Before getting to the plot and all of that kind of detail, lets start with some backstory. After DC’s gigantic maxiseries Crisis on Infinite Earths in the mid-1980s, the DC Multiverse ceased to exist. Everything was now on one earth, making things a bit more compact and easier to understand, but I think that for a lot of fans (myself included), the multiverse was missed due to its strange, but sometimes fantastic characters that it had a part in creating. Because of that, DC revived the multiverse in a similar, but very different form, known as Elseworlds. This was an imprint that DC begun using with Gotham by Gaslight in 1989, a story set one-hundred years earlier, featuring a steampunk Batman hunting after the dreaded (and possibly not real killer) Jack the Ripper. This first ever Elseworlds story was an example of taking a well known and popular character – like Batman, and inserting him into different situations, times, places, dimensions, realms and all sorts. Although Batman wasn’t the only character to be used in DC Elseworlds stories, he is arguably the most popular, with other stories like Batman: Holy Terror following just two years later. It was around that same time when another Batman Elseworlds story was being thought of. One that would put Batman against an unexpected and odd opponent… Dracula! That being said, perhaps it wasn’t such an odd choice, especially because the two had met before. Batman Dracula, released in 1964, was the film that featured the two fictious characters first meeting, despite that director Andy Warhol couldn’t attain the rights of Batman by from DC Comics. The movie is pretty much lost to the depths of time, but it can be viewed somewhere deep in YouTube. But I digress, for the first time in comics, Batman was going to face the vampire of all vampires… and he wasn’t going to come out unchanged… but he will because this is only an Elseworlds… thankfully.
Batman & Dracula: Red Rain, the first of a trilogy of one hundred-page stories, was released in 1991, written by classic Batman writer, Doug Moench with art by (then new artist) Kelley Jones and Malcolm Jones III. As previously mentioned, it was published under the Elseworlds imprint, meaning that the story and its variation on the characters are in their own world. Lastly, I have read this story in the Batman: Vampire collected edition, which publishes this story along with Bloodstorm and
Crimson Mist, its sequels. Alternatively, due to the overpriced sales of the book on the internet, it is probably more efficient and cheaper to buy Elseworlds: Batman Volume Two, which collects just the Vampire Trilogy, but like always, I am digressing, so let’s get on with it.
THE PLOT
One night in Gotham City, a prostitute is bitten fatally by a vampire, who leaves her body in an alleyway with her throat cut. Batman finds the body and identifies her as a second victim. The next night, Bruce Wayne wakes up after dreaming about a vampire woman touching him while he was asleep. After he tells himself it was a dream, he becomes Batman and heads out onto the streets of Gotham. However, while patrolling, he hears a scream from a nearby alleyway, follows it and finds another man dead, with his throat cut due to a violent vampire attack. This leaves Batman angry as not only is this the third victim, but the newspapers aren’t reporting on the deaths. Meanwhile, the mayor, who is seeking re-election, has a meeting with Commissioner Gordon about the crime rate in the city and how it is getting higher. But Gordon is angry about how the mayor wants the media to remain uninformed about the crime and he leaves the mayor by telling him that he will do everything he can without seemingly doing anything. Later on, at night, Bruce has another dream about the woman vampire, this time with blood around her mouth. Like before, when Bruce wakes up, the vampire vanishes into nothingness. As it is dusk, Bruce becomes Batman and heads out on patrol, where he finally witnesses a vampire killing the fourth victim. Batman fights the vampire, who apprehends him and escapes from the hero. After Batman leaves the scene, Gordon and police find the dead body. At the same time, Batman returns to the Batcave, where he meets Alfred, but instead of talking to him, Batman heads straight to sleep. Like before, Bruce has another dream about the vampire, who claims that vampires are real, but not all of them are evil. Bruce wakes up, feeling differently than before. He then gets out of bed and later on, he tries to open a car door, but shocks himself when he actually breaks the door handle using his bare hands. Bruce then lifts up the car with one arm, making him worried about what is happening to him. He then asks his doctor to conduct a blood test on him in order to see any changes. From a first look at the test, the doctor seems to find nothing wrong with the blood, causing Bruce to tell him to look at his back, which seem to have bruises on each side. The doctor believes that the bruises are actually contusions, but once he brings up the topic of Bruce possibly pushing himself too much, he leaves the doctor’s office. Meanwhile, vampires bring people to their underground base, where they are presented to their boss, Dracula! At the same time, Batman visits his ally Ariane, who is an expert in alchemy and magic. When asked if she knows about how vampires are created, Ariane