Review: Batman Vampire

Batman Vampire by Doug Moench
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

*** Content warning: Mature themes, graphic violence, nudity. ***

When your favorite comic character dresses like a bat, works during the dark hours, stays in the shadows and instills the ever-living fear of death onto criminal scum, it's only a while before you begin to draw parallels between them and another of pop culture's iconic characters, who share many of the traits, but inhabit moreover of a neutral evil compared to the Lawful Good (maybe Lawful Neutral) of your favorite muse.

So many jokes are being made about Count Batman, or the Bat Vampire, it would not be a surprise if there are stories featuring both of them facing off; or him being an actual f***ing Vampire. What surprised me was that it took me this long to come across the story.

I had previously encountered a similar character in the DC animated movie 'Justice League: Gods and Monsters' but seeing as how that character was not the Bruce Wayne Batman, doesn't really count.

Seeing as how this story is set in the same time period as the Batman: Knightfall trilogy, the visual aesthetic choices make sense. As are the hyper visualized, hypersexualized characters (especially female ones). Hence the warning for Graphic content.

The story, unfolding in three arcs, is set in a parallel canon, and sees the caped crusader facing off against the OG vampire himself, as well as his army of undead. You'd think that much like the 2005 animated movie Batman vs Dracula, this would involve Bats overcoming insurmountable odds to defeat the vampire progenitor using his wits and perseverance, saving the day yet again.

Well, he does, sort of. Only to be infected himself and slowly find himself turning into the very evil he sought to destroy. Now wrestling with his newly acquired undead state, as well as the insatiable thirst for life blood that comes with it, the Dark knight must contend with the criminal elements of the city, while at the same time battle the ever-strengthening primal evil that has taken root within himself.

Things take a turn from bad to worse, as towards the end, he has transformed into an awesome looking bat monstrosity, barely keeping his sanity, after having sacrificed his morality and crossing the one-line Batman wouldn't be caught dead crossing. Well, he did, die I mean, so technically this doesn't count, maybe?

With their greatest protector turning into the greatest threat to their very existence, his former allies and enemies must contend with a new Batman, one who is not averse to crossing the lines.

As the series winds up to its conclusion, it poses an interesting moral paradigm to many of the questions surrounding Batman's code of no killing. Having resorted to killing the vilest of his villains to satiate his thirst, starting with the Joker, Bats quickly runs the gauntlet of his rogues gallery, draining them dry.

All the while operating under the justification that, if he needs to kill and consume someone, it might as well be the criminal elements. But, with the worst of them already out of the way, and his thirst showing no sign of abating, he begins turning to the more and more mundane offenders. Eventually he is willing to consider the possibility of preying on the lowest level offenders, and after that even innocents.

This draws a parallel to a similar discussion that Superman had with the flash in the Injustice comics by Tom Taylor. Although there the discussion was more focused on creating a 'perfect utopia' leading to a crimeless society. How far should one go in the pursuit of justice? At what point should petty crimes and misdemeanors be treated harshly as serious irredeemable ones to achieve 'true peace'.

Vampire Bats goes through the same conundrum, but for widely different motives. One aspect that I loved about the character is that, even while he succumbs to his baser undead instincts, his mind and intellect are still sharp. He knows, at some point, he had become a menace greater than even the Joker. Even while outwardly, he combats against his opponents, inwardly, what remains of the Dark knight, is fighting against his very being, willing to end his existence for the greater good.

He does in the end, but only after taking everyone, including his foster father, and closest ally with him. The ending is quite somber and harrowing, yet at the same time cathartic and final.

Another aspect that drew me to the story is the Shakespearean prose. Much like Hamlet or Macbeth devolving into madness and cursing the world and their own ineptitude for their current predicament, Batman delivers inner monologues and soliloquies like a stage actor, adding to the tragedy of this version of the character. Reading it while visualizing the character descent, adds a certain poetic flair and gravitas to the story.

So, I would definitely recommend it as an entertaining, yet poignant Batman story, featuring some of the classic elements which made the character such a conflicting yet intriguing leading man to follow.


View all my reviews