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Back in February, I reviewed the unexpectedly excellent Hellboy Animated: Sword of Storms, the first in what promised to be an ongoing series of animated Hellboy offerings from Starz. To the good fortue of Hellboy fans everywhere, Sword of Storms received enough attention to warrant a sequel, Blood and Iron, with promises of still more on the way. On June 12, Blood and Iron was released on DVD… and here’s the review!

Featuring new character designs, gorgeous animation, and a delightful trove of Japanese mythology, Sword of Storms came out swinging with both fists, as the titular character (voiced by the legendary Ron Perlman) hammered his way through foes with the Right Hand of Doom and recognizable Mignola wit. By their own admission, the creative minds behind Hellboy Animated chose a more traditional route for the follow-up, Blood and Iron, setting their latest tale in creaky graveyards and chilly corridors of an opportunistic billionaire’s Hamptons mansion.

If anything, the plot of Blood and Iron is a bit too familiar, being a fairly straight-up vampire-hunting tale, complete with empty coffins and bewildered, mustachioed constabulary. Led by Professor Trevor Bruttenholm, the BPRD gang — Hellboy, pyrotechnic Liz Sherman, the amphibious Abe Sapien, and “human metal detector” Sidney Leach (who should be familiar to Hellboy comic readers) — investigates the possible resurrection of the menacing Erzsebet Ondrushko, a vampiric analog of Lady Bathory whom Bruttenholm battled in his monster-stomping youth. Along the way, the BPRD battles ghosts, wolves, lycanthropes, the demon goddess Hecate, and an extremely post-modern minotaur straight out of the most ill-advised TSR monster manuals. (He has a metal fist that shoots out on a chain. Yes, really.)

As such, there’s little in Blood and Iron that will really come as a surprise. If you’ve read any of the Hellboy comics, much about this story will seem familiar somehow, especially Hellboy’s admittedly spectacular late-round wrangling with Hecate, who implores him to embrace his demonic destiny and hints at what will hopefully constitute a greater story arc as Hellboy Animated progresses.

Though it lacks the inspired originality and verve of Sword of Storms, Blood and Iron still has plenty to offer Hellboy fans. There is plenty of action, humor and spooky atmosphere to go around, and Erzsebet Ondrushko (whose voice sounds eerily like that of Molotov Cocktease from the Venture Brothers) is an engaging, often gruesome villain. Where Sword of Storms felt like a bold venture into uncharted mythological territory, Blood and Iron is far more in the vein of the fun, familiar romp — but it is fun, and really suffers only in comparison to its excellent predecessor, and is a worthy entry into what will hopefully be a long-running Hellboy Animated series.

Finally — and this is no small thing — the deluxe limited edition of the DVD (available only at Best Buy, apparently) comes packaged with an absolutely top-flight action figure, which will be reviewed here tomorrow. The figure alone is worth the purchase price of the DVD, making the movie itself practically icing on the cake.

Recommended. 7.5/10