What is Hellboy?

Amateurs of the 7th or 9th art, you necessarily know Hellboy, at least sight. Mid-human, half-demo, with an arm just as gigantic as his gun, he is an important character in pop-culture for over 30 years. Adapted to multiple supports, cinema, video games and of course figurine, today we are going to ask ourselves a simple question:

What is Hellboy?

Mike Mignola

Born in 1960 in the United States, Mike Mignola begins his career as a designer. At the house of Marvel (Doctor Strange, Wolverine), Dark Horse (Aliens) and at DC Comics With Gotham by Gaslight which will allow him to express for the first time his love of Gothic and macabre. If in 1994, he created his own saga (we will come back to this right after.), Mignola also worked for the cinema and the small screen whether on the animated series Batman or the animated film Disney Atlantis.

Hellboy

The first appearance ofHellboy date of 1994 with the first issue of "Seed of Destruction"Helped by John Byrne, a controversial figure in the world of comics, Mignola deploys everything that will make the strength of her universe. Nazis, occult, monsters in abundance and references to Lovecraft or Poe.

B.P.R.D and extended universe

Half man half-demo, Hellboy Works for the B.P.R.D (Bureau for paranormal Research and Defense) and will travel the world in search of strange events, but also to try to prevent the destruction of the world (destruction of which he is the cause of better, but I stop there so as not to spoil). The B.P.R.D will be entitled to its own series, just as Abe Sapien, Edward Gray or Lobster Johnson.

A chronology ... not very chronological.

The Mignolaverse, namely Hellboy and its extended universe is extremely dense, more than 60 volumes at present. But as if all this was not complicated enough, you often have to go back and forth between the series to have history in chronological order. I recommend you besides the following infographic If you want to embark on the adventure.

Cinema adaptations

10 years after his first appearance on paper, Hellboy arrives for the first time at the cinema in 2004. Directed by Guillermo del Toro, which had just released another superhero film (Blade 2), the film is sympathetic, but it will be necessary to wait for the second episode in 2008 for the franchise to grow. Unfortunately, given the semi-failure of the two films, which was to be a trilogy will never know any conclusion. In 2019 there will be a awful reboot by Neil Marshall And last year a new opportunistic film only there to exploit the franchise before the expiration of rights.

But also elsewhere

In addition to these four films, Hellboy will also experience two quality animated adaptations, a whole bunch of novels and audio novels, some platform games, several video games, but also in figurines ...