BPRD TPBs (2003-2019) [+]
Apr 14 2025
BPRD (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense) is the overarching US government organization (later UN backed) which Hellboy belongs to. These comics actually start after Hellboy leaves the BPRD for several years so it's Abe Sapien and Liz Sherman who are the main agents, though many other people come in and either leave or die as the series progresses.
A few volumes deal with BPRD in the past, after it was formed and before Hellboy was old enough to go on missions. For the most part though the volumes tell a continuous story that is in three phases.
Phase 1 is ramping up to total war. There is a frog faction and there is an underground race faction as well as occult stuff and all these groups start coming together to form one big army to take over the surface world.
Phase 2 is Hell on Earth as the frogs, underground race, and the other factions are destroyed because the big monsters (Ogdru Hem) finally rise. These are mostly big and stationary but emit lots of little monsters and/or gasses that turn people into monsters. It's not "war" war but more like War Against the Chtorr where the Ogdru Hem are changing the local area around them into Hellish places but people can still live there and many parts of the world are fine. It does get worse and worse as time goes on.
Phase 3 is kind of short at three volumes and it's the return of Rasputin for his final bid to conquer Earth. Hellboy returns from the dead for the final fight. The Earth is mostly destroyed except for many underground havens where pockets of humanity survive while on the surface the new race of man thrives. The End to the Hellboy universe (though future products will still be set in the past).
It's interesting that this series is rather bloody. Characters are introduced and may be around for years before they are killed and in the end all but one or two characters die. I do like that many characters are just BPRD agents — normal humans with military training, sometimes well equipped to battle monsters.
I think you can read this series independently of the rest of Hellboy, though that helps a lot and events in other Hellboy comics are sometimes reflected here. But I guess if you read the first five Hellboy TPBs (before they launched BPRD) that will cover all previous knowledge and after that cross-references are light.
In general I think I've most liked the first five Hellboy TPBs and the BPRD series. The other Hellboy Universe series not so much. And it's nice if you start with Hellboy you see Rasputin as the first Big Bad and at the end of BPRD Rasputin is once again the Big Bad as it comes full circle.
A few volumes deal with BPRD in the past, after it was formed and before Hellboy was old enough to go on missions. For the most part though the volumes tell a continuous story that is in three phases.
Phase 1 is ramping up to total war. There is a frog faction and there is an underground race faction as well as occult stuff and all these groups start coming together to form one big army to take over the surface world.
Phase 2 is Hell on Earth as the frogs, underground race, and the other factions are destroyed because the big monsters (Ogdru Hem) finally rise. These are mostly big and stationary but emit lots of little monsters and/or gasses that turn people into monsters. It's not "war" war but more like War Against the Chtorr where the Ogdru Hem are changing the local area around them into Hellish places but people can still live there and many parts of the world are fine. It does get worse and worse as time goes on.
Phase 3 is kind of short at three volumes and it's the return of Rasputin for his final bid to conquer Earth. Hellboy returns from the dead for the final fight. The Earth is mostly destroyed except for many underground havens where pockets of humanity survive while on the surface the new race of man thrives. The End to the Hellboy universe (though future products will still be set in the past).
It's interesting that this series is rather bloody. Characters are introduced and may be around for years before they are killed and in the end all but one or two characters die. I do like that many characters are just BPRD agents — normal humans with military training, sometimes well equipped to battle monsters.
I think you can read this series independently of the rest of Hellboy, though that helps a lot and events in other Hellboy comics are sometimes reflected here. But I guess if you read the first five Hellboy TPBs (before they launched BPRD) that will cover all previous knowledge and after that cross-references are light.
In general I think I've most liked the first five Hellboy TPBs and the BPRD series. The other Hellboy Universe series not so much. And it's nice if you start with Hellboy you see Rasputin as the first Big Bad and at the end of BPRD Rasputin is once again the Big Bad as it comes full circle.