10 Comics Superheroes With The Best Motivations

5. Hellboy

Hellboy BPRD
Dark Horse/Mike Mignola

Hellboy is incredible. His original series, the B.P.R.D. and its related spin-offs, Hellboy in Hell - all of it is wonderful, and something any discerning comics fan would do well to invest in if they love horror, comedy, and the aesthetic qualities of Mike Mignola's pencils.

For all that Mignola's pencils can be praised (seriously, I could do this all day), it's the creator's characterisation of Hellboy specifically that also deserves special attention. Anung Un Rama is sardonic, innocent, and fiercely independent. At the same time, he's also an occult specialist, an expert investigator, and a skilled fighter. He does all of this while threatened with a prophecy that claims he will bring an end to the Earth, and it's that constant battle against destiny - ostensibly - that drives him.

Put simply, Hellboy is a man who cannot sanction the idea that he's walking uncontrollably to the apocalypse. Neither can he abide being used by an organisation - the B.P.R.D. - that treats 'monsters' so carelessly, and so he leaves them in the nineties to embark on his own journey.

He's a hero that doesn't want to fight. A demon that loves the living. And a man who would be king. He's been to Hell and back, but all he wants to do is live his own life and help those in need, whether they're of the living or of the dead.

(And eat lots of pancakes.)

Advertisement
Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.