believes it is through an evil alchemy of blood that produces immortality along with strength, appetite for blood and a weakness to sunlight. She also mentions that vampires can turn into bats, mists, wolves and are only harmed by silver, the cross, sunlight, decapitation and a wooden stake through the heart. Ariane then turns her attention towards the rain, which has begun turning red due to chemicals being absorbed into the atmosphere. Batman ignores that statement and leaves without mentioning his true desire for knowledge. After leaving, Batman heads to the graveyard to search for where the vampires may be. It doesn’t take long for him to discover a grate, which leads into a sewer. In there, Batman finds blood in the waters and discovers numerous rotted corpses. He then quickly finds some vampires, who chase him for a while. It is then that Batman realises that there are too many of them to run from, causing him to begin fighting them. However, the fight ends when people with guns firing wooden stakes appear, killing the vampires (while saying “To Death… In Peace”). One of those people is the vampire who appeared to Batman in his dreams, named Tanya. The two begin talking, but they are cut off when a flying beast of a vampire appears, recognising Tanya, who (along with the other shooters) bow their heads down to the vampire, who has reverted to his human form. This doesn’t stop Batman, who attacks the vampire and begins fighting him, but he is wounded. Batman, using his blood, draws a cross on the sewer wall, making the vampire afraid. He leaves Batman, telling him that the next time they meet, his blood will be his. Some time later, Batman escapes from the sewer. Meanwhile, Commissioner Gordon begins to theorize that the murdered people with their throats cut may not be the work of a regular serial killer. At home, Alfred also notices that something is wrong with Bruce’s back, but Bruce ignores it. Alfred then pours a glass of water, only to find that some of the red rain has found its way into the water supply. Although Alfred solves the problem and clears the dirty water, he worries about the changes in Bruce. Meanwhile with Bruce, he believes he is having another dream involving Tanya, but he discovers that it isn’t another dream and that it is actually real. Tanya explains that she has come to Bruce to give him a gift in order to fight the lord of the undead, Dracula. Tanya then speaks about how he has made Gotham an easy home to live as there are countless homeless people for him to feed on. When Bruce asks her about how she has come to oppose Dracula, she claims that she lost her humanity and journeyed through hell. Tanya begins her story by explaining that she was bitten at night by a vampire and fled from (continued after image)
her city, only feeding on animals. She then explains that she used science to create a serum to feed her want of blood, which became a huge addiction for her. From then, Tanya found other victims of Dracula and decided to help them by forming an alliance to take down Dracula, which they have been attempting to do for centuries. However, as they are victims of Dracula, they all have a spell put on them which means that they cannot resist his powers. Due to this, Tanya wants to train Bruce to become Gotham’s last hope in beating Dracula. Bruce Wayne then sleeps and wakes up the next morning to find that Tanya is gone once again. He calls for Alfred, telling him that he needs to send a message to Commissioner Gordon. In the day, Batman meets with Gordon at a dark dock house, where Batman introduces the Commissioner to Tanya and the rest of the vampires. Although Batman tells Gordon about how the murders are being covered up and that they are actually caused by vampires, he is sceptical. He then becomes worried when Tanya orders Gordon to shoot her while she shows him her sharp vampiric teeth. This does cause Gordon to shoot her, but as she is a vampire, the bullet doesn’t have an effect on her. Gordon then chooses to believe Batman and offers his services to him by releasing all of the details about the vampires to the public. When Gordon leaves, Batman faints, causing Tanya and the vampires to take him to a hideout where he can get a blood transfusion with Tanya, who is funnily enough the same blood type as Bruce. This is essential as Bruce has lost a lot of blood from his fight with Dracula. Once the transfusion is successful, Tanya warns Batman that his friend has been taken by Dracula, causing Bruce to believe she is talking about Alfred. However, when Bruce gets home, he finds Alfred safe. That is, for a few seconds, when the window smashes open and vampires jump into Wayne Manor. Although Bruce quickly takes out the vampires, he hears on the news that Commissioner Gordon has actually been kidnapped. Bruce leaves Alfred, telling him that THE PLAN must be put into motion, causing Alfred to ask if Bruce is serious, which he is. Bruce tells Alfred to meet him where they arranged when this is all over, before leaving. Meanwhile, Gordon is underground with Dracula and the vampires. Dracula speaks about how people in the underground go mad after some time, causing him himself to admit that he is mad, before transforming into the flying beast of a vampire that he truly is. Dracula picks up Gordon with his feet and flies him over the city. While he is doing that, the other vampires are met with Batman, Tanya and the rest of her vampire killers, who all attack the vampires, sending them into a certain direction. Bruce then presses a switch that he is carrying, causing a huge explosion in the underground, which creates a passage to the Batcave. When Tanya and her allies get all of the vampires underneath Wayne Manor, Bruce presses another switch, which causes another huge explosion in the base of the manor, causing it to explode and collapse, revealing the Batcave to the sunlight, killing all of
