Hellboy Timeline

Hellboy fictional timeline recounts the events detailed in the Hellboy comic book series by Mike Mignola and its various spin-offs.

Prehistory

• Billions of years ago: The world is created, and a number of 'greater spirits' or 'Watchers' are sent down to watch over it. The Watcher Anum steals fire from the creator of the world and uses it to form the Ogdru Jahad out of mud; they in turn create the 369 Ogdru Hem. The Watchers go to war on the Ogdru Hem, imprisoning some within the earth and casting out others onto the wind. Anum imprisons the Ogdru Jahad, and is then destroyed by its fellow Watchers. Only its right hand survives. The remaining Watchers are 'cast down, some into the pit, others onto the earth to breed monsters'. Some time later, lesser spirits take solid form and become the first humans, the 'golden people' of Hyperborea. (Hellboy: The Island; Lobster Johnson: Iron Prometheus)
• c. 30,000 years ago: Thoth becomes king of Hyperborea, and places the right hand of Anum in a statue in the capital city of Gorinium. He keeps three Watchers in a secret garden, and records the knowledge he learns from them in forty-two books; only two of the books are shared with his people. The Golden Age of Hyperborea begins. (Hellboy: The Island; Hellboy: Darkness Calls; B.P.R.D.: The Black Goddess)
• c. 20,000 years ago: The witch Heca-Emem-Ra seduces Thoth, kills the three Watchers and uses their blood to paint the secrets of the universe onto the walls of Thoth's temple. Thoth curses her and casts her out from the city. The reign of Thoth (and with it the Golden Age of Hyperborea) ends, and lesser kings ascend to the throne. The people of Hyperborea begin to worship Heca-Emem-Ra in the form of Neb-Ogeroth, the Black Goddess. The statue of Anum descends from its pedestal, massacres the decadent Hyperboreans and throws itself from the walls of the city. The ice age begins, Hyperborea freezes and its outposts (including Atlantis) are lost. The survivors split; those of the right-hand path somehow move beyond the world, while those of the left-hand path descend underground and try to rebuild their civilisation with a race of artificial slave-creatures. The slaves eventually revolt, led by the 'King of Fear', and slaughter their masters. A few of the Hyperboreans survive and flee to the surface, where they mingle with early humans. Their descendants live on in Siberia as the monks of Agartha and the warrior-tribe of Chutt. (Hellboy: The Island; Lobster Johnson: Iron Prometheus; Hellboy: Darkness Calls; B.P.R.D.: Hollow Earth)

Ancient history

• c. 1000-500 B.C.?, Egypt: Panya, an Ancient Egyptian princess, dies and is mummified. (B.P.R.D.: Garden of Souls)

1220s

• 1222, Mongolia: Chutt warriors descend from the Ural Mountains to join the armies of Genghis Khan, believing him to be the new emperor of the world.
• 1227, Mongolia: Genghis Khan dies. The Chutt warriors cut their hair, break their weapons and return to the mountains. (Lobster Johnson: Iron Prometheus)

1720s

• 1728, Egypt: Eugene Remy, a French textile merchant, claims to have entered a secret chamber beneath the Great Pyramid of Egypt where he met with a spirit called Larzod and learned secret knowledge of Atlantis, Mu and Lemuria.
• 1729, Paris, France: Financed by wealthy patrons, Remy establishes the Temple of Heliopolis in Paris and founds an occult secret society under the name of the Heliopic Brotherhood of Ra. (Sir Edward Grey, Witchfinder: In the Service of Angels)

1730s

• 1736-1738: A schism emerges in the Heliopic Brotherhood between those who regard the Egyptian god Atum as self-created and a minority who believe him to have been 'born from the primal sea'. The dissenters leave the group and found the Oannes Society.

1850s

• 1859, London, England: At a mummy unwrapping organised by the Heliopic Brotherhood of Ra, Panya awakes. (B.P.R.D.: Garden of Souls)

1860s

• 1865, the Atlantic Ocean and Washington, D.C.: Several members of the Oannes Society, including one Langdon Everett Caul participate in a deep sea expedition which locates a strange, egglike artifact thought to contain an ancient undersea entity. The party attempts to make contact with the being in the basement of St. Trinian's Hospital in Washington, and subsequently the creature merges with Caul, transforming him into an amphibious "Icthyo Sapien." Caul's body is sealed in a tank of water by his compatriots and placed in a secret room beneath the hospital, where it remains undisturbed for over a century. (B.P.R.D.: Garden of Souls)
• 1866, England: The spirit Larzod appears to a gathering of seven upper-class occultists, prophesying the end of the world and 'the coming of a king' who would 'refuse his crown' and die in the last battle. They found the Osiris Club. (Hellboy: The Wild Hunt)
• 1867, London, England: Occultist and Egyptologist Martin Gilfryd murders Gustav Strobl, his mentor, and is incarcerated in Bedlam. (Sir Edward Grey, Witchfinder: In the Service of Angels)

