grey_bess-darkman-burninggrey_bess-darkman-face GREY BESS

Real Name: Presumably Bess (likely short for Elizabeth); surname unrevealed

Identity/Class: Human

Occupation: Unemployed

Group Membership:

Affiliations: Darkman (Peyton Westlake), her cats

Enemies: Witchfinder (Sanford Lowell)

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
    presumably perished in Murnau-Sprang Center, unidentified city and state (possibly Los Angeles, California; see comments);
    formerly mobile (she was homeless) in an area near the cemetery by Darkman's church base, same unidentified city and state

First Appearance: Darkman II#2 (May, 1993)

   

Powers/Abilities: Grey Bess had no known powers despite the fact that she was apparently murdered by someone who believed her to be a witch.

    She may well have some skills and abilities, but we only saw her after she was burned at the stake, so she did

    Homeless, she carried her belongings in a shopping cart, and she cared for a number of homeless cats. Even when she was severely burned, she worried about whether her kitties were alright.

   

Height: Unrevealed (approximately )
Weight: Unrevealed (approximately )
Eyes: 
Hair: Gray (likely another color in youth)grey_bess-darkman-carried
   

History:

(Darkman II#2 (fb) - BTS) - Homeless, carrying her possessions in shopping cart and taking care of multiple stray cats, Grey Bess was targeted by the Witchfinder, who stuck her with pins, beat her, said her cats were the devil's imps and made her say that she was a witch. He then bound her to a stake in a cemetery and set her on fire.

(Darkman II#2) - Bess' screams drew the attention of Darkman from his Darkman from his nearby church base. As he approached, she pleaded to her attacker to come back, as she hadn't done anything to him and she was burning. She subsequently called out for "somebody -- anybody" to help her.

    Disgusted to see that a person could do this to another person, Darkman leapt and broke the stake to which she was bound, knocking her to the ground away from the fire. Telling her to lie still and not try to move, Darkman used his coat to smother the flames and told her he would get her to the hospital. A witness shouted out as he ran away, "Grey Bess! You hurt me! Don't you hurt me!" (I really don't know what this was supposed to mean) and then "You s-stay away -- you monster!" (that was referring to Darkman and his monstrous appearance)grey_bess-darkman-gurney

    Appreciating that if he was going to take Bess to the hospital that he needed to look normal, Darkman applied one of his synthetic faces that could last for 99 minutes in daylight. The agonized Bess described what her attacker had done to her, and Darkman held her, assuring that her attacker was gone and that he wouldn't hurt her anymore. As he picked her up, Bess asked about her kitties, and Darkman assured her that they were fine, and he told her to try to relax as he took her to the hospital and that she was going to be alright.

(Darkman II#2 (fb) - BTS) - Darkman dropped Bess off in the Murnau-Sprang Center's emergency room and then fled without providing any information. He continued to watch from the shadows. Seeing the burns and recognizing the pattern from similarly affected victims, nurse Rose called Officer Kelso, who had been investigating these crimes.

(Darkman II#2) - Within the medical center, Kelso told Rose that this was the third such case that week and the fourteenth one in all. While Bess was still alive, he told Rose that she wasn't going to make as she had been burned too badly. At Kelso's query about any personal information, Rose told him that some guy had dropped her off and disappeared, and she had called him as soon as she had seen the burns. Kelso considered that at least someone had cared enough to bring her in but that it wasn't like the force was going to do anything after he filed his report. He added that those in charge had this case flagged as reserved for special investigation, although there wasn't actually any such investigation, as they just wanted all of the officers up in the wealthy Cranston District. He expressed frustration that he had become a cop to help people but that all he got to do was watch them get sucked under.

(Darkman II#2 - BTS) - Darkman returned to the cemetery, telling the cat he found there that there was not going to be dinner that night as it was now an orphan. When he reached to pet the cat, it hissed, swatted at him and fled.

Comments: Created by Kurt Busiek and Javier Saltares.

Darkman
Per Wikipedia

    Darkman (Peyton Westlake) is a superhero and the protagonist of the 1990 superhero film Darkman and its sequels, Darkman II: The Return of Durant and Darkman III: Die Darkman Die. The character originated in a short story titled "The Darkman" written by the film's director, Sam Raimi. He was portrayed by Liam Neeson in the original film and Arnold Vosloo in the sequels. Plus Bruce Campbell, very briefly, right at the end of the original movie - Loki

    In the third film and the unaired television pilot, his biography is slightly retconned, but the character's canonical history is as such: Peyton Westlake was a mild-mannered and brilliant scientist working on a synthetic "skin" capable of aiding burn victims. He had a good relationship with district attorney Julie Hastings, who indirectly caused his injuries by telling corrupt developer Louis Strack Jr. that he could not build his "city of the future" without a permission document from Westlake's laboratory. At this, Strack hired sadistic mobster Robert G. Durant to get the document and in the process, Durant and his gang brutally disfigured Westlake, killed his assistant and destroyed his lab.

