Abraham Sapien , born Langdon Everett Caul , is a fictional character in the comic book series Hellboy , created by Mike Mignola . He takes his name from " Ichthyo sapien ", the fanciful species designation chosen for him by his colleagues in the 19th-century Oannes Club, and from Abraham Lincoln , on whose assassination date the Oannes Club abandoned Abe's body in a suspended animation tank beneath a Washington D.C. hospital, leaving only a cryptic note as explanation. He is occasionally referred to as an "amphibious man."
83-460: In addition to his regular appearances in Hellboy and B.P.R.D. , Sapien has also starred in his own comics, with trade paperback collections and omnibus editions including The Drowning , The Devil Does Not Jest and Other Stories , Dark and Terrible and Lost Lives and Other Stories . Sapien began his life as Langdon Everett Caul, a Victorian scientist and businessman who became involved with
166-545: A broken arm. Rasputin's vengeful spirit appeared before him and prophesied that Sapien will one day be speared to death. In Plague of Frogs , Rasputin's prediction came true when Sapien was impaled by a spear and apparently killed by one of the Ogdru Jahad's followers. Sapien appeared to die and had an out of body experience that brought him to his former life in antebellum America. Witnessing his past self's actions, Abe entered Caul's body prior to his transformation, creating
249-429: A chapter in an edited volume on achievement, IQ researcher Arthur Jensen proposed a multiplicative model of genius consisting of high ability, high productivity, and high creativity. Jensen's model was motivated by the finding that eminent achievement is highly positively skewed, a finding known as Price's law , and related to Lotka's law . Some high IQ individuals join a High IQ society . The most famous and largest
332-563: A custom built facility in Fairfield , Connecticut . It maintains strong links to various branches of the US military to this day. It is a private organization that receives funding from several major governments (mostly the United States and United Kingdom , although other countries including Canada , Japan , France , and Italy have been mentioned). Professor Bruttenholm served as director until
415-424: A dolphin-like frontal lobe that enables him to transmit and receive electro-psychic information in the same way that cetaceans use sonar . He also has an encyclopedic knowledge of the occult and holds paranormal expertise rivaled only by Professor Bruttenholm . Additionally, he is unable to survive out of water for long periods without a collar-like apparatus that provides water to his gills. Sapien appeared in
498-423: A founder of the humanistic approach to psychology , expands on the idea of a genius trusting his or her intuition in a given field, writing: " El Greco , for example, must have realized as he looked at some of his early work, that 'good artists do not paint like that.' But somehow he trusted his own experiencing of life, the process of himself, sufficiently that he could go on expressing his own unique perceptions. It
581-408: A lower density of thalamic dopamine D 2 receptors . One of the investigators explained that "Fewer D 2 receptors in the thalamus probably means a lower degree of signal filtering, and thus a higher flow of information from the thalamus." This could be a possible mechanism behind the ability of healthy highly creative people to see numerous uncommon connections in a problem-solving situation and
664-611: A more monstrous form. In Gods , Abe was shot by a psychic girl named Fénix, in whom the BPRD has shown interest. According to Professor O'Donnell, Fénix is equal to the ancient Hyperborean shamans who keep the Ogdru Hem for entering in Earth after Hyperborea's fall using the Vril energy. Fénix says, before shooting Abe, that she knows who he is, implying that she figured Abe's condition as an evolved form of
747-404: A new story cycle began, the series was retitled B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth, then two years later when the series hit its 100th issue, it was restructured as an ongoing monthly comic. This was done for many reasons, most notably to make the reading order simpler to the uninitiated. B.P.R.D. began as a series of miniseries, but it also had an ongoing numbering on the inside cover of its issues. For
830-444: A prerequisite, the most common trait that actually defines a genius may be the extraordinary ability to apply creativity and imaginative thinking to almost any situation. In the early-19th century Carl von Clausewitz , who had a particular interest in what he called " military genius ", defined "the essence of Genius" ( German : der Genius ) in terms of "a very high mental capacity for certain employments". In ancient Rome ,
