The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (the B.P.R.D. or BPRD) is a

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying character (arts), individuals, events, or setting (narrative), places that are imagination, imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent ...

al organization in the

comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

work of

Mike Mignola Michael Mignola (; born September 16, 1960) is an American comic book writer best known for creating ''Hellboy'' for Dark Horse Comics, part of a Hellboy Universe, shared universe of titles including ''B.P.R.D.'', ''Abe Sapien'', ''Lobster Johns ...

. The B.P.R.D. originally appeared in the ''

Hellboy Hellboy is a superhero created by Mike Mignola and appearing in comic books published by Dark Horse Comics. The character first appeared in ''San Diego Comic-Con Comics'' #2 (August 1993), and has since appeared in various miniseries, one-shots ...

'' comics and has since become a major part of its

expanded universe The term expanded universe, sometimes called an extended universe, is generally used to denote the "extension" of a media franchise (like a television program or a series of feature films) with other media, generally comics and original novels. ...

, where it was supposedly founded by the

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and

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

governments, and charged with researching the

occult The occult () is a category of esoteric or supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of organized religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving a 'hidden' or 'secret' agency, such as magic and mysti ...

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...

and

supernatural Supernatural phenomena or entities are those beyond the Scientific law, laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin 'above, beyond, outside of' + 'nature'. Although the corollary term "nature" has had multiple meanin ...

, and also defending against their dangers. In 2002,

Dark Horse Comics Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, manga and Artist's book, art book publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon, by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, O ...

launched the ''B.P.R.D.'' comic series, and in 2014 the '' Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.'' series.

Fictional organization history

In the ''Hellboy'' comics, the B.P.R.D. was founded in 1945 by Professor Trevor Bruttenholm to combat various

threats uncovered in operations against

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It initially had strong links to the

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and was based at a military airbase in

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, but in 1947 later relocated to a custom built facility in Fairfield,

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

. It maintains strong links to various branches of the

US military The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. U.S. federal law names six armed forces: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and the Coast Guard. Since 1949, all of the armed forces, except th ...

to this day. It is a private organization that receives funding from several major governments (mostly the United States and

, although other countries including Canada, Japan, France, and Italy have been mentioned). Professor Bruttenholm served as director until the late 1950s when he stepped down to return to field work. The current director is Tom Manning (comics), Dr. Thomas Manning. Over the years, the Bureau has added several agents with "enhanced skills" to its ranks including

in 1952, Liz Sherman in 1980, and Abe Sapien in 1981. The B.P.R.D. is a well known and respected organization that has excellent relations with most international governments and United States government government agency, agencies, with the exceptions of People's Republic of China, China and the CIA.

The ''Plague of Frogs'' Cycle

The Bureau was the United States' only defense against an onslaught of frog creatures (originally featured in ''Seed of Destruction''). Though the "frogs" began operating on the East Coast, they spread west on both sides of the US-Canada border. To cut costs, the Bureau moved from its traditional headquarters in Connecticut to an abandoned research facility in Colorado. This facility was last used to house Operation Paperclip, Nazi scientists who defected to America after World War II. As such, the facility contains vast quantities of secret files that the B.P.R.D. has yet to explore. The frog monster invasion reached its peak during the events of ''The Black Flame'' during which a Neo-Nazism, Neo-Nazi madman adopted the persona of the World War II era supervillain the Black Flame and insinuated himself as the leader of the frogs. Together they raised the gigantic Katha-Hem (one of the Ogdru Hem, the 369 spawn of the Ogdru Jahad) which ran rampant across the American heartland until Liz Sherman used an ancient artifact to amplify her pyrokinetic powers a thousandfold. After Katha-Hem was destroyed, the frog monsters dragged the Black Flame into a vast pit and the invasion appeared to come to an end. A series of incidents—featured in ''The Warning'', ''The Black Goddess'', and ''King of Fear''—saw the Bureau threatened by both an alliance of the frogs, the Black Flame, and creatures from the Hollow Earth, united to bring about an apocalypse and the birth of a new human race; and also the villain Memnan Saa, who abducted Liz in an attempt to use her powers to conquer the Earth so he could prevent the Apocalypse. This crisis saw half of Munich destroyed, the Bureau discredited in the eyes of the American military, and Abe Sapien revealed to be an example of the next stage of the frog's evolution. Finally, Liz Sherman exhausted all of her powers in destroying the underworld alliance. This inadvertently caused massive volcanic disasters across the world, devastating Malaysia and causing the destruction of Borneo (wiping out the nations of Indonesia and Brunei), and also causing the rise of a large, immobile monster in California, spewing out a gas across America and Mexico that mutates people. In the wake of this new crisis, the United Nations Security Council drafted the Bureau to work directly for them, with "blank cheque" funding. A vision of the future shown in ''King of Fear'' showed the apocalypse had triumphed over this larger, more heavily armed B.P.R.D.

