A conspiracy involving the Third Reich and a dead member of a sinister secret society sets Professor Bruttenholm on his first mission – to find the man who’d soon bring Hellboy to earth. The mad Russian sorcerer Rasputin had been thought dead since 1916, when a group of noblemen sought to end his influence over the tsar. Now Rasputin works with the most twisted members of Hitler’s inner circle, and he’s about to cross paths with the man who’ll go on to found the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense.

I’m a fan of Mike Mignola’s Mignolaverse of comics featuring the world of Hellboy. My personal opinion is that it’s the best comic universe out there today and is able to add new aspect to it fairly easily.

Written by Mike Mignola and Chris Roberson, Rasputin: Voice of the Dragon #1 is one of the newest entries into that universe giving us the earlier days of Rasputin and Professor Bruttenholm. Interestingly, though the comic has Rasputin in the title it feels more Bruttenholm’s story. The beginning third is the set up as we get a bit on Rasputin and what feels like more of Bruttenholm attempting to put the pieces of the puzzle together to figure out what’s going on.

This is the early days so there’s no BPRD and the weird world isn’t as known as we see in other series. And that’s what’s solid about this comic. It’s able to add what feels like a new layer to the world of Hellboy and does so without issue.

Things are helped by Christopher Mitten on the art with Dave Stewart on the colors. There’s a certain style I expect with a Hellboy comic and Mitten delivers as expected. The comic doesn’t deviate at all and brings in the weird and uneasy when it needs to. The art is solid in other words and Stewart’s colors as always are spot on. It’s a Hellboy comic, so I expect solid art and this delivers.

While I expected more Rasputin, this first issue is a solid one setting things up and adding some layers to the world. It’s friendly for new readers and they can go in with knowing nothing of this world and should still enjoy it while long time readers will appreciate more being added to the long history of it all. A great debut that has me excited to see where this goes and what comes next on this adventure.

Story: Mike Mignola, Chris Roberson Art: Christopher Mitten
Color: Dave Stewart Cover Art: Mike Huddleston
Story: 8.0 Art: 8.0 Overall: 8.0 Recommendation: Buy

Dark Horse provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review