Elizabeth Sherman

Origin

Liz Sherman was born in Kansas City, Kansas and was your typical average girl until her pyrokinetic abilities began to make themselves evident on her 11th birthday. Raised in a strict Catholic family, Liz felt that the fires were a result of her sins, and for a short time managed to keep the fires under control by a combination of prayer and sheer force of will. However, in July 1973, at age eleven, she once again lost control. The resulting eruption destroyed an entire city block and, among the thirty-two fatalities, took the lives of her parents, brother, and pet dog. Liz's last uncontrolled manifestation took place on July 4, 1984 the eruption took the lives of her friends and family, and even destroyed an entire city block. This incident left Liz traumatized.

After being juggled between extended family members following the death of her parents, Liz was taken in by the B.P.R.D. where she learned to control her pyrokinesis to some slight degree. In 1980, she became a full agent. She is often teamed with Hellboy and Abe Sapien. However, her childhood trauma continued replaying in her mind and left her bitter. She often leaves the B.P.R.D. to clear her head only to return soon afterwards.

Character Creation

Liz was created by Mike Mignola.

Story Arcs

Wake the Devil

Later, Liz tried to liberate herself of her pyrokinetic abilities with the assistance of Roger. Roger stole Liz's powers from her and left her in a coma. Liz was then taken to Wauer Institute in Tirgoviste, Romania, where Roger decided to return Liz's powers due to the guilt that he had felt.

Back with B.P.R.D.

In order to learn how to better control her pyrokinesis, Liz lives with a society of monks in the Agartha Temple in the Ural Mountains. She returns to the B.P.R.D., and does her best to accept the changes that have been made to the team. As a result of her time amongst the monks, Liz now has complete control over fire: she can produce small hand-sized flames to light her way in darkness, she can erupt in a furious explosion of fire to destroy anything around her (the use of her powers on this scale seemingly require her to chant a mantra: "The fire is not my enemy, it is a part of me, it is mine", and can also manipulate fire into shapes and designs. Her powers have become greatly magnified by an ancient object revealed to her in a dream by the mysterious Memnan Saa.

This dramatic increase in her already considerable powers allows her to burn the towering Katha-Hem entity to dust. Even after defeating Katha-Hem, Liz continued to be plagued by horrible visions and mysterious dreams featuring Memnan Saa; as a result, Liz started losing sleep and becoming more irritable and less reliable. These dreams came to a height during the Killing Ground story arc, where Saa took advantage of Ben Daimio’s transformation to fully possess Liz and drive her into a coma until the ghost of Lobster Johnson appeared and freed her.

Kidnapped

Recently, Liz has been kidnapped by Memnan Saa for an unknown reason. The rest of the B.P.R.D. team tracked her down and Saa was killed, but Saa had claimed that, using Liz's pyrokinetic power, he'd be able to prevent the upcoming apocalypse. Following this, in a mission to the underworld, Saa's ghost intercepted Liz and showed her a new vision of the future: the apocalypse successful.

Under the guidance of a mysterious aged man, she unleashed her full pyrokinetic powers, incinerating this world - and sending a vast wave of fire that wiped out a combined frog/Hyperborean army gathered by the Black Flame. This ended the threat of all these menaces for good but caused devastation across Earth, and left her without her powers, if this is permanent or temporary remains to be seen.

Powers

Liz Sherman's pyrokinetic abilities are very obvious manifestations of her flame powers. The heat she generates forces opponents to stay away from her. The flames themselves ensure that she remains harder to hit with Energy Shield/Deflection. Eventually, the fire begins to overwhelm her ability to control it and she gets Pulse Wave and Ranged Combat Expert while defensively, the flames form a more solid Barrier.

Other Media

Liz Sherman was portrayed by none other than the beautiful Selma Blair in Hellboy 1 and reprised the role in Hellboy 2: The Golden Army.