Waiting For The Trade #2

Waiting for the Trade

By Bill Miller

Batman & Dracula: Red Rain

by Doug Moench, Kelley Jones, Malcolm Jones III & Les Dorscheid.

A brief introduction: So I want to thank Scott for the opportunity to write this column on his blog. I figured I’d provide a brief bio, so readers will know what to expect moving forward.

I’m primarily a Marvel fan when it comes to comics. My favorite titles are Captain America and the Avengers, Spider-man and Cosmic Marvel (Quasar, Silver Surfer, Thanos crossovers, etc). I am of course familiar with DC’s major heroes but the only DC book I ever seriously collected was JLI (although I did read the whole Death/Reign of Superman arc in real time as well). From about 1985 (thanks to Secret Wars) to 1995 I collected most of the Marvel line, although I dropped the X-books about halfway through that period. Then in 95 the comics I loved were beyond awful (Spidey’s Clone Saga and Avengers the Crossing) and I dropped the hobby for about a decade with very few exceptions. Enter 2006, when I read in the newspaper about Spidey unmasking for Civil War and I entered a comic shop for the first time in a long while. While ultimately I was not impressed with Civil War, that same first day back I picked up Annihilation since Quasar was on the cover and was blown away by it. After about a year I realized I wasn’t all that enamored with current Marvel except for the cosmic line but one of my comic shops has a discount trade bin and I was able to pick up some Spidey from the period I missed at $5 a piece. This got me into the trade paperback habit, so I began following the few current books I liked (primarily Guardians of the Galaxy) through trade instead of single issues. Throw in things like Amazon and online comic dealers and I see no reason to ever pay $4 for a single issue when half the time I can get trades at that price.

I tend to read trades like I read real books, generally about a chapter a day on the one I am most engrossed in and reading chapters of others concurrently when spare time presents itself. I probably have 20 trades I haven’t read yet, about a dozen of which are in various states of started so there should be no shortage of material to review. That brings us to now. I told Scott I’d write reviews as I finish whatever I am currently reading giving him about three columns a month, maybe more. Again most of what I write about will be Marvel but in those 20 books I mentioned I do have some Aquaman, Godzilla and Star Wars on deck so there will be variety too.

And now on with the review.

Why I Bought This: Dracula is one my favorite characters in fiction. I also enjoy whenever iconic characters are brought together. There are some obvious parallels that can be drawn between these two, and I was looking forward to seeing the execution. Additionally in Dec. 2010 I was given a Batman-Dracula animated film as a gift and that ended up being very well done and quite enjoyable, so when I learned about this completely unrelated graphic novel from the early 90s I decided to track it down on Amazon.

The Plot: The non-spoiler version is contained pretty much in the title. Dracula comes to Gotham City and Batman has to stop him. The Red Rain in the title is a reference to this being an Elseworlds (i.e. out-of-continuity) story set in the near future in which pollution has caused the rain to become red. Although ultimately this subplot has little to do with main story other than a one panel scene in which Dracula explains the rain is affecting people on a genetic level and thus afflicting him with madness when he feeds. However, despite saying this he doesn’t seem to act any different than we would expect Dracula to act anyway. I guess I should add technically this is not a trade paperback but an original graphic novel but I figure they’re similar enough, and I wanted a shorter review this time so I could write the introduction.

For those who want more of a play by play (spoilers ahead: you’ve been warned) Dracula comes to Gotham and begins feeding on the homeless creating a vampire horde. Batman begins to have the kind of bad dreams that plague heroes in vampire fiction while investigating what he believes to be slasher killings at first. He stumbles upon a female vampire and is surprised by her strength, and begins to investigate supernatural causes to the crimes. He tracks the vampires to their lair but is about to be overwhelmed by their numbers when he is rescued by a group of good vampires. Then Dracula arrives and mentally dominates the good vampires, giving us our first one-on-one fight with Batman and Dracula. Despite being wounded Batman fights Dracula to a stalemate by using his own blood to paint a crucifix on the wall and his force of will to hold Dracula at bay until sunrise.

We get the origin of the leader of the good vampires, Tanya, and learn she has been visiting Bruce in his dreams to give him vampiric powers while keeping him alive so he can be a physical match for Dracula while being immune to his power to command the undead. Batman and Tanya lure the vampiric horde into the Bat Cave where Batman detonates a bomb totally destroying Wayne Manor and thus flooding the cave with sunlight killing all of the vampires including Tanya.

Dracula does not take this setback well and kidnaps Comm. Gordon, whom he decides to torture to death rather than bite in a nod to his Vlad the Impaler days. He also mentally takes control of the Bat Cave bats that were freed in the explosion and sets them loose on the city. Batman, now armed with vampire-slayer versions of his weapons like silver batarangs, rescues Gordon and begins the final battle forcing Dracula to retreat to the skies. He then surprises Dracula by unveiling his own batwings thanks to Tanya and they fight in the air above the city. Even with his newfound powers Batman finds Dracula is still far stronger than him. He bites Bruce, who just before passing out uses his knowledge of leverage to impale Dracula on a wooden telephone pole that had been split by lightening. Batman then dies in Alfred’s arms. We see Bruce Wayne’s funeral only for Batman to be reborn on the final page as a fully undead vampire.

Critical Thoughts: I liked this. I think how both characters are portrayed when in this sort of crossover/pastiche is always a primary concern. Dracula comes across as ruthless and evil but also commanding, powerful and used to getting what he wants; which is how he should be. Batman on the other hand shines in the fight scenes were he is clearly outmatched but manages to survive based on resourcefulness and willpower. The scene where uses his blood to paint a crucifix and then stares Dracula down until dawn is a particular high point in the story.

I liked some of the quiet moments as well, especially the scene where Batman visits the occult specialist to research vampires and it leads to a philosophical debate on the nature of evil.

I should also mention this story is much bloodier than I would expect from a mainstream super hero comic. The art in general is more inline with a horror comic than a superhero comic but it works for the story.

Overall Grade: B+. We’re not reinventing the wheel but then these types of stories where two archetypal characters meet for the first time are not intended to do that. Within the confines of this subgenre it is a well-told engaging story. Both characters are treated with respect particularly Dracula, whom let’s face it is in the public domain and could easily have been placed into an in-continuity story where Batman prevails against him like he does any other super-foe. Instead we get the Elseworlds treatment so that we have a more human Batman and Gotham isolated from the larger DC Universe suddenly beset by an iconic unstoppable evil, which when you think about it isn’t that far off from the atmosphere Bram Stoker used when he sent Dracula into London originally.