hellboy

Thomas Manning is the director of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense.Manning is a very serious and straightforward individual, but one that is well-respected and trusted by his subordinates. Manning is on good terms with most of his subordinates, making him a competent and reliable leader. Unfortunately Manning is often conflicted between the needs of his subordinates and the demands of his superiors, usually following the latter in his earlier years. The order to place a bomb within Roger had not been done at his behest, but rather, at the behest of his superiors, and he openly admitted to Hellboy, after the latter chewed him out a bit, that he didn't like the order any more then he did.

In recent years, Manning promoted Roger to lead his own squad, likely to atone for the bomb fiasco. Manning, perhaps in reaction to Hellboy's resignation from the Bureau, recently refused to accept the resignation of Captain Ben Daimio after a disaster that claimed Roger and his team. In this way, Manning has begun developing a deeper rapport with those under his watch, making the more questionable orders of his superiors more and more rescindent.

Professor Trevor Bruttenholm (pronounced /ˈbruːm/ "Broom", often informally called such) was an expert of the occult and the first director of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense.

Present during "The Hellboy Incident" on December 23, 1944, he inadvertently gave Hellboy his name upon first seeing him. In the following years, he served as the parental guardian of Hellboy.After the U.S. apprehended Hellboy, Bruttenholm, along with a group of American occultists with the support of the U.S. government, founded the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense and served as the Bureau's first director. At the same time, Bruttenholm continued to work closely with Hellboy. Instead of treating him as a monster or a dangerous experiment, Bruttenholm began to treat Hellboy like a human child, and, in March 1946, officially adopted Hellboy.[1]

From 1946 to 1952, Bruttenholm divided his time between leading field operations (including the discovery and neutralization of the remains of the occult doomsday project Vampir Sturm, and his encounter with the demon Varvara) and tending to the growing Hellboy. He frequently traveled to Washington, D.C. to lobby for funding and government support for the B.P.R.D. Partly because of Bruttenholm's efforts, the United Nations granted Hellboy honorary human status on August 6, 1952. A week later, Bruttenholm promoted Hellboy to B.P.R.D. field agent.

Hellboy is a half-demon half-human paranormal investigator. Destined to bring about the end of the world, he was summoned to Earth in the twilight of World War II and was raised by the forces of good. Though his demonic heritage grants him longevity, great physical strength, and a distinctive appearance, he rejects his apocalyptic destiny and serves as a force for good, combating paranormal threats large and small during his fifty-year career as an agent of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense or on his own solo travels.

Abraham "Abe" Sapien (born Langdon Everett Caul) is a member of the B.P.R.D.. Abe is a humanoid amphibious man, discovered in a Washington, D.C. basement in November of 1978. Abe has been with the Bureau ever since, as he endeavors to discover the truth about his identity. First appearing in Seed of Destruction, he is one of the longest running main characters alongside Hellboy and Liz Sherman, and has featured in several offshoot comics under his own name.

Elizabeth "Liz" Sherman is a pyrokinetic human woman, and a field agent of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. At age eleven, she destroyed an entire city block, killing thirty-two people—including her parents and younger brother. Since then, she has been a ward of the Bureau, fighting evil forces and learning to live with her abilities.

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 of 1946.[2]

Hellboy matured much more rapidly than a normal human child:[6] he learned to crawl within a week, and was walking and talking at a month old.[2] 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,[7] and his appearance rarely provokes a reaction of shock or alarm. He began filing down his horns as a child,[8] continuing the practice through adulthood. On August 6, 1952, a special act of the United Nations officially granted Hellboy honorary "human" status.[9]

A well-meaning cambion (or half-demon) whose true name is Anung Un Rama ("and upon his brow is set a crown of flame"), Hellboy was summoned from Hell to Earth as a baby by a evil occultists, 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 ape/monkey-like 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 army of tyrants 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".