Designation: Earth-1191 Zombies are pretty dark, huh? Well what about vampires? What about if the vampire in question was Batman? What if the vampire in question was Batman, and he had been turned by Dracula, gone insane, and gone on a rampage where he decapitated most his rogues gallery, until finally getting staked by Alfred and Commissioner Gordon? Yep, pretty dark. The original Batman & Dracula: Red Rain story ends with the Dark Knight supposedly "dead", when in fact he has been cursed with eternal life and bloodlust from the Victorian vampire villain. It's in the sequels, Bloodstorm and Crimson Mist, that the gothic starts to overtake Gotham City more than ever before. Bats goes made after draining the blood from the Joker, demanding Gordon and Alfred stake him. Thankfully they didn't cut off his head, though, so when the hero's old enemies start taking over the city he has the stake pulled out of him and returns to murder pretty much everyone. If that all sounds rather intense, worry not, for the tale has a happy ending! Well, sort of. Batman kills the Penguin, the Riddler, Poison Ivy, Black Mask, Amygdala, the Scarecrow, Two-Face and Killer Croc, explodes Gordon and Alfred, then walks out into the sunlight to die himself. Yay...?
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