the vampires along with Tanya. While that happened, Batman locked himself in a protective coffin, which seems to knock him unconscious as he wakes up some time later when people are searching around the scene for survivors. When Bruce leaves the coffin without anybody seeing him (for some reason not wearing the bat-suit anymore) he says his farewell to Tanya, before nearly being attacked by Dracula, who flies away, awaiting Bruce to fight him. Bruce then heads to a home in Gotham City, where he meets Alfred, who is miserable and down that they have lost everything. However, Bruce explains that he doesn’t need his home, cave, suit or car as he shows Alfred that he now has a pair of wings. Batman then flies away, ready to fight Dracula, who has locked Gordon at the top of a tower, tied him upside down and cut his neck slightly, making him into a timer of sorts as after some time, he will bleed out and die. Stealthily, Batman flies to the top of the tower and begins attacking Dracula with silver batarangs, causing the fight to start. Luckily, midway through the fight, Batman rescues Gordon and saves his life. Although Dracula laughs about Tanya’s death, Batman explains that she was the reason he got here. The two then fight in the sky using their wings, ending with the two of them being fatally wounded. They both fall from the sky, with Dracula being impaled on a wooden spike through his heart on the way down, killing him. His body then turns to dust and vanishes. Batman, in pain, continues to bleed until he collapses, but thankfully, Alfred arrives in his car to try and help Bruce. However, he fails and Bruce dies, leaving Alfred to scream his name. A week later, the mayor of Gotham resigns over the vampire killings. Alfred visits Bruce’s grave and heads home, where he learns of Bruce’s will and what he has left for Alfred, who then heads to a new base of operations, where he meets Batman, alive. However, Batman tells Alfred that he is in fact dead. Bruce Wayne is gone, but Batman will live on forever as he is now a full vampire.
MY THOUGHTS
Before getting to the plot itself, one thing I must congratulate the creative team on is the mood of the story. For all one-hundred pages, the writing, thanks to the character, dialogue and the plot itself, gives off a creepy and sinister tone, similar to the two Deadman miniseries that Kelley Jones was also a part of. Due to that, it makes the tale feel like a horror, very fitting due to the gothic depiction of Gotham City that Moench has supplied. The art also helps in this area because of how eerie or terrifying Jones can actually draw vampires, which are creatures that I find silly more than serious, but more on the art and the vampires in a bit. Now moving onto the plot, which may have some slow moments at the start, but overall it is very good. The tales begins mysteriously and hooks us pretty quickly, with a vampire attack, instantly making us question why there are vampires in Gotham. I feel like this was the best way to open the story as not only is it quick and to the point but grabs you and makes you interested. While these murders occur throughout, Bruce is visited by Tanya, who features in numerous scenes before we are properly introduced to her. One thing that became pretty clear to me in just the early pages of the story is that Batman will become a vampire by the ending. While this isn’t so shocking as the story is known for that (and I knew that too), it just felt like an expected thing that would happen in the story. Not to say that as it is expected it is bad or a negative choice however, as you are naturally interested in Batman’s transition to be a vampire. Therefore, the scenes featuring Tanya visiting Bruce in a dream sort of state added and served as a nice subtle build up to the suspected ending of the story, but like I said, this takes up the first twenty-five pages of the story and although I like the scenes for what they add, they are a factor in why the story had a slow start, but more on that later. This takes us perfectly to one aspect of the story that was told subtly well with a hint of horror: Bruce’s transformation. It begins with Bruce getting pains in his back along with strange marks, obviously hinting at the gigantic wings that he grows later in the story. Bruce then gets super strength, you know, making him able to lift up cars. It is pretty evident that Tanya bit Bruce, causing this to start, but it spirals even further when Bruce is given a blood transfusion from Tanya, making him into a full vampire, meaning that he can now fly with wings and so on. Looking at the story from the trilogy perspective, this chapter serves as the uprising of Vampire Batman, showing us how he got his powers and his origin if you like and while there is a lack of noticeable drawbacks to his powers, not only has he just got them, but