Hellboy |
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Portrayed by Ron Perlman |
Statistics |
Full Name |
Anung un Rama |
Age |
69 |
Height |
8'1" |
Build |
Gigantic |
Eyes |
Yellow |
Hair |
Black |
Factions |
BPRD (a division of Stormwatch) |
Occupation |
Paranormal problem-solver |
Alignment |
Hero |
Claim to Fame
Hellboy has been kicking around behind the scenes in occult circles since the fifties, but the general public has no idea who he is.
Reputation
On the one hand, mundane people and agencies who deal with the occult know Hellboy as a reliable (if occasionally messy) problem-solver. On the other, actual mystics see him as a being of incalculable power and danger, ineffectively masquerading as a man.
Biography
Hellboy, a demon destined to destroy the world, was summoned from the underworld by Nazi occultists and Grigori Rasputin at the height of World War II. The ceremony was interrupted by a team of Allied troops working in conjunction with the then-new Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. Hellboy was raised by the BPRD over the next several decades, and eventually put to work fighting occult hazards that threatened civilization. In this capacity, he has worked with any number of costumed heroes, but while they go on to win praise and fame for foiling mustache-twirling fiends, Hellboy remains in the shadows being thrown around by tentacled slime monsters.
His personal history is something he has had to uncover himself over the course of several decades of investigation into the matter. His mother was Sarah Hughes, a witch and a descendant of an illegitimate child of King Arthur. His father is a demon of considerable power who seeks to turn Earth into a new circle of Hell. Both lines of descent offer him grand, foretold destinies that he has no interest whatsoever in fulfilling.
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Character Details
Hellboy really, really wishes he could be an average guy. He's not.
Occult Knowledge |
Hellboy is familiar with the myths, monsters, and magic of almost every culture on the globe. He has a particular aptitude for cutting through the crap to find the kernel of practical wisdom at folklore's heart: what can these creatures do, and how do we deal with them? Beyond his skill at fighting monsters, he has a talent for ferreting out whatever has managed to stir them up in the first place. His experience as a paranormal investigator is so extensive that at this point, he can practically recognize the signs of an apocalypse cult, Nazi remnant, or mad sorceror by sense of smell.
Over the years, Hellboy has come to know the BPRD's considerable collection of ancient tomes and artifacts like the back of his Hand. He also has natural skill at reading occult runes from throughout human history and beyond. |
Invulnerability |
Hellboy can sustain unholy amounts of damage (literally), and his body heals at an astounding rate. High-caliber bullets leave painful pockmarks; blades only make him bleed when swung with uncanny strength. Bludgeons? Don't make him laugh. Hellboy has climbed out from under a collapsed castle, picked himself up after explosions, and escaped being impaled on the spear-like teeth of a giant metal serpent woman. Count on him to complain about how much it hurts the entire time, though. |
Super Strength |
Hellboy can uproot large trees and swing them around like baseball bats, leap several stories into the air, or fling enemies many times his size dozens of yards away. His invincible Right Hand also seems to swing with more inertia than its weight would suggest, making it a perfect bludgeon for taking on the oversized opponents that he routinely has to face. |
Combat |
"I'm not a very good shot, but the Samaritan here uses really big bullets." Hellboy's first recourse in a fight is usually his custom revolver, which fires oversized bullets loaded with an anti-supernatural cure-all cocktail: holy water, silver shavings, garlic, white oak, and so on. His aim is deplorable, but his enemies more often than not would see the broad side of a barn as thinspiration. A more effective choice is nearly always to just beat the snot out of whatever he's fighting with his stone Hand or whatever melee weapon is close by, but Hellboy's instinct to act human means that he almost always reaches for the gun first. |
Right Hand Of Doom |
Hellboy's right forearm and hand are disproportionately huge even for him, and are made of a supernaturally tough stonelike material. The hand is completely invincible and lacks pain receptors, and seems to swing with more inertia than its weight would suggest, making it a perfect bludgeon and a damn good shield. The hand is dextrous, but so outsized that it's useless for operating any earthly machinery. Its grip and crushing power are staggering.
