Chris Roberson and Michael Avon Oeming will continue the story of B.P.R.D. agent Sue Xiang and her family’s connect to the clandestine Golden Crane Society in The Shadow of the Golden Crane, which will debut in January.
Xiang’s connection to this mysterious group first surfaced about 10 years ago, in one of the first stories Roberson wrote that was set within Mike Mignola’s Hellboy universe.
“As far back as Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1953 we have teased the idea that there is some connection between Susan Xiang, an agent of the B.P.R.D. with psychic abilities, and an organization called the Golden Crane Society, a secret society that protected the people of China from otherworldly threats for centuries,” Roberson said. “Susan was raised on stories of the Golden Crane, and when she was seven there was an incident involving her uncle and some jiangshi (Chinese ‘hopping vampires’) that we have so far only caught glimpses of. In The Shadow of the Golden Crane, we follow Susan and her fellow B.P.R.D. agents Hellboy and Victor Koestler as she uses her abilities to unlock the secrets of the Golden Crane Society.
The four-issue miniseries will feature Agent Xiang channeling different time periods in the society’s history.
“In each issue Susan relives the experiences of a different group of Golden Crane members at different points in history in a variety of locations in China and beyond, so that each chapter is essentially a standalone story that makes up one part of a larger narrative,” Roberson said. “And in the end, Susan discovers that she and her family might be more closely connected to the legacy of the Golden Crane than she ever imagined.”
For Oeming, the book marks his return to the Mignolaverse and a checkmark on his bucket list.
“When I turned 50, I reflected on my career and what else I wanted to do,” said Oeming. “Working more on the Hellboy Universe was at the top of my list. So, when I reached out to Mike and Dark Horse, I was thrilled to be assigned to work on Susan Xiang with Chris Roberson. I jumped right into sketching as soon as I got the assignment. Chris wrote a fantastic series that’s easy to dive into, even if you’re a casual Hellboy fan—it’s fully accessible and packed with spooky action.”
The dup are joined by veteran Mignaolverse letterer Clem Robins for the project, and the first issue comes out Jan. 15.