Bureau of Paranormal Research & Defense-Plague of Frogs

            I read BPRD #1-5 but it really didn’t pick up till #3 plague of frogs. I’m not normally a fan of super hero comic books, but I found the Hellboy world to be particularly captivating. I really like the “ancient evil” elements that this universe makes a point to use. If anything it helps to suspend disbelief. I bet if looked up some of the names there would be some sort of lore on them-- or maybe not, but it feels that way at least. As the title suggest, BPRD follows a small “FBI unit for paranormal happenings;” except this particular unit is made up of paranormal humanoids themselves. There’s the initial happening in the intro, where some unimportant character will probably die, then the stories are actually a bit like Scooby doo except the monsters are all real and everyone knows they’re real. The gang flies in examine the still smoking husk of what used to be a man, find some evidence of supernatural activity and they’re on the case. In plague of frogs, some ancient evil entity in the form of a giant humanoid mushroom comes to town and starts a cult of frog people—they were normal people but having joined the cult they have been turned into humanoid frog creatures. The frog creatures infiltrate society by shape shifting into human forms and the Bureau sets out to eradicate them. There turns out to be thousands of them and their extermination turns into somewhat of a military campaign. Everything culminates when a leader, who is of course some guy with a Nazi fetish, rises up amongst the frogs and summons and even greater evil that threatens all of humanity. This particular adventure wrapped itself up at the end of #5 but I couldn’t help checking Amazon for the later editions. Unfortunately I was too frugal to drop $10 on another thrilling tale. It seemed like a slippery slope.