The hand originally belonged to a creature of unthinkable power, and was used to create and later lock away the Ogdru Jahad, a beast of unimaginable horror bent on destruction and conquest. Hellboy doesn't know how he got the hand, but having it makes him invaluable to anyone who wants to kick off the apocalypse; the hand can be used to unlock the Ogdru Jahad's prison and trigger the destruction of the planet. For obvious reasons, Hellboy would very much like to prevent that from ever happening. |
Demonic |
Hellboy's demonic nature has its advantages. He is utterly immune to damage from heat or fire. His unearthly immune system shrugs off eldritch curses like ours deal with the sniffles; vampires, werewolves and the like aren't contagious to him. Speaking of contagious, he's also biologically dissimilar enough from humans that viruses and germs can't make the jump — although he is susceptible to a few bugs that don't affect anyone else. His life cycle is different from that of humans; he matured from childhood to adulthood in no time, but hasn't aged at all in the 70+ years since. |
Occult Contacts |
Over the years, Hellboy has worked with more exorcists, monster experts, ghost hunters, and assorted mystical riffraff than you can shake a stone fist at — both within the Bureau and without. These contacts can tip him off about oncoming danger, help with his cases, or even refer problems that call for his unique skill set to the BPRD. |
B P R D |
The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense is a longstanding U.S. government agency tasked to deal with occult threats. Its funding and influence are nowhere near as extensive as those of an organization like SHIELD that deals with tangible problems, however. As a consequence, BPRD agents are frequently assigned to other agencies as consultants for specific cases. Even superteams have been known to request BPRD experts for assistance with supernatural enemies.
The Bureau and its leadership are publicly known, but many of its agents are not, including the menagerie of weird sentients like Hellboy that are the frontline defense against the supernatural. Through the Bureau they receive benefits like places to live, equipment for monster hunting, and transportation. If Hellboy needs exotic equipment or help with the red tape of mundane society, he can apply for it. Secret information, like that in the paranormal archives or other government databases, is freely available to him on request. |
Mystical Knicknacks |
Hellboy carries a utility belt full of talismans from every dusty nook of human history. It can often be difficult to locate anything specific in the jumble of holy relics, magic charms, and ancient artifacts he carries, but rest assured he has something stashed away in there for almost any situation. Whether their purported effects are all they're cracked up to be varies, but he figures it can't hurt to be prepared. |
Crown Of Flame |
Hellboy is descended from witches, demonic royalty, and I kid you not, King freakin' Arthur himself. He holds the Right Hand of Doom, one of a small number of artifacts that can trigger the apocalypse. He has been prophecied to turn the Earth into a new circle of Hell and rule over it with a stone fist and a crown of flame. He has also been prophecied to raise up a holy army and wield Excalibur to make a last-ditch defense of Britain at the end of days. Prophets, man: get it together!
He, personally, would be very happy if everyone would just forget all of that crap, but to your pit beasts and fae folk and whatnot, it makes Hellboy top-tier nobility. They may hate him, they may fear him, but they also revere him.
In practical terms, this means that the smarter class of monster (y'know: words, object permanence) will talk to Hellboy before trying to kill him. This will often take the form of an unwanted recruitment pitch, but it can also give him insight into their plans. |
Demonic |
Hellboy's demonic nature has its drawbacks. He is physically unmistakable for a human, and will frequently be mistaken for a monster or supervillian by civilians and superheroes alike. He is also susceptible to magic that binds and summons demons — although as a practicing Catholic, he is exempt from harm by holy powers. (He can't be exorcised or burnt with holy water, for example.) |
Low-tech |
Hellboy plus technology equals disaster. This may have something to do with fighting a tech tycoon who was possessed by visions of a dead Russian sorceror. Or he may just suck with fiddly little gadgets — who knows? Either way, anything more complicated or modern than a stapler is liable to fall apart, malfunction, or outright explode if he tries to put it to use. His revolver is basically Civil War technology scaled up, and even THAT is liable to jam on him at inopportune moments. |
