History Characters / Hellboy

Initially introduced in "War on Frogs" as a young, unusually cheerful agent that looked up to Liz Sherman, Ashley was a member of the U.S. Navy before joining the B.P.R.D. Years later she would reappear on the "Hell on Earth" Arc as an independant agent, usually investigating cases as opposed to the bigger ones most of the Bureau works with.

Her abilities to battle demons would make her instrumental to the Bureau during their last mission in "The Devil You Know" Arc, in which she takes protagonism in the fight against [[spoiler: the powerful demon known as Varvara.]]

* AscendedExtra: Initially a one-off agent that just so happened to really like Liz during "The War on Frogs", Strode would eventually star in her own storyline, [[TookALevelInBadass take multiple, huge levels in Badass]] and end up as one of the main players ofthe final arc, [[spoiler: and even killing the penultime BigBad.]]
* EmpoweredBadassNormal: She was already a competent soldier and detective before initiating herself on exorcism.
* FlamingSword: she gets one in the spiritual realm when dealing with demons. She eventually gets the ability to manifest it on the real world too.
* GirlNextDoor: Her design had this look in mind

* MauveShirt: From a minor agent that just so happened to look up to Liz in "War on Frogs" to star on her own arcs.
* MentorOccupationalHazard: [[spoiler: In a way: Ota Benga's death and example inspired her to follow his steps, but he never formally taught her]]

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: A particulary tragic example. [[spoiler: Varvara ''had'' to be stopped, but in killing her she accidentally freed Rasputin back to the world, ushering true Apocalypse and costing her her life.]]

* BatmanGambit: He fakes his death by allowing himself to be shot before killing agent Clay, then deactivates himself and makes it look like Clay manages a MutualKill against him. As expected, Hellboy takes the bait and has his body taken back to the BRPD for examination, whereupon he's left completely unguarded because no one expects a dried-out husk to still be alive. Consequently, he's able to revive himself and kill Professor Bruttemholm with everyone none the wiser.

* AwesomeButImpractical: His fighting style during the World War 2 segment of the movie. Dual blades are cool, but they are rather slow compared to just shooting enemy soldiers with a gun. He does just that at the start of the fight and mows down an entire enemy squad in quick succession, but then switches to his blades once his gun runs dry instead of just grabbing another gun. Given his immunity to bullets and explosions, Kroenen could probably wipe out the entire Allied attack force by himself if he would just grab an automatic weapon and start mowing them down.

* HeelFaceDoorSlam: After realizing what his actions have unleashed, Pope is repentant. He apologizes to Liz for killing Roger... who, unaware till now he'd been responsible at all, responds by [[KickTheSonOfABitch allowing him to be dragged away.]]

** The five months he spent in Mexico back in 1956 (as recounted in "Hellboy in Mexico" and other stories) largely consisted of him wandering around and getting blackout drunk.

** The few months he spent in Mexico back in 1956 (as recounted in "Hellboy in Mexico" and other stories) largely consisted of him wandering around and getting blackout drunk.

* TheAlcoholic: He realises in "The Storm And The Fury" that he's been drinking solidly for ''six years'' and has made a lot of bad decisions, so he quits.

* BrokenPedestal: He was initially entirely loyal to Queen and Country, but after queen Victoria elected to cover up the crimes of a prominent noble with connections to Jack the Ripper in part because it would reflect poorly on her that a member of her court was a mass-murderer, and in part because her victims were "only" prostitutes, he resigned from his position and left the Queen's service.

* IGaveMyWord: Despite his falling out with queen Victoria, when Hellboy asks him centuries later in Hell who Jack the Ripper was, Grey keeps silent since he swore an oath to keep it secret.

* {{BFG}}: The Good Samaritan in the films, and its inspiration, the HandCannon given to him by [[Creator/JohnByrne the Torch of Liberty]] when he was younger. He eventually loses this at the bottom of the sea, and replaces it with a [[CoolGun Colt 1911]], which he loses fighting giants a year or two later. Beyond these he has a tendency to lose any firearms he's given. It doesn't bother him, because he's actually a rather lousy shot by his own admission:

* {{Expy}}: Of Charlene [=McGee=] (from Stephen King's Firestarter). Has the exact same powers, a similar backstory, and even manifested her powers during roughly the same time period. Basically, she's what Charlene would be if she had the BPRD instead of The Shop and Hellboy instead of her father.

