2 out of 5

A comic book revisualization of the HB II intro – which sets up the origin of ‘The Golden Army’ – despite this being a freebie, and having a Mignola script and del Toro / Mignola-approved artwork from Francisco Ruiz Velasco, it is, primarily, pointless.  There’s no extra info here that wasn’t on screen (a little less, actually), and despite part of the purpose of this, according to del Toro’s intro, being to give Velasco no movie budget / production limitations in order to craft the vision as a ‘mini epic,’ the artist sticks to layouts very similar to the film, which look rather flat on the page: wide open, flat backgrounds and bland foreground figures.

Kid Hellboy looks better than the atrocious movie version, but that’s the only plus.  It’s about on par with any other movie giveaway, but because this attempt seemed more ‘purposeful’ – and because of the involvement of Mignola – it’s hard not to hope it would’ve had more value, so the rating takes a bigger hit.