Grigori Rasputin (Hellboy)
Supervillain archenemy of Hellboy in the comic series.
Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin is a supervillain in the American comic book series Hellboy, created by Mike Mignola and John Byrne. Based on the real-life Russian mystic, he serves as the second archenemy of Hellboy after the Ogdru Jahad.
Quick Facts
- Character name
- Grigori Rasputin
- Full name
- Grigori Efimovich Rasputin
- Publisher
- Dark Horse Comics
- Debut
- Hellboy: Seed of Destruction (1994)
- Creators
- Mike Mignola; John Bryne
- Alliances
- Nazis
- Aliases
- Rasputin, The Mad Monk
Facts from the source article.
Fictional biography
In 1895, Rasputin, uncertain about his abilities and his path, received a visit from the witch Baba Yaga. She declared he was meant to bring about a new era. To gain immortality, he let her take a piece of his soul, which she concealed within Yggdrasil's roots. After Prince Felix Yusupov killed him on December 16, 1916, the Ogdru Jahad revived Rasputin and recruited him as their agent on Earth. The Nazis soon approached him to create an occult strategy to win the war, resulting in Project Ragna Rok. Rasputin never planned to help the Nazis; he only used their resources to start the apocalypse and create a new Eden. During World War II, he performed a ritual to summon a being that would let the Ogdru Jahad destroy the world, but the summoning accidentally delivered the creature, later called Hellboy, to the Allies. Aware the war was lost, Rasputin directed loyal Project members to a base in Norway. He then went to the Arctic Circle, called by Sadu-Hem, a spawn of the Ogdru Jahad, and entered a trance. In 1994, an expedition woke him, and he used them to get to the Cavendish estate. He tricked Hellboy into coming to the manor, hoping he would release the Ogdru Jahad from their crystal prisons. When Hellboy refused, Rasputin tried to drain Liz Sherman's power into Sadu-Hem. Abe Sapien, guided by Elihu Cavendish's ghost, impaled Rasputin, and Liz's flames burned Sadu-Hem, reducing Rasputin to a skeleton. He begged Hellboy for mercy but was destroyed.
In other media
Actor Karel Roden played Rasputin as the main antagonist in the 2004 film adaptation of Hellboy. His inability to die is explained by an otherworldly being residing in his body, which he considers a god, slowly manifesting through each resurrection. In the film, he works with the Nazis and demonstrates great occult abilities linked to the underworld. He opens a portal to the Ogdru Jahad's dimension, but Allied Forces sabotage it, and after Hellboy passes through, Rasputin is sucked into the portal. He is resurrected by Ilsa and Kroenen in an Arctic temple; the director's cut shows he was rendered eyeless before receiving ocular prosthesis. Preparing for an eclipse to bring the Ogdru Jahad, he orchestrates events to make Hellboy realize his true calling, but Hellboy rejects him and stabs him with one of his own severed horns, causing Rasputin's god to emerge and crush him and Ilsa. In Hellboy II: The Golden Army, a planned animated sequel would have revealed Rasputin's ghost aiding Roderick Zinco to resurrect Kroenen. Markos Rounthwaite portrays Rasputin in the 2019 reboot Hellboy, appearing only in flashbacks where he oversaw Project Ragnarok before being killed by Lobster Johnson.
More in Characters & Cast
Elsewhere in Hellboy
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced