NOTE
Monday, July 29, 2024
BATMAN #350
"NIGHTMARE IN CRIMSON"
Writers: Gerry Conway & Paul Levitz | Artists: Gene Colan & Tony Dezuniga
Letterer: Ben Oda | Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Editor: Dick Giordano
Writers: Gerry Conway & Paul Levitz | Artists: Gene Colan & Tony Dezuniga
Letterer: Ben Oda | Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Editor: Dick Giordano
The Plot: Robin awakens from a nightmare in a room at St. Jude's Hospital, where the preist, Father Green, has been watching over him. Elsewhere, Batman returns to Wayne Manor via the Batplane. After landing, he is greeted by Alfred and then Robin arrives. The Teen Wonder invites Bruce to join him for a party at Dala's house the next night, and Bruce agrees. Bruce brings Vicki Vale as his date, and he, Vicki, and Dick arrive at Dala's home that night for the outdoor gala. Dala immediately takes Dick into the house, and Bruce suspects something is amiss. He enters the house as well and finds traces of the couple Dala and her brother were holding prisoner. Bruce spots Dala and Dick outside, walking away from the party. He changes to Batman and follows, unaware that Father Green is nearby and spots him swooping throught the trees.
Batman makes his way deeper into the woods, where he is attacked by the Monk. The Monk overtakes him and bites his neck, then Batman fends off his assailant. But Dick and Dala sneak up on the Caped Crusader, and Dick knocks him out.
Continuity Notes: Surprisingly few this issue, as nearly the entire installment is dedicated to the Dala tales! But we do get a reference to DETECTIVE COMICS 516 and the Adacemy of Crime as Batman returns to Wayne Manor, followed by a scene where Vicki's editor, Morton Monroe, breaks into her desk and steals her Batman file. A page later, Vicik ruminates on her belief that Batman and Bruce Wayne are one and the same. Then later, when Bruce sneaks off to search for Dick, Vicki goes looking for him.
My Thoughts: And here we are! I've know for years that there is a plot in Gerry Conway's Batman run where the Masked Manhunter becomes a vampire. I've been waiting for it, and we've reached it at last. Which brings to mind a peculiar personal anecdote...
Long, long ago (far longer than I care to remember at this point), when I was in probably my first or second year of college, I gave some kind of a speech for a public speaking class, and my chosen topic was, as if you couldn't guess, comic books. I don't really recall the specifics of the speech itself, but that's neither here nor there. The point is that I "outed" myself as a comic fan, and after class, a girl approached me to discuss Batman. We had sort of a superficial conversation; I was quite shy back then and she was quite pretty, which amplified my shyness by a factor of about a zillion. Indeed, the chat was a blur in my head even moments after it was over, except for one little piece. She said, and this is a verbatim quote because I've never forgotten it, "The thing most people don't realize about Batman is that in the comics, he was a vampire."
Now, I knew for a fact that Batman was not a vampire. I was never a huge DC guy, but of that fact, at least, I was absolutely certain. Batman was not, and had never been, a vampire. I didn't know about this Conway storyline at the time, though I think I was aware of one or two vampire-themed "Elseworlds" stories starring Batman. But the way this girl said it, she spoke of the mainsteam, actual DC Universe Batman as a vampire! I recall walking away from the conversation totally flummoxed by this, but I didn't press any further on it (remember, she was pretty and I was shy).
Years later, I learned about this storyline, and I've long wondered if she read some of these issues when she was a child, and they imprinted on her brain the idea that comic book Batman was a vampire. But sadly, I'll never know.
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ReplyDeleteI agree that the story here is not a satisfying chunk, to employ the apt phrase Heidi MacDonald coined long ago. Kind-of an eye roll, too, Batman not believing as the Monk bites him that such a thing as a vampire exists, given all he’s seen — including Superman turned into a weird “marine vampire” in an issue of World’s Finest a handful of years earlier where the Phantom Stranger pops up, although it was a Bob Haney story…
That anecdote, especially the quote and the way I’m hearing it spoken conspiratorially in my head, is a gem.