Hellboy is a superpowered paranormal investigator created by writer/artist Mike Mignola and appearing in comic books published by Dark Horse Comics. The character first appeared in San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2 (August 1993), and has since appeared in various miniseries, one-shots, and intercompany crossovers. The character has been adapted into four live-action films: Hellboy (2004) and its sequel The Golden Army (2008), a 2019 reboot film, and The Crooked Man (2024). The character also appeared in two straight-to-DVD animated films and four video games – Dogs of the Night (2000), The Science of Evil (2008), Injustice 2 (2017), and Web of Wyrd (2023)
Hellboy is a well-meaning cambion (or half-demon) whose true name is Anung Un Rama, Urush An Rama ("Destroyer of Worlds, Creator of Worlds"). (His true name is erroneously believed to be "Anung Un Rama" by some, but this is not the case.) Hellboy was summoned from Hell to Earth as a baby by Nazi occultists (spawning his hatred for the Third Reich). He appeared in the ruins of an old church in the Outer Hebrides in front of a team assembled by the Allied Forces, among them, Professor Trevor Bruttenholm, who formed the United States Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (B.P.R.D.). In time, Hellboy grew to be a large, muscular, red-skinned man with a tail, horns (which he files off, leaving behind circular stumps on his forehead that resemble goggles), cloven hooves, and an oversized right hand made of stone (the "Right Hand of Doom"). He has been described as smelling of dry-roasted peanuts. Although a bit gruff, he shows none of the malevolence thought to be intrinsic to classical demons and has an ironic sense of humor. This is said to be because of his upbringing under Professor Bruttenholm, who raised him as a normal boy.
Hellboy works for the B.P.R.D., an international non-governmental agency, and for himself, against dark forces including Nazis and witches, in a series of tales that have their roots in folklore, pulp magazines, vintage adventure, Lovecraftian horror, and horror fiction. In earlier stories, he is identified as the "World's Greatest Paranormal Investigator".
Fictional character biography The half-demon that would become Hellboy was conceived April 30, 1574 at a Witches' Sabbath. Sixteen-year-old witch Sarah Hughes summoned the archdemon Azzael, an archduke of Hell, consorting with him and unknowingly conceiving his son as well.
On October 5, 1617, within a church in East Bromwich, England, Hughes made a deathbed confession to her children, both members of the clergy. Upon the moment of her death, Azzael came forth to claim his unborn son and incinerated Hughes' children for attempting to drive him off. He then brought Sarah to Hell, where she too was burned away. The newborn half-demon half-human's right hand was cut away, replaced with a large stone forelimb (the "Right Hand of Doom") that held the power to free the Ogdru Jahad (a destructive, seven-headed dragon imprisoned in deep space) and awaken the armies of Hell to wage war against Heaven. When the other princes of Hell learned of Azzael's actions, they condemned him, but Azzael was able to send his half-demon child away moments before being stripped of his powers and imprisoned in ice (like Lucifer in Dante's Divine Comedy).
On December 23, 1944, in the final months of World War II, the mystic Grigori Rasputin oversaw an occult Nazi ritual ("Project Ragna Rok") to awaken the Ogdru Jahad and turn the tide of the war. Though nothing appeared to happen at first, the child suddenly appeared on Earth in a fireball at the ruins of the Bromwich church, likely guided there by the spirits of his half-siblings. Though his appearance was a shock to the Allied forces encamped there, they quickly realized that he did not seem dangerous. As one onlooker remarked that the half-demon looked "like a little boy", Professor Trevor Bruttenholm uttered "Hellboy", inadvertently giving the child a name.
With the B.P.R.D. The infant Hellboy was taken to a United States Air Force base in New Mexico. Soon after, the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD), an organization dedicated to combating occult threats, was established by Bruttenholm (who served as its first director) and other paranormal experts. The fledgling B.P.R.D. was initially granted custody of Hellboy, though Bruttenholm himself officially adopted the child as his own in March 1946.
Hellboy matured much more rapidly than a normal human child: he learned to crawl within a week, and was walking and talking at a month old. He appeared fully-grown by the age of eight, and did not appreciably age further over the following sixty-plus years.
Though initially raised in secret, Hellboy was revealed to the world by 1947. He briefly became a media darling of the Atomic Age, featured in LIFE magazine, and his appearance rarely provokes a reaction of shock or alarm. He began filing down his horns as a child, continuing the practice through adulthood. On August 6, 1952, a special act of the United Nations officially granted Hellboy honorary "human" status.
B.P.R.D. career In 1952, a week after being legally recognized as human, Hellboy officially joined the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense as a full time agent. Having matured with years of experience, Hellboy quickly became the Bureau's top investigator and field operative, alongside other human and quasi-human agents that include Kate Corrigan, a professor of folklore at New York University; Abe Sapien, an amphibian humanoid (Ichthyo sapiens); and Liz Sherman, a young pyrokinetic.
