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The seasonal review/rambles continue in the vampire vein! Just how many more comics and TPB's do have that involve dead things with fangs? Stay tuned to find out as the accidental, unofficial vampire month marches onward!

I meant to have this coincide with a review/ramble of the The Batman vs. Dracula movie, but I fell asleep during that so no go there. Anyway..

Gotham's being eaten from within, toxic waste has turned the rain to acid, giving it a reddish hue. It infects the water, stings the eyes, it's changing people.. even the dead.

Meanwhile, a mysterious series of slasher murders plagues the city. More and more homeless are turning up with their throats slit and their blood drained. As Gotham's own Dark Knight investigates, what he encounters will change him forever.

Possible Spoilers







This OGN explores an alternate reality where Batman and Gotham find themselves face to face with a vampiric horde. Created by Dough Moench and Kelly Jones, it was so popular that it ended up having two follow up stories, Batman: Bloodstorm, and Batman: Crimson Mist, each taking the familiar residents of Gotham and giving them a decidedly dark twist. Sadly I only have the first one, and Crimson Mist. Since I don't have Bloodstorm I've never actually read Crimson Mist, which I bought by accident, oops. Anyway..

It's a pretty short but pretty snazzy story. Kelly Jones and Doug Moench paint a rather grim and gothy tale, a Gotham with cobble stone street, street lights that look like oil lamps, a perpetual cloud cover over the city, and the frequent and toxic red rains that accompany them.

Batman is here, doing his usual bat thing, fighting crim, protecting the innocent. In particular, tracking down the throat slasher killer. At the same time he's plagued by vivid and haunting dreams. A woman visits him in the night, trying to tell him something, trying to give him something. The two are not unrelated and as he soon finds out, the slasher murders are just the tip of the iceberg.

Yes, Dracula has come to Gotham city. For reasons unknown, but suggested that the red rain has something to do with it, he's abandoning the stealth and subterfuge that has been his weapon and protection throughout the centuries. Becoming far bolder he's slowly assembling an army of the undead which he'll use to take over the city, and then..well.. you can figure the rest out.

The woman? One of Dracula's former minions, another vampire who's developed a conscience and seeks to oppose him. She's organized a small resistance force that has been clashing with him on and off thorughout the years, but never directly. He's too powerful, and he also still controls those he created.. which brings us to Batman, the one person she feels stands a chance against the lord of the dead. The dreams and the "gift" she gives him are meant to prepare him for his confrontation with Dracula.

The ensuing clash between Dracula's forces and Batman and the anti-Dracula vampires results in the destruction of Wayne Manor, and the death and rebirth of Batman.

The comic's pretty short, it's under 100 pages and the story moves along very quickly. The dialogue's not the greatest but it's perfectly readable. The art is the real star here. Kelly Jones gives us an uber goth-y Gotham, looking more like an England out of Sherlock Holmes movies or old Jack the Ripper flicks. Fog, clouds, cobblestone, oil lamps, victorian looking manors and town house, good stuff. His renditions of Batman are really lovely, his cape and cowl almost dripping off of him like liquid darkness is some cases. Of course, anyone who's been a Batman has already seen Kelly Jones' take on him. He provided god knows how many covers to the Batman comics throughout the 90's. In fact, I think he did almost half of the covers for Knightfall.

Dracula fans might be a bit disappointed though. He's not particularly impressive, and looks fairly non-descript. In fact, they probably could've called him something else completely without effecting the story in anyway shape or form. No origin or background info is really given, beyond the fact that he's Dracula and he's been a vampire for a long long time. So, yeah.. maybe calling it Batman vs. Dracula was a bit misleading since he doesn't really seem very.. Dracula-ish.

Still, it's a lovely little book, and was one of the first Elseworlds that really stood out. I don't think it's quite worth the $12 or $15 it's got for a cover price, $10 seems a bit more reasonable frankly. It does work as a standalone book too. You get the full story here and can ignore the two spin off's. No cliffhanger ending or anything like that.

So for a short stand alone story, I guess it's not too shabby. Visually, very pretty, but a bit average writing wise.