You know that Hellhunters #3 has taken a dark turn when the scariest thing on the battlefield isn’t the demons or Nazis, it’s teen-aged hero Bucky Barnes.
HELLHUNTERS #3
Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson
Artist: Adam Gorham
Main Cover: Jonas Scharf
Variant Cover: Rod Reis
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: February 26, 2025
This review contains spoilers
Hellhunters #3 opens with the demonized Felix Bruckner and his undead cohorts feasting on a platoon of Nazi soldiers in the frozen wilderness. Bruckner offers up the bloody massacre as tribute to the “unhallowed” demon Baraphiel.
Sometime later, the Hellhunters including Logan (Wolverine), Nick Fury, Peggy Carter, Sal Romero (Ghost Rider ’44), and Sebastian Szardos (Soldier Supreme), return to the US Army base in occupied France and encounter Captain America (Steve Rogers). Fury and Szardos try to explain the scope of the encroaching supernatural threat (in the guise of a growing ice storm), to Cap and commanding officer Colonel Phillips.
A flummoxed Phillips dismisses the warning, telling Fury and Szardos that the clock is ticking on the Hellhunters supernatural wild goose chase. The scene cuts to a pool of blood from Bruckner’s massacre feeding something underground.
Outside, Sal Romero finds Cap’s partner Bucky Barnes crying, not from trauma or exhaustion, but because Howling Commando Dum Dum Duggan confiscated Bucky’s collection of severed ears from the Nazis he killed. Sal seems to take this morbid information in stride, and is much more concerned that Bucky should be living like a normal teenager, instead of traipsing around Europe fighting fascists. The Hellhunters regroup, and Bucky smooth-talks his way onto the team.
That night the Hellhunters come across an abandoned town where Romero unexpectedly transforms into Ghost Rider ’44, meaning that the spirit of vengeance senses something nasty nearby. A giant monster bursts up from the ground and the Hellhunters jump into action.
Szardos exclaims that the creature is made from the bodies and blood of dead Nazis (Bruckner’s handiwork). Hellhunters #3 ends with Szardos telling Fury that there will be a cosmic price to pay for bringing an innocent like Bucky into the line of fire.
Analysis
Hellhunters #3 continues its enjoyable (if disturbing), supernatural World War II story. It is important to honor the sacrifices that real life heroes made during that dark era without trivializing their efforts, (although Captain America and Bucky’s first comic book adventure actually does predate the United States’ entry into WWII). Setting the story squarely in the realm of the occult helps to separate it from those real world horrors, and instead focuses on the massive supernatural threat as a metaphor of what the Allies actually faced.
Writer Phillip K. Johnson unspools another dark, fun, and bloody chapter that pushes the boundaries of the parental advisory rating with a fair amount of supernatural blood and gore, but nothing is as disturbing as Bucky Barnes’ macabre trophy collection. Bucky’s fascination with violence and bloody keepsakes is a remarkable contrast to his scrawny appearance and his role as exuberant teenaged sidekick..
In recent decades, Marvel Comics has come to embrace the fact that both Captain America and Bucky killed enemy soldiers during WWII. At one point that concept seemed unthinkable, but Johnson doesn’t shy away from the damaging effects of war and trauma on a teenaged commando’s psyche. Bucky appears desensitized to the devastation around him, and to the violence he commits against others.
Sal Romero comes across as a likable, average guy, even in his Ghost Rider ’44 persona. Sebastian Szardos, as the Soldier Supreme (a character first introduced in Infinity Warps), is as quick with an exposition dump as he is on the trigger of his magical machine gun. Fury and Logan have a few good lines, but Peggy Carter is relegated to the background in this issue. However, while Bruckner is given little screen time, his presence is still felt throughout Hellhunters #3.
Artist Adam Gorham’s (Darth Vader) gritty, energetic style lends itself to the war torn aesthetic, using clever camera angles and subtle facial details to convey action and emotion.
A few items of note:
Steve Rogers’ presence in Hellhunters #3 is unnecessary, as he says very little, and has nothing to contribute to the plot other than Fury wanting to recruit him and making eye contact with Peggy Carter.
Writer Phillip K. Johnson incorrectly has Szardos call Colonel Phillips “General” even though Fury mentions his name and rank earlier.
Szardos tells the Hellhunters that another Sorcerer Supreme and Ghost Rider once teamed up to destroy an unhallowed demon long ago.
Final Thoughts
Hellhunters #3 is another hardcore, high-octane, supernatural war epic with action, humor, likable characters and a few unsettling moments mixed in. Ghost Rider ’44 has already made an impression with readers, and his meeting Bucky in Hellhunters #3 will come full circle in Thunderbolts Doomstrike #2 next month.
