| Title | : | Batman Vampire |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1401215653 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781401215651 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 296 |
| Publication | : | First published February 1, 1999 |
The legendary horror known as Dracula has descended upon Gotham City — and he's brought his deadly children of the night with him. Now, it's up to Batman to stop the Lord of the Undead's assault on his city — but after being bitten by Dracula, Batman himself joins the ranks of the undead. Will Batman be an even greater threat to the citizens of Gotham City than Dracula?
TALES OF THE MULTIVERSE is a new series of titles collecting stories of familiar heroes reimagined in startling ways.
Batman Vampire Reviews
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DC's done a bit of a bait and switch here. This was previously published as Batman: Vampire. It's a trilogy of Elseworlds stories where Batman becomes a vampire. This should be fantastic. Batman fights Dracula, then becomes a vampire himself. But the writing is awful. Kelley Jones's art is horrendous. Batman has about 30 ribs. Everyone looks as if they are in a funhouse mirror. The women are all ridiculously large-breasted with misshapen boobs. They look like they had plastic surgery gone wrong. Stay far, far away from these Elseworlds stories and read volumes 1 and 3 instead. They are great.
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The art is, to my mind, some of the worst ever, and completely distracts from any value that the story itself may have. It was a chore to finish.
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Nice collection of one of the more disturbing but interesting Batman Elseworlds stories. While I was not a fan of the art the story was exceptionally well written. Very recommended
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This collections is Doug Moench's revisiting Batman as a vampire, from BATMAN & DRACULA: RED RAIN, BATMAN: BLOODSTORM and BATMAN: CRIMSON MIST. This is a much darker take on Batman and a tragic one, the art is very dated to the 1990s now, but the gothic color scheme and lettering is effective. The story arch is bleak but comes to a definitive end.
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Jesus. Fucking. Christ. On. A. Stick!
De mult n-am mai citit ceva atât de violent și de sângeros, cu grafică atât de stilizată, și totul descinde în cea mai faină concluzie ever!
Ăsta e un MUST READ! -
Collecting
Batman & Dracula: Red Rain (4 stars),
Batman: Bloodstorm (4 stars), and
Batman: Crimson Mist (3 stars), this is one book you can really sink your teeth into!
One of the more interesting (and disturbing!) Elseworlds tales DC Comics ever published, the collected Batman: Vampire may not be for everybody, but if I could enjoy it, I believe anyone can. The writing is consistently good, but I think the real 'draw' here is Kelley Jones' art. The weakest part of the trilogy was Crimson Mist, with all the Bat-villains, the bloodshed, the be-headings, etc., but it did have a fitting (and logical) ending. -
Eh, I was excited by the idea of this book, but didn't end up enjoying too much about it. These Elseworld Collections DC is doing are a great idea, and this one having three Elseworld stories set in the same world seemed like a good place to pick one up, but there just wasn't too much for me.
I would have liked to see more of Batman fighting vampires before he becomes one himself. I guess the point of the story WAS that he becomes a vampire, but I just wasn't feeling it.
I would say don't pick this up unless you are really a fan of gothic horror, or vampires. I don't know if I would really tell someone interested in the Elseworlds series to start here. -
Collected here are the three "Elseworld" comic series of Batman vs. Dracula, then vs. the Joker (plus vampires) and then the worst of the DC baddies before he himself is finally laid to rest. It is a very different view of the Batman universe, one where Batman is not only a tortured soul but also a lost man who gives in to the evil within his veins. The first book vs. Dracula was interesting, the subsequent stories of a vampiric "batman" were dragged out way too much to try and prove the point of his slow and painful fall into the abyss.
It could have been better, but it also could have just stopped with the first one and I would have been all good with it. -
The vampire batman stories are not definitely not your usual batman stories!
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Close to greatness. Jones's art has its impressionistic, visceral moments but hasn't dated well. His faces are uneven to say the least (Alfred goes from a gaunt old man to what appears to be a human chipmunk) and no female character is spared from undignified poses, even in death.* The contrast-heavy inks in the third volume goes a long way toward rectifying some of these issues but by then the story's on its way out.
Monech fares better. The plot is suitably tortured and bleak, and takes a few nice twists. Batman's narration and the unhurried pace weave a deeply gothic atmosphere. Shame about the art, then.
