2 out of 5

This is not a bad story at all, it’s just not a Lobster Johnson story.  LJ is definitely the kind of character that can function as a type of guest star in his own series – the silent defender, presence known but only making his actual appearance at a key point, letting (otherwise) minor characters’ tales step forth to the foreground to shine.  You could say that story structure is a staple of the pulp hero, actually, especially one as mysterious as Lobster.  But I think, in order for that to work, the story has to feel steeped in the environs of that pulp hero, and the setup for “Chain” sort of foils that, such that when LJ pops up, he really just feels shoe-horned in, like the tale just had no other place in the Hellboy world, so make it a Lobster story.

The setup – book-ended by Kevin Nowlan drawn pages, which was also odd, and I couldn’t really understand the reason for it – is that a drunken mall Santa finds himself the captive of a group of thieves who’re being tailed by LJ.  They hole up in a cabin, fighty fights ensue.  Sound basic enough, and certainly workable in that steeping environs nonsense I mentioned.  …Except Arcudi chooses to narrate the tale from Santa’s perspective, and it simply distracts from the title of the guy on the cover.  It’s unnecessary.  It feels manufactured only to justify those framing pages, actually, just as this tale was maybe manufactured only to give artitst Troy Nixey a one-shot to work on?  Whose Guy Davis impression is great, though; the art and colors are a huge standout, the lively juxtaposition of fire and ice definitely making the book visually entertaining.

So I’m probably making this all up, but this really felt like a sort of last minute “we’ve got Nowlan and Troy” cobbled together tale.  It’s really a fine pulp thing, at least an “average” rating, but looking at it from a Lobster Johnson perspective, it doesn’t quite work.