1870s

• 1879, England: Occult investigator Edward Grey is knighted by Queen Victoria for his service as a special agent of the crown in foiling a plot against the monarch hatched by a coven of witches. (Murderous Intent)

1880s

• 1884, Sixty miles off the West Coast of France: Despite attempting to flee England by ship, Dutch warlock Epke Vrooman is located by Sir Edward Grey near the island of Saint-Sebastien and is finally dispatched using one of the fabled Lipu daggers. Unknown to Grey, the body of Vrooman was acting as a host for the spirit of one of the last high priests of Hyperborea. The ship sinks with Vrooman and the dagger still aboard; Grey only just survives. (Abe Sapien: The Drowning)

1890s

• 1890, London, England: Martin Gilfryd is released from Bedlam. He leaves Europe for Asia, and in Beijing hears of the monastery of Agartha. There he will be reborn, later leaving to join the Chutt and taking the name of Memnan Saa. (B.P.R.D.: The Black Goddess)

1900s

• 1902, Long Island, New York: Dr. H. W. Carp, formerly of the Heliopic Brotherhood of Ra, conducts a ceremony in the basement of his Long Island home in order to summon a demon for the purpose of scientific experimentation. The attempt is successful, but Carp and his associates are killed in the process and the house becomes the focus of many unusual phenomena over the next century. (Dr. Carp's Experiment)

1910s

• 1913, Mongolia: A Russian battalion is routed in battle by a Mongol warlord. Reports claim the warlord is aided by a man called Memnan Saa. (B.P.R.D.: The Black Goddess)
• 1916, St. Petersburg, Russia: Murder of Grigori Rasputin. While dying, he is contacted and raised by the Ogdru Jahad. He rededicates himself to their service, and leaves Russia for Italy. (Hellboy: Seed of Destruction)

1930s

• c. 1936-1939?: Heinrich Himmler brings Rasputin to Nazi Germany, where he meets Adolf Hitler and joins the Ragna Rok program. (Hellboy: Seed of Destruction)
• 1937, New York City and Hoboken, New Jersey: Lobster Johnson intervenes in a plot by Nazis and Chutt warriors to acquire the secret of Vril power, making an enemy of the Chutt's mysterious leader for interfering in his plans. (Lobster Johnson: The Iron Prometheus)
• 1938, New York City: Lobster Johnson and one of his assistants help the police investigate a series of murders perpetrated by a scientist whose experiments had given him telekinetic powers. (Lobster Johnson: The Killer in My Skull)
• 1939, Hunte Castle, Austria: Herman von Klempt and the Nazi Space Program load a rocket with the corpse of one of their top scientists. American troops led by Lobster Johnson attack the castle, and the Nazis launch the rocket before the roof is fully retracted. The rocket makes it out, but the ensuing explosion kills everyone except for von Klempt. (Hellboy: Conqueror Worm)

1940s

• 1944, Britain: Summoned by a ritual performed by Rasputin in Scotland, Hellboy is "born" in a ruined church near the fictional village of East Bromwich in England. Rasputin travels to the temple of Gorinium (the ruined capital city of Hyperborea) in the Arctic Circle (in Seed of Destruction).
• 1944, USA: The Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defence is created by Trevor Bruttenholm to investigate and combat Nazi occult warfare.
• 1946, Berlin: Investigating the wealth of Nazi occult paraphernalia coming to light in the aftermath of WWII in the ruins of post-war Berlin, Bruttenholm prevents Herman von Klempt from unleashing a 'vampire bomb' on the USA, proving the worth of the fledgling bureau and securing indefinite government funding (in BPRD: 1946)
• 1947, Germany: Bruttenholm returns to Germany to investigate the systematic murder of prominent Nazi officials by possible supernatural agencies (BPRD: 1947)
• 1947, New Mexico: Hellboy eats pancakes for the first time. The demons of Pandemonium lament that he will never return to them in an inversion of the abduction myth of Persephone (in Pancakes).

