Halloween Reviews: Spooooky One-Shots

Today we’ll be looking at two horror themed one-shots in honour of Halloween: The moody and artful crossover “Hellboy/Beasts of Burden: Sacrifice” and the redundant “Spider-Man vs Vampires.”

Hellboy/Beasts of Burden: Sacrifice

I’m a fan of Mike Mignola’s “Hellboy” books and I’ve been hearing great things about Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson’s “Beasts of Burden.” I was pretty excited when this one-shot was announced, and I’m glad to say that it lives up to my expectations.

For those not in the know, “Beasts of Burden” features a team of house-pets from the town of Burden Hill who are charged with defending their home from supernatural threats. Hellboy is a demonic paranormal investigator, and his paranormal investigations usually end with the paranormal getting investigated squarely in the face with Hellboy’s giant stone fist. In “Sacrifice” the Beasts recruit Hellboy to help them track down and defeat the source of some recent paranormal slayings.

Marvel Essentials Presents: Namor vs Daredevil

Today, let's look at the first Namor/Daredevil fight featured in Essential Daredevil Vol. 1.

The blind-but-not-really superhero Daredevil finds himself at odds with the super powered mutant Namor, the Sub-Mariner. For those not in the know, Daredevil's only super-power is that he has a radar-sense which lets him perfectly perceive his surroundings. He's also a super great acrobat and martial artist. Namor can fly, punch through walls, and has an entire underwater empire at his command. So what does a crafty tumbler do when faced with a top tier super-nobility?


So is “Namor by the ankles” the Marvel U equivalent of “tiger by the tail”? I hope so. I hope at some point Spider-Man fought Thanos and was sticking to his back where he couldn't reach and let out a big “I've certainly got this NAMOR by the ANKLES!” with an asterisk leading to a box that read “SEE DAREDEVIL ISSUE #7 MERRY MARVELONIANS! – SCRUPULOUS STAN”.

Daredevil jumps around for a bit longer until he's completely clocked by Namor. At which point, we learn that Daredevil had the right idea about going for the ankles. Only this time, he doesn't just go for the ankles...


...he goes for the heart. Namor likes Daredevil's spunk and decides to stop trashing New York and Daredevil goes back to pretending to be handicapped, if only for the sympathy and the parking spot. What a dick.

Illustrations from Essential Daredevil, Vol. 1 (Marvel Essentials)