Darkman (real name: Peyton Westlake) is a tragic hero from his own same name's universe.
Peyton Westlake was a mild-mannered scientist working on a project to develop a synthetic skin to replace skin graph procedures in severe injury cases, and after several experiments, he could only make the skin last 99 minutes, which was reduced to a puddle of foul smelling waste product.
"Darkman's tortured and burned face"
After living together for nearly a while, on a night he proposed to district attorney and dear friend Julie Hastings to marry him. She was hesitant and left Peyton without an answer. That very night, the lights in his lab went out during a skin experiment, and he discovered the skin lasted longer in darkness due to the synthetic cells photo-sensitivity to UV light.
Within mere seconds of the discovery, Robert G. Durant and his gang raided his lab, on the orders of real estate tycoon Louis Strack Jr. looking for the document known as the "Bellasarious Memorandum" that was left there by Julie that would allow him to build his "city of the future." They killed Peyton’s lab assistant Yakitito, viciously beat Peyton; burning his hands on electrical transformers, dunking his head into a vat of boiling solvent then leaving him to die in an explosion set up by Durant with two flammable tanks, a dipping bird and a lighter. Peyton’s badly burned body was thrown clear from the building and landed in the nearby river.
Julie was standing outside of the lab when it happened, Peyton is presumed dead, blown to bits because the biggest piece of him they found was an ear. Julie has a quiet funeral for him and continues her life.