* Let us not spare the scene where Selina Kyle flees the undead via running water, and comes out the other side mysteriously stripped to her underwear and writhing like a pole dancer. Good stuff! -
Red Rain is a really fun Batman vs Dracula book, and then it just escalates from there, Bloodstorm adding in Joker and focusing more on Batman's moral code. Crimson Mist is the grand finale and indulges in the concept of a vampire Batman that has a natural need to kill and drink blood.
I loved the artwork, Kelley Jones is one of my all time favorite horror comic artists and there are so many stunning pages throughout all three volumes. The late 90s digital coloring in Crimson Mist adds in a weird cartoony feel but it doesn't entirely ruin the mood.
You can tell that Doug Moench is someone who's been writing Batman for over a decade at that point. It knows the characters and knows just how to twist them to fit with this world.
I got their 2009 Batman Unseen miniseries shortly after it came out and I loved it and have read it several times since. It took me way too long to read this, their more famous collaboration, but it definitely made me want to read all their other books. -
Sarò sincero: prima di leggerlo, pensavo che sarebbe stata una mezza cagata, perché l'idea dei vampiri a Gotham mi sembrava stupida. Ma in giro ne parlano bene, quindi mi sono fidato.
E ho fatto bene, perché sono tre storie davvero belle!
Tre avventure appassionanti, cupe e drammatiche. Il modo con cui sono state uniti il mito dei vampiri con l'universo di Batman, è brillante: in queste storie c'è il meglio che si può avere da storie di vampiri e il meglio che si può avere da storie di Batman.
Storie coinvolgenti e inquietanti, e i disegni di Kelley Jones (ed anche i colori, direi) sono semplicemente perfetti, per questo tipo di atmosfere.
Forse la terza storia è la meno riuscita, come trama, ma compensa con grandi scene dal forte impatto emotivo. -
I'd say the main positive of this collection is that vampire Batman has a pretty good design, at least in the first two parts. The story went on far too long for what the concept required. Other than the design of a few characters the art is pretty bad, with several panels verging on unintentionally hilarious.
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Read for TLP.
I'm so mad this book exists. -
I read these individualy. I really enjoyed the stories.
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This series, in which Batman fights Dracula, becomes a vampire himself, and goes crazy, has absolutely no business being good. And yet, Moench approaches the material with such an even-keeled, character-centered, gothic flare that it not only works, it's actually great. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's still a pretty wild, over-the-top story. But I found myself gleefully reading what could've been classic Elseworlds bullshit.
A huge star of this collection is Kelley Jones. Jones's exaggerated, dark, horrifying depictions of Batman and his rogues gallery would feel completely out of place in any other book, and yet here they shine. He's a master of the grotesque, drawing even his human characters as slightly alien masses of flesh and bone and sinew, really bringing the horror to life on the page.
Also, I don't often compliment letterers (a problem, to be sure), but Todd Klein has outdone himself here. The distinctive scripting style he uses makes this feel like a Victorian nightmare scrawled on parchment, despite the fact that this is set in what seems to be the modern day (well, the early 90s, when this was written).
All in all, the storytelling is solid, as well. The first chapter, "Red Rain," is by far the best. This was the original idea Moench pitched, and was never intended to have sequels. As such, he really goes all out here with the story of Batman facing down Dracula. It's a page-turning adventure, and I wondered how he was going to top it in the following two chapters.
And, well, he doesn't. But by no means are the final two chapters "bad." They just don't quite live up to the quality of the first story. But, I still commend Moench for writing two stories that logically take this idea to its furthest conclusion, while finding fun and unique ways to incorporate Catwoman, Joker, and other Bat-Villains into this weird world. His dialogue and tone are consistent throughout (minus some very cringey dialogue for Two-Face in the final chapter), and the fact that each story is about Batman's own tortured psyche, rather than simply "big crazy plots," keeps the story centered.
So, surprising even myself, I fully recommend this. It seems particularly good for a Halloween read. -
The gritty and dark style of the art is cool.
It very much lives in the negative space, which is very hard to pull off.
Some of it is brilliant, awesomely gothic in style and certain panels look amazing.
