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Bessie (Earth-616)

From Marvel Database

"HaHaHaMoooo!"
--Hellcow
Character Template Help
Real Name
Current Alias

Aliases
Bovine; Blood-Beast; Cowled Cow; Farm Killer; Recreant Ruminant (see notes)

Identity

Alignment

Universe

Base Of Operations
Formerly Switzerland; later, Cleveland, Ohio

Characteristics
Gender

Height
4' 6" (as measured at shoulder)


Eyes

Hair

Unusual Features
Although Bessie was a female animal, she physically resembled a male bull, including a set of horns growing from the crown of her head (female bovines do not possess horns). When the hunger was upon her, she demonstrated certain characteristics commonly attributed to vampires including fangs, red eyes and contorted facial features.

Status
Citizenship

Occupation
Vampire, former heifer

Place of Birth

Place of Death

First appearance
Last appearance

Contents

History

At some point in the 1670s, the vampire known as Dracula found himself starved and flying desperately around the rural farmlands of Switzerland. All of the local homeowners had boarded up their homes for the evening, and the vampire had no means of satisfying his vampiric thirst. He came upon the fields of a farmer named Hans and attacked his prized cow, Bessie. Dracula drank his fill of the animal's blood and left it for dead. The following morning, Hans discovered Bessie's blood-drained corpse and buried the remains. He even fashioned a personalized tombstone marking the spot where Bessie had died. Three nights later however, Bessie rose from the earth as one of the undead. She began prowling the countryside searching for the strange being responsible for her condition – a search that would continue for the next three-hundred years.

MOOOOOOOOO!

Not long ago, the Hellcow's journey brought her to the United States where she began stalking the communities surrounding Cleveland, Ohio. In need of human blood, the Hellcow attacked and killed a local farmer named Jubal Brown. The incident made the papers, earning the attention of an ambitious adventurer known as the Howard the Duck.

Howard the Duck wanted to establish a reputation in Cleveland. As such, he sought to earn a position on the Cleveland police force by catching this mysterious farm stalker. Masquerading as a human, he began wandering the city streets at 2:00 am. Hellcow swooped down out of the sky and attacked him, but Howard kept her at bay with a push broom. Spinning back around, the heifer rammed Howard in the buttocks, sending him crashing through the window of Ray's Auto Shop. She leapt into the building to finish him off, but Howard managed to find a lug wrench in the shape of a crucifix. The cross-shaped tool bought Howard enough time in order to find a suitable hammer and stake. Howard dropped the lug wrench in favor of his new weapons and the Hellcow lunged at him. He quickly ducked out of the way, and Bessie's body slammed into a pile of steel-belted radial retreads, her fangs embedding themselves into a whitewall. Taking advantage of the situation, Howard used the mallet and wooden stake to end the blood-sucking bovine's hellish existence once and for all. Despite his heroism however, Howard was still denied a position on the Cleveland police force.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Hellcow possessed many abilities common to other vampires, but may not have had access to a vampire's full array of supernatural powers.

  • Sanguination: Like others of her kind, Bessie possessed a set of sharpened canines, ideal for puncturing human flesh and the extraction of blood.
  • Immortality: So long as the Hellcow maintained a consistent diet of human blood, her body did not continue to age. Whether the Hellcow required larger volumes of blood than the average vampire to accommodate this ability is unknown.
  • Shape-shifting: The Hellcow possessed limited degrees of shape-shifting. She could transform her entire body into a fine mist, which enabled her to avoid all physical attacks.
  • Flight: With the aid of her special cape, Hellcow possessed the ability to fly over great distances.

    Abilities

As a living animal, Bessie was an adequate provider of milk.

Strength level

As a living animal, Bessie possessed the strength level of a healthy, adult female cow. Upon her transformation into one of the undead, her strength level increased to superhuman proportions.

Weaknesses

Although never demonstrated, it is reasonable to assume that the various vulnerabilities that affect traditional vampires affected the Hellcow as well. As such, the Hellcow was vulnerable to the rays of the sun and required a darkened room or coffin in which to sleep. Where the Hellcow managed to conceal herself for three-hundred years has yet to be revealed.

The presence of religious symbols, or even reasonable fascimiles are sufficient to drive the Hellcow away. She is unable to attack a potential victim who is in possession of a cross of other similar icons of worship.

Whether the consumption of garlic has the same affect on Hellcow as it does other vampires has never been revealed.

Although Hellcow's body was impervious to most physical damage, a sharpened object impaled into her heart was sufficient enough to destroy her.

It is unlikely that Hellcow possessed the ability to transform her victims into vampires. To date, there has been no record of any human-cow hybrid vampires in the three-hundred years that Hellcow has walked the Earth.

Paraphernalia

Transportation

Hellcow wore a black and red cape draped across her back which could metamorphosize into a pair of leathery bat wings attached to her back. Whether the cape was an extension of Hellcow's physical body or an independent piece of clothing is unknown. Where she acquired the cape and learned of its properties is likewise unknown.

Notes

  • Other than Cowled Cow and Farm Killer, all of the other nicknames attributed to the Hellcow are referenced only in Marvel Legacy: The 1970s Handbook #1, and were not used in the original source material.

Links

Discover and Discuss

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