A review by dozmuttz
Batman & Dracula: Red Rain by Malcolm Jones III, Doug Moench, Kelley Jones, Les Dorscheid, Eric Van Lustbader, Denny O'Neil
3.0
The title says it all; Batman takes on the biggest baddie bloodsucker, Dracula. In this elseworlds story Gotham is being struck by a new serial killer and their signature is leaving their victims throats slashed. There’s enough cases to get the attention of the Dark Knight and he puts his detective cap on (it’s actually always on). It all leads to the inevitable as Batman thinks he found the killer hovering over a victim seeming to be biting at their neck. He underestimates the killer and is out matched by their incredible strength and speed. This surely wasn’t a normal person, no, Batman just fought his first vampire. He survives the encounter however he comes out of the fight different. He feels stronger and can’t seem to sleep at night. You can probably guess what’s happening to him. It all leads to him coming fang to fang with the big daddy of the vampires, Dracula. He only barely escapes their first encounter as he’s saved by a group of vampires who are trying to stop Dracula, cause you know “not all vampires are bad.” Together they must make sure Dracula doesn’t succeed in overtaking Gotham and making it his domain. They must stop him before the red rain floods the streets.
Written by Doug Moench, who is no stranger to writing Batman, he gives us his usual dark vibes for the character. In this case for very obvious reasons. I found Moench brought this fun idea to the page fairly well, with my only gripes being that some of the plot points felt cliche. There’s also just nothing in this story that really shocked or wowed me too much. I mean it’s really cool to see these two kinds of worlds mix together, but a lot feels predictable and just seems to take us from point A to Z. I think Moench wrote this as well as any other writer could’ve, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t expecting more.
The true shine in this book (or in this case, darkness) is the artwork by Kelley Jones. Probably most known for his 90s covers of the Dark Knight himself, his style is very dark and abnormal. Making him a perfect fit to add the horror elements to the story. His character designs in this one are remarkably terrifying and left me with chills down my spine. His design for Dracula’s bat hybrid form, alone, was straight up nightmare fuel. Nothing is over the top gore wise, but it’s just enough to give you an eerie feeling and in hopes to never see anything like this in real life. It’s truly some great spooky stuff.
Overall; The story, although not bad, feels like it could’ve been better. The artwork however is stunning, and alone should be the reason you check this read out.
Written by Doug Moench, who is no stranger to writing Batman, he gives us his usual dark vibes for the character. In this case for very obvious reasons. I found Moench brought this fun idea to the page fairly well, with my only gripes being that some of the plot points felt cliche. There’s also just nothing in this story that really shocked or wowed me too much. I mean it’s really cool to see these two kinds of worlds mix together, but a lot feels predictable and just seems to take us from point A to Z. I think Moench wrote this as well as any other writer could’ve, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t expecting more.
The true shine in this book (or in this case, darkness) is the artwork by Kelley Jones. Probably most known for his 90s covers of the Dark Knight himself, his style is very dark and abnormal. Making him a perfect fit to add the horror elements to the story. His character designs in this one are remarkably terrifying and left me with chills down my spine. His design for Dracula’s bat hybrid form, alone, was straight up nightmare fuel. Nothing is over the top gore wise, but it’s just enough to give you an eerie feeling and in hopes to never see anything like this in real life. It’s truly some great spooky stuff.
Overall; The story, although not bad, feels like it could’ve been better. The artwork however is stunning, and alone should be the reason you check this read out.