This is the first time we get a story about Professor Trevor Bruttenholm ( pronounced Broom), the man who rescued and raised Hellboy and died in the opening pages of the first Hellboy book. We get to see Professor Bruttenholm in his prime in the post war years and get a sense of what kind of man he was.
Bruttenholm is in post war Berlin to investigate Nazi occult activities and really to find out more about the origins of Hellboy. He is given the assistance of a group of soldiers who are waiting to go home and resentful of further duty. Most of the information Bruttenholm really wants is in the Soviet sector and tensions between the Soviets and the Americans are already rising making access difficult at best.
Bruttenholm goes directly to the Soviet sector to try and get information and meets Varvara, the little girl who is the head of the Soviet version of the B.P.R.D. She is not all she appears to be, the explanation of who she really is is a nice part of the story and shows how far Mike Mignola ranges for his sources and inspirations.
Bruttenholm discovers, much by accident a Nazi project called Vampire Sturm, a plan to create a vampire army that would be unleashed in the dying days of the war. This ties explicitly back to the Hellboy book Wake the Devil, it is not necessary to have read it however. The story moves in a happily unexpected direction, a mad scientist who is a head in a bottle with spider like mechanical legs and his krieggaffe, which have to be seen to be believed.
Amid the adventures, mad science and occult happenings,the victims of Vampire Sturm, the poor unfortunates who were the subject of the exponents to be turned into vampires are not forgotten.They are treated with care and sympathy and this adds greatly to the book.
The characters are well differentiated and the mood is sombre throughout the book. The work of all the creative team is very coherent and effective without any part unduly calling attention to itself,they flow together very naturally to provide an excellent story and comic.
