Fanboys arguing about the best comic film usually argue the merits of movies like Avengers: Endgame, Guardians of the Galaxy, or Superman (2025), all of which adapted characters and stories from the Marvel or DC universe. But would you believe the best comic movie has nothing to do with Marvel or DC and that you can stream it for free right now? That film is 2004’s Hellboy, the genre masterpiece from Guillermo Del Toro, and it’s currently streaming on Tubi.
A Wild Hellboy Appears
The premise of Hellboy is that our titular hero was found as a child by the Allies during World War 2 and grows up to work for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. He and his fellow superpowered allies help humans defeat the forces that go bump in the night, but a mysterious threat from Hellboy’s past may be more of a threat than any of them can handle. And if they can’t stop this evil blast from the distant past, he may soon endanger the entire planet with the dark powers at his command.
One reason that film buffs love Hellboy so much is that it comes from Guillermo Del Toro, the superstar director who brought us instant genre classics like Pan’s Labyrinth and Pacific Rim. He helps to adapt Mike Mignola’s moody comic character into a compelling outsider, one who is too much of a demon to blend in with humans and too much of a man to blend in with the monsters. Del Toro engages in effortless worldbuilding throughout the entire film, and all these years later, Hellboy’s first cinematic outing is better than almost any tights-and-flights movie created by Marvel or DC.
An Unforgettable Cast
The director assembled an otherworldly cast of talent for Hellboy, including Jeffrey Tambor (best known for Transparent and Arrested Development) as an FBI agent recently (and quite reluctantly) transferred to the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. There, he meets a noble merman played by Doug Jones (best known for The Shape of Water and Pan’s Labyrinth, two other movies by Guillermo Del Toro). And Selma Blair (best known outside this franchise for Cruel Intentions) plays a pyrokinetic whose world is constantly in danger of going up in flames.
But the most impressive performance comes from Ron Perlman (best known outside this franchise for the TV show Hand of God) as Hellboy. The seasoned actor gives a more nuanced performance than anyone expected: his demonic bad boy is both gruff and tender, and his oversized hand barely hides an oversized heart. Perlman is possibly the only actor who could give such a straightforward character so much cantankerous charm, and his absence from the later Hellboy reboots is a big part of why those movies crashed and burned.
While it didn’t achieve the blockbuster profits of the average MCU film (honestly, few films ever do), comic movie Hellboy took home a modest profit. Against a budget of $60-$66 million, the film scared up a box office of $99.8 million. That was enough profit to merit a sequel, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, which was bigger and better in every way; later, the franchise got two different film reboots, but later directors were unable to capture the magic that Guillermo Del Toro brought to the cinematic table.
Taking On The Critics (and Winning)
While Hellboy is quite different from the comic book movies that came before and after it, its innovative approach to the genre won over the critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an 81 percent score, with critics lauding the film’s devilishly good visual effects. They also praised director Guillermo Del Toro for filling his movie to the brimstone (er, brim) with the kind of wit and humor that help the movie stand out in the otherwise oversaturated genre of comic media.
Will you agree that Hellboy is a perfect comic book movie, or is this one film you’d rather send back to Hell? The only way to find out is to stream it for free on Tubi. Fair warning, though: after you watch a comic book film by the brilliant Guillermo Del Toro, you may never look at the kitschy dreck of the MCU or DCU the same way ever again.
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