeared, Zinco promises them that they can use anything he has.
One year later, in SoHo
SoHo
SoHo is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City, notable for being the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, and also, more recently, for the wide variety of stores and shops ranging from trendy boutiques to outlets of upscale national and international chain stores...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
the Nazis kill the curator of a wax museum. At the B.P.R.D Headquarters in Fairfield, Connecticut
Fairfield, Connecticut
Fairfield is a town located in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It is bordered by the towns of Bridgeport, Trumbull, Easton, Redding and Westport along the Gold Coast of Connecticut. As of the 2010 census, the town had a population of 59,404...
, Tom Manning and Kate Corrigan brief the agents about the life of Vladimir Giurescu and the fact that he could never die because when the full moon shines down on him at Castle Giurescu he heals himself. In 1944, Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
proposed project Vampir Sturm and a Nazi delegation, led by Ilsa Haupstein was sent to recruit Giurescu, after meeting with Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
, Hitler ordered the arrest and execution of the Giurescu family. They revealed that the museum curator, Howard Steinman, real name Hans Ubler, could have smuggled Giurescu's body out of Germany before his corpse was burnt and that someone could have the intention to take the corpse to Castle Giurescu to re-animate his corpse, but there are three possibilities as to where Castle Giurescu is, so Tom Manning splits them up into three groups. Hellboy on his own, Clark with Abe Sapien, and Bud Waller with Liz Sherman and Leach.
In Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, Isla Haupstein opens the stolen box with Giurescu's corpse in it and orders the soldiers to take it to a specific room. Meanwile, in Norway, Kurtz and Kroenen watch Ilsa and it is revealed that they are maufacturing their own army. Back in Romania, The agents are all in a plane where Abe Sapien talks to Hellboy about the involvement of the Ragna Rok Project because he thinks it's worrying Hellboy. Hellboy jumps out the plane with a jetpack which explodes when he tries to click it and Hellboy lands in the same castle that Ilsa Haupstein is in.
Part Two
Ilsa orders Unmensch, a cyborg Nazi, to kill Hellboy and they fight until they both fall through the floor. A flashback to Tarmagant Island, 1944 shows Rasputin ordering Ilsa, Kroenen and Kurtz to go to Norway. In the present, Rasputin appears and tells her to leave the castle and that the next time she sees Giurescu that he will be young again. In the castle, Hellboy wakes up with the Nazi gone, leaving behind only his metal arm.In a near-by village, an old man tells his daughter to leave with her children and to never come back and that it is "too late" for him to leave.
Hellboy follows a trace of blood and finds a man eating the Nazi's leg and reveals that he is Vladmir Giurescu's father, and that it is the goddess Hecate
Hecate
Hecate or Hekate is a chthonic Greco-Roman goddess associated with magic, witchcraft, necromancy, and crossroads.She is attested in poetry as early as Hesiod's Theogony...
who brings Giurescu back to life because Giurescu is her son. When Hellboy asks where Giurescu is, the man refuses to tell him and hellboy burns him to death. When Hellboy leaves the room he remembers the old man said something about a moon door and sees a door with a moon shape on it, and inside is the box with his corpse in and the three soldier's heads in front of it. But he is surrounded by ravens who turn into the Women of Thessaly and start attacking him.
Part Three
At Castle Giurescu, Hellboy is shooting the Women of Thessaly as Giurescu comes out of his box. As Hellboy tries to kill him with a stab to the chest, Giurescu turns into a raven. He falls into a stone coffin and ends up underground. Hellboy eventually finds Giurescu is lying on the ground with the knife in his chest, but Giurescu turns into a mass of snakes and escapes. As Hellboy leaves the tomb, Hecate brings Giurescu back to life. Rasputin tells Isla about his life and offers her the chance to be reborn as he was.In the Ruins of Czege Castle, Romania, Liz Sherman, Bud Waller and Leach find a door. Leach, a human metal detector, is able to detect the hinges and open it. They find a huge room with a dead homunculus inside. Liz touches a hole in its chest and is unable to let go. The homunculus draws energy from her and awakens. Bud shoots her arm to free her. The homunculus panics, snapping Bud Waller's neck during its escape.
In Norway, Roderick Zinco has a head in a jar, who is revealed to be Professor Herman Von Klempt. Kroenen asked Zinco to find Von Klempt and form an alliance. At the Monastery of St. Bartholomew in Romania, the old man from issue 2 tells his brother, a priest, that the town will go back to its "old ways" because he can sense Giurescu. However, his brother doesn't believe him. Back at Castle Giurescu, Hellboy finds a room full of explosives and sets them to go off in one hour.
