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Roger the Homunculus | |
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Publication information | |
Publisher | Dark Horse Comics |
First appearance | Hellboy - Wake The Devil #3 (August 1996) |
Created by | Mike Mignola |
In-story information | |
Alter ego | Roger |
Team affiliations | B.P.R.D. |
Abilities | Energy conduit/breaker Superhuman strength and durability |
Roger the Homunculus is a fictional character featured in the Hellboy and B.P.R.D. comic books published by Dark Horse Comics. He is an unusually large homunculus, a humanoid being said to be created by means of alchemy. Initially revived by Liz Sherman, Roger is one of the early supporting characters of the "Mignola-verse", appearing alongside other "enhanced" B.P.R.D. agents including Sherman, Abe Sapien and Johann Kraus under Dr. Kate Corrigan. [1]
Roger was discovered in 1996 in a medieval alchemist's lab beneath the ruins of Czege Castle, Romania by BPRD agents Liz Sherman, Bud Waller, and Sidney Leach during the Wake the Devil affair. Waller explained that a homunculus is created from blood and herbs, stewed in a jar, and then incubated in horse manure. Although lifeless upon discovery, the as-yet nameless Roger was activated when Liz touched the socket on his chest, absorbing her pyrokinesis as she was subconsciously looking to rid herself of it. As Liz enters a coma, Roger springs to life in a violent rage, killing Waller before fleeing the castle into the countryside. After Liz is rushed to the hospital under the supervision of BPRD doctors, Hellboy and Kate Corrigan arrive to find the homunculus in the hope that Liz's power could be restored to her. Meanwhile, the homunculus was racked by guilt and prayed for God to kill him. However, he soon encountered his 'brother', a more crude homunculus created before himself.
The brother sought to take revenge on humanity using a colossal homunculus that he created from human fat. The sinister homunculus captured Kate and planned to sacrifice her for use in the giant homunculus. Roger saved her, but his brother entered the body of the gigantic colossus and began to rampage. While Hellboy struggled against the colossal homunculus, Roger intervened by asking his brother to forgive him. His brother forgave him, and Roger is allowed to join the colossus. Roger then used Liz's power over fire to melt the giant body and slay his brother. Roger returned to base with Hellboy and Kate, and restored Liz's pyrokinesis. Roger, now without a source of energy, returned to his comatose state.
Three years later, BPRD scientists were stopped from dissecting Roger's comatose body by Abe Sapien, who used an overdose of electricity to awaken the dormant homunculus. The BPRD fitted Roger with a mobile generator and made him an agent. At the same time, they planted a bomb within him to prevent any uncontrolled outbursts. This decision would later be a factor in Hellboy leaving the Bureau. However, during the Hunte Castle affair in 2001, Roger proved himself as an agent at last when he managed to contain the Conqueror Worm (an energy-based monster from space) within himself, which nearly subsumed his psyche as he managed to destroy Herman von Klempt by throwing them both off a mountain. Roger was saved by the ghost of Lobster Johnson, who used a lightning rod to shock the worm out of Roger.
Roger returned to work with the Bureau, fitted with a new generator. In one notable case in Venice, Roger freed the goddess Cloacina from the clutches of a vampire attempting to gain power from a demon lord. Ever since, Roger developed a curious admiration for Cloacina, and was seen sharing a glass of wine with a statue of the goddess before they left Venice. He continued to read up about Cloacina after that case, showing the lingering interest he had in her.
During the invasion of America by frog monsters Roger proved to be very effective in wiping them out and eventually was promoted to a leadership role with his own squadron of agents. However, his new-found cockiness proved to be his undoing. Surprised by the villainous Black Flame, who was leading the frog monsters, Roger and his team were blown to pieces.
Kate Corrigan went to France to secure the book that could restore Roger to full health. However, the ageless marquis who held the book attempted to bargain for Roger's corpse, using Kate as collateral. Kate managed to overpower the marquis by releasing the demon Marchosias, but in the ensuing carnage the book was lost and Roger's fate was sealed. As of the end of The Universal Machine, Roger's body remains destroyed. When Johann Krauss communicates with Roger's spirit and asks him why he has not "gone on," Roger explains that because he is not human, there is no place for his spirit to go, so it simply remains within his body. Roger's spirit rested in a peaceful dream-world resembling an Etruscan shrine dedicated to Cloacina.
Roger tells Johann that he is finally at peace and would prefer to stay "dead," but tells Johann that he would like his body to be buried in the ground, "like a man." Roger's grave, marked with a false identity of "Archie Stanton", was shown in the first issue of B.P.R.D.: The Garden of Souls. It is engraved with a quotation from the King James Version of Job Chapter 32, Verse 9: "Great men are not always wise."
Hellboy is a fictional superhero created by writer-artist Mike Mignola. The character first appeared in San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2, and has since appeared in various eponymous miniseries, one-shots and intercompany crossovers. The character has been adapted into three live-action feature films – two starring Ron Perlman in 2004 and 2008 in the title role, and one in 2019 which starred David Harbour, as well as two straight-to-DVD animated films, again starring Perlman, and three video games – Asylum Seeker, The Science of Evil, and as a playable character in Injustice 2.
