Sadly, I never did read Dark Horse Comics, so am unfamiliar with the character.

Still, anybody who’s read any H.P. Lovecraft (or other contributors to the Cthulhu Mythos) will recognize the backstory, which is not quite the same, but analogous. Back in 1944, the Nazis, losing the war, are prepared to destroy civilization, with the help of Grigorij Yefimovitch Rasputin. In this film, Rasputin, who was beaten, poisoned, shot and drowned by Prince Felix Youssoupov and his companions (and who then died of a broken heart from learning that he was not universally loved) back around the time of the First World War, is somehow still alive, and working to call back a bunch of Narsty Old Elder Gods With Big Tentacles from their imprisonment in space. A special team of allied soldiers, aided by Prof. Broom (John Hurt, though perhaps some other actor in this scene), defeat the Nazis, though fail to kill their two leaders; but Rasputin is thrust into the resulting wormhole, through which there comes, in the other direction, a Baby Narsty Old Elder God who looks pretty much like a traditional demon. Under the tutelage of Prof. Broom, this tiny creature grows up to be actor Ron Perlman in makeup, aka Hellboy.

We all know that sooner or later Rasputin will be back, along with the deathless Nazi assassin (unnamed) who led the 1944 mission and Rasputin’s disciple and inamorata Ilsa. “Sooner or later” happens to be 2004, just in time for this movie. Just after FBI Special Agent John Myers (Rupert Evans) shows up to become Hellboy’s new minder and close friend, the three former villains reappear to release an ancient Babylonian demon named Sammael from its confinement in the City Museum, and Hellboy must confront this new threat, which will ultimately lead all the main characters to a giant, horrific necropolis under a Russian graveyard outside Moscow, where Hellboy has to struggle against his own “inner demons”, so to speak, if he is to avoid being the agent of destruction of civilization.

There are two other “paranormals” in the story, “Abe” Sapiens, a merman, and Liz Blair, a somewhat involuntary pyrotic, who is Hellboy’s romantic interest. Perhaps they should have been omitted, since their presence is not really all that necessary, and gives the movie an atmosphere of being something of an X-Men ripoff.

Not to diss this movie ― I enjoyed it. But I doubt that it will qualify as great motion picture literature, not even up there with Spider-Man and the above-mentioned X-Men.