Turn and face the strange...

Cha, cha changes...

After spending the entire weekend and the first two days of this week reading the entire Hellboy/B.P.R.D. series I'm ready to venture a couple of guesses as to what I think is coming in the months ahead for Hellboy and friends.

1. After walking parallel paths for so long it is time for one character to fight for what he's worked so hard to gain and another to regain what he's forgotten for so long. I think we're about to see the awakening of Abe to his true self and I don't think its gonna be pretty. Just as Hellboy will ascend to the light, I believe Abe Sapien will fall from grace. These two friends are about to do battle. Fire versus water. Its a Yin/Yang sort of thing...

2. Kate Corrigan is going to die. Come on, she's wrapped up most of her lines in the story and she now has a love interest. Need I say more? About all she's got left to finish is making her peace with Hellboy and she'll die in his arms when she's done. It'll serve as motivation for Hellboy to do what he's gotta do.

3. Abe is going to kill a lot of the people Hellboy loves in the B.P.R.D. as a misguided effort to anger Hellboy into forsaking his humanity and turning him to the dark side. Fans of the series are going to be screaming bloody murder.

4. I think we're finally going to learn the purpose of the secret organization that created Abe Sapien to be their tool at the end time. Just as we've seen those groups fighting against Hellboy's ascension to the throne so now we'll see the machinations of those who seek to goad him towards fulfilling his original purpose in destroying the human race. They'll serve the purpose of those in the bull ring who inflict any number of small wounds untill the bull is enraged and striking out at anything in front of it.

5. The time has come for Liz Sherman to die. She's been through enough and she's tired. Frankly, I'm ready for her to go. She's always been rather self absorbed and self-centered. She's never really paid much attention to the pain and suffering of those around her. Even though she's one of the most human of the gang she's also one of the least human too. She's isolated and disconnected. I think she'll go down in an act of self sacrifice that will finally raise her above the self adsorbed state of self pity and self loathing she's always waffled between and she'll finally understand that being a part of humanity is serving humanity. She'll discover her connection just as she's dying.

6. We're going to see the big reset button pushed and pushed hard. I think the only real mysteries remaining now are who will be the new stars and whether or not the B.P.R.D. survives the recession. Will there be two titles remaining after the bloodbath or will Hellboy take over the mantle of leadership on a temporary basis and bring the B.P.R.D. and Hellboy titles back together under one banner until such time as the economy rebounds?

We're in for some real changes folks and I think we're gonna see some real attention generated by a title willing to kill off so many of it's flag ship characters in one massive event. I'm not sure who or what will be remaining once the smoke clears, but I'm fairly certain we'll be hard pressed to recognize it as the B.P.R.D. or Hellboy books we've come to know and love.