You Cannot Escape Your Destiny

Hecate: Accept the truth of your existence or be destroyed!
You cannot escape your destiny!
Hellboy: Gonna try.
Hecate: Time is coming to ring down the curtain on man.
Already the Four Horsemen are loose in the world.
It is for us to darken the sun, turn the moon to blood, and put out the stars...
Then you and I alone, forever, in the dark --
Hellboy: Shut up!
Not gonna happen...
...'Cause you're very, very ugly...
...and...
...You have a giant snake body!

- Hellboy: Wake the Devil

by Mike Mignola

This might be a mild spoiler for you (but it was in the 2004 Hellboy movie directed by the brilliant Guillermo del Toro. And if you haven't seen that yet, I don't know what's wrong with you), but Hellboy is basically the Beast of the Apocalypse that was summoned by the forces of evil to usher in Armageddon. But instead, he was raised by the good guys (i.e. The American Government) and now works as one of the world's premier paranormal investigators.

During his various missions and investigations he encounters evil monsters and demons, such as the witch goddess Hecate. Like others, Hecate tries to convince Hellboy to embrace his destiny to destroy the world. Hellboy usually replies with a curt "Screw You!" or the like.

Anyway, I think it raises some interesting questions about destiny and free will. Here is Hellboy, a demon created for the sole purpose of being the greatest evil the world has ever seen...and he just wants to be the good guy.

On a theological bent, this would lead us into the constant discussion about predestination and free will. If God knows all future events, how can we have free will? And if we don't have free will, well, what's the point? Are we anything more than just mere puppets?

Hecate looks upon Hellboy as a puppet, made by the orchestrating powers of the universe to fulfill one nefarious purpose. And Hellboy does everything he can to not fulfill that destiny. And he usually succeeds.

Also, I just love the idea that Mignola made the Beast, the great evil looming over all of human history, the protagonist of these stories.

Get Hellboy trades at Amazon or TFAW.