913-440: A secret facility in the middle of Siberia. Abe Sapien is one of the characters appearing in two straight-to-DVD Hellboy Animated films, Hellboy: Sword of Storms and Hellboy: Blood and Iron , in which he is voiced by Doug Jones . This version of the character, although similar to the movie Sapien, is much more like his comic book counterpart, showing signs of neither the psychic abilities nor breathing apparatus. However, he
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#1732883745263996-483: A self-reported IQ of 125 and went on to win the Nobel Prize in physics and become widely known as a genius, the current view of psychologists and other scholars of genius is that a minimum level of IQ (approximately 125) is necessary for genius but not sufficient, and must be combined with personality characteristics such as drive and persistence, plus the necessary opportunities for talent development. For instance, in
1079-443: A spiritual/mystical time loop before Abe returned to live in the present, where he made a fast recovery and began to do research into his past life. As a result, Abe learns of Edith Howard, Langdon Caul's wife, who drowned herself out of madness. She had become a specter, who was finally exorcized after she attempts to have Sapien resume his life as Caul. In Garden of Souls , Sapien was contacted by Panya, an ageless mummy trapped by
1162-581: A tube of water in the hidden laboratory beneath a Washington, D.C. hospital until such time as he was fully formed. Forced to abandon the site by the outbreak of the American Civil War , the Society never found occasion to return for Caul, and there he stayed until he was found by workmen in November 1978. With no memory of his life before, the icthyo sapien received a new name from a piece of paper attached to
1245-419: Is Mensa International , but many other more selective organizations also exist, including Intertel , Triple Nine Society , Prometheus Society, and Mega Society . Various philosophers have proposed definitions of what genius is and what that implies in the context of their philosophical theories. In the philosophy of David Hume , the way society perceives genius is similar to the way society perceives
1328-557: Is also capable of surviving wounds that would be fatal to humans. Abe Sapien had an internal numbering on the inside cover from its second issue onwards. When the series became an ongoing series in 2013, an ongoing numbering was present on the cover, which reset back 1. However, the internal numbering is still present on the inside cover. In the 2004 film adaptation, Hellboy , Sapien is portrayed by Doug Jones , and voiced by an uncredited David Hyde Pierce who refused credit out of respect for Jones's performance. This version of Abe has
1411-408: Is at its peak underwater. Lately, by his own admission, Abe has been having an intuition of danger, always knowing something bad is going on before it happens with little to no proof. In the films, he displays a genius -level intelligence, and has psychic intuition, making him adept at telepathy and psychometry . However, his strength is not increased, while he has superhuman speed underwater. He
1494-408: Is characteristic of genius. Conversely, scholarship that was ripe for development, no matter how profound or prominent, is not necessarily indicative of genius. Geniuses are variously portrayed in literature and film as both protagonists and antagonists , and may be the hero or villain of the story. In pop culture , the genius is often stereotypically depicted as either the wisecracking whiz or
1577-644: Is considered the first example of historiometry , an analytical study of historical human progress. The work is controversial and has been criticized for several reasons. Galton then departed from Gauss in a way that became crucial to the history of the 20th century AD. The bell-shaped curve was not random, he concluded. The differences between the average and the upper end were due to a non-random factor, "natural ability", which he defined as "those qualities of intellect and disposition, which urge and qualify men to perform acts that lead to reputation…a nature which, when left to itself, will, urged by an inherent stimulus, climb
1660-488: Is far faster, more agile and stronger than humans in the films, allowing him to fight giant creatures that only Hellboy is thought to be strong enough to fight. Abe is a playable character in Hellboy: The Science of Evil with Doug Jones reprising his role. Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (the B.P.R.D. or BPRD ) is a fictional organization in
1743-417: Is in nature never to receive an idea unless it evokes a feeling; everything excites him and on which nothing is lost." The assessment of intelligence was initiated by Francis Galton (1822–1911) and James McKeen Cattell . They had advocated the analysis of reaction time and sensory acuity as measures of "neurophysiological efficiency" and the analysis of sensory acuity as a measure of intelligence. Galton
