Hellsing: Volume 4

by Kohta Hirano, 205 pages

After the mess in South America, Integra recalls Alucard and the gang back to England for an audience with the Queen, Iscariot's Maxwell, and other behind-the-scenes bigwigs. But their war-room briefing is interrupted by a cheerful messenger from Millennium's man in charge. The "Major" is anything but modest as he boasts, via video conferencing, of his plan to defeat Alucard and take over the world with his army of Nazi vampires--starting with those snotty Brits.

Whenever I think this story's sole focus is to see how much bloody action it can cram into one book, it surprises me with hints at a deeper element by wiping the crazy, self-satisfied smile off Alucard's face and replacing it with something more complex and troubled. Last time, it was in his reactions to Police Girl's hesitation to kill and to a human opponent's unexpected suicide. This time, it appears in his disoriented, frustrated face upon waking from a memory-haunted dream. Now I'm curious! The reader gets so distracted by the present undead Nazi threat that she forgets the colorful lead must have an intriguing past to mine. How did a seemingly unstoppable monster like Alucard become the Hellsing family's "man" in the first place? Who--and what--was he before?