Summary: The Ogram Monarch reveals that there has long been a pattern of their design in Gotham going back centuries that has but one flaw.
Summary: As an Elseworld tale I love the idea of there having been multiple Batmen and various period themed villains and allies through out the years and in the past I even liked that Morrison kind of incorporated them into continuity by having them be a time traveling Bruce Wayne...but various Batmen occurring in Gotham's past because of some ill defined magical artifact(and possibly the Phantom Stranger?) used by an evil society of immortals and that Bruce Wayne is only the current iteration seems a bridge too far. 

Don't get me wrong, early colonial Batman fighting a band brigands leg by a swashbuckling version of Two-Face and teaming up the pipe smoking lawman Garrat Jardin to save a witcher woman with ties to nature was a lot of fun...but the way it made Batman seem less unique and something Bruce Wayne was always fated to become just rang wrong to me so it was hard to enjoy as a whole.

Art: Christopher Mitten and Raphael Albuquerque are both fantastic choices for a moody, supernatural tinged story so both their inky skills were really well matched to the tone of the story and a joy to see.
Grade: 8/10 if read in isolation...6/10 as an actual piece of Batman's "world"

Summary: Stirred from his rest by the ghost of Sir Edward Gray, Koshchei the Deathless embarks on what might be his last adventure.
Plot: Picking up some of the final untidy strings from Hellboy in Hell and BPRD, Mignola returns to Pandemonium(the capital city of Hell) to tell the tale of what happened after Hellboy killed Satan and threw down the armies of the fly. That doesn't seem like a plot that really needs tidying does it? And truth be told there aren't many substantial strings left untied which does give the whole plot of having to stop Pluto(the Greek god, not the dog) from filling the gap in power a slightly flat sense. It's Hell after all, how much worse could it be with some one else in charge? That said, lack of real dread aside the adventure that Koshchei embarks upon to "save" Hell is otherwise off to a fun start. Despite the location, it has a fittingly fairytale mood to it that gives you a real sense of nostalgia, even if you're not familiar with Koshchei's convoluted tale. There's a warmth here as Koshchei puts down his book, belts on his sword and reluctantly takes off to sea looking for adventure, the reluctant and unexpected hero called to action one last time is a well known trope but it feels good to see it again here. I don't know where Mignola is going with Pluto taking over his old domain, but I'm sure the clash of old world and new world mythologies will be interesting to see.
Art: If you're pardon the pun,Stenbeck truly draws the Hell out of this series. His unique style really does a fantastic job of showing off the incredible scale of monsters as they loom over Koshchei and he provides a great sense of atmosphere to the weird and wild world of Mignola's Hell.
Grade: 9/10