Batman As Vampire

The story starts like many dark Batman tales: He investigates grisly murders. Batman finds homeless people with slashed throats. While examining a body, he gets attacked by something like a zombie.

Everyone in the GCPD avoids mentioning the crimes, except Commissioner Gordon. Later, Batman sees the throat cuts are a tactic to hide bite marks.

Batman goes to the sewers to find out about the undead woman who attacked him. He finds a pile of drained bodies.

After fighting two vampire groups, Batman learns Dracula lives in the sewers. Dracula feeds on homeless people and creates an undead army that threatens Gotham.

Bruce Wayne has strange dreams. Each time he sleeps, a beautiful woman drinks his blood in the dream, growing stronger. He realizes he is not dreaming; Tanya, a halfling, is turning him into a vampire.

Tanya's kiss gives Bruce immense strength. He gains real bat wings made of leathery skin. These wings look repulsive yet add beauty to his shadow.

Joining vampire hunters, Batman figures out they must expose Dracula's minions to sunlight. They must get them to the Batcave before destroying Wayne Manor.

The blast makes Bruce's old home a huge crater. It kills most vampires. Batman and Alfred lose their home. They move into a brownstone in Gotham City. This adds to the trilogy's gloomy setting.

The guys behindBatman and DraculaThey did not want a comic about two giants fighting. They wanted to mirror the gothic mood between Bram Stoker’sDraculaand Gotham City versions that appeared over the years. Still, the climax ofBatman and Draculashows a final fight between them. This fight settles who wins without question.

During the fight, Dracula bites Batman, turning the Dark Knight into a creature of the night. Batman uses this advantage in the second book. Because he has a pure heart, holy objects like crucifixes do not weaken him.

In the second book of the series, BloodstormBatman cooks while being Gotham's sole vampire. He fights villains with new speed. He survives on a blood-like serum. Things go wild when the Joker partners with leftover vampires from the Wayne Manor destruction.

The Joker uses his villain skills to make vampires force everyone in the underworld to drink blood. This makes them depend on him for sustenance. By the time Batman learns the truth, the Joker controls the entire Gotham underworld.

After most of the Gotham underworld turns into night creatures, Batman pressures Commissioner Gordon. Batman makes Gordon agree to help the Dark Knight eliminate Joker's followers. Gordon organizes police officers to raid crypts and vampire nests in a single day, aiming to remove as many bloodsuckers as possible.

The plan mostly succeeds. Many vampires mean Gordon and his team cannot eliminate them all in one day without the Joker noticing. Even with less than a perfect success rate, Gordon gives Batman and Catwoman space to handle the Joker and his vampire lieutenants.

Selina Kyle becomes a werecat after a vampire attacks her. This mirrors her origin story from Tim Burton’s.Batman ReturnsSelina Kyle survives an attack by a vampire under the full moon. Her cats heal her. Instead of becoming a vampire, she becomes a werecat that calms Batman’s bloodlust.

This is a classic Elseworlds twist on the character. It adds to Catwoman's backstory, even in a single graphic novel.

Over the course of BloodstormBloodstormBatman's bloodlust increases, but Selina calms him. This changes when she dies fighting the Joker and his vampire followers. Seeing her dead, Batman loses control and drains the Joker completely.

During the graphic novel, Batman approached insanity. He stopped drinking his serum and even ate a rat. This final attack on the Joker finally pushes him over the edge from hero to villain.hero to villainThis is not the first time.Batman takes a life.Seeing Batman end the Joker this way feels out of character and startling.

Batman succumbs to his worst urges. Drinking Joker's blood makes Batman realize he cannot survive. He does not seek animal feeding or a new blood serum. Instead, he asks Alfred to stake him through the heart.

The butler and Commissioner Gordon agree. They end Batman's life, leaving him to decay under his brownstone.

The vampire trilogy establishes that defeating the undead requires a stake through the heart and removal of the head. Alfred and Commissioner Gordon only pierce Batman’s heart with a stake, leaving his head intact. As Batman lies undead in his crypt, Bruce’s body decays while his mind thrives in the darkness, slowly driving him mad with bloodlust.

A crime wave hits Gotham. Penguin slays cops, Poison Ivy enslaves men, and Riddler moves drugs. Things sour. After a tough talk with Commissioner Gordon, Alfred removes the stake from Batman’s heart, freeing the blood-hungry demon from its sleep. Batman warns Alfred before nearly eating him, then vanishes into a red mist.

Batman rejects using his Rogues Gallery or letting the courts handle things. Batman decides to slay every villain brutally. He uses old-school punishment; he is not being ironic.

Batman’s most gruesome acts form a “crimson wave.” In the trilogy’s final novel, Batman turns into a red mist floating through Arkham Asylum bars. Inside, he wipes out villains cell by cell. Penguin, Poison Ivy, and the Black Mask Gang, who are outside Arkham, get bled dry and beheaded.

Two-Face and Killer Croc avoid Batman’s immediate action. They realize they cannot cause trouble with an all-powerful Batman present. They team up with Gordon and Alfred to take down the Bat.

Commissioner Gordon plans: Alfred leads Batman into the sun from under the Wayne Manor caves. This cooks Batman and ends the citywide nightmare. Batman has other plans. He ends everyone first, then offers Gordon vampirism. He turns the planet on to wipe out vampires by attrition. Batman is completely gone; ignore the Bat’s plans.

The plan flips. Batman beheads Alfred after draining him to regain strength against Two-Face. Gordon is crushed by a rock after setting off bombs meant to expose the sun over the caves. The plan fails.

With his friends gone, Batman considers his freedom. He figures he can only keep his sanity for so long. He chooses the only thing that redeems him—stepping into the sunlight and becoming ash.

The only thing left of the defender ofGotham City ishis cowl and cape—a reminder of who he once was.