1950s

• 1952: Hellboy is granted honorary human status by the United Nations and becomes a field agent for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense.
• 1954, Britain: Hellboy is asked by the Osiris Club to slay the Saint Leonard worm, an alligator-like monster. The battle proves to be a test of Hellboy's virtue, but his dubious success (and lilies that grow from his shed blood) make the outcome of the test unclear (in The Nature of the Beast).
• 1956, Norway: Professor Bruttenholm sends Hellboy to help Professor Edmond Aickman (who worked with Bruttenholm in Burma and Chengdu) with the King Vold myth. Aickman is only interested in the potential reward, however, and maneuvers Hellboy into completing Vold's tasks for him (in King Vold).
• 1957, India: Hellboy works on a werewolf case.
• 1958, Virginia: Hellboy must help save a man's soul from a being known as 'The Crooked Man' (in The Crooked Man).
• 1958, Malaysia: Hellboy investigates a series of killings, and faces a monstrous vampire-like creature (in The Penanggalan).
• 1959, Ireland: To retrieve a stolen baby, Hellboy must bear a corpse to his final resting place. The King of the Daoine Sidh oversees the matter personally; this is the first (but not the last) time he will take a personal interest in Hellboy (in The Corpse).
• 1959, New Guinea: Hellboy works on another werewolf case.
• 1959, Macapa: Hellboy stops Herman von Klempt's experiments involving spinal fluid extracted from peasants, but the severed head survives.

1960s

• 1961, Ireland: Hellboy ensnares the Iron Shoes demon and hands his shoes over to Father Mike. ("Iron Shoes")
• 1961, Saybrook, Connecticut: Hellboy works with Father Edward Kelly on an exorcism.
• 1961, Alaska: Called in to investigate a peculiar animal, Hellboy faces off against the hydra and meets a strange little girl. ("The Hydra and the Lion")
• 1963, Norway: Hellboy meets a hideous old witch, who shows him the way to halt an invasion of trolls. ("The Troll Witch")
• 1964, Bereznik, Russia: Hellboy tracks down the Baba Yaga, and in the ensuing encounter shoots out her left eye. ("Baba Yaga")
• 1967, Kyoto, Japan: Hellboy handles a case involving floating heads called nuke-kubi (抜首). ("Heads")
• 1968, Lebanon, Tennessee: Hellboy finds himself mixed up with The Goon, and helps him overcome the Communist Airborne Mollusk Militia. (The Goon, Vol. 3: Heaps of Ruination)
• 1969, Lochmaben, Britain: Professor Bruttenholm and Hellboy visit the castle which would later be purchased by Count Guarino and his wife, who are Satanists.

1970s

• 1979, Portland, Oregon: Mister Tod, a physical medium (much like Johann Kraus), unwittingly allows a space-borne monster to gain form using his body's ectoplasm. Hellboy barely manages to repulse the entity. Beings such as this would return in Conqueror Worm. ("Goodbye Mister Tod")
• 1979: BPRD scientists, having exhausted every other option, finally succeed in awakening Abe Sapien by means of electrical stimulation. (Abe Sapien versus Science)
• 1979-1981, Hellboy takes leave of absence from the B.P.R.D to travel with archaeologist Anastasia Bransfield. (Abe Sapien: The Drowning)

1980s

• 1982, Prague, Czechoslovakia: Hellboy defeats the famed gambling Vampire of Prague by beating him at a game of poker. (Hellboy: The Vampire of Prague)
• 1982, Yorkshire, Britain: Hellboy, after seven years of searching, tracks down the vampire Countess Ilona Kakosky. She shows him a vision of the vampire king, but Hellboy breaks the illusion in time and slays her. ("The Varcolac")
• 1982, India: Hellboy works on a werewolf case.
• 1985, France: Hellboy goes to rescue an American tourist. (Hellboy: The Bride of Hell)
• 1989, Britain: Hellboy investigates the disappearance of Ann Heath, who was lured underground by a demon. ("A Christmas Underground")

1990s

• 1990, Anonta, Ontario, Canada: Hellboy and Abe Sapien capture Daryl the Wendigo. (B.P.R.D.: The Universal Machine)
• 1991, Long Island, New York: Investigating a supposedly haunted house, Hellboy is magically teleported back to 1902, where the leader of the Heliopic Brotherhood of Ra uses a sample of his blood to turn a chimpanzee into a murderous demon. ("Dr. Carp's Experiment")
• 1992, London, Britain: Edward Stokes, a cannibalistic ghoul, is tracked to Hammersmith Cemetery by Hellboy. ("The Ghoul")
• 1992, Lake Okanagan, British Columbia: Hellboy and Abe search for the Ogopogo monster. Abe is injured.
• 1993, New York, New York: Hellboy is invited to the New York Explorer's Club, where a recently acquired mummy tells him the tale of Makoma, a man with a hammer in his hand that bests a demon at the end of the world. The mummy turns to dust after relating the tale, and Hellboy is banned from the club. (Makoma)
• 1993, The Bahamas: Abe Sapien and a BPRD psychic investigate deaths at sea occurring due to the spiritual legacy of the Atlantic slave trade. (Drums of the Dead)
• 1993, Arctic Circle: The Cavendish Expedition (consisting of the three Cavendish brothers, Professor Trevor Bruttenholm and Sven Olafsen) disappears while searching for the temple of Gorinium.
• 1994: The Cavendish Hall affair. Hellboy meets Rasputin. (Hellboy: Seed of Destruction)
• 1994, Griart, The Balkans: Hellboy and Kate Corrigan visit a town decimated by the angry ghosts of werewolves. It becomes a revenge mission after Father Kelly, Hellboy's associate, is murdered by a living werewolf. Kate's first sighting of a ghost occurs. ("The Wolves of St. August")
• 1995, East Bromwich, England: Hellboy returns to the ruined church where he first appeared in the world, and has a dream-vision of his origin: His mother, as a young woman, had cavorted with a demon, and on Walpurgisnacht (a night of great significance to witches) conceived Hellboy as a result. Hellboy lay dormant within her, until the demon returned at the end of the woman's life to claim her and his unborn son.
• 1997, Romania: The Giurescu affair. (Hellboy: Wake the Devil) In the aftermath, Hellboy and Kate Corrigan track down a homunculus (later named Roger by Hellboy), who had inadvertently been awakened by absorbing Liz Sherman's pyrokinetic power. They succeed in returning the power to Liz's nearly-lifeless body, although doing so leaves Roger inert. (Almost Colossus)
• 1998, Lizarza, Spain: Hellboy has a meeting with Adrian Frost, the son of Malcolm Frost. Hellboy relates his life story to Frost, and the two realize that Hellboy's right hand is the key to triggering the Apocalypse. Hellboy decides keep the hand lest someone else retrieve it and use it. ("The Right Hand of Doom")
• 1999, Druggan Hill, England/Lockmaben, Scotland: Hellboy and Abe investigate the Guarino's castle after a mysterious attack. Igor Bromhead releases Ualac, a minor demon trapped in a box by St. Dunstan. Abe is shot by a chimpanzee. Ualac claims the Crown of the Apocalypse (which sits invisibly on Hellboy's head) then attempts to claim Hellboy's right hand. Hellboy breaks free and slays his mortal body. Bromhead and Ualac are claimed by the demon Astaroth, who takes Hellboy's crown down to Hell. ("Box Full of Evil")
• 1999: Abe Sapien succeeds in awakening Roger the Homunculus where BPRD scientists failed. (Abe Sapien versus Science)

