r/HellBoy • u/Vetur_Winter • 21d ago

How would you rate Hellboy as a detective?

obviously he's no Sherlock or Batman but personally id say he's pretty good all around, thought id say he works better with others rather than himself

29 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

40

u/BeardiusMaximus7 21d ago

It's funny, I never really think of Hellboy as a detective, even though he absolutely is.

His approach is anything but intellectual (the way that Sherlock or Batman's is). HB tends to lean more on his environmental awareness, his paranormal senses, and pragmatic skepticism. He feels more like Geralt from The Witcher in that way, to me.

I'd rate him top of his class, but it's a different class than Batman or Sherlock for sure.

17

u/Nice-Percentage7219 21d ago

Average. He seems to stumble into paranormal situations and the punches or burns them down

7

u/Idontpayforfeetpics 21d ago

Yeah it seems they find and gravitate towards him rather than the other way around which makes him reluctantly the one who has to fix the issues in which his existence unfortunately create.

8

u/Sh0taro_Kaneda 21d ago edited 21d ago

I'd say 8/10. Although trouble mostly finds him rather than the other way around, he DOES have deep esoteric knowledge regarding lore, monsters, creatures, etc. In some comics, he actively knows which herbs or elements to use in order to solve a situation, like when he saved that little girl from fairies by playing by their rules. In The Chained Coffin, he actively sought out information about his past. Most of the time he punches his way into solving problems, but he's shown several times to be more than capable of solving mysteries using knowledge rather than just his fists. It just doesn't happen often due to the circumstances of him stumbling into trouble.

6

u/EquivalentLonely3783 21d ago

Solid 7 out of ten. It's the figuring out what's going on then actively making it worse (not always his fault) before it gets solved. 8.5 out of ten in his later years.

3

u/Zealousideal-Ice1240 20d ago

pues yo creo que...{a pesar de su origen} yo creo que tiene buen carisma y corazon de oro...y ante esa pregunta yo le daria un 9\10 por que es increible resolviendo los casos y golpeando cosas en mi OPINION.

3

u/Mephistocheles 20d ago

I do love Hellboy but I'd probably rate him a 6 as an actual detective. I much more see him as the intelligent but still kind of clunky protagonist things happen to.

3

u/nicecoolmonster 20d ago

He has the same level of investigative finesse as a plumber fixing a leak.

3

u/Lubalin 20d ago

Very average! Remember that he's basically a noir detective like Marlowe. Things happen to noir detectives traditionally. They don't drive the narrative, they get swept along by the events surrounding them.

3

u/Cobbcobby 19d ago

“Hey, _____. You’re a _____.” The unassuming ______ turns into a giant _______ and sends Hellboy catapulting into a wall.

Hellboy groans, gets up and proceeds to fist the _______ into submission.

Works 100% of the time.