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#17328837452631826-938: Is notably present in the characters of Dr. Bruce Banner in the Hulk and Dr. Henry Jekyll in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde , among others. Although not as extreme, other examples of literary and filmic characterizations of the tortured genius stereotype, to varying degrees, include: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Amadeus , Dr. John Nash in A Beautiful Mind , Leonardo da Vinci in Da Vinci's Demons , Dr. Gregory House in House , Will Hunting in Good Will Hunting , and Dr. Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory . One of
1909-568: Is regarded as the founder of psychometry . He studied the work of his older half-cousin Charles Darwin about biological evolution. Hypothesizing that eminence is inherited from ancestors, Galton did a study of families of eminent people in Britain, publishing it in 1869 as Hereditary Genius . Galton's ideas were elaborated from the work of two early 19th-century pioneers in statistics : Carl Friedrich Gauss and Adolphe Quetelet . Gauss discovered
1992-469: Is related to IQ scores. Many California pupils were recommended for the study by schoolteachers. Two pupils who were tested but rejected for inclusion in the study (because their IQ scores were too low) grew up to be Nobel Prize winners in physics, William Shockley , and Luis Walter Alvarez . Based on the historical findings of the Terman study and on biographical examples such as Richard Feynman , who had
2075-601: Is related to the Latin verbs "gignere" (to beget, to give birth to) and "generare" (to beget, to generate, to procreate), and derives directly from the Indo-European stem thereof: "ǵenh" (to produce, to beget, to give birth). Because the achievements of exceptional individuals seemed to indicate the presence of a particularly powerful genius , by the time of Augustus , the word began to acquire its secondary meaning of "inspiration, talent". The term genius acquired its modern sense in
2158-489: Is supposed to lie between those extremes; retaining an equal ability and taste for books, company, and business; preserving in conversation that discernment and delicacy which arise from polite letters; and in business, that probity and accuracy which are the natural result of a just philosophy. In the philosophy of Immanuel Kant , genius is the ability to independently arrive at and understand concepts that would normally have to be taught by another person. For Kant, originality
2241-607: The genius (plural in Latin genii ) was the guiding spirit or tutelary deity of a person , family ( gens ), or place ( genius loci ). Connotations of the word in Latin have a lineal relationship with the Greek word daemon in classical and medieval texts , and also share a relationship with the Arabic word al-ghul (as in the star Algol ; its literal meaning being "the Demon"). The noun
2324-584: The B.P.R.D. comic series, and in 2014 the Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. series. In the Hellboy comics, the B.P.R.D. was founded in 1945 by Professor Trevor Bruttenholm to combat various occult threats uncovered in operations against Nazi Germany . It initially had strong links to the United States Army Air Forces and was based at a military airbase in New Mexico , but in 1947 later relocated to
2407-490: The Oannes Society, an occult organization who believed in life and all knowledge having come from the sea. After retrieving a strange jellyfish-like deity from an underwater ruin, Caul and the other members performed an arcane ritual that inadvertently ended with the creature's release and Caul being turned into an ichthyo sapien . Believing him to be Oannes reborn, the society sealed the developing icthyo sapien's body in
2490-409: The comic book work of Mike Mignola . The B.P.R.D. originally appeared in the Hellboy comics and has since become a major part of its expanded universe , where it was supposedly founded by the United States and United Kingdom governments, and charged with researching the occult , paranormal and supernatural , and also defending against their dangers. In 2002, Dark Horse Comics launched
2573-458: The normal distribution (bell-shaped curve): given a large number of measurements of the same variable under the same conditions, they vary at random from a most frequent value, the "average", to two least frequent values at maximum differences greater and lower than the most frequent value. Quetelet discovered that the bell-shaped curve applied to social statistics gathered by the French government in
