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Comic Review: Hellsing vol. 1

Posted August 5, 2004 by Funk

Hellsing is a secret British agency that eliminates paranormal threats to the crown and the Protestant church. It is run by Sir Integra Hellsing, the great-granddaughter or so of Prof. Van Hellsing. Hellsing's best agent is Alucard (?!) who is a very powerful vampire. He is a sadist with a very big gun who hates almost all the vampires he meets.

Plot

Alucard and his special gun.

Most of the first volume is dedicated to giving an introduction to the Hellsing agency and the characters it employs. Kohta Hirano, the writer/artist, focuses on Alucard and the two women in the vampire's life. The first is Sir Integra and her role as director. The second is Seras Victoria, a newly made vampire that serves Alucard.

Hirano also uses this first volume to develop a standard action sequence. Typically, Alucard gets the crap kicked out of him, the bad guys figure him for dead, and he gets up and kills them all. On the surface this is pretty lame, but one of the big questions is: "How powerful IS Alucard?" In each combat he takes more damage, yet still gets back up, which gives some insight into his strength.

The biggest problem with the plot is that the climax is more of an aside than part of the first volume's story arc. Basically, the Vatican has a group similar to Hellsing called Section XIII (aka the Iscariot Section (!)). Their best fighter, Father Anderson, hates all vampires and picks a fight with Alucard. It is a really well done fight scene, but it just doesn't fit as nicely as it could have.

Art

Kohta Hirano's style is mostly realistic. His lines aren't too heavy and the panels have a good balance between light and dark. Put simply, he understands less is more and doesn't clutter the page with excess ink. However, he hardly ever breaks the frame or plays with the layout of the page. He seems more content to follow a traditional comic-book format and not to experiment.

His most prominent weakness is that he can't shake off the typical manga style. I refer to the ibid grotesquely large eyes, childish looking faces, and exagerated tear drops. Most of his book avoids this lesser style, but when he relapses into it, I cringe and his story suffers. Hellsing is plausable, mildly dark, and extra gory; cute isn't part of the mix. I appreciate that manga has its own rote methods to overcome, but American comics have fought hard to get past the overly-muscled hero, so Mr. Hirano can take on all that Pokemon crap. He has skill and potential, which is why it is such a shame to see him fall back on the conventionally mediocre style rather than forge his own. At his best, he is very impressive, and at his worst, he is a hack. The book is unfortunately a mix of the two.

Characters

Mr. Hirano excels at making compelling characters. I've mentioned Alucard several times, but some of his other characters also stand out.

Sir Integra Hellsing is a young, strong woman with a commanding personality. One wonders why she is called "sir", it would seem though that she despises lesser titles. Basically, what Sir Integra says goes. Her relationship with Alucard is a difficult one. Once he was her knight in shining armour and now he is a rebellious servant. They walk a fine line, but she always manages to hold it together.

Seras Victoria is struggling with her new life as a vampire. Once she was a policewoman; now she is part of a special forces squad involved in a secret war. Her reluctance to embrace her new life is equally matched by her desire to serve her master.

Father Alexander Anderson can regenerate, throws massive amounts of large bayonets, and has a serious hate for undead. He is the product of Vaticant research into the paranormal. Moreover, he is an uncontrollable zealot who will not rest until all vampires are dead.

This is a short list of the characters in the first volume. Mr. Hirano spent considerable time developing them and making them believable. The one main character I did not address, Alucard, is too complex to describe based on what is known of him in volume one. He is quite possibly the most powerful vampire ever, equally comfortable with the gun and witchcraft. While he longs for a fair fight, he takes sadsitic pleasure in killing those weaker than him. Hirano does a very good job slowly developing Alucard while more fully exploring the other characters.

A note on the story

The Hellsing story is four graphic novels long. It was also made into an anime which is also four DVDs long. I have seen the entire anime, but I've only read the first volume of the comic. However, the two seem very similar so I'll give a few teasers for the rest of the story.

Someone is making vampires. They have developed a computer chip that alters the host body to make it one of the undead. The idea sounds pretty lame, but for some reason it works.

Some older vampires also make an appearance. Alucard fights a few, and the others just don't care what is going on. Oh, and we learn more and more about just how powerful Alucard is. He ends up surprising everyone with what he can do. He has some sort of control mechanism that limits his strength, but he can alter it at any time. Basically, he handicaps himself. Eventually he does have a run for his money though...

Father Anderson comes back in a big way, Seras Victoria struggles a lot more, the Hellsing facility gets invaded, and Sir Integra almost commits suicide. Etc, etc, etc...

Summation

Kohta Hirano puts on a very good show with this comic. I have a real beef with his artwork, but the excellence of the story carries the day. Whether you read the manga or watch the anime, consider them time well-spent.

Article Tags: "comic" "manga" "vampires"
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