Hellboy vs Fate

by Conor Bartol

I have spent far too many hours in my life reading far too many comic books, so I hope that lends me some authority when I say that the Hellboy series and its interconnected universe of stories is probably my favorite. Hellboy is a comic book written and primarily illustrated by Mike Mignola following the adventures of the eponymous hero. A demon summoned to earth by Nazis near the close of World War II but raised by the kindly Professor Trevor Bruttenholm under the auspices of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (B.P.R.D), Hellboy is a gun-toting, stone-fisted occult detective who travels the world fighting monsters, both human and otherwise. He is often accompanied by his friends, the fish-man Abe Sapien, pyrokinetic Liz Sherman, and a host of other strange companions.

I could sing Hellboy’s praises for hours if given the opportunity. Mike Mignola’s art is
immaculate, full of striking character designs and deep shadows. And that’s not to discount the art of other contributors, such as frequent collaborator Dave Stewart, whose style is distinct from Mignola’s but perfectly complements the story. The humor is delightful: I recommend the two-page short story “Pancakes” for an example. The action is clearly conveyed and delivers true spectacle and fun. And that is to say nothing of the other titles set in the Hellboy universe, many of which I would consider essential reading for anyone who loves the main series. B.P.R.D. is a bloody and action-packed team book about a war against monsters that threaten to destroy the world. Lobster Johnson is a pulpy old-school superhero adventure about a vigilante bringing violent justice to 1930s New York. Sir Edward Grey: Witchfinder is an occult mystery in Victorian London. But I should be brief, so I will focus on one of my favorite aspects of the series, Hellboy himself, and his defining struggle.

Hellboy is in a fight against fate from day one. In his first adventure he learns from the mad monk Rasputin, who summoned him to Earth in the first place, that he is destined to bring about Ragna-Rok, the end of the world, in which the Lovecraftian Ogdru Jahad will be freed from their prison and lay waste to the planet. He is called Anung Un Rama, the Great Beast, “the sentence of ruin passed down from the beginning.” It is the first of many dark prophecies that Hellboy receives over the course of the series and resisting this fate as the beast of the apocalypse is his defining struggle. Everywhere he goes, Hellboy is faced with people who have expectations for him. His boss at the B.P.R.D. expects him to be a loyal soldier who follows orders, even when Hellboy does not think they are right. Recurring antagonists such as Rasputin and Hecate expect Hellboy to one day fulfill his destiny and end the world. Even Hellboy’s allies agree that he spells doom for humanity. As Queen Mab says to him late in the series, “It is truth that you were sent to destroy the world.”

However, throughout all of this, Hellboy resists. Despite being the son of a demon (and much more besides, as Hellboy’s lineage becomes a major plot point later in the series), Hellboy was raised by a good man who taught him to do right. While most of Hellboy’s moments with his adoptive father are told in flashbacks, short stories set prior to the beginning of the main adventure, or spinoff prequel comics, the moments they do share are some of the most impactful in the whole series. In one, a young Hellboy asks Professor Bruttenholm, “I’m not a monster, am I?” and it is clear that the reassurance and
love he receives is central to his perseverance against enemies that see him as monstrous. These expectations are often visualized through Hellboy’s near constant surveillance. In many of the series’ pivotal moments, Mignola cuts away to prominent figures he has met in his journeys, such as benevolent members of the Fey, or enemies like Baba Yaga, as they watch his deeds from afar. It is a kind of dream logic found throughout the story, where everything in the supernatural world knows who Hellboy is and what he will do, and watches anxiously. This sense of watching and waiting for him to fulfill what seems, with every new calamity, to be an inevitable fate, contributes to an overwhelming sense of melancholy and doom.

Many of the other protagonists in the Hellboy universe have to wrestle with matters of fate as well, and few find any kind of happy ending. Liz Sherman begins the story having found little but pain from her fire starting abilities, but it isn’t long until she discovers villains who want to exploit that power. Abe Sapien is as much of an outcast as any of his B.P.R.D. colleagues, and before long is embroiled in the mystery of his origins and yet another dark prophecy. Like Hellboy, they are pieces on a chessboard being moved around by higher powers far older than them, and it is how they resist this and try to live lives on their terms that makes the characters so compelling.

The universe of Hellboy is also free of one of the defining principles of most mainstream
superhero comics, the eventual return to the status quo. As a general rule, the DC and Marvel universes do not substantially change much over time. Different creative teams reset the board now and again, and while some changes are enshrined permanently, that is the exception to the rule. This can be comforting at times; if a writer butchers your favorite character, you know that if you wait long enough they will return to the status quo and all that harm will be undone. No matter how much pain or sorrow the heroes endure, you can be assured that it is mostly likely a fleeting thing. In the world of Hellboy, there is no such comfort. When characters die, they stay dead, and in the rare instances where they do return they are never whole. When an apocalyptic event occurs, there is no walking it back. I found myself spending a lot of time reading the first arc of the B.P.R.D. comic thinking wow, how are they going to clean up this mess? I realized soon after that they were not going to do anything of the sort. The cat was out of the bag. As the timeline of Hellboy progresses, it becomes increasingly clear that this is not some world where monsters and ancient evils can be easily tucked away while the world at large continues uninterrupted. The supernatural spills out until the normal world, and soon Hellboy’s world diverges completely from our own and starts to become unrecognizable. There is no hope of going back to the way things were, not for Hellboy and not for anyone else. But despite being dragged into this seemingly inevitable future, Hellboy continues to fight.

At its core, Hellboy is a story about a man who is told he is everything he has spent his life fighting against. Sometimes he believes that, just as sometimes we all believe the worst of ourselves. As one of his companions says, “You are so ready to believe all the bad things said about you.” Hellboy doesn’t simply reject his fate once and get on with his life, he is forced to do it again and again. While in the beginning of his story he seeks to avoid any mention of it, it finds its way back to him. It is how he resists it that defines him. Just as he stubbornly clobbers monsters with his stone fist, he stubbornly rejects the destiny imposed upon him. As he once so eloquently said, “Screw you! ... It’s my goddamn life, I’ll do what I want with it!”