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2656-502: The "Man of Genius" possesses "the presence of God Most High in a man". The actions of the "Man of Genius" can manifest this in various ways: in his "transcendent capacity of taking trouble" (often misquoted as "an infinite capacity for taking pains"), in that he can "recognise how every object has a divine beauty in it" as a poet or painter does, or in that he has "an original power of thinking". In accordance with his Great Man theory , Carlyle considered such individuals as Odin , William
2739-415: The 100th issue the internal numbering shifted to the front cover as the series became a monthly ongoing comic. Most of the B.P.R.D. comics have been collected by Dark Horse as trade paperbacks : In all ways this appears to be another regular B.P.R.D. trade save for the details on the spine that indicate it is the first in a new line. Only one has been published so far, but there are plans for more in
2822-568: The Abe Sapien series, Abe traveled through the US on a quest to prove he was not part of the apocalypse and avoid the BPRD (fearing death and dissection from Devon's influence), first travelling to the Salton Sea to inspect the Ogdru Hem there, then back to Texas where he was shot and finally to the undersea temple where Langdon Caul found the relic that transformed him. Because of his appearance and heroism, Abe
2905-450: The American military, and Abe Sapien revealed to be an example of the next stage of the frog's evolution. Finally, Liz Sherman exhausted all of her powers in destroying the underworld alliance. This inadvertently caused massive volcanic disasters across the world, devastating Malaysia and causing the destruction of Borneo (wiping out the nations of Indonesia and Brunei ), and also causing
2988-473: The Black Flame was partially telling the truth. Abe was the "Adam" of the race of man to replace the old after the apocalypse but not instrumental in it and most of all not connected to the Ogdru Jahad and the frogs. Abe was psychically contacted by Shonchin, who revealed that the jellyfish entity was an ancient hyperborean shaman of the right hand, who transcended to that form after being martyred by worshipers of
3071-611: The Bureau threatened by both an alliance of the frogs, the Black Flame, and creatures from the Hollow Earth, united to bring about an apocalypse and the birth of a new human race; and also the villain Memnan Saa, who abducted Liz in an attempt to use her powers to conquer the Earth so he could prevent the Apocalypse. This crisis saw half of Munich destroyed, the Bureau discredited in the eyes of
3154-555: The Conqueror and Frederick the Great to be "Men of Genius". In the philosophy of Bertrand Russell , genius entails that an individual possesses unique qualities and talents that make the genius especially valuable to the society in which he or she operates, once given the chance to contribute to society. Russell's philosophy further maintains, however, that it is possible for such geniuses to be crushed in their youth and lost forever when
3237-618: The New Men first mentioned in Hellboy: Conqueror Worm by Rasputin. While Abe rejected the idea, many of the BPRD field agents are now wary of him, most notably Andrew Devon; in New World , there is visible tension between Devon and Abe implying that Devon thinks Abe should be much more closely monitored. A vision of the future in King of Fear by Liz Sherman showed that, by that time, Abe will have
3320-545: The Oannes Society. Members of the society were sequestered away on a hidden island in Indonesia , their now-withered psychic forms contained in cyborg bodies. Aware of the imminent apocalypse, the society was determined to save at least some of mankind's spiritual essence, and were poised to use bombs to cause massive tidal waves which would devastate the southern hemisphere. The souls of those killed could then be harvested by
3403-428: The Society in vat-grown bodies made expressly for the purpose, granting them god-like powers. Horrified, Abe managed to single-handedly destroy the society and escape with Panya, and in so doing finally came to terms with the ghosts of his past; he was truly a separate identity from Langdon Caul, who would likely have agreed willingly to the society's plan. Abe has since fully returned to the BPRD and continues to be one of
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3486-565: The agency in the comics. The B.P.R.D. Declassified was a TV special that aired on the FX in 2004. The B.P.R.D. appeared in the Hellboy Sourcebook and Role Playing Game . Similar organizations Genius Genius is a characteristic of original and exceptional insight in the performance of some art or endeavor that surpasses expectations, sets new standards for the future, establishes better methods of operation, or remains outside