* PlayingWithFire: Sadly, it also comes with PowerIncontinence.

* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler: Subverted. They even spend an entire story arc letting you think it's gonna happen.]]

* TheLostLenore: The woman he loved, Mary Wolf, was murdered by the Heliopic Brotherhood in revenge for his defying them. He is haunted by the loss for the rest of his life, [[spoiler: until he is apparently reunited with her at the end of ''Koshchei in Hell''.

* DarkIsNotEvil: Despite having horns and being half-demon, Hellboy is an utterly regular, decent, rather noble blue-collar guy, who doesn't have much patience for people telling him he ''should'' be evil.

* GoodOldFisticuffs: His preferred method of fighting. His Right Hand of Doom is not just there for looks.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He's gloomy, sarcastic, abrasive, and not much of a people person but beneath he's a big softy who genuinely cares about people and their safety.

* SmokingIsCool: Rarely seen without a cigarette or cigar.

%% * TallDarkAndSnarky

* DeusExMachina
* SpiritAdvisor

!!'''Civilians and Neutral Characters'''
[[folder: Alice Monaghan]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alice_9.jpg]]

A child Hellboy rescued from fairies. Years later she would return to help Hellboy.

* ChangelingTale: Her first appearance as a baby in "The Corpse". Notably, her changeling replacement [[ChekhovsGunman would also go on to be a major character.]]
* OfficialCouple: She and Hellboy fall in love when he meets her as an adult.
* OlderThanTheyLook: She refers to it as "something the fairies left her." When she reappears in Hellboy's life the late 00s, she's roughly 49-51 years old, but looks to be in her mid to late-20s.
* TheHighQueen: Revealed in ''Hellboy in Hell''. She seems to have taken on the role of the departed Queen Mab.

[[folder: Grace]]
[[quoteright:196:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/3946171_grace.jpg]]

A woman Abe rescues from an insane captor in the "Abe Sapien" solo. After this Abe and her travel together for a while, despite.

In reality [[spoiler: she was captured following the harrowing trauma of seeing her sister and daughter die in a car crash after a monster attack.]]

%%* BrokenBird
%%* BoundAndGagged: The state Abe found her initially.
%%* DamselInDistress
* FreudianExcuse: She's very distrustful of Abe despite his dependency on him, and she's constantly on edge by the trail of horrors that follow him. Given the desperate situation she's in and her traumatic experiences, this is somewhat understandable.
* ImportantHaircut: Shaves her head [[spoiler: so that she doesn't remember her deceased daughter when looking at the mirror.]]
* PartingWordsRegret: Abe and her part ways on very bad terms, with her essentially having a freak-out at the inevitable wave of misfortunes that follows the fishman. A latter number would include a letter from her to Abe, in which the now calm Grace apologized for her words and actions and wished him well. Sadly Abe is never shown to receive the latter.

[[folder: Maggie]]
[[quoteright:283:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/maggie_the_garden_ii.png]]
->'''Debut:''' ''Abe Sapien: The Garden II''

A child with psychic powers that can only speak in strange tongues, with her mother serving as translator. Abe meets her in his travels throughout the barren USA. She acts as the leader of a commune. Her powers seem to be related to Hyperborea.

* AChildShallLeadThem: [[spoiler:Becomes one of the leaders of humanity after their descent to the underground, following Ragna Rok.]]
* MsExposition: As one of the few characters with more information on the true nature of the world, she usually spends her screen time explaining stuff.
* TheUnintelligible

* AbsurdlySharpBlade: Owns the Hyperborean sword that will eventually make its way to Ted Howards, via the Heliopic Brotherhood of Ra.

* AnthropomorphicPersonification: [[spoiler:After being ripped apart and cast into Hell, he became the embodiment of the Hellish river Acheron.]]

* OccultDetective