Read the entire first issue of Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1952 right here

Susana Polo is an entertainment editor at Polygon, specializing in pop culture and genre fare, with a primary expertise in comic books. Previously, she founded The Mary Sue.

In honor of the collected trade paperback edition of Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1952 hitting store shelves today, Dark Horse has offered Polygon the entire first issue of the five-issue mini-series to host right here.

Written by John Arcudi and Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, drawn by Alex Maleev and colored by Dave Stewart, Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1952 has been described as "Hellboy: Year One." That makes a lot of sense, since it's the story of Hellboy's first mission as an agent of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. 1952 is approximately eight years after the toddler-sized Hellboy was brought to earth by the machinations of Grigori Rasputin and recovered by Professor Bruttenholm, who raised him as his own son.

Eight years of the accelerated development of a half-demon adolescent means that Hellboy looks pretty much like the guy we know, but as an agent he's as green as they get. When a series of mysterious deaths near an abandoned Portuguese fortress in Brazil comes to the attention of the B.P.R.D., Professor Bruttenholm decides that it's time for Hellboy's first field mission, no matter what the more senior agents think about it.