3569-484: The average, Galton looked at educational statistics and found bell-curves in test results of all sorts; initially in mathematics grades for the final honors examination and in entrance examination scores for Sandhurst . Galton's method in Hereditary Genius was to count and assess the eminent relatives of eminent men. He found that the number of eminent relatives was greater with a closer degree of kinship. This work
3652-424: The bizarre associations found in schizophrenics. Galton was a pioneer in investigating both eminent human achievement and mental testing. In his book Hereditary Genius , written before the development of IQ testing, he proposed that hereditary influences on eminent achievement are strong, and that eminence is rare in the general population. Lewis Terman chose "'near' genius or genius" as the classification label for
3735-404: The black goddess. This revelation finally confirmed to Abe that he was a gestalt of the shaman and Caul (a combination of hyperborean and man), destined to usher the next race of man, a amphibious race with a connection and innate knowledge of the Vril. In The Devil You Know , following the destruction of the Ogdru Hem, the apocalypse resumed after the destruction of a powerful demon when Rasputin
3818-607: The capabilities of competitors. Genius is associated with intellectual ability and creative productivity. The term genius can also be used to refer to people characterised by genius, and/or to polymaths who excel across many subjects. There is no scientifically precise definition of genius. When used to refer to the characteristic, genius is associated with talent , but several authors such as Cesare Lombroso and Arthur Schopenhauer systematically distinguish these terms. Walter Isaacson , biographer of many well-known geniuses, explains that although high intelligence may be
3901-507: The climax of Seed of Destruction , Sapien was possessed by the spirit of long-dead whaler Elihu Cavendish. Cavendish was a contemporary of Langdon Caul, who killed the mad monk Rasputin , foiling his plans to unleash the Ogdru Jahad to destroy the world. During the subsequent "Girescu affair" during Wake the Devil , Abe and a fellow agent were led into a trap which left the agent dead and Abe with
3984-580: The cost of his own life, his and Hecate's spirits called upon Liz to cleanse the damaged Earth of the Ogdru Jahad's corruption, releasing her full power, reducing the earths surface to a smoking cinder so Hellboy could enter Hecate (as an iron maiden) and his blood remade the world anew. Abe's spawn survived Liz's cleansing and left the sea to occupy the land where they found Liz in a hyperborean crystal. With his second transformation to his current form, Abe's strength, agility, and speed has significantly increased, performing feats never seen before by him. His speed
4067-446: The course of its normal processes on large numbers of people passing through the courts and the military. His initial work in criminology led him to observe "the greater the number of individuals observed the more do peculiarities become effaced...". This ideal from which the peculiarities were effaced became "the average man". Galton was inspired by Quetelet to define the average man as "an entire normal scheme"; that is, if one combines
4150-549: The destruction of his new body, while Abe is shot in the head by a panicked psychic girl named Fenix. Fortunately for the B.P.R.D., they gain new allies as well in the form of the Russian Special Sciences Service (S.S.S.), with their director Iosif Nichayko. Unfortunately, Zinco and the last remnants of Project Ragnarok inadvertently resurrect a new and more powerful Black Flame, who proceeds to take control of New York and reawaken many slumbering Ogdru Hem all over
4233-470: The eighteenth century, and is a conflation of two Latin terms: genius , as above, and Ingenium , a related noun referring to our innate dispositions, talents, and inborn nature. Beginning to blend the concepts of the divine and the talented, the Encyclopédie article on genius (génie) describes such a person as "he whose soul is more expansive and struck by the feelings of all others; interested by all that
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#17328837452634316-607: The enriched environment provided by wealthy families. Galton went on to develop the field of eugenics . Galton attempted to control for economic inheritance by comparing the adopted nephews of popes, who would have the advantage of wealth without being as closely related to popes as sons are to their fathers, to the biological children of eminent individuals. Genius is expressed in a variety of forms (e.g., mathematical, literary, musical performance). Persons with genius tend to have strong intuitions about their domains, and they build on these insights with tremendous energy. Carl Rogers ,