One-trick Pony |
Hit it. If that doesn't work, hit it again. If that also doesn't work, get a good run-up, take a flying leap, and THEN hit it. Hellboy is not a clever tactical thinker. If punching, explosions, or one of the million things in his utility belt won't win a fight, you better hope someone a little more cerebral than Hellboy is around to strategize. |
Sluggish |
Hellboy really took the tale of the Tortoise and the Hare to heart. He is durable and really strong and that's served him pretty well. All this 'dodging' and 'agility' and 'martial arts' crap seems like an awful lot of unnecessary work. If he gets knocked over, he's going to sit and complain about it for a while before getting up. If what he's trying isn't working, he's going to try it a few more times anyway, because geez, what's the rush? |
Taciturn |
Hellboy is not big on social graces. He talks like syllables are being rationed. Most of the people he meets at work are more into wailing and incantations than friendly chitchat anyway. As a result, Hellboy is hard to befriend and less than ideal company even if you do get to know him, in spite of his good intentions. |
Terrible Destiny |
As Anung Un Rama, the bearer of the Right Hand of Doom, Hellboy is destined to unleash fire and annihilation on the universe in the form of the Ogdru Jahad. He keeps taking a rain check on fate, but she refuses to get the hint. As a destructive tool of immense power, more often than not Hellboy's enemies see him as a resource to be exploited. And once one of the dozens of rituals designed to harness his evil potential gets going, it can take an incredible exercise of will for him to resist. Fortunately, so far, his humanity has always rebelled on the brink of catastrophe. But any hero who knows enough to recognize him as the harbinger of such destruction is guaranteed to react with hostility, and his enemies are constantly seeking a new way to use him for their own ends. |
Relationships
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Name |
Relation |
Information |
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Character Name |
Friend |
Insert a description of the relationship here. |
Notes
<This section is optional. You can delete it.>
Character Gallery
Logs
Wolves of 4th Street
November 23, 2014: Werewolves have been going missing in Gotham. Hellboy investigates. Vorpal is knocked unconscious.
(log: 20141123-wolves-of-4th-street | tags: fenris gotham hellboy vorpal | posted: 24 Nov 2014 15:46)
Attack of the Crap Demon
October 30, 2014: Hellboy, Paul Manning, Rain, and Fenris are drawn to the scene of an accidental demon summoning.
(log: 20141030-attack-of-the-crap-demon | tags: constantine fenris gotham hellboy paul_manning rain | posted: 31 Oct 2014 03:23)
Mystic Picnic
September 22, 2014: Paul, Hellboy, and Constantine meet in broad daylight, where the Elder Gods can't get them.
(log: 20140922-mystic-picnic | tags: constantine hellboy paul_manning | posted: 23 Sep 2014 01:13)
Big Red in the Park
September 17 2014: Jericho comes upon Nancy and Hellboy in Flushing Meadow Park (A Partial Log)
(log: 20140917-big-red-in-the-park | tags: aspect deadzone hellboy | posted: 19 Sep 2014 03:25)
Hellboy in Limbo
September 6, 2014: Hellboy follows Jericho into Limbo and meets the locals.
(log: 20140909-hellboy-in-limbo | tags: aspect hellboy k'nert | posted: 10 Sep 2014 19:05)
Give me all the bacon and eggs you have
September 6, 2014: After yet another nasty monster run-in, Hellboy stops in at a diner and gets sucked into another assassination attempt on Jericho.
(log: 20140906-give-me-all-the-bacon-and-eggs-you-have | tags: aspect hellboy k'nert nyc | posted: 07 Sep 2014 07:06)
Hell, Boy!
September 03, 2014: Hellboy swings by the Triskelion for a meet and greet.
(log: 20140903-hell-boy | tags: hellboy maria_hill shield | posted: 04 Sep 2014 01:06)
Zombies on the Lawn
September 02 2014: There's a zombie on Rain's lawn. Don't want zombies on the lawn.
(log: 20140902-zombies-on-the-lawn | tags: corvinus fenris hellboy loki mystique rain | posted: 03 Sep 2014 22:48)
Housefall
August 21 2014: A house lands in Flushing Meadows Park. This, naturally, garners some interest
(log: 20140821-housefall | tags: aspect hellboy k'nert rain | posted: 22 Aug 2014 09:59)
Folklore is not an exact science
August 20, 2014: Hellboy shows up to assist with a case Paul is involved in. Their meeting is less than friendly.
(log: 20140820-folklore-is-not-an-exact-science | tags: hellboy nyc paul_manning | posted: 21 Aug 2014 01:03)
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