The Torch of Liberty

Torch of Liberty
as seen in Seed of Destruction #1
Alias(es)	Paul Gibney
Nationality	American
Gender	Male
Species	Human
Occupation	Vigilante
Creator	John Byrne
First Comic Appearance	Danger Unlimited #1 (February 1994) Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #1 (March 1994)

The Torch of Liberty was an American costumed hero who fought Nazi forces during World War II. He appears briefly in Hellboy: Seed of Destruction.

The Torch is one of the few characters in the Hellboy series that was not created by Mike Mignola – rather, he was created by John Byrne, who scripted Seed of Destruction from Mignola's story. His inclusion was part of an aborted early effort to cross over multiple Dark Horse comic series. As of the completion of Seed of Destruction, he has not reappeared or even been mentioned again in Hellboy.

Character History

The Torch of Liberty was a costumed hero. During World War II, he served his country by battling Nazis in exploits that were presented in newsreels.

In late December 1944, the Torch of Liberty joined forces with the US Army and the British Paranormal Society in a joint attempt to stop the Nazi "Project Ragna Rok". On December 23rd, a ritual orchestrated by the Nazis and performed by Grigori Rasputin resulted in the summoning of a childlike red creature near the Allied forces. The Torch remarked that the creature did not appear to be dangerous, and his compatriot Trevor Bruttenholm dubbed the half-demon "Hellboy"; this night was later referred to as the "Hellboy Incident".

Later, the Torch gave Hellboy a large single-shot pistol. He described Hellboy as the worst shot he had ever trained.

Publication History

John Byrne

Torch of Liberty was created by John Byrne and featured in the backup story to Danger Unlimited #1–4 (February–May 1994). The Torch was also featured in Torch of Liberty Special (January 1995). These stories reveal his origin as a soldier in World War II Europe, brought to great heights through trauma in combat.

Hellboy

Comparison of the Torch's prominent presence in Seed of Destruction #1 (left) and his minimized depiction in Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1952 #1 (right)

The Torch of Liberty appears in Seed of Destruction #1 (March 1994) and is mentioned in later issues of the miniseries.

He has not made a notable reappearance in the series since. Later depictions of the Hellboy Incident tend to minimize or wholly omit his presence at the event. The Torch also goes unmentioned in supplemental materials such as Hellboy: The Companion.

"Legend" crossovers

Danger Unlimited was my second title for the newly minted Legend imprint, and the one that was to be part of a "shared universe." DU would inhabit the same world as Hellboy and Monkeyman and O'Brien [...] Legend was not a "universe." Only one little corner of the whole was to be seen as cohesive. And, as noted, even that just barely.

—John Byrne, foreword to Danger Unlimited TPB, January 2009

In the early days of Dark Horse's Legend imprint, John Byrne (Next Men/Danger Unlimited), Art Adams (Monkeyman and O'Brien), and Mike Mignola (Hellboy) planned for their creations to partially exist in a shared universe. Examples of this include:

• The Torch of Liberty appears in Hellboy: Seed of Destruction.
• Hellboy appears in a flashback in Danger Unlimited alongside the Torch of Liberty and other heroes.
• Abe Sapien had an extensive role in the Babe 2 two-issue miniseries (by John Byrne, set in the shared universe of Danger Unlimited) where he joined forces with Babe against the Shrewmanoid (a villain from Monkeyman and O'Brien). Babe 2 also included a small cameo involving Hellboy.
• Dr. Robert Carson, a character created by John Byrne for Danger Unlimited, appeared in the original version of The Chained Coffin. The mention of him was excised from later publications.

The publications also had non-canonical crossovers:

• Monkeyman and O'Brien was published as a back-up in Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #1–4, though the content of the stories did not overlap.
• Hellboy appeared in Next Men #21, portrayed as a fictional character in the Next Men universe.

However, Mignola recalls that the trio realized early on that this was a problematic idea, too difficult to coordinate between the three of them, and it was better that they each have their own universes. The Torch's appearance in Seed of Destruction is an artifact of these abandoned shared universe plans. 

Potential Future Appearances

Because the character is owned by Byrne, it is extremely unlikely that he will ever show up in a Hellboy story again. As explained by editor Scott Allie:

The Torch of Liberty is the property of John Byrne, not Mike or Dark Horse, so, in order to keep these books all owned by Mike, we use characters he made up. John's busy elsewhere, so the Torch is gone if not forgotten.

On the topic of the Torch's appearance in Seed of Destruction, Mignola recalled:

I thought it was cool to have one superhero guy—kind of a throwback to my Marvel Comics stuff, little World War II Captain America hanging out with GIs. I always wanted to have that. And since John had created this Captain America-ish character, I thought, “Well, this is just perfect.” But now, I never want to go back and take it out, and John never told me to take it out. We acknowledge it’s there, but we just don’t talk about it too much.

Mignola added that if he had thought of Lobster Johnson back then, he would've used him to fill that niche in the opening of Seed of Destruction.