Unfortunately, the it's also wildly inconsistent. On one page, Alfred is slim and pointy-chinned and on the next one he's suddenly broad-faced with jowls.
Batman misses his entire jaw for a panel.
The colouring person forgets that Jim Gordon has a moustache in one panel and in another, forgets that Two-face's ruined face is supposed to be a different colour to the other half. Then the artist seems to forget that Two-face is supposed to be different on each side of his face.
So slobby.
The artist has apparently never seen blood in real life and especially how it flows and smears, just like there are some really odd body shapes around this comic.
Batman's cape is confusingly huge (enormous) too, while it looks good some of the time, it looks weird most of the time.
Eventually Batman becomes an evil vampire, but he looks entirely different to Dracula, for some reason. He looks a bit like a corpse, but oddly enough, a corpse with ribs sticking out and *still* retaining a six-pack? Absolutely ridiculous.
The plot is atrocious. Didn't expect anything else, but I was really hoping.
Of course, Selina Kyle gets bitten as well, but for unexplained reasons, she becomes a weird sort of were-cat. Even though she was bitten by a vampire.
The comic is filled with nonsensical stuff like that and really needed more of a clearly established and defined rule set for how exactly the vampires work, how they turn people and how they die.
Batman, super genius and very well educated, has to be taught by some old lady that silver is bad for werewolves and the entire Dracula myth - maybe I'm all off here, but a man dressed as a bat and preying on superstition, well, I assumed he'd know of Stoker's Dracula.
Weird half-naked ladies are introduced without any real point. She's a short love interest for Batman, but it's so weak and it doesn't come off the pages well.
All in all a terrible waste of time. The only redemption is the sometimes-gorgeous artwork, but it's just as terrible at times as it is good at other times.
Just stay away from it, is my recommendation. -
Firstly I would like to say that ever since vampires became the new Justin Bieber of the entertainment industry and you could not go more than 5 seconds with out either hearing about Twighlight, or some other new moronic emo teen fantasy butt glitter, that I pretty much have grown to despise all things vampire. However my deep abiding love for dark and bloody Batman comics made it impossible for me to pass this one up and I am more than pleased to have Batman: Vampire now in my vast and ever growing collection.
Batman:Vampire is a Other World Story that takes place out side of the Batman universe that we all know and while this story carries with it manny of the same aspects it is vastly different from that Batman world you know. Vampire takes place in what appears to be a 1940-1950's gotham during what seems like Batman's earlier years in his war on crime. In this grim tale Batman investigates the brutal serial murders of Gotham's homeless found bloodless with slashed throats in the streets. Obsessed with finding the killer, and plagued with all to real dreams of a mysterious woman coming to him in his bed through red mist Batman begins to fit the pieces of a nightmare that his logical scientific mind refuses to believe exists until it is all to late, Vampires are real and they and no one is safe. In order for Batman to stop a global genocide he must destroy everything hes known and truly become the symbol of his cause, he must become a monster to defeat the greatest evil hes ever known, but at what cost? -
Maybe my favourite comic of all time now. The trilogy is well plotted, and the art just gets weirder and grosser and better as it goes on, and the lettering is so delicious. Batman’s inner-monologues toward the end verge on the melodramatic, but there’s real suffering there, and compared to newer comics, his speeches are nowhere near silly, and in fact, the dialogue in all three sections is sharp and odd and great to read. A really great pace, no weird loose ends, and a perfectly contained story that doesn’t need to be time-travel reversed or multiverse’d into something new or blah blah blah. I can’t believe how many great self-contained titles DC seems to have out, nor can I believe how cheap they are in digital format compared to anything I’ve purchased from Marvel or Dark Horse from their similar apps. If DC wants to compete with Disney-powered Marvel films, they should be adapting things like this into films, not trying to compete with an unsustainable hyperextended expanding universe like that of the MCU. It takes that Disney-engine to make a Star Wars film a year viable, and it takes a Disney-engine to give enough juice to cobble together bad superhero elements to make something watchable like the Avengers. DC: mine your incredible back catalogue like this to tell great stories, and don’t waste your time mimicking Marvel.
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This has become my favourite Batman book. i love the Dark Knight returns and Batman year one, but as a fan of the Caped Crusader and of horror, this book delivered on so many levels.
The book does nothing to expand the Batman Mythos, as it is a stand along, else world tale, but I think the Dark Knight lends himself very well to the theme and setting. I've always loved the Batman stories set away from the reusable villains, because it forced the comic to commit and this commits whole heartedly.
Kelley Jone's art has always been hit and miss for me, but he does a great job in this book, making everything look dark and grotesque. Granted, it's not for everyone, especially if you like standard shapes and forms. This book borders on abstract sometimes.
I like Vampires too and the blood thirsty ghouls in this book look great and proper creepy. All in all, a great read and a much loved addition to my humble Batman collection of books. -
Prica iz multiverzuma znači da mogu da totalno izmene priču što su vala bas i uradili. U pitanju je horor priča o Betmen i njegovom sukobu sa drakulom bar na početku posle se to širi na Dzokera i sve ostale zlikovce. Sveska ima skoro 300 stranica. Zao mi je sto nisam čitao ovako nesto kao klinac pošto bi bilo bas strasno ovako je samo dobro. Betmen se u ovoj priči pretvara u Vampira i nekako se kontroliše dok ne popije Dzokerovu krv onda poludi i počinje da ubija sve živo na prvom mestu kriminalce ali sa tendencijom da počne da ubija i nevine. Nešto što je totalno drugačije od klasičnog Betmena i zato sam uživao čitajući ovo delo. Pogotovo je kraj sveske dramatican! Preporuka!
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Cominciato il 20 aprile 2021 per la prima volta e poi abbandonato. Ci ho riprovato a gennaio 2022.
E dopo lunga e penosa malattia sono riuscita a finirlo.
Per prima cosa il disegno: brutto! Ci sono muscoli sul corpo di Batman che non credo esistano in realtà.
La storia. Il primo capitolo non mi è dispiaciuto. Il secondo così, così. Il terzo non finiva più. Luuuungo. Noioso... Con Batman che pensa e pensa e pensa e parla tra sé e sé.
Sorry, Maciek, forse Batman in versione a fumetti non fa proprio per me. -
I love this concept of batman being a vampire and fighting vampires. I like this elsewhere story a lot and the art is decent, sometimes the art style looks weird like close ups of Alfred's face and there is a point where cat-woman falls into a river and her clothes melt off? But if you want to see Batman at his most brutal you should probably pick up this volume because it has all 3 of the vampire Batman tales. ~Ashley
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Tavole bellissime, pittoriche, quasi grottesche. Una storia che richiama i canoni horror d'altri tempi, dal Nosferatu al Dracula di Stoker, dove è l'atmosfera a fare da padrona regalandoci qualche brivido lungo la schiena e qualche riflessione sul concetto di umanità e di mostro.
La consiglio anche ai non amanti degli elseworld e/o dei vampiri in generale: credetemi, vi stupirà. -
I liked bits and pieces, but I mostly found the dialogue trying to hard to pass as deep and dark. Also I couldn't truly understand half of what was written for the internal dialogue of Batman; I felt like I was prying into some Goth kids wet dream in their diary.
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The same team who did Batman: Dark Joker - The Wild bring us this trilogy with a slightly better reputation.
It works better as an Elseworlds story than that one because it basically takes the established lore as a starting point and then goes wild, continuity be damned, instead of creating a whole new mythology from the ground up. In fact, I’d like it better if it was closer to canon - if Catwoman is her usual self BEFORE her transformation, if Two Face is already himself...There’s lots of little touches to suggest this isn’t the normal universe too. Didn’t need them. Just do the normal Batman universe, then throw Dracula and vampires into the mix and go crazy.
That’s mostly what they did anyway - in Red Rain, Batman takes on Drac and his army of vampires in Gotham. He has help from “good” vampires and a blood substitute serum...so yes this is very similar to Marvel’s Tomb of Dracula comic. Near the end he becomes a vampire himself, even sprouting big bat wings. Throughout, due to a weather phenomena, it appears to rain blood.
In Bloodstorm, some remaining vampires are being picked off by Batman, still vampiric himself. The Joker takes up the mantle of their leader (never becoming one himself) and begins a takeover of the city. Batman begins to lose control, the desire to take blood growing (he’s using a serum he got in Red Rain, that is less effective by the night) until ultimately succumbing in the Joker’s lair and drinking his enemy’s blood. As per his request, the even more monstrous vampire Batman is killed by Alfred and Gordon.
