Johann Kraus
Disembodied ectoplasmic spirit and B.P.R.D. psychic operative.
Johann Kraus is a fictional being from Mike Mignola's Hellboy comics, appearing in the Dark Horse series B.P.R.D. He exists as a psychic, ectoplasmic spirit without a body, kept stable only by a special containment suit. Without this suit, his form would vanish. In the 2008 film Hellboy II: The Golden Army, a live-action version called Johann Krauss was voiced by Seth MacFarlane.
Quick Facts
- Publisher
- Dark Horse Comics
- Debut
- Dark Horse Extra #42 (December 2001)
- Creators
- Mike Mignola
- Alliances
- B.P.R.D.
- Partners
- Abe Sapien
- Liz Sherman
- Kate Corrigan
- Powers
- Physical medium
- Ectoplasmic abilities
- Teleplasty (film version)
Facts from the source article.
Fictional character biography
Johann Kraus came into the world in Stuttgart, West Germany, during 1946. At the age of ten, he first recognized his own psychic gifts. Troubled by his inability to aid the spirits that visited him, he looked for guidance from spiritualists, hoping to master his abilities. Finding occultism unsatisfying, he instead turned to the church, which let him concentrate on the spirits themselves rather than on scholarly study. By 1971, he had opened a practice in Munich, earning a reputation as a skilled medium before moving to Heidelberg. Early in 2002, a mystical catastrophe struck a seance, and Kraus was the lone survivor. His physical body burned away, but his ectoplasmic form endured. Realizing he would fade without a vessel, he turned to the B.P.R.D. for aid. Initially, the Bureau kept him alive in a transparent tank built for other uses; later, that technology was miniaturized into his signature containment suit. Kate Corrigan once described him by saying he was not dead, merely without a body. Following Hellboy's exit, Kraus joined the Bureau to strengthen its roster of special talents. His condition sharpened his psychic powers—much like a blind musician developing better hearing—so that where he once only spoke with the dead, he could now grant them temporary physical form. An expert in occult knowledge, he never sleeps and works without pause. He organized the vast files uncovered in the Colorado base's sub-basement, which exposed that Ben Daimio's grandmother had been a Nazi occult war criminal. This discovery created friction between the two men, a strain worsened by the death of Roger the homunculus, a being Johann had felt closer to than almost anyone else, partly due to Daimio's role in the incident.
Powers and abilities
Kraus can communicate with spirits and grant them temporary physical forms to speak with non-mediums. He has limited body possession powers, enabling him to inhabit any form lacking a soul, such as corpses of humans, a dog, or a moose. Though once believed vulnerable to psychic attack, he is immune to possession and can dominate malevolent spirits, even an Ogdru Hem. His containment suit is his only protection from dissipation; if breached, he must find a new container or cease to exist.
In other media
Johann Kraus appeared in the 2008 film Hellboy II: The Golden Army with the spelling "Johann Krauss." His movements were supplied by British actors John Alexander and James Dodd, and his voice was performed by Seth MacFarlane; Thomas Kretschmann was originally cast for the voice but replaced. In the film, Krauss is head of the B.P.R.D.'s Ectoplasmic Research division in Washington, D.C., and is sent to headquarters to take command after Hellboy reveals himself to the public. The cause of his condition is not explained, but he hints it was connected with the loss of a woman he loved, whose ring he carries. His containment suit was designed by former B.P.R.D. head Trevor Bruttenholm. According to film commentary, Guillermo del Toro stated that in the planned third film, Krauss would have history with Nazi scientist Karl Ruprecht Kroenen. Krauss strikes Abe Sapien and Tom Manning as knowledgeable and efficient, while Hellboy dislikes him, possibly feeling overshadowed, and because his name "sounds German." Krauss is punctilious and by-the-book, a departure from the comics version, who is compassionate and avuncular. Both versions can leave their suit at will; outside it, Krauss appears as a roughly humanoid ghostly shape. His ectoplasmic form can physically manipulate objects and perform teleplasty, enabling him to temporarily reanimate dead creatures or possess mechanical objects, as when he takes over a Golden Army soldier.
More in Characters & Cast
Elsewhere in Hellboy
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