The ''Hell on Earth'' Cycle

In the wake of the events of ''King of Fear'', the world enters an apocalyptic era as natural disasters and vicious monsters crawl out of the Earth. Society is pushed to the brink of madness as many new cults arise to worship the creatures, while other supernatural forces begin shifting their plans in response to the global chaos. The B.P.R.D. agents face their own struggles during this time - Johann claims revenge on Ben Daimio for the destruction of his new body, while Abe is shot in the head by a panicked psychic girl named Fenix. Fortunately for the B.P.R.D., they gain new allies as well in the form of the Russian Special Sciences Service (S.S.S.), with their director Iosif Nichayko. Unfortunately, Zinco and the last remnants of Project Ragnarok inadvertently resurrect a new and more powerful Black Flame, who proceeds to take control of New York and reawaken many slumbering Ogdru Hem all over the globe. Abe recovers from his near-fatal wound in time to see the world in an even worse state than last he saw, and he goes AWOL from the B.P.R.D. to go on a journey of self-discovery. Liz regains her powers and rejoins the B.P.R.D., while Johann transfers his spirit into the WWII Sledgehammer suit and together they fight the Ogdru Hem as they run rampant. Eventually they take on the new Black Flame in New York, but their victory only proves hollow as one of the seven Ogdru Jahad lands in Kansas, spawning an army of Ogdru Hem as it tears its way across the land. Johann ends up sacrificing himself to defeat the dragon, paralyzing all the Ogdru Hem around the world and giving the world a moment of peaceful respite.

B.P.R.D. Agents

Enhanced Talents Taskforce

* Hellboy, Hellboy / Anung Un Rama, Cambion (a half-Demon) * Abe Sapien, Abraham Sapien, amphibious man * Liz Sherman, Elizabeth Sherman, pyrokinesis, pyrokinetic * Roger the Homunculus, artificial human (deceased) * Johann Kraus, ectoplasmic physical medium (deceased) * Captain Benjamin Daimio, Olmec were-jaguar, were-jaguar (deceased) * Panya, ageless mummy (deceased) * Fenix Espejo, psychic * Ted Howards (Gall Dennar), warrior with a Hyperborean sword (deceased) * Susan Xiang, psychic * Josephine T. Gant, psychic * Garrett Omatta, psychic

Human Agents

* Professor Trevor Bruttenholm, former director (deceased) * Dr. Tom Manning, director (deceased) * Dr. Kate Corrigan, liaison to enhanced talents agents (deceased) * Dr. Howard Eaton, occult specialist, assistant to Prof. Bruttenholm (deceased) * Professor James Henry O'Donnell, occult specialist (deceased) * Andrew Devon, field agent (deceased) * Sal Tasso, field agent (deceased) * Carla Giarocco, field agent (deceased) * Ashley Strode, exorcist and field agent * Pauline Raskin, former field agent * Joseph Vaughn, field agent * Rebecca Gervesh, field agent * Agent Nichols, field agent * Agent Enos, field agent (deceased) * Rachel Turner, London field agent

