4 out of 5

From the themed Laurence Campbell covers to the moody Peter Snejbjerg interior art to Dave Stewart’s well-balanced colors and Clem Robins spacious, patient lettering and, of course, Arcudi’s masterful pacing, ‘Nowhere, Nothing, Never’ is an impactful and insightful piece of contemplative horror by master of all BPRDness John.  We hop back and forth around a recent monster-hunting mission led by Johann, with some surprising insubordination toward the gas-man in the aftermath as a result of something that occurred during the mission.  Johann, puzzled, talks to Liz: has he lost all contact with his humanity? he wonders.  The exchange is a bit of Arcudi-simplification, but this generally isn’t a bad thing with John as it gets a conversation right to its point – while sticking with the voice of its characters – and saves space for other elements to be explored.

What’s impressive here – usually impressive, but especially with this story – is that the missing piece of the puzzle is worth the build-up, and yet, having it revealed mid-way through the 3 issues doesn’t make the rest of the read boring.  We can understand and feel the reason for the soldiers’ responses, while also understanding where Johann is coming from; no easy feat for a character without a face or body.  And as illustrated by Peter, with bright Stewart colors, the moment Gassy’s error is perpetrated, its a big and bold comic shock: a well-executed series of panels.

The knocked star is because the additions of world-building – also a usual issue with the complex history of Hellboy / BPRD – are a side-step to the story and not very user friendly.  They’re like very specific sidenotes just so HB historians can chalk it on a timeline somewhere.  The only really important story piece would be the end page, an enigmatic image that means something to readers but can work abstractly to those who don’t know what’s going on.

Even though I’ll probably always miss the mini-series format, the numbering – exposing that we’re a 130+ issues deep – makes it all the more obvious how cool it is that we’re this far along the road and the stories are still rewarding.