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Quote1 I only wish your torment could last longer, so that you could begin to pay for all the pain you've caused and the lives that you've destroyed. But this will have to do! Quote2
Deborah Dancer src

Deborah Dancer is an American martial artist and vampire hunter. She is an ally to the good vampire Andrew Bennett, working alongside Dmitri Mishkin to take down the Cult of the Blood Red Moon.

Origins

As a young girl in Maine, Deborah first met Andrew Bennett when he was time-traveling using the Rings of Kur-Alet. Mary, Queen of Blood held the child hostage and Bennett rescued her.[1] When he lost his time-travel device, she helped him find it and they fought Nazi Zombies together.[2] Bennett met her for the first time chronologically when she had grown older and was attending the Woodstock festival. He rescued her from Mary when the Blood Red Moon tried using the festival to recruit new vampires. Her friends were murdered, but she survived and joined Bennett's crusade.[3]

I... Vampire!

Deborah is in love with Andrew Bennett, who she works with alongside Dmitri Mishkin to take down Mary, Queen of Blood.[4] They take down a vampire drug dealer in New York City named Emil Veldt, who gives them the Cult's financial records.[5] This lead them to the racist American Freedom Party organization, where they discover Mishkin's mother Dunya is a high-ranking vampire.[6] Deborah confronts Mishkin after his guilt from letting her escape causes him to crash their car, and he confesses his secrets.[7] When they travel to the Temple of the Ineffable Tao, Deborah helps attack vampiric monks led by Master Shoju. Bennett realizes that the monks are peaceful, and they turn on the manipulative vampire Billy Kessler.[8] Bennett finally kisses her when they are trapped in a cave-in, but only to cover for almost eating her. Realizing that his bloodlust will endanger his friends, Bennett abandons them to continue the crusade on his own.[9]

Deborah and Dmitri track Andrew down to Egypt, but he follows Mary into the past just as they find him using the magical Rings of Kur-Alet.[10] She is able to telepathically contact him through time using a hypnotist, and saves him by taking control of her past self.[1] When Bennett returns to the present, he remembers his friends and decides to go home to them.[3]

Bennett is reunited with Deborah and Dmitri, although he gets captured by Allen Barr on a solo mission.[11] They are stalked by another vampire during his absence.[12] This is revealed to be a vampire hunter named Edward Trane who falsely believes that his former partner Bennett turned him. Trane captures Andrew and Deborah, imprisoning them to prove that he will eventually turn on her. After several days of starvation they trick him into thinking Deborah has killed Andrew, then stake Trane when he enters the room.[13] Deborah is kidnapped again when they investigate Reverend Warnock, a radical political activist assisted by vampire Dunya Mishkin.[14]

When Dmitri is kidnapped, they follow him to Moscow and meet a vampire KGB agent named Yuri Rashnikov trying to vampirize the Russian high command. Dunya attacks them, and it is revealed that Dmitri has been turned into a vampire.[15] They're cornered by Dunya into Dmitri's childhood home, and Deborah executes the vampires she can find in daylight while they're trapped. Deborah accidentally kills Dmitri when he dives to save his mother, but with his last breath he kills his mother to save Deborah.[16]

Andrew and Deborah hunt Mary down to France. Andrew takes an experimental serum called the Rashnikov Formula which is supposed to remove a vampire's weaknesses but retain their strengths. They are finally able to be together in a human relationship, but the next night he is captured by Mary as he goes through rigor mortis.[17] The serum fails and his body begins to rapidly decay 400 years. Mary captures Deborah and bites her in front of Andrew, forcing him to watch as she turns. It's revealed that Deborah also took the serum, but receives no negative effects as she is human. Deborah and Mary fight over Andrew's body until Mary is beaten and killed using sunlight. Returning to her lover, she holds him and eases Andrew into a final rest. Deborah is left to wander the Earth in her new immortality.[18]

Seeing is Believing

Many years later, it is revealed that Deborah has been using agents of the Blood Red Moon for her own agenda. Every three years on Halloween they hold a ceremony to resurrect Mary, Queen of Blood and it is stopped by Batman. While Batman is believed dead, Alfred Pennyworth commissions the Outsiders to fulfill his duties. They believe themselves to have won, but Deborah successfully resurrects Andrew Bennett. He is furious at her for returning him to his curse, as death was the only escape he had ever known. Though he throttles her hard enough to draw blood, and she is last seen unconscious, this could not have killed her.[19]

Powers

  • Vampirism: In addition to the various mental and physical benefits that vampires are heir to, they also possess the ability to turn others into vampires as well. Each new vampire is traditionally subservient to the one who "turned" them, but some strong-willed vampires have been known to rebel against their masters.
    • Enhanced Senses: A vampire's senses are enhanced far beyond those of a normal human being.
    • Immortality: So long as vampires continue to consume blood, they will not age beyond the physical state they were in when they first became a vampire.
    • Invulnerability: Vampires are invulnerable to most forms of injury (certain exceptions apply). Bullets, blades and blunt objects do little to no damage to a vampire's body.
    • Regeneration: In addition to being virtually indestructible, whatever damage a vampire does in fact suffer can be healed through the consumption of human blood.
    • Superhuman Strength: A vampire's strength level is several times that of a normal human being and they are considered superhuman.
    • Superhuman Speed: A vampire's speed level is several times that of a normal human being and they are considered superhuman.
    • Superhuman Stamina: So long as they continue to consume human blood, a vampire can function tirelessly without rest or relaxation. However, a vampire's stamina wanes the closer it is to sunrise.
    • Psychokinesis: Most vampires possess some form of psychokinesis. Some are clairvoyant, others can communicate telepathically, some possess mind control. Particularly powerful vampires can control the minds of several people at once.
    • Transformation: Vampires often possess the ability to transform into a variety of creatures or effects such as bats, wolves, rats or even mist. While their physical attributes may fluctuate during such states, a vampire's mental acuity is the same as that when they are in their human shape. A vampire who transforms into an animal may also benefit from that particular animal's attributes including razor-sharp claws, fangs or the ability to fly. Vampires also often demonstrate the ability to alter their appearance at will.

Abilities

Weaknesses

  • Made a "living vampire" by the Rashnikov Formula, Deborah Dancer is immune to traditional vampire weaknesses like sunlight, and cannot be controlled by the vampire who turned her.[18]

Equipment

  • Crucifixes

Transportation

  • Dmitri Mishkin and Deborah Dancer drove a white hearse carrying Andrew Bennett's coffin during the day.[5]

Weapons

  • Wooden Stakes


  • Although this character was originally introduced during DC's Earth-One era of publication, their existence following the events of the 1985–86 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths remains intact. However, some elements of the character's Pre-Crisis history may have been altered or removed for Post-Crisis New Earth continuity, and should be considered apocryphal.

Related

Footnotes


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