Just about everything in "Beyond the Fences" works, individually and together. The art is outstanding and compliments the writing style, which in turn enhances the disturbing nighttime investigation scenes. It's not the best issue of Hellboy ever, but even a moderate one is still a thrill to read.

The first quarter of the Life and Death mini-series amounts to a retelling of Aliens with a Predator instead of a Xenomorph. It's an interesting premise, and Life and Death follows that idea to the letter, but it's not a particularly ambitious one. It shuffles around the existing Predator and Aliens plots effectively, but what the franchise needs is new ones.