Solf J. Kimblee is a former war criminal and Ishval War veteran whose alchemy specialty—nicknamed after his use of sulfur compounds in the human body—lets him turn people into living bombs.
The manga version of Kimblee is notably more subdued and polite than his anime counterpart, which makes him somehow worse. He was instrumental in the Ishvallan Extermination Campaign and stands out as one of the few State Alchemists who actually weaponized the full potential of the Philosopher's Stones created at Lab 5. He's got this split personality thing going on: in conversation he can be respectful, straightforward, and almost civilized. He apparently even respected Winry's parents for their commitment to duty. But in combat, he flips into something genuinely unsettling—obsessed with destruction and annihilation. He once chewed out Riza and other soldiers for being "unreasonable," for refusing to accept what they were: murderers in uniform. He'd casually use his own subordinates as test subjects to show off his power.
Combat-wise, Kimblee can transmute and detonate from a distance, using the ground itself as a conduit for massive explosions—likely because his abilities are fueled by Philosopher's Stone energy.
After the war, the military tried to take back the Philosopher's Stone made from Ishvalan souls that had been given to him. So he swallowed it. Throughout the series he's seen gagging it back up just to get a better look at it, which is as uncomfortable as it sounds.
Content compiled by AnimeList.moe from publicly available sources.
