In the prologue, Abe Sapien an update on the situation with the troops (a member of the BPRD lost in the snow around their base of Colorado); Johann Kraus contemplates what served her body; Kate Corrigan is concerned about the disappearance of a knife with magical properties.
Abe Sapien headed the group searching the surrounding snowy slopes to find him gone. Johann Kraus embarked on personal research on the documents found in the database. Liz Sherman holds a seance with Kraus, Panya and Kate Corrigan to invoke the spirit of Lobster Johnson who seems to know a lot about Memnan Saa (Asian character who regularly invites in the spirit of Liz). By other means, the BPRD team finally locates the base Memnan Saa, but shipping is a disaster. Only positive: Saa empowers them to know where the next occurrence of frogs occur Munich (Kraus's hometown).
In the final page of text, John Arcudi explained that with this book, the adventures of the BPRD take a more global dimension. Arcudi and Mignola interconnect several elements present long in this series: the frogs of course, but also Black Flame (Volume 5), an underground race (Volume 1 "Hollow Earth"), Lobster Johnson (with elements taken from Iron Prometheus), and even an individual cruised Witchfinder. The first part is wonderful as usual: the balance between the moments devoted to individuals, those devoted to shenanigans, those devoted to monsters and the fighting is perfect. Johann Kraus is indecipherable, Liz is resolved but still fragile, Kate has not lost its character, Abe took the size of his head field function. And Panya does not remain a simple cliché: it has a real charming personality and memories related to paranormal phenomena of the nineteenth century. For my taste, the second part suffers a bit of his nature: the BPRD is in the midst of a confrontation causing massive destruction. So the big show takes over the human dimension and the characters have a little less space to exist.
For this volume, the style of Guy Davis still has not changed regarding the rendering of faces. Its graphical bias was further radicalized to facial expressions, and I find it a bit lost finesse. The counterpart is that the monsters become increasingly foreign to humanity. For the rest, the reader finds everything that makes the pages of Guy Davis so gripping. The interior scenes benefit from unique, intelligent and talking decorations. For example, the BPRD team is allowed to visit the site of a large construction site. Guy Davis is not content to muddy everywhere with construction machinery waves to genre. It also included wire mesh for reinforcing concrete, and was for the excavations. During the visit of a small German flag, just the reader to examine the furniture to find out what kind of people lived there. The passage in the jungle with conviction evokes the temples of Angkor Wat. And the monsters have become even more horror. Just a dead animal slaughtered in the snow to the horror and anguish is invited in the narrative. And as usual, he can draw everything: the scenes of mass destruction in urban, prehistoric monsters, degenerate and degenerate creatures, giant robots, etc. Among the characters, we should also mention the impressive work carried out on the appearance of Abe Sapien whose body language easy enough to remember his complicated story. The appearance of Memnan Saa allows to visually understand the reader that its true nature belies his reassurances. And Davis allowed some humorous touches such as the holding of Johann Kraus, with its flap on the rear that evokes male underwear of another age (with a seam to go to the toilet). And as usual, put the color of Dave Stewart is an enchanting delight.
With this volume, Arcudi, Mignola and Davis chose to take the BPRD on an adventure with global consequences. The expertise of these three creators results in a breathless narrative in which the big show phagocyte part of the story. On the other hand, the reader witnesses the aggregation of several narrative components within an already rich continuity, with many winks to previous volumes, some irresistible (Andrew Devon hesitant to enter a phone booth after what happened to him in "Universal Machine").