4399-477: The environment around them is unsympathetic to their potential maladaptive traits. Russell rejected the notion he believed was popular during his lifetime that, "genius will out". In his classic work The Limitations of Science , J. W. N. Sullivan discussed a utilitarian philosophy on the retrospective classification of genius. Namely, scholarship that is so original that, were it not for that particular contributor, would not have emerged until much later (if ever)
4482-419: The events of King of Fear , the world enters an apocalyptic era as natural disasters and vicious monsters crawl out of the Earth. Society is pushed to the brink of madness as many new cults arise to worship the creatures, while other supernatural forces begin shifting their plans in response to the global chaos. The B.P.R.D. agents face their own struggles during this time - Johann claims revenge on Ben Daimio for
4565-786: The exceptions of China and the CIA . The Bureau was the United States' only defense against an onslaught of frog creatures (originally featured in Seed of Destruction ). Though the "frogs" began operating on the East Coast, they spread west on both sides of the US-Canada border. To cut costs, the Bureau moved from its traditional headquarters in Connecticut to an abandoned research facility in Colorado . This facility
4648-438: The film's 2008 sequel, Hellboy II: The Golden Army , in which he was played by Doug Jones who provides his speaking parts. He doesn't wear his breathing apparatus as much in this film, and he shows his marksman skills in the film. He is also the one who discovers Liz's pregnancy in the mission where Hellboy is revealed to the world. He falls in love with the elf Princess Nuala, which leads to his helping Prince Nuada by giving him
4731-541: The frog monsters. Abe is last seen in a helicopter, being treated for his bullet wounds. Devon witnesses the shooting, but lies when asked regarding it later. In Monsters , it is revealed that Abe's condition in the BPRD headquarters suddenly worsened, and, despite putting him on life support to keep his body alive, he suffered extensive brain damage. His doctors declared him brain dead. However, he miraculously recovered, but began mutating further: he grew taller, his limbs and neck lengthening, and his nose receded, all while he
4814-455: The future. There is also a series of trade paperbacks collecting the Hell on Earth cycle: There is also a series of trade paperbacks collecting The Devil You Know cycle: Dark Horse have also released a series of omnibus editions: The Bureau appeared in the 2004 film Hellboy and its 2008 sequel Hellboy II: The Golden Army , both directed by Guillermo del Toro , where it differs from
4897-577: The globe. Abe recovers from his near-fatal wound in time to see the world in an even worse state than last he saw, and he goes AWOL from the B.P.R.D. to go on a journey of self-discovery. Liz regains her powers and rejoins the B.P.R.D., while Johann transfers his spirit into the WWII Sledgehammer suit and together they fight the Ogdru Hem as they run rampant. Eventually they take on the new Black Flame in New York, but their victory only proves hollow as one of
4980-755: The highest classification on his 1916 version of the Stanford–Binet test. By 1926, Terman began publishing about a longitudinal study of California schoolchildren who were referred for IQ testing by their schoolteachers, called Genetic Studies of Genius , which he conducted for the rest of his life. Catherine M. Cox, a colleague of Terman's, wrote a whole book, The Early Mental Traits of 300 Geniuses , published as volume 2 of The Genetic Studies of Genius book series, in which she analyzed biographical data about historic geniuses. Although her estimates of childhood IQ scores of historical figures who never took IQ tests have been criticized on methodological grounds, Cox's study
5063-492: The ignorant. Hume states that a person with the characteristics of a genius is looked at as a person disconnected from society, as well as a person who works remotely, at a distance, away from the rest of the world. On the other hand, the mere ignorant is still more despised; nor is any thing deemed a surer sign of an illiberal genius in an age and nation where the sciences flourish, than to be entirely destitute of all relish for those noble entertainments. The most perfect character
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#17328837452635146-443: The late 1950s when he stepped down to return to field work. The current director is Dr. Thomas Manning . Over the years, the Bureau has added several agents with "enhanced skills" to its ranks including Hellboy in 1952, Liz Sherman in 1980, and Abe Sapien in 1981. The B.P.R.D. is a well known and respected organization that has excellent relations with most international governments and United States government agencies , with
