SOMETIMES, the safe choice is the risky choice. Hollywood has learned that, for the time being at least, comic-book movies are gold. After the disastrous performance of 1997's Batman and Robin, movie studios turned away from comics. Then Avi Arad came to power at Marvel, the giant comic publisher, and embarked on a campaign to woo them back.

Arad's first Hollywood co-production, X-Men, was released in 2000 with much success. (Arad's first comic-book movie was actually the 1998 Blade, but while it was based on a Marvel character, it wasn't a Marvel Studios production.) With the box-office performance of X-Men ($296 million in worldwide receipts versus production costs of only $75 million), the floodgates opened. Since then Arad has pushed Marvel characters onto the screen at an impressive rate: Spider-Man (2002), Daredevil (2003), X-Men 2 (2003), Hulk (2003), and The Punisher (more on this below).

The properties brought to market by Arad have fared well. So well, in fact, that for the first time moviemakers have felt daring enough to look outside the big-time titles to lesser known comics. Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was put on film in 2003 with a sizable budget, making it more of a gamble than the tiny indie comic movies Ghost World (2000) and American Splendor (2003). League was based on a little-known book and opened to poor reviews, yet still managed a respectable showing, making $179 million worldwide. Comics were, it appeared, a sure thing. Even with a big budget, even with obscure source

INTO THIS ATMOSPHERE was born Hellboy, a staple of independent Dark Horse comics since 1994 (although the character Hellboy made a brief appearance in 1993). Written and drawn by Mike Mignola, the comic book Hellboy was a strange cross--Men in Black meets Ambush Bug meets Kolchak the Night Stalker. The character became a cult favorite and attracted the attention of director Guillermo del Toro, who was finishing work on Blade II. Del Toro penned a screen adaptation of Hellboy, was handed a $60 million budget, and went to work on a big, special-effects laden movie about a superhero almost no one in America had ever heard of. Yet to the Hollywood suits, the project probably didn't look like much of a risk--after all, they must have thought with satisfaction, Hellboy is based on a comic book!

THIS IS WHAT they've gotten themselves into: In 1944 the war was going badly for Hitler. The Führer immersed himself in the occult in an attempt to open a gateway to hell and bring back demon warriors. Surprised by a group of American G.I.'s, Hitler's plan was foiled and the gateway closed, except for one small, red demon who made it across to our world. The demon was taken in by the Americans.

Nicknamed Hellboy, the demon grows up to be a 6'5" behemoth with horns, a barrel chest, and one gigantic stone hand. He's also a good egg and something of a wise guy. Hellboy works for the FBI's Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense--his job is to work with straight-laced G-men to keep tabs on the things that go bump in the night.