Jacob Stegner was an American former soldier who joined the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense in 1947. In his career as a B.P.R.D. field agent, he deployed with Hellboy on several operations. Stegner was known for his military prowess and his wry sense of humor.
History
WWII
Stegner served in the U.S. Army 4th Infantry Division during the Second World War, reaching the rank of Corporal. He fought throughout the European Theater, including the invasion of Normandy. At the end of the war in Europe, Stegner participated in the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
After the war, Stegner was declined for intelligence service due to his poor psychological evaluation; instead, he joined the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense in 1947.[1]
B.P.R.D. career
A year later, he accompanied Professor Broom to the Utah desert, alongside Agent Simon Anders, due to sightings of monsters near a nuclear missile base. During the mission Stegner and Anders fought several bearlike creatures believed to be from another dimension, the two agents soon fell out over Anders putting other agents' lives at risk.[2]
In April of 1952, Stegner was part of a team (alongside Archibald Muraro, Susan Xiang, and Robert Amsel) sent to a small village in Brazil. This deployment was particularly conspicuous as it was Hellboy's first mission with the B.P.R.D.[3]
A year later, a B.P.R.D. team was sent to Pasadena, California to investigate the disappearance of six children and the murder of one adult; Stegner re-teamed with Xiang and Hellboy on the mission. During the investigation, Xiang encountered a mineral that was created by the missile testing in Utah five years ago. Due to her psychic abilities, when she touched the mineral she had a flashback of Stegner in the desert, causing him to recognize the owner of the mineral as a scientist from the missile project. Unfortunately, the scientist was killed by Valentin Moravec he could be questioned by the Bureau.[4]
Death
In 1956, Stegner accompanied Broom on an unofficial covert trip to Colorado. The duo were caught unawares by Roland Childe, who menaced them at gunpoint; Childe gunned down Stegner, but Varvara intervened before Broom came to harm.
Broom was forced to leave Stegner's body where it lay, filled with regret that his comrade was never recovered for burial.[5]