   Julie believed he was dead and a funeral was held, but Westlake's hideous body was placed in a clinic and was used for various experiments to sever Westlake's pain receptors, which enhances his strength but leaves him unable to feel tactile sensations. The experiments, however, affected Westlake's mental stability and he became an impulsive, bipolar, sarcastic, and violent man. Westlake escaped the clinic and sought refuge in an abandoned building in the film's city. He hid his grotesque appearance with bandages and a trenchcoat and used his synthetic skin, which only lasts 99 minutes in the light.

    There's a lot more details about all three movies, and a novel as well as video games...you can check it out on Darkman's Wikipedia page.

    A web search shows that several Los Angeles landmarks were shown in Darkman, but the city in the story was never identified, and it is apparently a fictional city standing in for LA.
    The Marvel Database identifies it as Los Angeles, so perhaps it was identified in the comics...I just didn't see it. They did reference the Cranston District, which apparently is in Rhode Island...

Per Loki

    There was a black and white one-shot magazine adaptation of the movie, and a colored three issue miniseries of same. Then there's a six issue run - I don't think it was intended as a mini, just that it was canceled sooner than planned. There's also a Dynamite four issue crossover with Ash Williams (Evil Dead).. 

    The comic series is not set in the same universe as the movies - Darkman had two straight to video sequels. The comics came out before the sequels, and there's a massive irreconcilable inconsistency, since in Darkman II the villain of the original movie, Durant, wakes from the coma Darkman left him in and comes back for revenge, while in the Marvel sequel comic Durant is revived by being turned into a cyborg with a detachable head. I can usually come up with ways to make most apparent contradictions fit into a single continuity, but this one would be tricky.

    Darkman could be 616. Nothing about him to prevent this, as he's fairly self-contained, even without allowing for his events to not be part of the sliding timescale and thus potentially during a relatively quiet period in terms of superhuman activity. Obviously given my comments that the movies (or sequels anyway) can't be the same reality as the Marvel comics, only one at most could be 616, in which case I'd plump for the comics, since they add cyborgs to the "not something we have in the real world" tally.
    My preference would be having the stories occur at the time of publication, as 1993 is like 18 years (at the time of this profile's publication in 2026, and a year more with every year) before the Fantastic Four's spaceflight that is marked as the start of the heroic age.--Snood

grey_bess-darkman-witness    We don't know that Grey Bess died. We have only the impression from a police officer that she was too far gone to save. Maybe she survived, and perhaps the hospital was able to get hold of some of her relatives and/or previous associates, and she recovered and lived happily ever after.

   After Darkman tackles Bess and puts out the fire, an apparent witness shouted out as he ran away, "Grey Bess! You hurt me! Don't you hurt me!" (I really don't know what this was supposed to mean) and then "You s-stay away -- you monster!" (that was referring to Darkman and his monstrous appearance).
    I'm really not sure what the first part was all about. There's nothing that supports Grey Bess hurting anyone. The only that makes sense to me is that the person could have also been injured by the Witchfinder and/or intoxicated, mentally ill or just somewhat in shock what what he had witnessed and experienced (and/or was so terrified by Darkman's bandaged appearance that he spoke incoherently). Loki had the same conclusion.

    This profile was completed 07/11/2026, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25th anniversary 's celebratory event.
    Thanks to Loki for suggesting Grey Bess to represent the Darkman series and characters.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Grey Bess should be distinguished from:

images: (without ads)
Darkman II#2, pg. 2, panel 7 (burning at the stake);
       pg. 4, panel 1 (witness yelling)
           panel 4 (face, crying);
           panel 5 (carried by Darkman wearing synthetic skin);
       pg. 5, panel 1 (at hospital, on gurney)
Appearances:
Darkman II#2 (May, 1993) - Kurt Busiek (writer), Javier Saltares (penciler), Andrew Pepoy (inker), Fabian Nicieza (editor)

First posted: 09/18/2026
Last updated: 07/11/2026

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
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