In Crimson Mist, a plague of monstrous crooks from Batman’s rogue gallery (some of are either vampires themselves, or newly emboldened in Batman’s absence for worse behaviour) haunts the city. Desperate, Gordon yanks the stake and Batman is resurrected, more monstrous than ever before. Now, he hunts down all the villains, drinks their blood and does the city the concession of decapitating them so they don’t become vampire competition. Heads are lined up outside Blackgate as a warning. It’s Batman on Hellish crack as he just about aims his bloodlust as “bad” people and terrifies the underground. Eventually, Gordon and Alfred decide to take on Batman themselves. The art is laziest here - in both this and Bloodlust I can spot movie stills as basis for panels (oh, Joker is Lon Chaney in London After Midnight, oh, Penguin is Vincent Price). But they still generally look good.
Overall, a really fun set of Batman stories that go in a pretty out there direction. The cursive script was sometimes hard to read but I liked it! -
I'm a big fan of these "what if" stories that are the antithesis of the normal comic books; and usually quite a bit darker. Plus, I have a soft spot for anything vampire or werewolf related. So when I found out this book existed, I had to order it pronto!
The first book, "Batman & Dracula", lived up to its promise in spades! As a standalone, it would probably be on my "favorites" list. The art was exaggerated but fit with the theme well, and the story had a satisfying conclusion. No complaints... loved it!
But then we got the second book, "Bloodstorm". The art in that one was awful. I could only keep track of the human characters based on their costumes and/or makeup. Their facial shapes (especially Alfred and the librarian) changed with every panel to the point where I legitimately thought there was a different person in the room at times. To top it off, the story was kind of run-of-the-mill with The Joker trying to bait batman into killing for the first time. Also, and maybe this is getting into nit-picking territory, but why did Batman have his cape after he sprouted wings? It looked silly and made no sense. The cape is supposed to look like bat wings... but if you have actual wings, it just makes you look like a plump dragonfly. The only useful thing about that story is that it setup the third one.
The third book was right back to the quality of the first and was awesome! The art was more consistent, the monsters (especially Batman) were gruesome, and the action was non-stop. I also got a kick out of the little beasties poking around in the margins... nice touch :) I'm not sure if I liked book 1 or 3 better, they were both excellent stories, in my opinion.
I would love to give this book a 4.5 star overall rating, but the second book drug it down too much. I'll leave it as a solid 4 with the caveat that if you could re-write and re-draw book 2 (you can't ignore it because book 3 depends on it), this would be one of my top 3 Batman books. -
I don't know a lot about vampires, but I know what I like - and I know I like Nosferatu. Specifically, the F. W. Murnau 1922 silent film, starring Max Schreck as Nosferatu? The visage of that bony, hag-ridden corpse, fingers perpetually outstretched, teeth like the Devil and a face like Hell... it strikes a chord with me as something of the penultimate figure in Gothic horror. And hey! Here's a book about Batman, doing just that. (Also, just an aside - if you're a fan of Nosferatu, and haven't watched Shadow of the Vampire, starring Willem Dafoe as Max Schreck as Nosferatu - go watch that. It's great. Alright, back to Batman.)
It seems, initially, as though the Batman: Vampire trilogy - consisting of three distinct (but directly connected) miniseries written by Doug Moench and with pencils by Kelley Jones - runs on something of a camp, even kitschy premise. One glimpse at the outrageous cover (which I'm not ashamed to say I may have based my purchasing decision almost solely upon), with Batman's ridiculously pointed ears, muscles upon muscles, and flowing, curl-tipped cape, conjure up outlandish images in one's mind of a very stupid, very... err... how to put it charitably... "90s" comic book. And, admittedly, one would not be entirely incorrect. Luckily, though, beneath the off-puttingly adolescent surface, beats the heart of a truly effective Edwardian horror story.
