Good Samaritan (comics)
The Good Samaritan is a fictional weapon from Mike Mignola's Hellboy comics (although it is only named as such in the film version). Utilized by the title character, the Samaritan was given to Hellboy by the Torch of Liberty when Hellboy was twelve. The Catholic-raised Hellboy was familiar with the story of the Good Samaritan. Although the Samaritan is the weapon most commonly associated with Hellboy, in the comics and other media he has been known to use other guns.
Weapon specification
The Samaritan is an oversized, uniquely large caliber four-round revolver. It fires its custom-made bullets with adequate power to easily penetrate virtually any material. The gun itself has unearthly resistance to almost all forms of attack, and includes grips carved from fragments of the True Cross. The metal of the gun is forged from a combination of Irish church bells, cold iron from crucifixes, blessed silver, and other mystic metals.
The Samaritan only holds four of its oversized rounds, and is difficult to load with the large fingers on the Right Hand of Doom. As a result, Hellboy usually tries to load with his left hand when possible. He is usually only able to fire the Samaritan with his left hand, again due to the size of the fingers on his right hand; however, in Hellboy II, the Samaritan is fired in the Troll Market by Hellboy with his right hand.
Special rounds
Whoppers
These rounds, custom-made by Hellboy himself, are tipped with explosive shells that contain white oak, holy water, garlic, and silver shavings, and clove leaves. These ingredients, each bearing a folkloric power to impede evil and/or specific monsters (e.g. vampires, werewolves, witches, etc.), have the potential to injure many of the foes Hellboy may face.
Tracking bullets
These contain a phosphorescent green liquid that will drip from the wound they open on a target, allowing the target's path to be easily followed in low-light situations.
Other weapons
In the second volume of the Hellboy series he used a large semi-automatic pistol (developed by the sinister Zinco company) that quickly explodes in his hand, presumably due to sabotage. In The Wolves of St. August he is seen carrying a bizarre looking gun of unknown specifications. In the short stories and novels he sometimes wields a weapon described as a small mortar cannon. In the second film, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, he supplements the Samaritan with a new weapon, a six-barreled, lever-action shotgun known as the Big Baby.