Part Four
As Hellboy is leaving the castle, he thinks he hears Giurescu. He discovers it is actually Hecate in a snake form. She tries to get Hellboy to go back to his "old kind" and tells him that he lost himself in humanity. Hellboy and Hecate fight and she tells him that he cannot escape his destiny; he will bring the end of the world. Hellboy spears her as they smash through a wall; her skin and flesh burn in the daylight as the explosives go off. The castle is destroyed with Hellboy just outside.Abe Sapien and Clark report back to B.P.R.D. HQ from the ruins of Szentes Castle, telling them they found nothing but see a pillar of smoke from Hellboy's location. They are told to go and find Hellboy.
In Romania, Baba Yaga's servant Koku brings Rasputin an Iron Maiden to initiate Ilsa Hapustein's rebirth. She enters it and is immediately killed. Rasputin tells Koku that he will be back to see Baba Yaga.
Stephen and two other men find Hellboy's body outside the ruins of Castle Giurescu to drive him to the crossroads.
In Norway, Von Klempt tries to tempt Kroenen to join him instead of going along with Rasputin's plans but Kurtz gets angry and tries to kill Von Klempt. Kroenen tries to stop Kurtz and ends up stabbing and killing him.
In Romania, Hellboy is chained to a thick wooden pole. Rasputin tells him that he is there to rot and he leaves him there with the iron maiden.
Part Five
Abe Sapien and Clark land in the Romanian village to discover all the houses boarded up with crosses painted on the doors and windows. They enter a church where Stephen's brother stands at the end of the church with Hellboy's signal belt in his hand. He is unresponsive and when Cark touches his shoulder, the priest's head falls off and the pair fall through the floor. Clark lands on long metal spikes and is impaled through the chest. Abe falls to the ground, where Rasputin confronts him and tells him that he will be speared through the chest as well. The Priest's decapitated head speaks, saying, "Abraham Sapien. Do you hear... sunken bells are tolling for thee. Out of caverns of num-yabisc, dark and terrible deep, the ocean is calling her children home."At the crossroads, Hellboy is still chained to the thick wooden pole and is confronted by a fully re-animated Vladmir Giurescu on horseback. Hellboy cracks the wooden pole and hits the horse on the head with it. The horse and Giurescu instantly turn into skeletons. The Iron Maiden assumes a snake-like form similar to Hecate's. Repeating that he cannot escape his destiny, Ilsa eats him. Hellboy's horns fully re-grow and he sees the Ogdru-Jahad, but he again refuses to help end the world and snaps his horns. He appears back at the crossroads where Kate Corrigan finds him and tells him what happened to the other teams.
In Norway, Rasputin confronts Von Klempt, Kroenen and Zinco and temporarily blinds Zinco who accidentally presses a button that blows up the whole castle. In a helicopter above Romania, Hellboy is told that there was no sign of the iron maiden. At the end of the issue, it is revealed that the skeleton of Vladmir Giurescu was in the process of being moved to BPRD HQ, but while it was temporarily placed in storage at the Bucharest airport it disappeared and has never been recovered. It is also revealed that the head of Father Nicholas Budenz never spoke again but continued to be the focus of poltergeist activities, including sudden temperature drops and the levitation of objects for weeks.
Epilogue
At the World Tree, Yggdrasil, Baba Yaga tells Rasputin that he has failed and cannot be a god, and has to stay with her. He says that he'll go on and continue to try and make himself a god.Collected editions
It was collected as the second Hellboy trade paperbackTrade paperback (comics)
In comics, a trade paperback is a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format, usually capturing one story arc from a single title or a series of stories with a connected story arc or common theme from one or more titles...
with a new epilogue:
- Wake the Devil (5-issue mini-series, 1997, Dark Horse ComicsDark Horse ComicsDark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
, tpb, 144 pages, 1997, ISBN 1-56971-226-3, 2004, ISBN 1-59307-095-0}
Awards
- 1997: Mignola won the "Best Writer/Artist: Drama" Eisner AwardEisner AwardThe Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, and sometimes referred to as the Oscar Awards of the Comics Industry, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books. The Eisner Awards were first conferred in 1988, created in response to the...
, for Wake the Devil
External links
- Dark Horse profile of issue #1
- Review of the trade, Comics BulletinComics BulletinComics Bulletin is a website with an emphasis on the American comic book industry, updated daily with news, reviews, interviews, and editorial content. Coverage ranges from mainstream to independent/small press comic book and graphic novel publishers.-History:...