The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (B.P.R.D.) protects the world from occult, supernatural, and paranormal threats. The organization debuted in Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #1 (March 1994), introducing a team that included individuals with powers as well as normal humans.

The B.P.R.D. was founded by Professor Trevor Bruttenholm in 1944 when occult threats were discovered while fighting Nazis. The organization was originally backed by the US Air Force and set up at an airbase in New Mexico. A few years later, they moved to a special facility built for their needs in Connecticut. It is a private organization that has maintained a good relationship with the US armed forces and receives funding from countries all over the world.

The B.P.R.D. employes enhanced agents that have some kind of superpower. Hellboy is the best known B.P.R.D. field agent, who has taken on some of their biggest threats and is known as the world’s greatest paranormal investigator. The enhanced group includes Liz Sherman who is pyrokinetic, Abe Sapien is an itchyo-humanoid, Ben Daimio is a were-jaguar, Johann Kraus is an ectoplasmic medium, Panya is a mummy, Ashley Strode is an exorcist, and Fenix Espejo and Dr. Izar Hoffman are both psychic.

The Modern Age human agent roster includes Dr. Kate Corrigan, who was a liaison to the enhanced agents and field director, occult specialist Professor James Henry O’Donnell, and field director Andrew Devon. Bruttenholm was the B.P.R.D. director until the 1950s, then Dr. Thomas Manning took over the post.

One of their most memorable missions happened when the US was attacked by frog creatures. Their leader was a Nazi named the Black Flame, and together they raised Katha-Hem, one of the power offspring of Ogdru Jahad – who is literally the Dragon from the Bible’s Book of Revelation. As the beast wreaked havoc across the United States, Liz Sherman used an artifact that amplified her pyrokinetic powers so that she could burn Katha-Hem and kill it. The frog monsters turned on the Black Flame and pulled him into a pit that ended the invasion.