It's a story told in 3 parts: BATMAN & DRACULA: RED RAIN, BLOODSTORM, and CRIMSON MIST. Dracula comes to Gotham City, and starts attacking and infecting the large population of homeless people around the city. Batman, of course, starts to investigate only to find peculiar clues that force him to think in a way he never considered before. He seeks out advice from a woman named Arianne, an expert in the occult, and realizes that Vampires are actually real and are responsible for the attacks in Gotham.
Batman then meets a gang of vigilante Vampires who are hunting Dracula himself. They team up, and the leader of the gang secretly infects Batman so that he has the strength necessary to defeat Dracula. Over time, Batman realizes how much he needs these added abilities. The only problem is his increasing desire for human blood. Through the teachings of this lady Vampire, Batman creates a synthetic blood substitute that keeps his soul pure. We find out that crosses and religious artifacts can hurt Vampires and Dracula because they've killed in order to feed and therefore their souls are no longer pure.
Batman's purity and added strength helps in his fight with Dracula, but before he can beat him, Batman is bitten by Dracula in mid fight. After executing his plan, which includes sacrificing Wayne Manor in order to trap Dracula with sunlight, Batman manages to stake Dracula and decapitate him, ending the Lord of the Vampires' centuries long plague on mankind.
Bloodstorm is about what happens to Batman after he beats Dracula. Red Mist ends with Batman claiming to be a Vampire, but that not all Vampires are evil. Batman continues his crusade against crime and evil in Gotham, but now with the power of Dracula. He leaves the criminals he stops alive, but notices that there are still Vampire attacks happening around the city, telling him that there is still a nest of Vampires that he missed. Meanwhile, this nest of Vampires is leaderless and just killing random people in order to survive. They are found by none other than the Joker. Who convinces them to let him lead them, promising them the richest and best blood in Gotham.
During this story, Batman also starts to notice how his serum has started to be less and less effective. His thirst for real blood is increasing every night, and he knows that sooner, rather than later, he will have to drink real blood or die. Knowing this, Batman orders Alfred and Commissioner Gordon to stake him and cut his head off in case he ever becomes "impure".
At the end of Bloodstorm, Batman beats and kills the Joker, gives in to his thirst and drinks the Joker's blood and then the blood of a rat. He tells Alfred, who stakes Batman through the heart like he was asked to do, but doesn't cut his head off. Gordon and Alfred bury Batman in a coffin beneath the Wayne Brownstone in Gotham City.
Months go by, and without Batman, Gotham starts to fall back into the hands of the bad guys. Batman's Rogues have reemerged to take control of the city's criminal underground. Alfred feels like he has no other choice and removes the stake from Batman's chest, allowing him to be resurrected. This time, though, Batman says he will never allow himself to be killed again and that Alfred has "cursed them all".
Crimson Mist then tells the story of what would happen if Batman was a full-on Vampire. He still goes after bad guys, but instead of locking them up, he drains them of their blood and then cuts their heads off. The entire book is filled with violence, and gore. A true horror comic. I'm not going to spoil anything else, so I'll end the story description there.
The point of the story was just how strong Dracula's influence is. And that's only a portion of Dracula's full power!
Over the last decade or so, the idea of Vampires has changed quite drastically. I blame the Twilight books/movies, and HBO's True Blood for this. I will admit that I enjoyed the first few seasons of True Blood, but in all honesty, it was NOTHING compared to the true horror story that only Dracula can give us.
Dracula is the oldest and most well known supernatural character in literary, film, and comic book history; his history was even spawned from real life historical events! That's where the best stories come from anyway.
In comic books, Dracula has fought against some of the most powerful super heroes of all time! Aside from Batman (numerous times); Dracula has fought Superman, Doctor Strange, the X-Men, the Thing, the Hulk, even Apocalypse and of course is the ultimate nemesis of Blade. One of my favorite stories that include Dracula is WHAT IF...WOLVERINE BECAME LORD OF THE VAMPIRES. In it, the X-Men fight Dracula (like they actually did), but instead of driving him off, Dracula defeats them. He bites them all, and resurrects them as Vampires. Only, Wolverine (because of his healing factor) is able to withstand Dracula's hypnotic influence and fights back exhibiting similar powers to Dracula. They fight, and Wolverine decapitates Dracula, taking his place as Lord of the Vampires. This was my first issue of WHAT IF...? comics, my 2nd or 3rd intro to Wolverine as a character, and my first real look at how powerful Dracula really is.
The supernatural element of the character is what makes him so interesting, especially when putting Dracula up against today's modern heroes. For example, Superman is probably the most powerful (and well known) super hero of today. When Superman faces Dracula, they are on equal grounds. Since Dracula's power is based in magic, and Superman has a weakness to magic, Dracula's presence alone acts like some kryptonite does to Supes. His strength decreases exponentially, and his other abilities are much less effective. Dracula is even to pierce Superman's skin with his fangs! Now imagine how much stronger Dracula would be if he drank Kryptonian blood!
The character of Count Dracula has been around for a long time, but I believe his full potential has yet to be seen! I am currently formulating a story that would bring Dracula's influence to a WORLD LEVEL threat! We might even get to see something like that in the current Universal Movie Monster Universe that Universal Studios is currently building. It started with Dracula Untold, continued in Victor Frankenstein, and will add the new Mummy with Tom Cruise next year.
Who is your favorite movie monster? And who would you like to see fight Dracula in the comics?
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