Set in the future of Gotham, circa... 20XX, this entire world is seemingly detached from all existing Batman lore. Well, sort of. Batman is still Bruce Wayne, millionaire heir to the Wayne fortune. Alfred Pennyworth is his faithful butler and gentleman's gentleman. Commissioner Gordon is the reluctant ally to the Caped Crusader. And yet, Gotham city is, somehow, even more puerile and nightmarish. Thanks to the impact of global warming, the rain of Gotham's perpetual storm is that of a red acid - the Red Rain. Forcing those who cannot afford much-needed shelter to lives of crime as their only means of survival, we meet Batman's "enemies" for this arc, supplanting his usual cast of villains - rather than his typical, brightly dressed, and entertainingly gimmicky foes, we bare witness to unwitting gangsters, and the scum leading the crime syndicates that would take advantage of such hapless individuals and their lot in life. Oh... and Dracula. Of course.
Easing the reader into the titular "vampire" gimmick was important, and the pay-off is absolute - Red Rain is a completely engrossing tale, and, while drenched with enough fantasy violence to turn a ghost white, it has a brain in its head, too. Vampires are, of course, a potent metaphorical tool, and Doug Moench wastes no part of the buffalo in this regard. There's a surprising depth to the Batman plot thanks to heavy-handed social and political commentary (a welcome introspection on the way ignoring the plights of the downtrodden lower-class will only give rise to evil that threatens to engulf the upper-class, ridding them of their very humanity in the process), and, though I'd hate to spoil the ride, it's a genuinely meaningful examination of this Batman's crime-ridden, oppressive, and entirely corrupt Gotham. It just also has Batman fight Dracula, which is, you know... an entirely more visceral thrill than the book would provide if it were to focus solely on its satirical elements.
That's the first story, Red Rain. The second two stories are... wow. They're something else.
Red Rain was drenched in a layer of Gothic terror - and you would expect no less from a book starring Batman and Dracula - but Bloodstorm and Crimson Mist kick it up a notch. Having been bestowed with vampiric strength and inadvertently given the curse of the Undead by the late Dracula himself, Batman has become a full-fledged vampire. And oh my GOD it is the SCARIEST THING.
Bloodstorm takes a rather typical Batman question - is Batman not as criminal as his foes? - and puts it through the wringer of VAMPIRES!! It is a rote, if tonally fitting, morality play, that expands upon a very traditional aspect of vampire mythology - that of the "good" vampire - but unquestionably, Batman is an actual monster now - flying on devastatingly, horrifically beautiful bat-wings (so very aptly illustrated by Mr. Jones), his blood lust is insatiable, quenched only by an ever-weakening substitute serum left to him by the very ally that gave him his new powers. With Joker - a fittingly horrific take on him, too - gathering what is left of Dracula's beastly children and leading them in a war against all of the denizens of Gotham City (not just the poor... though, admittedly, I find this cheapens the metaphor inherent in Red Rain, but hey, it's Joker, I'll roll with it), it is a fight in which the outcome is all but inevitable - with his arch-nemesis in his sights, Batman dooms both himself and the Joker as the clock ticks down to him finally giving in to his animal instinct.
I don't think I've done an awful lot to quell any fears that this is a silly, silly book. I don't know if I can even disagree with the assessment - especially in the latter chapters, the violence encroaches upon comically over-the-top. The visage of a the vampire Batman, though, is one of the most strikingly horrific I've ever laid eyes upon. The old-fashioned influences of these arcs really make themselves apparent when the truly inhuman Batman is showing; deftly illustrated and only irredeemably bombastic out of its context, Batman: Vampire really does capture the spirit of Gothic legends like Nosferatu and, yes, Dracula, with insightful aplomb. And while it may devolve into immaturity in a few key places, it is at once ridiculous and horrifying - so silly, perhaps, that it wraps back around to terror. The Batman series has proven itself good at that.
I can't really go for an all-in-all recommendation on this one, what with the somewhat exploitative use of bloodletting and nudity and decapitation and whatnot. At the same time, it is a gorgeously presented collection (special mention must be made to the use of colour and shadows, which definitely lend an oppressive unreality to this nightmarish interpretation of Gotham City), and is skillfully lead along by a curious, often deep, yet determinedly relentless script that happily carries along the narrative traditions of some of the best pulp horror comics in the industry - and mimics only the most effective imagery of what I'd go so far as to call the greatest era of horror in literature and film alike. Certainly, if nothing else, this expands expertly on the very concept of a bat-man... and wow, what a concept it is.
