Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #2
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeHellboy: Seed of Destruction #2 (April 1994) is the first comic book appearance of both Abe Sapien — born Langdon Everett Caul — and Liz Sherman, two characters who would go on to anchor the entire Hellboy universe and its long-running B.P.R.D. spin-off franchise for decades. The issue also delivers the first on-page confrontation between Hellboy and Grigori Rasputin, the primary villain of the miniseries and a recurring force across the broader mythos, while introducing the tentacled entity Sadu-Hem as the mechanism by which Rasputin hopes to shatter the Ogdru Jahad's extradimensional prisons. As part of Dark Horse's short-lived Legend creator-owned imprint, the original printing carried a backup chapter of Art Adams' Monkeyman and O'Brien origin — a cross-promotional artifact of an ambitious shared-universe experiment that was quietly walked back and has never been reprinted alongside the main Hellboy story in any subsequent edition.
In "Seed of Destruction [Chapter Two]," Hellboy, Liz Sherman, and Abe Sapien arrive at Cavendish Hall to unravel the mystery behind a forgotten Arctic expedition. As the trio probes the family matriarch’s memories, underwater investigations and sudden disappearances set off a tense confrontation with a monstrous frog creature—leading Hellboy straight into a chilling face-off with Rasputin. Written by Mike Mignola and John Byrne, with art by Mignola and inks by both Mignola and Arthur Adams, this pivotal chapter blends eerie atmosphere and supernatural dread, all rendered in Mignola’s signature style and Chiarello’s haunting colors.
In *Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #2*, Hellboy, Liz Sherman, and Abe Sapien arrive at the eerie Cavendish Hall to uncover the truth behind a forgotten Arctic expedition. As the team delves into the family’s dark history, tensions rise when Liz vanishes without a trace and Abe ventures into the flooded basement, leaving Hellboy to face a grotesque amphibious threat—only to be met by the chilling presence of Rasputin.
In "Who Are Monkeyman and O'Brien? [Chapter] 2," a sudden explosion draws Akiko and Oniko’s goons into a lab where they find the O'Brien sisters unconscious. Strangely drawn to the scene, the men wrap up a mysterious ape head before Ann stirs—only to confront a suited figure who speaks with a voice that shouldn’t belong to a gorilla.
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The Seed of Destruction miniseries was conceived and illustrated by Mike Mignola and scripted by John Byrne, with colors by Mark Chiarello and edits by Barbara Kesel, published monthly from March through June 1994 as one of the launch titles of Dark Horse's Legend imprint — a creator-owned line inspired by Malibu's Image model and featuring creators like Frank Miller, Dave Gibbons, and Geof Darrow alongside Mignola, Byrne, and Adams. Mignola, who had developed Hellboy's visual style across mainstream work at Marvel and DC through the late 1980s before moving to Dark Horse in 1993, was not yet confident enough to script the miniseries solo, enlisting Byrne to handle the dialogue while Mignola plotted and drew; notably, their respective lettering contributions — Mignola handling balloons and sound effects, Byrne lettering dialogue in a font based on his own handwriting — went uncredited in the original printings. The three-way Legend connection between Hellboy, Byrne's Danger Unlimited, and Adams' Monkeyman and O'Brien — originally envisioned as a shared universe — proved logistically unwieldy and was abandoned by 1998 when the Legend imprint folded, with most reprints quietly excising the cross-promotional elements.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First comic book appearance of Abe Sapien (born Langdon Everett Caul), the amphibious BPRD agent who becomes one of the longest-running central characters in the Hellboy universe — confirmed across multiple databases with cover date April 1994.
- First comic book appearance of Liz Sherman, the pyrokinetic BPRD agent who becomes a co-lead throughout the Hellboy franchise.
- First on-page confrontation between Hellboy and Grigori Rasputin, who reveals himself at the end of the issue as the shadowy architect of Hellboy's summoning and the would-be liberator of the Ogdru Jahad.
- First appearance of Sadu-Hem, the many-tentacled Arctic entity connected to the Ogdru Jahad, though the creature is not named until the following issue (#3).
- Published April 1994 by Dark Horse Comics under the Legend creator-owned imprint; plotted and drawn by Mike Mignola, scripted by John Byrne, colored by Mark Chiarello, edited by Barbara Kesel.
- Contains Part 2 of Arthur Adams' four-chapter 'Who Are Monkeyman and O'Brien?' backup story — introducing Axwell Tiberius (Monkeyman) and Ann O'Brien in their origin arc; these backups have never been included in any reprint or collected edition of Seed of Destruction.
- The Monkeyman and O'Brien backup chapters were later collected separately in the Monkeyman and O'Brien: The Stories trade paperback (1997).
- The entire Seed of Destruction miniseries has been reprinted in numerous formats including the original 1994 trade paperback, a hand-numbered hardcover slipcase edition (1995, limited to 1,000 copies), the Hellboy Library Edition Vol. 1 (2008), and the Hellboy Omnibus Vol. 1 (2018) — none of which include the Adams backup stories.
Cast · 7 characters
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Reprints
↩ Reprints Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #3 (1994)
Reprinted in Hellboy - Les germes de la destruction #1 (1994), Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #1 (1994), Hellboy #[1] (1994), Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #[nn] (1995), Hellboy: Semilla de Destrucción #2 (1995), Monkeyman and O'Brien Special #[nn] (1996), Hellboy #[1] (2001), Hellboy #1 (2002), Hellboy #[1] (2002), Judge Dredd Megazine #11 (2002), Hellboy: Seme uništenja #2 (2005), Hellboy Library Edition #1 (2008), Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #[nn] (2008), Hellboy: Edición Integral #1 (2011), Hellboy Kompendium #1 (2016), Hellboy Omnibus #1 (2018), Ултимативна комикс колекция #1 (2021)
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