During one of his early missions, he rescued a young girl named Alice Monaghan, who had been replaced by fairies with a changeling named Gruagach; this act foiled Gruagach's hopes of an easy human life. He also went to Russia and shot out the eye of the witch Baba Yaga for kidnapping and eating children. Gruagach and Baba Yaga both held lifelong grudges against Hellboy over these incidents.
Things change dramatically for Hellboy during the events of Seed of Destruction when he searches for Professor Bruttenholm after he disappears during an expedition in the Arctic. He finds his adopted father only to witness his death at the hands of a Lovecraftian frog monster. The search takes Hellboy, Abe, and Liz to the Cavendish Hall mansion, where they fall into a trap set by Rasputin to lure Hellboy into an embrace of his own "destiny", with the assistance of Sadu-Hem, one of the 369 spawn of the Ogdru Jahad. Controlled by the spirit of one of the ancestral Cavendish men, Abe impales Rasputin. Liz's firestorm then incinerates Rasputin's body alongside Sadu-Hem's and destroys Cavendish Hall.
Soon after, during a visit to Bromwich Church, Hellboy gets a glimpse of his conception 300+ years ago and learns he has two human half-siblings, a nun and a priest whose spirits remain bound to the place of their deaths after dying at the hand of his father Azzael.
During the events of Hellboy: Wake the Devil, Hellboy, ostensibly content to remain ignorant of his true nature, is set back on his journey of self-discovery when a mission for the B.P.R.D. leads him to Romania to investigate the theft of an ancient box containing the corpse of Vladimir Giurescu, a Napoleonic officer who was, in fact, a vampire before he was "killed" on the order of a fearful Adolf Hitler. The culprit of the theft is revealed to be Ilsa Haupstein, one of the surviving members of Project Ragna Rok, who was revived from suspended animation and then aided in Giurescu's resurrection. Finding Castle Giurescu after splitting up with the other search groups, Hellboy learns that the source of Giurescu's rebirth is the ancient goddess Hecate. Though Hellboy destroys Hecate's original body by forcing her into the sunlight, he faces her again after Rasputin unintentionally provides her with Ilsa's iron maiden-encased body. Hecate swallows Hellboy and reveals to him his ultimate purpose as destroyer of worlds, but he returns to his own reality after he denounces his supposed destiny.
Hellboy later learns that Liz is dying after losing her powers when she accidentally revived a homunculus while tracking Giurescu, finding Roger in the events of Hellboy: Almost Colossus as he convinces the homunculus to save Liz's life. Following the events of Hellboy: The Right Hand of Doom, gaining insight about his stone hand and being referred to as a harbinger of the Apocalypse, Hellboy is accompanied by Abe to hunt down the warlock Igor Bromhead in Box Full of Evil. He is overpowered and taken captive by Bromhead and his master, the demon Ualac, who use Hellboy's True Name, Anung Un Rama, to restrain him, so that the latter can claim Hellboy's normally invisible Crown of the Apocalypse to increase their power. But this act, however, proves to be counterproductive, as it reveals that Hellboy's true name was never Anung Un Rama. (A vision described to Eugene Remy, founder of the Heliopic Brotherhood of Ra, by the spirit Larzod identified Anung Un Rama with the description "upon his brow is set a crown of flame". With the theft of his crown, Anung Un Rama cannot be Hellboy's true name.) Hellboy kills Ualac's mortal body before the demon and the crown are forcibly dragged back to Hell by the archdemon Astaroth, who is later revealed to be Hellboy's paternal uncle.
In the events of Hellboy: Conqueror Worm, Hellboy is assisted by the ghost of his childhood hero Lobster Johnson and Roger the Homunculus in preventing an alien entity called the Conqueror Worm from arriving on Earth through the continued machinations of the surviving members of Project Ragna Rok. Over the course of the story, Hellboy learns that the B.P.R.D. has implanted a bomb in Roger as a failsafe in case he should turn on them. Disillusioned by this knowledge and finally ready to look deeper into his origins, Hellboy resigns from the Bureau and becomes an independent detective.
Post-B.P.R.D.
After some time with a witch doctor in Africa, Hellboy is captured by a trio of mermaid sisters and brought underwater to a witch known as the Bog Roosh. In exchange for Hellboy, the Bog Roosh grants each sister a wish. The first two sisters are tricked by the Bog Roosh and killed by their wishes, but the third sister is clever and gets her wish, a missing piece of her father's grave. While the third sister returns to her father's grave, the Bog Roosh explains her plan to completely destroy Hellboy, thereby preventing the apocalypse. At the grave, the third sister is told by her father's ghost that the only way to honor him is to save Hellboy. She does, and when the Bog Roosh realizes she cannot prevent the apocalypse, she allows herself to be killed by Hellboy in the ensuing battle. The third sister becomes the new Bog Roosh, releasing the souls of drowned sailors from which the previous Bog Roosh drew her power. She then releases Hellboy, leaving him lost at sea.