5229-512: The latter of which being more common amongst relatives of schizophrenics, tend to show elevated creativity. Several people who have been regarded as geniuses were diagnosed with mental disorders ; examples include Vincent van Gogh , Virginia Woolf , John Forbes Nash Jr. , Domantas G. and Ernest Hemingway . In a 2010 study conducted by the Karolinska Institute , it was observed that highly creative individuals and schizophrenics have
5312-605: The leader of the frogs. Together they raised the gigantic Katha-Hem (one of the Ogdru Hem , the 369 spawn of the Ogdru Jahad ) which ran rampant across the American heartland until Liz Sherman used an ancient artifact to amplify her pyrokinetic powers a thousandfold. After Katha-Hem was destroyed, the frog monsters dragged the Black Flame into a vast pit and the invasion appeared to come to an end. A series of incidents—featured in The Warning , The Black Goddess , and King of Fear —saw
5395-457: The magical crown piece (to control the Golden Army) for her safety, but Princess Nuala kills herself to prevent Nuada from killing Hellboy. While mourning her loss, he decides to follow Liz and Hellboy in leaving the B.P.R.D. In the 2019 reboot film Hellboy , Abe appears on the final scene of the film having been discovered by Hellboy, Alice and Daimio inside his stasis tank which is located on
5478-552: The mire while gazing at the stars, an allusion to Plato's dialogue Theætetus , in which Socrates tells of Thales (the first philosopher) being ridiculed for falling in such circumstances. As he says in Volume 2 of The World as Will and Representation : Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see. In the philosophy of Thomas Carlyle , genius is called (in Past and Present ) "the inspired gift of God";
5561-455: The most trustworthy agents. However, in King of Fear , Abe led a return mission into the Hyperborean underworld and was confronted by the supervillain the Black Flame, who had gathered a vast army of frogs and Hyperboreans to usher in the apocalypse. The Flame revealed that Abe was going to be the epicenter of this new Earth and that he was a fully evolved version of the frog monsters: one of
5644-403: The normal curves of every measurable human characteristic, one will, in theory, perceive a syndrome straddled by "the average man" and flanked by persons that are different. In contrast to Quetelet, Galton's average man was not statistical but was theoretical only. There was no measure of general averageness, only a large number of very specific averages. Setting out to discover a general measure of
5727-403: The path that leads to eminence." The apparent randomness of the scores was due to the randomness of this natural ability in the population as a whole, in theory. Criticisms include that Galton's study fails to account for the impact of social status and the associated availability of resources in the form of economic inheritance, meaning that inherited "eminence" or "genius" can be gained through
5810-634: The philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer , a genius is someone in whom intellect predominates over " will " much more than within the average person. In Schopenhauer's aesthetics , this predominance of the intellect over the will allows the genius to create artistic or academic works that are objects of pure, disinterested contemplation, the chief criterion of the aesthetic experience for Schopenhauer. Their remoteness from mundane concerns means that Schopenhauer's geniuses often display maladaptive traits in more mundane concerns; in Schopenhauer's words, they fall into
5893-536: The rise of a large, immobile monster in California, spewing out a gas across America and Mexico that mutates people. In the wake of this new crisis, the United Nations Security Council drafted the Bureau to work directly for them, with "blank cheque" funding. A vision of the future shown in King of Fear showed the apocalypse had triumphed over this larger, more heavily armed B.P.R.D. In the wake of
5976-455: The seven Ogdru Jahad lands in Kansas, spawning an army of Ogdru Hem as it tears its way across the land. Johann ends up sacrificing himself to defeat the dragon, paralyzing all the Ogdru Hem around the world and giving the world a moment of peaceful respite. The Bureau made its first appearance in the pages of the Hellboy miniseries Hellboy: Seed of Destruction (4 issues, March–June 1994) and
6059-557: The tortured genius. Throughout both literature and movies, the tortured genius character is often seen as an imperfect or tragic hero who wrestles with the burden of superior intelligence, arrogance, eccentricities, addiction, awkwardness, mental health issues, a lack of social skills, isolation, or other insecurities. They regularly experience existential crises, struggling to overcome personal challenges to employ their special abilities for good or succumbing to their own tragic flaws and vices. This common motif repeated throughout fiction
