Hellboy’s Right Hand of Doom Makes Marvel’s Mjolnir Look Pathetic

When most audiences consider the most powerful artifacts in comic book lore, they immediately think about Thor’s Mjolnir from Marvel, but those same audiences shouldn’t overlook Hellboy’s Right Hand of Doom from Dark Horse Comics. For those unfamiliar, the Right Hand of Doom was carved personally by his father, Azzael, and embedded onto Hellboy’s wrist shortly after birth and shortly after his father cut off his actual right hand. Although Hellboy personally prefers using his left hand because he can’t wield weapons with his right, the Right Hand of Doom is an indestructible object that could be of great use whenever bad guys need clobbering.

Then again, the same thing can be said for Thor’s Mjolnir. The difference being that Mjolnir is not only a fun blunt instrument, but can only be wielded by those who are worthy of it. What makes Mjolnir so powerful is that long ago, it was forged by Eitri and the Dwarves of Nidavellir underneath the heart of a dying star, granting the God of Thunder his most essential powers.

All things considered on paper, in theory, Mjolnir should be viewed as among the most powerful artifacts in all of comic book culture, if not the most powerful. However, the Right Hand of Doom has at least one edge over Mjolnir that creates a sound argument for it being even more powerful: The Right Hand of Doom can bring about the end of the world under Hellboy’s fist.

Much like Mjolnir, the Right Hand of Doom has its own godly origin story. The bigger difference being that the Right Hand of Doom once belonged to an actual elder god. It can be traced back to a spirit named Anum, created by God to watch over the Earth. Anum abused his power by using his Right Hand to absorb some of God’s power, which was then used to summon The Ogdru Jahad, a serpentine beast whose presence signals Ragnarok. Ragnarok, of course, as Thor fans should know, is the end of the world.

This singlehandedly sparked a war after The Ogru Jahad birthed 369 monsters called Ogru Hem. After defeating these creatures, other Watchers destroyed Anum for his betrayal, leaving nothing behind but his Right Hand of Doom, but not before The Ogdru Jahad was imprisoned in the Hand itself. Although anyone could simply cut off Hellboy’s hand and use it for themselves, the full potential of the Hand can only be used by Hellboy himself as the key to initiating Ragnarok all over again.

Traditionally, Ragnarok is bad news for everyone, especially Asgardians as Ragnarok is destined as the eternal cycle of death and rebirth. Therefore, the death of Asgard rests literally in the palm of Hellboy’s Hand. Not even Thor’s godly mallet is capable of destroying an entire world. Multiple people have been worthy enough to wield Mjolnir, but only Hellboy is capable of using this Hand to raise Hell. Hellboy openly rejects his foretold destiny since he doesn’t want to bring about the end of any world, but it certainly presents a problem for Thor that his people’s existence can be wiped away with a snap of two red, beefy fingers.

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