To be perfectly frank, Seed of Destruction is not the comic that’s going to make you a fan of Hellboy. My source for this is it’s the first Hellboy volume I read and I didn’t like it for a VERY long time. The thing about Hellboy is that it’s at its best when it’s weird, exploring obscure mythology, and funny. This comic basically opens with Hellboy’s father figure dying (spoilers if you can’t see the most obvious thing happening as it happens) and Hellboy monologuing about how tough he is as an excuse for why he’s getting his ass kicked. That’s a seriously ungenerous read, but it’s my honest take on things. You don’t get Hellboy’s inner monologue in any of the following stories, which is for the best.
However, this is volume 1 of 12 main volumes and 2 followups (Hellboy in Hell) and I insist it gets better and better and better. It’s worth reading this because you get a sense of the flavor Hellboy brings to the table, with that flavor primarily being weird. There’s a superhero and a medium present during WWII when Hellboy is summoned to the earth, and it’s just… not addressed. There are also one-off ghost characters that show up in a one-off monster of the week later on and it is incredible how Mignola brings that back around. You also get introduced to the cast of Nazi maniacs that become a bigger deal later on. Also Rasputin.
tl;dr, this is my least favorite of the Hellboy stories, but I still love and would recommend it. It brings serious Lovecraft vibes, a dark and unique art style reminiscent of the DCAU Batman series, and the payoff is worth it as the story unfolds.