6142-477: The tube, dated the day of Abraham Lincoln 's assassination (April 14, 1865). Abe Sapien was taken to the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD) for a grueling round of research by curious BPRD scientists and was saved from vivisection by an empathetic Hellboy . Thereafter, Abe entered the ranks of the BPRD as a valued field agent, embarking on his first mission with Hellboy in 1979. At Cavendish Hall, during
6225-415: Was a major part of the comic until Hellboy leaves the B.P.R.D. at the end of Conqueror Worm . At this point the B.P.R.D. series began, following the agents of the B.P.R.D. such as Abe Sapien, Liz Sherman, Roger and Johann Krauss. B.P.R.D. was once considered a "series of miniseries", with each story reading as a stand-alone story easily enough, but over time, an overarching story began to develop. When
6308-546: Was as though he could say, 'Good artists don't paint like this, but I paint like this.' Or to move to another field, Ernest Hemingway was surely aware that 'good writers do not write like this.' But fortunately he moved toward being Hemingway, being himself, rather than toward someone else's conception of a good writer." It has been suggested that there exists a connection between mental illness, in particular schizophrenia and bipolar disorder , and genius. Individuals with bipolar disorder and schizotypal personality disorder ,
6391-413: Was brought back to the physical world, revealed to have become host to the power of the destroyed Ogdru Jahad's power. He was confronted by Abe, Liz and the recently resurrected Hellboy in the streets of New York, where Abe was quickly killed by Rasputin breaking his back. Abe's body fell to the bottom of the river, where Ichthyoplankton flowed out of a wound across his chest. After Hellboy killed Rasputin at
6474-512: Was comatose. Abe eventually awakened, discovered his transformation, and stumbled into the empty monitor room, to discover the world in apocalypse while he was out. Panya confronted Abe, telling him what happened and that Hellboy has died. Taking Panya's advice, Abe fled the BPRD, stealing a truck, to go out on his own and discover if he is involved in the apocalypse. Kate Corrigan, highly desiring her friend's return, sends agents to bring him home but eventually give in due to more pressing matters. In
6557-456: Was last used to house Nazi scientists who defected to America after World War II . As such, the facility contains vast quantities of secret files that the B.P.R.D. has yet to explore. The frog monster invasion reached its peak during the events of The Black Flame during which a Neo-Nazi madman adopted the persona of the World War II era supervillain the Black Flame and insinuated himself as
6640-419: Was seen as something as prophet in a growing religion humanity was creating to deal with the "Hell on Earth". Abe although was not the only one looking into his origin, Gustav Strobl was magically weakened due to the turmoil in hell caused by Hellboy and became desperate and disillusioned by the fact it was nearly the end of everything and he didn't have significant part to play. Sensing Abe was important, both men
6723-504: Was the essential character of genius. The artworks of the Kantian genius are also characterized by their exemplarity which is imitated by other artists and serve as a rule for other aesthetical judgements. This genius is a talent for producing ideas which can be described as non-imitative. Kant's discussion of the characteristics of genius is largely contained within the Critique of Judgment and
6806-503: Was thorough in finding out what else matters besides IQ in becoming a genius. By the 1937 second revision of the Stanford–Binet test, Terman no longer used the term "genius" as an IQ classification, nor has any subsequent IQ test. In 1939, David Wechsler specifically commented that "we are rather hesitant about calling a person a genius on the basis of a single intelligence test score". The Terman longitudinal study in California eventually provided historical evidence regarding how genius
6889-511: Was well received by the Romantics of the early 19th century. In addition, much of Schopenhauer's theory of genius, particularly regarding talent and freedom from constraint, is directly derived from paragraphs of Part I of Kant's Critique of Judgment . Genius is a talent for producing something for which no determinate rule can be given, not a predisposition consisting of a skill for something that can be learned by following some rule or other. In
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