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Elizabeth Anne "Liz" Sherman is a fictional character appearing in the Hellboy comic book series created by Mike Mignola. A firestarter, she becomes a ward of the B.P.R.D. at age 11 after burning her family to death in a traumatic accident. Sherman later hones her abilities and becomes a longtime field agent for the Bureau alongside Hellboy and Abe Sapien.
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Katherine Corrigan is a fictional character from the Hellboy and B.P.R.D. comic book series published by Dark Horse Comics and created by Mike Mignola. Her appearance is based on Mignola's wife, Christine. Within the world of the comics, dubbed the "Mignola-verse", Corrigan acts as B.P.R.D. field leader to "enhanced" agents including Hellboy, Abe Sapien, Roger the Homunculus, Liz Sherman and Johann Kraus.
Benjamin Daimio is a fictional comic book character who appears in Dark Horse Comics books featuring Hellboy and the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, of which Daimio is an employee. Created by Mike Mignola, John Arcudi and Guy Davis, Daimio first appeared in B.P.R.D.: The Dead #1. A formerly dead United States Marine, Daimio suffers from a curse that transforms him into a horrific jaguar-like creature.
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Hellboy II: The Golden Army is a 2008 American superhero film based on the Dark Horse Comics character of the same name, created by Mike Mignola. Produced by Lawrence Gordon and Lloyd Levin in association with Dark Horse Entertainment, and distributed by Universal Pictures, it is a sequel to Hellboy (2004) and is the second live-action film in the franchise. Directed and written by Guillermo del Toro from a story he co-wrote with Mignola, the film stars Ron Perlman as Hellboy, alongside Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Jeffrey Tambor, and John Hurt. In the film, Hellboy and the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense must battle a mythical prince who plans to reclaim the world for his magical kindred.
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Hellboy: Sword of Storms is the first of the Hellboy Animated series based on Mike Mignola's popular comic book series Hellboy and the live-action film of the same name. It was released in 2006 on DVD and premiered later that same year on Cartoon Network. The second animated straight-to-DVD film, Hellboy: Blood and Iron, was released on 17 March 2007.
Hellboy: Blood and Iron is the second in the Hellboy Animated series, written by Tad Stones and Mike Mignola. It first aired on March 10, 2007 on Cartoon Network, and aired again on July 19, 2008 to promote the release of Hellboy II: The Golden Army, and was released on DVD by Anchor Bay Entertainment on June 12, 2007. The film's storyline is based in part upon the Hellboy: Wake the Devil storyline from the original comics.
Hellboy Animated includes two original straight-to-DVD adult animated films based upon the Hellboy comic books by Mike Mignola. Both films take place before the events of the 2004 Hellboy film and contain the full-length titles named Sword of Storms and Blood and Iron, received the signature of Mike Mignola and Guillermo del Toro. Like the live-action films, it was co-produced by Revolution Studios. Both films were distributed by Anchor Bay Entertainment, instead of Sony Pictures, Universal Studios, and Lawrence Gordon Productions. A third film was being planned but was never greenlit. Both films were re-released in Ultra HD Blu-ray as a double feature by Lionsgate Home Entertainment on April 12, 2019.
Hellboy: Wake the Devil is a five-issue comic book mini-series in the Hellboy franchise, conceived and illustrated by Mike Mignola and published by Dark Horse Comics. Various elements and sections of plot were later used in the animated film Hellboy: Blood and Iron.
Hellboy: The Chained Coffin and Others is the third trade paperback collection in the Hellboy series created by Mike Mignola, published by Dark Horse Comics on August 5, 1998. The book collects various mini-series, one-shots and back-up features featuring the fictional paranormal detective Hellboy.
B.P.R.D.: Hollow Earth & Other Stories is the first trade paperback collection in the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (B.P.R.D.) series.
B.P.R.D.: The Soul of Venice & Other Stories is the second trade paperback collection in the B.P.R.D. series.
B.P.R.D.: Plague of Frogs is the third trade paperback collection in the B.P.R.D. series.
Hellboy: The Storm and the Fury is the twelfth collected edition in Mike Mignola's Hellboy comic book series, the third of three connected story arcs written by Mignola and illustrated by Duncan Fegredo. It collects Hellboy: The Storm #1-3 and Hellboy: The Fury #1-3, with the partition into two limited series intended to accommodate an anticipated production gap of several months that eventually saw the story's first three issues published between July through September 2010 and its last three between May through August 2011. This is the concluding story arc of a trilogy beginning with Darkness Calls and continuing with The Wild Hunt, all of them written by Mignola and illustrated by Fegredo. The six issues were numbered on their inside front covers as issues 47-49 and 55-57 of the continuing Hellboy series. Two prelude pages from The Fury #3 are absent in this trade paperback.