A Very Special Day

A Very Special Day

A Very Special Day

In 1943, President Roosevelt appointed Trevor Broom, a British scientist of the paranormal, to be director of the new FBI-related Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. It was during the Bureau's first field operation against Nazi occultists that Broom first encountered Hellboy.

Broom was still a British citizen. As he had discovered the infant demon on an island off the coast of Scotland, in some circles, it was felt that the being he had named ‘Hellboy’ should become the property of the British government. On the other hand, the American federal government felt that since he had discovered Hellboy while he was working for them that Hellboy belonged to the United States.

All Trevor Broom knew was that he had become very attached to Hellboy and was only willing to reside in a country that allowed him guardianship of the infant demon. At the end of 1944, they moved residence to the United States since President Roosevelt proved willing to allow Broom to keep custody of Hellboy. Roosevelt also wanted Broom to continue directing the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense.

After moving between a variety of secret military bases, Broom and Hellboy were permanently located on a base in New Mexico, which became the first location after the war of the BPRD. A bungalow was constructed for them that was to function both as headquarters for Broom's organization and as their residence.

Trevor Broom, as a scientist, was also eager to study Hellboy. While the appearance of the child looked to be like a stereotypical red devil, complete with horns, tail, and cloven hooves, he also seemed to have evidence in his tissues and blood plasma of human DNA.

There was a secret Congressional committee set up to study Hellboy and a series of tests were conducted to see if it was possible to ascertain his true nature. Many scientists were secretly sent to New Mexico to conduct these tests and to meet the unique being that was the subject of this testing. These tests proved inconclusive.

Especially futile were any attempts to study Hellboy's right hand, which was extremely large for the size of the child and appeared to be made of solid stone. Any tools or equipment used in the study of the hand had a tendency to explode into sparks and shards of metal.

Even though the young Hellboy showed incredible resistance to pain, he did not enjoy these frequently invasive tests and often cried bitterly while they were being performed. As Trevor Broom became more attached to Hellboy, he became reluctant to put the child through even more drastic testing.

Since the tests were yielding no useful results, he decided to stop these tests all together. Thus began a bitter tug of war between Broom, who felt that any more testing of this nature was not in the child's best interest, and the Congressional committee, who felt that he did not allow the testing to go far enough.

In June of 1949, Broom was called to attend further meetings of this committee. He reported what findings he had thus far and explained his reasons for stopping the testing.

A certain senator, who was an influential member, spoke up, "We, the members of this committee, object to Professor Broom referring to this creature as his son. We consider that this tendency toward over-sentimentalizing has compromised his objectivity as a scientist and has interfered with the workings of this committee. Further testing must be performed if we are ever to determine the nature of this thing he insists on calling his son."

Broom retorted, "I will stop referring to Hellboy as ‘son’ during these committee meetings if you insist that I do so. I would, therefore, ask in return that the members of this committee stop referring to Hellboy as 'creature' or 'thing'. However, this still does not negate my point that further testing is futile and will accomplish nothing more than putting Hellboy through needless pain."

The various members of the committee were not in complete agreement as to further action and Broom was sent back to New Mexico.

Trevor Broom considered using less invasive tests on Hellboy, such as psychological and intelligence tests. He was involved in developing this research when the calendar turned to December 23, the day before Christmas Eve and Hellboy's fifth birthday. It was on this day, five years before, that Broom had first encountered the demon he called his son.

As Hellboy's birthday was so close to Christmas, Broom usually took the day off. The two would then spend the entire day together eating their favorite foods (especially chocolate) and watching their favorite movies.