50 Greatest Super Heroes In Comic Book History

32. Hellboy

(Write-up by Nick Tylwalk, Bam Smack Pow Editor)

Here we go, stretching the definition of a super hero again. And while it’s true that there aren’t many super heroes who are actually demons summoned from Hell by Nazis, you can only deal with the origin you have written for you. If nothing else, Hellboy is the ultimate argument for nurture over nature, as simply being brought up like a normal person ended up making him one, or at least as much like a person as someone sporting the Right Hand of Doom can be.

That good start made Hellboy care enough for humans to help protect them from all manners of supernatural and paranormal enemies,. Without him, the particular Earth in which his Dark Horse comics stories are set would have been overrun by some unspeakable horror a long time ago. He might also bring it about himself, however unwittingly, thanks to that right hand, but it’s hard to argue that the best way to make sure it doesn’t get used to bring about the end of everything is to make sure it’s somewhere he can keep an eye on it — and at the end of his right arm is one of those places.

Like Spawn, who also made our list, Hellboy is able to hang with the creations of Marvel and DC as a peer largely due to the vision of one artist, in this case Mike Mignola. Without his uniquely stylized work, it’s hard to see him catching on to the point where he’d end up the subject of multiple Guillermo del Toro films, yet that actually happened.

I promised myself I’d make it the whole way through this without any “he made hell cool” jokes, even if Hellboy himself would probably appreciate a joke (though a better one) at his expense. He may not fit the mold of a super hero, or even a standard demon mold for that matter, but he’s earned his way into this group.

Next: No. 31: The forgotten Justice Leaguer