Liz Sherman

Liz Sherman
Publication information
Publisher	Dark Horse Comics
First appearance	Hellboy: Seed of Destruction (1994)
Created by	Mike Mignola
In-story information
Full name	Elizabeth Anne Sherman
Team affiliations	B.P.R.D.
Partnerships	Hellboy Abe Sapien
Abilities	Pyrokinesis

Elizabeth 'Liz' Sherman is a fictional character appearing in the Hellboy comic book series created by Mike Mignola. In the Hellboy film franchise, the character is portrayed by actress Selma Blair.

Fictional character history

Born in Kansas City, Kansas, on April 15, 1962, Liz had a normal childhood until her pyrokinetic abilities began to manifest themselves when she was ten. Raised Catholic, Liz felt that the fires were a result of her sins, and for a short time managed to keep the fires under control by a combination of prayer and sheer force of will. However, in July 1973, at age eleven, she once again lost control. The resulting eruption destroyed an entire city block and, among the thirty-two fatalities, took the lives of her parents, brother, and pet dog. Liz's last uncontrolled manifestation took place on July 4, 1984.

After being juggled between extended family members following the death of her parents, Liz was taken in by the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense in May 1974, where she learned to control her power to some degree. In 1980, she became a full agent. She is often teamed with Hellboy and Abe Sapien. However, her childhood trauma has left her bitter and she often leaves the B.P.R.D. only to return soon afterward. During the events of Wake the Devil, while searching for Giurescu's body, Liz leads a group composed of herself, Bud Waller, and Leach at the Ruins of Czege Castle. By accident, Liz's group come across a chamber containing the homunculus that would later be named Roger. Upon inspecting Roger, Liz inadvertently transferred her pyrokinesis into the homunculus as he comes to life and kills Bud before running off. This results with Liz entering into a coma as she is taken to Wauer Institute in Tirgoviste. But as the loss of her powers is causing her body to fail, Liz is saved when Hellboy finds Roger, who returns her powers due to being plagued by guilt concerning the incident.

In order to learn how to better control her pyrokinesis, Liz lives with a society of monks in the Agartha Temple in the Ural Mountains before resuming active duty in the B.P.R.D. after Hellboy had quit. As a result of her time amongst the monks, Liz now has complete control over fire: she can produce small hand-sized flames to light her way in darkness, she can erupt in a furious explosion of fire to destroy anything around her (the use of her powers on this scale seemingly require her to chant a mantra: "The fire is not my enemy, it is a part of me, it is mine"), and can also manipulate fire into shapes and designs. Her powers have become greatly magnified by an ancient object revealed to her in a dream by the mysterious Memnan Saa. This dramatic increase in her already considerable powers allows her to burn the towering Katha-Hem entity to dust.

Even after defeating Katha-Hem, Liz continued to be plagued by horrible visions and mysterious dreams featuring Memnan Saa; as a result, Liz started losing sleep and becoming more irritable and less reliable. These dreams came to a height during the Killing Ground story arc, where Saa took advantage of Ben Daimio's transformation to fully possess Liz and drive her into a coma until the ghost of Lobster Johnson appeared and freed her.

Recently, Liz has been kidnapped by Memnan Saa for an unknown reason. The rest of the B.P.R.D. team tracked her down and Saa was killed, but Saa had claimed that, using Liz's pyrokinetic power, he'd be able to prevent the upcoming apocalypse. Following this, in a mission to the underworld, Saa's ghost intercepted Liz and showed her a new vision of the future: the apocalypse successful. Under the guidance of a mysterious aged man, she unleashed her full pyrokinetic powers, incinerating this world - and sending a vast wave of fire that wiped out a combined frog/Hyperborean army gathered by the Black Flame. This ended the threat of all these menaces for good but caused devastation across Earth, and left her without her powers, if this is permanent or temporary remains to be seen.

Relationship with Hellboy

In the Hellboy film series Liz has a romantic relationship with Hellboy, becoming pregnant with his twin children. However, in the comic books Liz and Hellboy are just friends.

In other media

• Liz Sherman was played by Selma Blair in the film adaptation of the Hellboy comics. Blair reprised her role in the film's sequel and two straight-to-DVD animated Hellboy films. In the second live-action film, she is revealed to be pregnant with Hellboy's twin children after being scanned by Abe Sapien.
• Liz was one of the first four Hellboy Comic action figures produced in 2005 by Mezco Toyz. She appeared with Hellboy, Lobster Johnson, and Herman von Klempt and Kriegaffe #10.