Karl Ruprect Kroenen
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Karl Ruprect Krönen | |
---|---|
Publication information | |
Publisher | Dark Horse Comics |
Created by | Mike Mignola |
In-story information | |
Alter ego | Karl Hitler Krönen |
Team affiliations | Third Reich |
Abilities | immortality Superhuman agility, stamina, and durability Expert in hand-to-hand combat and swordfighting |
Karl Ruprecht Krönen is a fictional supervillain in the Hellboy comic book series, created by Mike Mignola.
In the comics, Krönen was a relatively unremarkable
Director Guillermo del Toro created a significantly expanded biography for the character, to appear as a supervillain in the 2004 film adaptation.
History
Comics history
A
to the world.Krönen , Haupstein, and Kurtz were frozen inside a secret Nazi base, until they were resuscitated by industrialist Roderick Zinco, acting on Rasputin's orders. Krönen resumed work on several of his former projects, including making an "Apocalypse Army" by combining corpses with robotics. He also convinced Zinco to retrieve the head of his colleague,
Despite appearances, Krönen survived and resurfaced years later with Leopold Kurtz to assist Isiah Marsten in acquiring a vessel from the B.P.R.D. Krönen assumed the body was intended for Rasputin before learning that Marsten tricked him into resurrecting the Black Flame, escaping the resulting chaos with von Klempt's head. Krönen was found sometime later by Varvara, who reawakened von Klempt and invited the two men to join her cause in rebuilding Pandemonium on Earth. Kroenen became increasingly skeptical of Varvara, who eventually incinerated him.
2004 film biography
In the first film adaptation of Hellboy, director Guillermo del Toro created a significantly expanded biography for Krönen that is mentioned in a series of comic panels in the book Hellboy: The Art of the Movie and the special features of the film's DVD. His character is vaguely amalgamated with Unmensch, a supporting antagonist from Hellboy: Wake the Devil, who is also a cyborg nazi assassin.
Born in 1897
In 1930, he met the
When Allied Forces stormed the island off the coast of Scotland where Project Ragna Rok took place, Kroenen killed several of the American soldiers attacking the base, but was distracted by a grenade thrown under the portal device by a young Professor Trevor Bruttenholm. Krönen tried to retrieve the grenade, but his left hand was blown off, and a length of concrete reinforcing rod (or rebar) impaled him through the chest, severing his spine. Shortly thereafter, he disappeared. After his disappearance, in 1956, an unmarked grave in Romania was found. Dental records identified the remains as those of Kroenen.
However, Krönen reappeared in 2004. Thanks to the inexplicable powers of science and black magic, Krönen "repaired" himself with a
The BPRD tracked Rasputin to his own mausoleum beneath Moscow. Hellboy seemingly avenged Bruttenholm's death by throwing Kroenen into an impalement trap — a spiked pit hidden beneath a trapdoor. Skewered on the stakes, Krönen was crushed when Hellboy dropped a giant cog on top of him. It is unknown if Kroenen survived this or not.
Krönen's smashed gas mask later appeared in a display case at the BPRD in Hellboy II: The Golden Army. In the script for that film, an epilogue scene was written to be a lead-in for a third movie, but was cut for budgetary reasons. An animated version of the scene appears on the DVD's special features. Found by Roderick Zinco in the mausoleum ruins, Krönen's remains are brought to a doctor to be revived with advanced alchemy, before traveling to the Arctic into a long abandoned Nazi weapon storage building to insert the disembodied head of Krönen into a huge robotic body at which point Krönen awakes and praises his "Master" foreseeing his resurrection as Rasputin appears on screen.
In the commentary of Golden Army, Guillermo del Toro also stated that, in the planned story for the third film, Krönen was to have some history with the character of
Weapons and equipment
Krönen's comics version is a fairly ordinary scientist, who seems to possess some surgical training.
In the
Portrayals
Hellboy (2004)
Czech actor Ladislav Beran portrayed Krönen in the 2004 film adaptation of Hellboy.
This portrayal is radically different from the comics. Krönen, who originally played the part of a meek character, who Del Toro describes as someone who is likely to say "Aargh! Don't break the machine!" is here portrayed as a murderous soldier who is inhumanly loyal to Rasputin. The spelling of his middle name was also changed from "Ruprect" to "Ruprecht".
Hellboy (2019)
Krönen also appears in the 2019 film reboot, portrayed by Ilko Iliev. He is the one member of Project Ragnarok to escape alive.
Critical response
Krönen is a popular Hellboy villain, who appears on a variety of merchandise. His larger appearance in the 2004 film spawned various merchandise as well. German film historian Florian Evers devotes a whole chapter of his book on
References
- ISBN 9783643111906.