2000s

• 2001, Austria: The BPRD sends Hellboy and Roger to Hunte Castle, where the rocket launched in 1939 returns from deep space. Within is the essence of the Conqueror Worm, one of the Ogdru Hem, come to Earth to consume humanity and summon forth the rest of its kind. With help from the ghost of Lobster Johnson, Hellboy and Roger destroy the Conqueror Worm and kill Herman von Klempt. At the case's conclusion, Hellboy quits the BPRD to finally deal with the unanswered questions of his origins. (Hellboy: Conqueror Worm)
• 2001, Arctic Circle, north of the Ural Mountains: Following Hellboy's lead, Liz Sherman also quits the BPRD, travelling to a monastery called Agartha where she might learn to control the raging fires inside her. (BPRD: Hollow Earth)
• 2003: Disembodied ectoplasmic medium Johann Kraus joins the BPRD. Abe, Roger and Johann travel to the Agartha monastery after a psychic warning leads Abe to believe Liz may be in danger. She has been kidnapped by subterranean creatures (created thousands of years ago as a slave-race by the survivors of Hyperborea) who aim to use her pyrokinetic power to restart their ancient technology and reclaim the surface world. The trio triumph and Liz, finally at peace with herself, returns with them to the Bureau. (BPRD: Hollow Earth)
• 2004, Africa: Hellboy seeks advice from an African witch-doctor, and is told to dive to the bottom of the sea. He is captured by the Bog Roosh, who means to prevent the Apocalypse by dismembering Hellboy and hiding the Right Hand of Doom.(Hellboy: The Third Wish)
• 2004: Sadu-Hem returns to life, and begins to create a new army of frog-monsters. In trying to thwart him, Abe is killed as a resolution of Rasputin's prophecy from Wake the Devil. During an out-of-body experience he first learns something of his origins. (BPRD: Plague of Frogs)
• 2005, Colorado: The BPRD moves into new headquarters in the Colorado mountains and discovers something nasty in the basement. Captain Ben Daimio joins the team. (BPRD: The Dead) The ongoing war with the frog monsters escalates as the frogs rampage across the American midwest, culminating in the resurrection of Katha Hem, which proceeds to destroy an entire city in Nebraska before Liz, working on the instructions of a mysterious benefactor who appears to her in dreams, manages to destroy it. The victory comes too late to save Roger the Homonculus, who is destroyed beyond repair. (BPRD: The Black Flame)
• 2006: Hellboy manages to escape from the Bog Roosh with the assistance of a mermaid and washes up on an unknown island. He accidentally resurrects an ancient mystic, learns the secret history of the universe, and faces the monstrous Urgo Hem. Hellboy then sets sail for Britain as the Daoine Sidh look on. (Hellboy: The Island)
• 2006, Ableben, France: Kate travels to France on an unsuccessful mission to try to restore life to Roger, nearly losing her own in the process. (BPRD: The Universal Machine)
• 2007: Hellboy returns to Britain. While there he has a nightmarish vision of a demon â€” resembling the one the mystic from "The Island" became after bathing in Hellboy's blood â€” tear itself from his body. (Hellboy: The Mole) Later Hellboy is offered Kingship over the world's witches but refuses. As a result he is sent to another dimension to face the Baba Yaga and her lieutenant, Koschei the Deathless. Despite pouring all her energies into Koschei, the Baba Yaga is unable to kill Hellboy or even avenge the loss of her eye, and he is able to escape back to Earth. (Hellboy: Darkness Calls)
• 2007, Balikpapan, Borneo: Abe and Ben Daimio encounter the remnants of the Oannes Society, preserved well beyond their natural life spans in artificial bodies and planning to engineer a holocaust in the Southern Hemisphere to grant them Godly powers. With the help of resurrected Egyptian mummy Panya, Abe foils their plans and finally puts the ghosts of his past behind him. Panya returns to BPRD headquarters with them. (BPRD: Garden of Souls)
• 2008, Colorado: Daimio's past catches up with him as the were-jaguar within him he has been trying to suppress overcomes him. He frees the wendigo held in the BPRD vaults and both creatures disappear into the mountain wastes, but not before Johann suffers a second death at his hands. (BPRD: Killing Ground)
• 2009, England: Hellboy is invited by the Osiris Club to participate in "The Wild Hunt", a hunt by knights and nobleman against giants. Soon into the hunt however, he is attacked by the other hunters, and learns he seems to be the true target. At the same time, Astaroth returns, and gives Gruagach (the elfin antagonist of "The Corpse") back his "queen", Nimue. She asserts dominion over the witches and fairy peoples, promising war against mankind. Hellboy learns the truth of his human heritage; that he is a descendant of Mordred, son of King Arthur and Morgan Le fay, and as such, the rightful King of England.(Hellboy: The Wild Hunt)
• 2009-2010 Munich, Germany: A combined army of frog monsters and Hyperborean slaves lay waste to the city in a prelude to greater carnage still, as similar subterranean armies wake all over the world. Liz is kidnapped by Memnan Saa. (BPRD: The Warning) Stanovoy Ridge, Russian Far East: The BPRD and US Marines battle a similar such army at the stronghold of Memnan Saa, with heavy losses. The team manage to kill Saa and retrieve Liz, but Johann's ectoplasmic form is taken over by Lobster Johnson's ghost. (BPRD: The Black Goddess) Austria: Kate and Bruno return with the Lobster to Hunte Castle, where Lobster Johnson relinquishes his hold on Johann's ectoplasmic form and finally finds peace. Ural mountains The rest of the team descend back into the depths beneath Agartha, where they find both the Black Flame and the King of Fear. Abe discovers some unpleasant truths about himself, and Liz unleashes a devastating blast of power that finally wipes out the last remnants of both the Hyperborean slaves and the frog monsters. Her pyrotechnic powers exhausted, she quits the Bureau for a new life. The BPRD secures international UN funding. (King of Fear)