Marvel’s Strangest Vampire Fought Both Howard the Duck and Deadpool, But Could Never Work in the MCU

One of the strangest Marvel Comics vampires made her debut in 1975 in the pages of Giant-Size Man-Thing, and she has popped back up in some very interesting places since that time. This vampire is one of the most unusual in comics because she isn’t a human vampire at all. Instead, this is a character known as Bessie the Hellcow, and she debuted in a backup story in Giant-Size Man-Thing where she fought none other than Howard the Duck. While it may seem strange to know that a cow turned into a vampire, Marvel delivered a fun story that opened the door for some of the most bizarre vampire tales in comic book history over the next few decades.

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Giant-Size Man-Thing #5 came out in 1975, and the story that introduced Bessie was titled “Hellcow” by Steve Gerber and Frank Brunner, and it followed Howard the Duck’s big return to the Marvel Universe after he was unceremoniously dropped during his earlier appearances in Man-Thing comics. In this tale, Howard the Duck was trying to figure out his place in the world, and it put him in the sights of the blood-sucking bovine.

Hellcow Made Her Debut in a Howard the Duck Story

“Hellcow” opens with Howard the Duck in jail. In the caption, it reveals that he had been arrested after saving the city from a monstrous being known as Garko, the Man-Frog. This story happened in the previous issue when Howard the Duck made his big return to Marvel Comics and dropped onto the main Earth-616, where he helped some kids who led him to the Man-Frog. After he succeeded, the police showed up and assumed that Howard the Duck was who the disturbing-the-peace complaint was called in against, and they arrested him.

This issue opened with him in jail, and the police commissioner came in and demanded that Howard take off all his clothes, thinking he was a little person in a duck costume. When the commissioner tried to take off his “clothes,” he freaked out and said that Howard was “a mutant, some sort of horrible freak,” and he demanded that the police let him go before the papers realized they arrested a duck. This then led Howard to his next case, a showdown with a vampire cow named Bessie.

See, Bessie was just a regular cow who lived peacefully in a field 300 years earlier in Switzerland. However, when Dracula showed up and was starving, he attacked Bessie to drink her blood to survive. The farmer buried her, but she soon broke out of her grave as the Hellcow and sought revenge, trying to find the vampire who turned her. For three centuries, she traveled the world trying to find the stranger who changed her, and now she was in Cleveland. After Bessie killed five farmers, Howard went to find out if he could solve this crime.

Bessie was terrifying. She could fly, and she took the battle to the talking duck from Cleveland. There must have been vampires on Howard’s Earth as well, since he knew what to do. He grabbed a lug wrench and used it like a cross, then grabbed a mallet and a sharp wooden stake, and he drove it into Bessie’s heart, ending her threat. When the police showed up, they refused to do anything about it, seeing Howard again and leaving the duck behind. However, what could have been a one-off appearance ended up as the starting point for Marvel’s wildest vampire, Bessie the Hellcow.

Hellcow Has Teamed With Everyone From Deadpool to Scarlet Witch

Bessie was gone for decades, but she made her big return 36 years later in Deadpool Team-Up #885 (2011) by Rick Spears and Philip Bond. In this issue, a villain named Doctor Kilgore captured Deadpool and brought him to his lab. Next to Deadpool, in a cage, was the revived Bessie the Hellcow. See, Kilgore had revived her by digging her out of her grave and removing the stake from her heart, which brings any vampire who hasn’t had their heads removed back to life. He was drinking Bessie’s milk, which extended his life, but it was growing weaker. He planned to cut out part of Deadpool’s brain and to use his healing factor to live longer. Deadpool and Hellcow teamed up and beat Kilgore before Bessie left at the end of the issue.

While it took her 36 years to make her second appearance in Marvel Comics, her next appearance wasn’t as long a wait. After a cameo in Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #6 (2016), Hellcow was back as part of Deadpool, Inc. in Spider-Man/Deadpool #23 (2017) and appeared in seven issues of that series. She was also back during the “Blood Hunt” storyline in Blood Hunters #3 (2024) in a story titled “The Fall of the House of Udder,” where she actually had a child she named Hellcalf. Finally, her most recent appearance was in Strange Tails #2 (2025), where Bessie spoke using the high-tech collar she got while in Deadpool, Inc., and she came to the Scarlet Witch for help. Hellcow debuted by fighting Howard the Duck and most recently came to the Scarlet Witch for assistance, making her one of the wildest vampires ever introduced in comics.

What are your thoughts about Bessie the Hellcow from Marvel Comics? Let us know your memories of this bloodsucker in the comments below.

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