that’s what the second story, Bloodstorm (1994) has the purpose of doing. But focusing on this story, the transition of Bruce is told subtly and mostly well. While a lot of the book is taken up by characters and their stories, most of which are certainly integral to the plot, I’ll begin covering them here, starting with Batman and Alfred, who feel very much like the normal characters they are in the normal comics, but here, Moench has made them feel very different and even a bit darker, making us interested in what sort of feel like new characters, but honestly, I’m sure we all know who Batman is, so I’ll move onto the villains of the story, most notably, Dracula! At first, I was weary of the villain due to the fact that I wasn’t a huge fan of vampires, but here (despite the lack of information about him), Dracula comes across as a genuine threat to pretty much everyone in the story, mainly due to how malicious and evil he could be at times. He doesn’t really feature in the story that much, but when he does, the tone of the story becomes even colder and harsher, especially when the Jones duo draw him in the sinister lighting, full of dark shadowing and lighting. But really, the villains of (continues after image)
the story are the vampires, who (again) I was a bit cautious about, mainly due to the fact that in other comics featuring hordes of creatures like zombies and vampires, they tend to be brainless and incredibly one-dimensional. However, that only applies to half of the vampires, as the other half, who are aided by Tanya, have joined her in her quest to defeat Dracula. These vampires are barely shown, but when they are, you sympathise with them as their lives have been cruelly taken from them. I think that Moench should have gone down this route more as seeing it briefly makes you more interested in it. Tanya, a character who reminds me a lot of Ann (I think that’s what her name was anyway) from Deadman: Love After Death as while the relationship between Batman and Tanya isn’t a romantic one, she is a catalyst for Batman turning into a creature of the night (even more of one than he is usually). Honestly, I do find her character a bit bland, not unlikable, but bland. I do think that she becomes more interesting when we learn about her origin and how she is behind this rebellion to kill Dracula, which is actually a lot more interesting than it sounds. She is important to the story, mainly her death however, which certainly makes Batman a bit more vengeful and darker, something we will see more of in the sequels to this story. Before getting to the ending of the story, I have to mention the subplot going on throughout the tale, which is about Commissioner Gordon and the mayor. Even though Gordon is very similar to how he normally is… actually, no, he is exactly the same, I really do like the background scenes as it highlights the police crime fiction that has been a focus on Batman comics since the 1930s. We see a pretty corrupt mayor who is covering up the vampire killings, making Gordon angry, causing him to join Batman and the vampires. This is classic Gotham, except to the nth degree as it features vampire and it is just a lot darker than normal. These scenes give us breaks in the main storylines, but they aren’t boring ones as yes, they are important in the end, but they are just interesting pieces of the story. It is great also to see Gordon become a bigger part of the plot, as he does later for the ending of the story, which leads me brilliantly to that topic. The last half of the story is fantastic, with incredibly paced action while Moench maintains the horror mood of the tale. Batman’s fight against Dracula is something we have never really seen before as Batman actually has superpowers (or vampires’ powers), meaning that the fight is a lot tenser as the two of them are basically fighting over who rules Gotham City. And of course, in the end, Dracula is defeated in what I think is a masterful death, but so is Batman. Not only that, but Wayne Manor is now gone (a very shocking but great progression in the story) and Bruce Wayne is imagined to be dead as well. This leaves so many questions up for debate, but then we do find out that Bruce is in fact alive after his fight and that as he is a vampire, he will remain being Batman for the rest of his life, living with
Alfred in the centre of Gotham City. This ending to the tale is a conclusion as the villains have been defeated, but there are countless questions left open-ended. This was certainly what Moench wanted as all of these unanswered questions means that a sequel is possible! And as this story was a best seller, it got one, but that’s for next time. Like I said, the ending is very good and while it does feel like a suitable ending to this chapter, it sets up a follow up perfectly. Apart from all of that, I must mention that I think Batman’s interaction with Ariane is another great scene, as it informs us about the facts of vampires (fictious facts, obviously). I not only like the scene because it updates hermits like me about some information about vampires, but the scene feels a lot like Batman is at his weakest as he constantly doubts the existence of vampires and doesn’t have any knowledge about them. This feels so unique for Batman, who usually knows everything and to me, it makes the scene a lot more entertaining and frightening to read.