Allies

* Sir Edward Grey, Witchfinder, a witch hunter who had his own spin-off series * Lobster Johnson, a vigilante ghost * Michael Mathers, also known as The Visitor, an extraterrestrial assassin sent to Earth to kill Hellboy * Alice Monaghan, a young woman, who was kidnapped by fairies as a baby, then saved by Hellboy, retained some magical abilities and now works as a psychic * Iosif Nichayko, a Russian zombie super soldier and Director of the Russian Special Sciences Service * Daryl Tynon, a human hunter who was turned into a wendigo * Varvara, a little girl possessed by a demon and former director of the Special Sciences Service

Publication history

The Bureau made its first appearance in the pages of the ''Hellboy'' miniseries ''Hellboy: Seed of Destruction'' (4 issues, March–June 1994) and was a major part of the comic until Hellboy leaves the B.P.R.D. at the end of ''Hellboy: Conqueror Worm, Conqueror Worm''. At this point the ''B.P.R.D.'' series began, following the agents of the B.P.R.D. such as Abe Sapien, Liz Sherman, Roger and Johann Krauss. ''B.P.R.D.'' was once considered a "series of miniseries", with each story reading as a stand-alone story easily enough, but over time, an overarching story began to develop. When a new story cycle began, the series was retitled ''B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth,'' then two years later when the series hit its 100th issue, it was restructured as an ongoing monthly comic. This was done for many reasons, most notably to make the reading order simpler to the uninitiated.

In other media

Films

The Bureau appeared in the 2004 in film, 2004 film ''Hellboy (2004 film), Hellboy'' and its 2008 in film, 2008 sequel ''Hellboy II: The Golden Army'', both directed by Guillermo del Toro, where it differs from the agency in the comics. *In the film it is a secret United States Government Government agency, agency, created by Franklin Roosevelt, Roosevelt to combat Hitler's growing mastery of the occult, and strongly affiliated with the FBI. Professor Bruttenholm claims that the BPRD fought the Occult Wars that ended in 1958 with the death of Adolf Hitler. *Several personnel are federal agents, including Tom Manning (comics), Manning and new character Special Agent John Myers whilst the director is still Professor Bruttenholm, who refers to the bureau as "the ones who bump back", in reference to "things that go bump in the night". *The BPRD uses the motto "In Absentia Luci, Tenebrae Vincunt", Latin for "In the Absence of Light, Darkness Prevails"—though this motto is grammatically incorrect—Luci should read "Lucis" for the desired meaning. *In ''Hellboy II: The Golden Army'', the Bureau's existence is confirmed when Hellboy reveals himself to the media after battling vicious tooth-fairies. The film reveals there is a German branch where Johann was stationed until he became the new director of the US branch. * In the Hellboy (2019 film), 2019 reboot, the Bureau is a public multinational agency. * In the Hellboy: The Crooked Man, 2024 reboot, the Bureau is referenced, but never shown *It is hinted that the base may be related to military base Area 51 as the number 51 appears on the walls.

Television

''The B.P.R.D. Declassified'' was a TV special that aired on the FX (TV channel), FX in 2004.

Roleplaying game

The B.P.R.D. appeared in the ''Hellboy#Role-playing game, Hellboy Sourcebook and Role Playing Game''.

In popular culture

* In the film ''Blade II'', Blade (comics), Blade's young assistant, Scud, wears a shirt bearing the B.P.R.D. logo. Guillermo del Toro, who directed ''Blade II'', is a fan of Hellboy, and later he directed the film adaptation and its sequel. * In the comic shop in ''The Big Bang Theory'', the B.P.R.D. comic is prominently and repeatedly featured. * In the show ''Hawaii Five-0 (2010 TV series), Hawaii 5-0'' a ''B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: New World'' poster is on the wall of Dr. Max Bergman's (played by Masi Oka) apartment.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bureau For Paranormal Research And Defense Hellboy Dark Horse Comics titles Horror comics 2002 comics debuts Characters created by Mike Mignola Fictional paranormal investigation agencies