B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth vol. 1: New World

If you’ll recall, I thought the last volume of this series was a bit of a “swing and a miss” when compared with the rest of it.  Too much speechifying by the main villain with a plot that functions more as a transition to the next part of the story than as a story in its own right.  We pick up here with the B.P.R.D. now a U.N.-funded organization with more power and reach than before.  Unfortunately, the team is fractured by infighting as Devon won’t let the bit about Abe being the potential antichrist from the previous volume rest, Johann is still creepily pining and plotting over his lost body, Panya is pulling all the strings she can from her automated wheelchair, and Kate has to find a way to get these characters to function as a team again.  However, Abe has his own agenda right now and it takes him to a remote town in British Columbia where people are disappearing and something Sasquatch-like has been sighted in the forests. Minor spoiler:  What really gives this volume a leg up on the previous one is that after [...goes to check...] SIX volumes we finally get to see Ben Daimio again and things really pick up after that.  The infighting gets pushed to the back burner as Abe and Ben find themselves face-to-tentacle with a kind of monstrosity they had never seen before this “new world.”  It’s great monster-hunting fun and I wish we could have Ben’s no-nonsense vibe back on a regular basis, but it’s not to be.  His return does set several things in motion and that’s probably this volume’s most crucial success.  “B.P.R.D.” has its momentum back and I’m looking forward to its future -- even if it means one without Guy Davis.