3 out of 5

In which a some big destruction happens, which feels reminiscent of the last time big destruction happened.  Abe and Johann discuss how this is all sort of like a previous event, and Abe reflects on his past burning away, just to keep an emotional tether there.

There are some great character moments throughout The Warning, mostly belonging to Johann, as things take place in his hometown in Germany, but it’s more indirectly notable for the short shrift it gives to Liz (who’s missing… again), Panya, and Kate.  Kate, in particular, seems so integral but then wholly so separate, even when she’s in the shit with the big boys.  I get that she’s more operational, but it’s a weird divide: we can tell she’s commanding, and it’s nice when we get to actually feel her effectiveness.

My main issue here – as has happened with other “massive” calamaties in the Hellboy books – is that the scale just jumps from 0 to the whole world burning, but without pacing it so we actually are affected by it.  Guy Davis / Dave Stewart give us splash pages of this arc’s underground-dwelling robo-demon-things trashing Germany, but much like the B.P.R.D. fodder who show up and then die on a following page, it just feels like background information.  Even a cool lizard-on-lizard battle passes without much to-do.  There is the sense – from the editor’s notes, from the way everyone talks about what The Warning portends, from, I guess, the title ‘The Warning’ – that we’re just waiting some issues before something, uh, REALLY important happens, so it’s five issues of well-arted excitement that’s generally rather disposable.

Not bad, and definitely with enough continuity nods to make it worthwhile for regular readers, but this could’ve been toned down to a more patient buildup and included as part of the forthcoming Black Goddess instead.