Roger the Homunculus is a

fictional character In fiction, a character (or speaker, in poetry) is a person or other being in a narrative (such as a novel, play, radio or television series, music, film, or video game). The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life perso ...

featured in the ''

Hellboy Hellboy is a fictional superhero created by writer-artist Mike Mignola. The character first appeared in ''San Diego Comic-Con Comics'' #2 (August 1993), and has since appeared in various eponymous miniseries, one-shots and intercompany crossover ...

'' and ''

B.P.R.D. The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (the B.P.R.D. or BPRD) is a fictional organization in the comic book work of Mike Mignola, founded by the United States and United Kingdom governments, charged with researching the occult, paranormal ...

comic books A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are oft ...

published by

Dark Horse Comics Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, and manga publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, Oregon comic book shops know ...

. He is an unusually large

homunculus A homunculus ( , , ; "little person") is a representation of a small human being, originally depicted as small statues made out of clay. Popularized in sixteenth-century alchemy and nineteenth-century fiction, it has historically referred to the ...

, a humanoid being said to be created by means of

alchemy Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim wo ...

. Initially revived by Liz Sherman, Roger is one of the early supporting characters of the "Mignola-verse", appearing alongside other "enhanced" B.P.R.D. agents including Sherman, Abe Sapien and

Johann Kraus Johann Kraus is a fictional character in the comic book series ''Hellboy'', created by Mike Mignola. He is featured in the comic book '' B.P.R.D.'', published by Dark Horse Comics. Kraus is a disembodied ectoplasmic spirit with psychic abiliti ...

under Dr. Kate Corrigan.

Fictional character biography

Roger was discovered in 1996 in a medieval alchemist's lab beneath the ruins of Czege Castle,

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

by BPRD agents Liz Sherman, Bud Waller, and Sidney Leach during the ''Wake the Devil'' affair. Waller explained that a

is created from blood and herbs, stewed in a jar, and then incubated in horse manure. Although lifeless upon discovery, the as-yet nameless Roger was activated when Liz touched the socket on his chest, absorbing her

pyrokinesis Pyrokinesis is the purported List of psychic abilities, psychic ability allowing a person to create and control fire with the mind. As with other parapsychological phenomena, there is no conclusive evidence in support of the actual existence of p ...

as she was subconsciously looking to rid herself of it. As Liz enters a coma, Roger springs to life in a violent rage, killing Waller before fleeing the castle into the countryside. After Liz is rushed to the hospital under the supervision of BPRD doctors, Hellboy and Kate Corrigan arrive to find the homunculus in the hope that Liz's power could be restored to her. Meanwhile, the homunculus was racked by guilt and prayed for

God In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...

to kill him. However, he soon encountered his 'brother', a more crude homunculus created before himself. The brother sought to take revenge on humanity using a colossal homunculus that he created from human fat. The sinister homunculus captured Kate and planned to sacrifice her for use in the giant homunculus. Roger saved her, but his brother entered the body of the gigantic colossus and began to rampage. While Hellboy struggled against the colossal homunculus, Roger intervened by asking his brother to forgive him. His brother forgave him, and Roger is allowed to join the colossus. Roger then used Liz's power over fire to melt the giant body and slay his brother. Roger returned to base with Hellboy and Kate, and restored Liz's pyrokinesis. Roger, now without a source of energy, returned to his comatose state. Three years later, BPRD scientists were stopped from dissecting Roger's comatose body by Abe Sapien, who used an overdose of electricity to awaken the dormant homunculus. The BPRD fitted Roger with a mobile generator and made him an agent. At the same time, they planted a bomb within him to prevent any uncontrolled outbursts. This decision would later be a factor in Hellboy leaving the Bureau. However, during the Hunte Castle affair in 2001, Roger proved himself as an agent at last when he managed to contain the Conqueror Worm (an energy-based monster from space) within himself, which nearly subsumed his psyche as he managed to destroy Herman von Klempt by throwing them both off a mountain. Roger was saved by the ghost of Lobster Johnson, who used a lightning rod to shock the worm out of Roger.

''B.P.R.D.''

Roger returned to work with the Bureau, fitted with a new generator. During the invasion of America by frog monsters Roger proved to be very effective in wiping them out and eventually was promoted to a leadership role with his own squadron of agents. However, his new-found cockiness proved to be his undoing. Surprised by the villainous Black Flame, who was leading the frog monsters, Roger and his team were blown to pieces. Kate Corrigan went to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

to secure the book that could restore Roger to full health. However, the ageless marquis who held the book attempted to bargain for Roger's corpse, using Kate as collateral. Kate managed to overpower the marquis by releasing the demon Marchosias, but in the ensuing carnage the book was lost and Roger's fate was sealed. As of the end of ''The Universal Machine'', Roger's body remains destroyed. When Johann Krauss communicates with Roger's spirit and asks him why he has not "gone on," Roger explains that because he is not human, there is no place for his spirit to go, so it simply remains within his body. Roger's spirit exists in a peaceful dream-world resembling an Etruscan shrine dedicated to

Cloacina Cloacina was a goddess who presided over the Cloaca Maxima ('Greatest Drain'), the main interceptor discharge outfall of the system of sewers in Rome. Name The theonym ''Cloācīna'' is a derivative of the noun ''cloāca'' ('sewer, underground ...

. Roger tells Johann that he is finally at peace and would prefer to stay "dead," but tells Johann that he would like his body to be buried in the ground, "like a man." Roger's grave, marked with a false identity of "Archie Stanton", was shown in the first issue of ''B.P.R.D.: The Garden of Souls''. It is engraved with a quotation from the

King James Version The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by sponsorship of K ...

of Job Chapter 32, Verse 9: "Great men are not always wise."

In other media

* A statue of Roger can be seen in ''

'' and '' Hellboy II: The Golden Army''.
The Hellboy Archive

References

{{Hellboy Comics characters with superhuman strength Hellboy characters Dark Horse Comics superheroes Comics characters introduced in 1996 Characters created by Mike Mignola pt:Roger (Hellboy)