Hellboy (comics)/Headscratchers

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• In Wake The Devil, Chapter 5, why the heck did Guirescu explode?
  • Why not?
  • Hecate cut him out of her power source and made Ilsa her new avatar.
• When Hecate manifested through Ilsa and tried to make Hellboy free the Ogdru Jahad, three people observed. One looked like the Baba Yaga, and one was earlier identified as Medea. Who was the third?
  • I believe the three figures observing Hellboy were the Baba Yaga, the King of the Fairies, and a Fae being who has only been identified as Sir Edward. I believe the idea is that they are three powerful Fae beings who represent the desire to destroy the world, neutrality, and the desire to save the world, respectively.
    • Sir Edward Gray was a real person, so he's probably supposed to be a human wizard. He has a proper scene in the latest storyline.
    • The Companion Gives a lot of background on Edward Gray, painting him as a forerunner to what Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. would become. It also implies that whatever he has become now is the result of his final mission, the results of which are currently unknown but seem to have been disastrous for him.
• Why does Hellboy have to be such a jerk in the comics? It's hard to root for a guy who whines and moans every time he bashes in a monster's face and OH MY GOSH saves innocent lives. Then for like two years comic book time, he abandons his friends to all kinds of horrible horribleness. Yay, Hellboy.
  • Although for one, I didn't think he was whiny at all, and for another, his destiny is to bring in the end of the world. I'd be a bit miffed. While I enjoyed the film (haven't seen the second one yet), I much preferred the comic's stoic gruff Big Guy to the movie's overgrown teenager.
  • Agreed with the above. Hellboy is not whiny. He's a Film Noir hero--stoic and alienated from the world, but unflinchingly following his own moral code--in an urban fantasy setting. He feels just enough affinity for the monsters that he'd prefer if he didn't have to kill them, but when he has to kill, he does it without reservation. He has no intention of destroying the world, so he's ticked that every other supernatural creature he meets tells him otherwise. And the BPRD wasn't facing any major crises at the time he left, so he wasn't really abandoning his friends--in fact, he probably felt that until he figured out who he really was, he would endanger the BPRD by hanging out with them. Of course, that's Comic-Hellboy. Hellboy from the movies was whiny--justifiably so in the first film, as his personal growth to become a man was one of the subplots, but without any justification in The Golden Army, which chucked out the window all his character development from the prior film.
  • Don't forget that Hellboy's job consists of get punched by things bigger than him and then getting blown up, all while his opponent lectures him on "how we're the same." I'd be pretty grumpy too.
• What the hell is that thing that Ben Daimo's evil grandmother toted around with it?! It's like someone combined a human, a monkey, and a bunraku puppet together. It's easily the most frightening thing ever to appear in Hellboy, and they show it like all the time - but it's never explained what it is. It's been driving me nuts for years.
  • Given the amount of time it takes for things to get explained in the Hellboy universe, I'm sure there is an explanation, we just haven't been given it yet. Case in point: Sir Edward first appears in the comics in 1996, isn't given a name until 2002, doesn't get a full name until 2008 (which reveals his character had already been planned out in 1996), and his true role in the story is still yet to play out. I guess patience will get us these kind of answers eventually. But yeah, what the hell is up with that monkey?
• That "angel" that came through the gate in BPRD: The Dead. Has there been an explanation yet whether that was really an angel from Heaven? Or is it possible that it was something else masquerading as an angel? Or that Dr. Eiss was just off his rocker when he called it an angel? (I've only read through BPRD Vol 5.)
  • There hasn't been any definitive answer on the matter yet, but during the War on Frogs miniseries we get to see a vision of Heaven for the frog monsters that is filled with those bug creatures. So it seems Eiss did get a vision of Heaven, just not one we want to visit.
• What is the relationship between the Ogdru Jahad and the more humanoid (in both mind and body) demons who still consider themselves a part of good and evil on a human perspective? At times, they seem allied, and at other times like there's a total disconnect between the two sets of entities. The apocalypse was supposed to be the literal fire and brimstone hell on earth with demons ruling the world, but at the same time it's also supposed to be a race of mutant frog men ruling the world in the name of the Ogdru Jahad. What's the deal?
  • The Ogdru Jahad are very Lovecraftian - it sort of goes without saying. But while most people think "Lovecraftian" means "horrible tentacle monsters", it means a bit more than that, namely that humanity is so low on the cosmic ladder that things which make perfect sense to cosmic horrors make absolutely no sense to us lowly humans. Lovecraft constantly contradicts himself on nomenclature and the exact nature of the supernatural to reinforce the fact that humans can't understand such things. OR...
  • Much like there are different religions with different eschatology, the different supernatural beings have their own apocalypse beliefs. In America, certain hardcore evangelical (though certainly not all) have stated that they have worked towards the apocalypse, most of the time by trying to make sure Israel stays a Jewish state (after all, you can't have the Final Ultimate Battle in Israel if Israel doesn't exist). So, why can't several supernatural beings all be working towards a different apocalypse?
  • I like the interpretation that no one knows what will happen if the Ogdru Jahad return to destroy the world. In "Conqueror Worm", Von Klempt thought the destruction of the world was the end goal, while Rasputin thought that a new paradise could be created from the ashes of the destroyed world. The Black Flame is convinced that the frog people are the ones destined to inherit the future ruled by the Ogdru Jahad , while the old man from "The Island" thought humanity could beat the frogs and prosper in the new world. The demons of Hell would presumably be just another faction who think they can turn the apocalypse for their favor--especially since Anung un Rama, the fellow who is connected with the apocalyptic prophecies, is one of them by blood and is therefore assumed to be on their side. Since we already know that the Ogdru Jahad can influence others to make them work for its purpose (see Rasputin and the Queen of Blood), it's possible that Hell has been similarly influenced.
  • The Storm and the Fury confirmed that there were at least three potential apocalypses in the works, all with conflicting results. One in which the Ogdru Jahad win, one in which the demons of Hell would have won, and one in which humanity is reborn in some form. Multiple Endings, more or less. Furthermore, it's strongly implied that the Ogdru Jahad do not fucking get along with the race of demons Hellboy is descended from and that any times they seemed to be working together were probably either coincidence or someone attempting to play both sides.
• So... given that the best war leader Gruagach could find was the Queen of Blood, and that Astaroth turned up and declared Hell's support for the fairies, were they supposed to just accept being driven out of the world? Given that Hellboy and the BPRD get to be heroes by trying to stop humanity going extinct, it seems kind of unfair. (It also just bugs me that Hecate and magic in general are portrayed as inherently evil, but I suppose that does fit with the pulp aesthetic of hitting monsters in the face that Mignola was going for).
  • The Fairies operate on a Blue and Orange Morality and don't even take time to consider things from a human's point of view. If they hadn't been snatching babies and spiriting people away for centuries, it's possible that humanity and the faeries could have worked together. But it seems that few made the attempt to understand humans, instead just using them - and the ones that did try to understand humans came to the conclusion that it was better to hide and fade away than open a diplomatic dialogue or waited too long to do so - like the Dagda. This naturally led to humans not caring about them as they destroyed their earthen homes and then forgetting about them entirely. Hellboy's official stance ("I don't care about your plight, just that/because you are stealing children.") seems to be humanity's official stance on the Faeries as well.
• Maybe I'm being too cynical, but how come the government didn't lock Hellboy away, turn him into a weapon, and experiment on him nonstop?
  • Because they're not cliched mustache-twirling villains.
• Why do the Ogdru Jahad want to destroy Earth? What do they have against it?
  • They're not rational in a sense that we would recognize. "What do they have against it?" just isn't an applicable question.

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