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'Abraham "Abe" Sapien' is a fictional character in the comic book series ''Hellboy'', created by Mike Mignola. He is an "''Icthyo sapien''", something of a merman, although at first glance, one might mistake him for an aquatic "grey alien".
Abe was found in a water-filled tube in a Washington, D.C. hospital. He got his name from a piece of paper attached to the tube, labeling him as an "''Icthyo sapien''", and dated the day of Abraham Lincoln's assassination: (April 14, 1865). Abe quickly entered the ranks of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (B.P.R.D.), along with the demon Hellboy and the pyrokinetic Liz Sherman.
Abe first appeared in the series ''Hellboy: Seed of Destruction''. As well as regular appearances in ''Hellboy'' and ''BPRD'', Abe has also starred in his own one-shot comic, ''Abe Sapien: Drums of the Dead'' by Brian McDonald and Derek Thompson.
Abe Sapien has the ability to breathe under water and resist the pressures of the deep. On land, he is a formidable hand-to-hand combatant and a brilliant marksman. Abe is perhaps the most trusted field agent the Bureau has, and the other superhuman agents place their faith in him entirely.

Contents

Character history

Appearances in other media

''Hellboy (film)''

''Hellboy'' animated

Footnotes

See also

Character history

In ''Hellboy: Seed of Destruction'', Abe was possessed by the spirit of a long-dead whaler named Elihu Cavendish, who killed the mad monk Rasputin and foiled the madman's plans to unleash the Ogdru Jahad to destroy the world. Later on, in ''Wake the Devil'', Rasputin's spirit comes back and warns Abe that he will be speared to death, as Rasputin was. However, the ghost warns Abe that the hands that hold the spear will not be those of Rasputin himself.
In the miniseries ''B.P.R.D.: Plague of Frogs'', Abe's origin was finally revealed. As Rasputin predicted, Abe was stabbed by a spear and apparently killed by one of the Ogdru Jahad's followers. However, instead of dying, Abe had a vision of his former self. Abe was once Langdon Caul, a scientist from Virginia who made a fortune in sea travel. He visited Africa and the Far East under Captain Cavendish before eventually settling in New England. He married a local woman of Littleport by the name of Edith Howard and became famous in the local newspapers for "''conducting experiments of a scientific nature and meeting foreign gentlemen''".
At least one of these experiments involved a submarine (an apparent reference to Jules Verne's fictional Captain Nemo). Caul's transformation into Abe occurred after he retrieved a strange jellyfish-like deity sealed in a bluish rock from an underwater ruin called Num-Yabisc. At a clandestine meeting, witnessed by Abe in spirit form, Caul and other gentlemen perform an arcane ritual that ends with the creature's release from the stone. Abe's spirit merges with his former self and the two become the modern Abe Sapien. His associates place him into the water casket, where he rests for decades.
''B.P.R.D.: The Dead'' revealed that Caul's wife, Edith Howard, had gone mad and drowned herself. However, her spirit remained, haunting the house until Caul's return. She tricked Abe into believing he was Caul once more, begging him to stay with her forever. However, Abe broke through the illusion and Edith's spirit was exorcised, leaving Abe with only the memory of a wife he'd never known.

Appearances in other media

''Hellboy (film)''

In the movie adaptation, Abe is played by Doug Jones and voiced by an uncredited David Hyde Pierce (who refused credit out of a profound respect for Jones's performance) ^[1]. In the movie, Abe is psychic, and is able to touch an object to see the past or the future that the item may hold (psychometry).
Unlike the comics version, Abe is unable to survive (comfortably, at least) out of the water for long without mechanical aid; in the comic, Abe seems to be able to survive for very long periods of time without water. Though he uses an apparatus resembling a reverse aqua-lung in order to provide water to his gills, he is able to breathe air later in the film without apparent difficulty. It is possible that the aqua-lung device is used for land-based situations where he may be subject to high levels of activity, given the context of its usage.
This version of Abe enjoys ingesting rotten eggs.

''Hellboy'' animated

Abe Sapien is one of the characters appearing in two straight-to-video ''Hellboy'' animated movies. He is voiced by Doug Jones, in a twist from the ''Hellboy'' film, in which Jones supplied Abe's movements but not his voice. This version of the character although similar to the movie Abe, is much more like his comic book counterpart, showing no sign of either the psychic abilities or breathing apparatus.

Footnotes

1. Doug Jones interview

See also