As opposed to some Elseworlds and Batman fans out there, this isn’t a flawless story for many reasons, but it is one to remember and enjoy massively. Although I mentioned this before, I’ll repeat that I thought that the first quarter of the tale was a bit slow and while it introduced us to the situation carefully, I thought that it could be hard to read. Then there is the character of Dracula, who although threatening and scary, doesn’t have much of a character or ambition, apart from wanting to harvest all of the blood from Gotham City. Granted, that is pretty much all that Dracula does, but still, I think some development was needed. Also, one part of the story which didn’t seem to have any effects or follow up was Bruce’s visit with the doctor (who should have been Alfred, just to make the plot more concise), who doesn’t seem too bothered about Bruce Wayne or why a millionaire would randomly want a blood test. This just comes across as strange and out of the ordinary. Alfred could have filled in that role much better as we have seen him act like a doctor in previous stories and comics. Why can’t he be one here? One giant missed opportunity in the story was Tanya and her gang of vampire killers, who we barely see, and they appear to also be vampires. Moench could have made these vampires into interesting people, with different backgrounds and reasons for joining Tanya’s fight against Dracula. Just because they are vampires doesn’t mean that they can be bad characters. They just feel out of place and pointless when they are just shooting vampires without adding anything into the story. Lastly, focusing on that scene in the sewer, Bruce’s fight against Dracula results in him needing a blood transfusion, but when see the fight, Batman barely gets hurt, apart from a few cuts and bruises. Due to that, Batman could have gone back further into the sewers to meet with Tanya again, but instead, he acts like a wimp and goes home…
Honestly, if you have read my two previous reviews on Deadman by Jones, you’ll know I like his art, but this vampire trilogy serves as an interesting view of how Jones’s art changes throughout the 1990s. Looking at the art here, it is very good as usual and it adds to the horror tone of the tale desirably. The lighting is great. The shadowing is great and like always, Jones adds some incredibly impressive backgrounds to panels, adding an extra sense of perspective and detail to them. While Jones’s art is not what he is now known for as there are a lot of rogue lines and curves on capes and cloaks, not long after, Jones begun changing his already unique style, adding interesting black shapes and thicker curves in capes to make them look more like the Kelley Jones we see today. That being said, a lot of that could be down to inker Malcolm Jones III, who inks Jones very well here, amplifying the horror tone of the
tale. While it may not be as stylised as inkers like John Beatty, it still looks very good and scenes in the story such as the sewers and the Batcave look incredibly detailed and scary.
VERDICT
Overall, Batman & Dracula: Red Rain is a classic Elseworlds story that is very entertaining and interesting while being a genuine horror tale. It manages to turn something I find silly, vampires, into a more serious threat and while it has countless other positives that I mentioned before, it does have some flaws, mainly in pacing and how Moench could even develop some scenes and characters further to make them more interesting while adding detail to the overall tale. The art by the Jones duo is very good, perhaps not Kelley Jones’s best, but still recognisable as him. But like I said, the story doesn’t end here. Oh no. We are only a third of the way through the experience as in the next review, we will be looking at the expected sequel to Red Rain, which is Bloodstorm!
Story: 8.5/10
Art: 9/10
Highlighted Character: Vampire Batman (Bruce Wayne)
Next Review: Batman: Bloodstorm. Written by Doug Moench with art by Kelley Jones and John Beatty. Expected to be published by 20/10/2019.
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