- "I mean, I'm completely mad. Must be."
- – Esther to John Chimu. [src]
Esther Dannen is a Manhattan police forensic investigator, appearing in issue 3 of Tales of the Witchblade.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Esther was a psychopath, that was sentenced for life in prison. At some point, a group of scientists developing a new age retardant called Sustain, took Esther and four other prisoners as test subjects for the chemical. Esther was the first one to be injected with the experimental Sustain dosage. Unfortunately the dosage was hundreds of times what people would take in the future. Dannen appeared to die under that dosage and the corpse was placed in storage, where it stayed for three years.
In reality, it was a Sustain-induced blackout, that lasted three years. During the entire time, her mind was awake, locked in a black prison of complete sensory deprivation. After three years of being imprisoned in her body, Esther finally managed to recover from her blackout and escape. With a new identity as a police forensic scientist she started to hunt down the scientists, one by one.
She first tracked down Geoffrey Kuhn, who worked as behavioral psychologist. She proceeds to incapacitate and cut off Geoffrey's hands, eyes, tongue, nose and ears in order to show him, what Dannen went through while being in the blackout caused by the Sustain. After the long execution, Geoffrey succumbs to his wounds and dies. After Esther kills Kuhn, she seduces his secretary, Getz Muller and has sex with him. She then proceeds to kill him either because he was a witness or because she just wanted to do it.
Revenge[]
Later, Esther returns to the murder scene under the disguise of a forensic investigator. There she meets with detective John Chimu, who was assigned to this case. At first she stops him not knowing he is a cop. Danne was expecting a different cop to handle the case, a notable detective named Kenneth Pezzini, who has dealt with murders cases before they completely disappeared. Chimu explains that Pezzini is offworld for three weeks.
She then takes Chimu through the murder scene, showing both corpses and explaining what happened to them. Chimu gets sick of the scene and just requests that a written report be given to him and leaves the scene. Esther then tracks down another scientist, Andrea Tyler an one hundred twenty-three year old geneticist. Although she manages to wound Andrea, the scientist manages to escape from her attacker. Soon after Andrea succumbs to her wounds and dies in an alleyway.
Few hours later, Esther finds out that Chimu is now working with Selena Lauren. Knowing that with her help, she will soon be tracked down, Esther quickly kills another scientist, Rajiv Siva. Soon enough, Esther is confronted by Chimu and Selena. Dannen reveals that she manages to kill another scientist, while they were searching for her. The woman decides to peacefully give herself in for the corrective therapy. Chimu instead shoots her in the head instantly killing her.
Personality[]
Esther was a complete psychopath. This was even more amplified after being in a Sustain blackout for three years. After this experience, Esther set out to get revenge on the scientists who did this to her. She's incredibly sadistic, cutting her hands, eyes, tongue, nose and ears in order to show her victims what she went through while being in the blackout caused by the Sustain.
When finally confronted by Chimu, Esther showed to suffer from short psychotic outbursts.
Gallery[]
