Batman And Vampires

[joe petree]

i though that vampires or any monster type creatures werent allowed in comics any more because of the comics code

 

[OneKnight]

Does anyone know all the times (issues) in which The Monk has appeared?

 

[Mr.Dent]

The JLA arc "The Tenth Circle" was pretty good. If only for the bat-joke at the end.

That goddamn arc was like feces smeared on paper.

 

[Bat-Hombre]

Does anyone know all the times (issues) in which The Monk has appeared?

In 'Tec #31 & 32 and he returned i think in the 80s (look at the covers posted here).

 

[OneKnight]

Thanks, B-H.

I think I found them. It's Detective Comics #511 and #515.

So it's Detective Comics #31 and #32, #511 and #515, and now Batman and the Mad Monk.

And there's also the other Vampire story in Batman #350 and #351, but that's not Monk.

And of course there's the Vampire Trilogy of Red Rain, Bloodstorm and Crimson Mist.

I think that's all of them that deal with either the Monk or Vampires in general.

 

[Grim Goblin]

damn, I loved the 80's monk story. I still have the one where robin is captured, barely escapes after being bitten and ends up in the hospital. If I remember right he's the one who bites Bruce later on too. Never found the following issues, anyone knows what happened?

 

[OneKnight]

GG, is it Detective Comics #511 you have? If so, there's only one after that. It's Detective Comics #515.

 

[Lorendiac]

When I saw this thread title, I was going to mention the story arc illustrated by Gene Colan in 1982 if nobody else had. Well, it turned out someone already had, but it also appears there's a bit of an argument about just how long that story arc was, which issues are important to have if you want to read the whole thing, and so forth. Since I own all of those issues, let me take a crack at sorting it all out for anyone who's interested!

I admit that this one is very tricky because right around that time (1982), DC was starting something new: putting the separate titles "Batman" and "Detective Comics" in "permanent crossover mode," as I call it. Both titles were being written by Gerry Conway, and if he had a story in "Batman" end with a big cliffhanger, then two weeks later the next issue of "Detective Comics" would pick up where "Batman" had left off and resolve that cliffhanger, as well as advancing any other subplots Conway had building up in the background. Then, in the next issue of "Batman," on of those subplots might develop into the main plot problem Batman had to face in that issue, and then the storyline would snap back over to be continued in the next issue of "Detective Comics" again. Back and forth, back and forth! This pattern continued for years, even after Conway left those titles and Doug Moench took over as the scripter for both of them, until the transition from Pre-Crisis to Post-Crisis continuity in the Bat-titles in 1986.

So just having several consecutive issues of "Batman" from 1982, or just having a run of "Detective Comics" from 1982, doesn't give you the "full story." You've got to have runs of both titles, and keep switching back and forth as you read them, to get the full effect! In my collection, I have the issues of both titles from that era filed together in chronological order in one box -- an issue of "Batman," an issue of "Detective," an issue of "Batman," etc.

I remember this well because it was right then in 1982 that I, as a kid, started buying comic books regularly and it took me a month or two to figure out that I needed BOTH of Batman's core titles for either one to make any sense!

(By the way: In the 1990s, DC did the same thing to Superman on a larger scale: Four monthly titles, staggered to come out in different weeks of the month, and all of their stories were tied together into one great big ongoing weekly soap opera!)

Let me take this chronologically, working partly from memory and partly from some quick examination of online resources. Here are the issues that I think are the important ones to have (although Dala had first met Dick Grayson on a college campus a few months earlier, and he found her captivating at first glance):

Detective Comics #515. The beginning of a story arc about "The Academy of Crime." Batman learns there's a guy in Hollywood called "the Headmaster" who is training hoodlums in the benefits of teamwork and planning ahead, before you actually commit your crimes. Batman assumes his "Matches Malone" identity and flies out to California to enroll in the academy.

Meanwhile, in a subplot that Batman knows absolutely nothing about, Dick Grayson has gotten worried and confused by the behavior of a girl named "Dala" whom he met in a previous issue and dated a few times. He secretly follows her home. In his Robin costume, he enters the house to investigate quietly -- and is ambushed. Somebody in a purple (or maroon?) hooded robe hits him over the head with a metal object (I think a candlestick) and knocks him unconscious. The hooded guy would be the Monk, but Dick (and any new readers, such as I was at the time) didn't know that yet. Dala and the Monk had been "introduced" into the Earth-1 Batman's continuity some time earlier, but this was the first scene in which they actually started acting like "violent enemies" of Bruce or Dick.

Batman #349. Batman is still enrolled in "the Academy of Crime," but apparently not ready to make his move to arrest the Headmaster and all his students, quite yet. (I don't remember why not, if we ever knew.) Dick, meanwhile, wakes up to find that Dala and the Monk are vampires. During this issue, they bite him on the neck. You see what's coming next, don't you?

Detective Comics #516. Batman, totally unaware of what has recently happened to Dick, wraps up the "Academy of Crime" case in Hollywood. As I recall, Dick, Dala, and the Monk do not appear in this issue at all (although one or two other subplots back in Gotham get a few pages). Implicitly, they're just lurking in the shadows back home, waiting for Bruce to return and walk into a trap.

Batman #350. Batman returns to Gotham and is lured into an ambush by Dick. At the end of the story, Batman has been bitten on the neck by the Monk, and then gets blindsided when Dick hits him over the head from behind. I don't remember all the details, but I believe Batman gets away eventually -- that is, even though he's turning into a vampire now, he somehow avoids falling under their hypnotic spell the way Dick did (I don't know how long that would have lasted, though).

Detective Comics #517. At the start of the story, Vampire Batman, with big fangs showing (but still with free will, unlike Dick), comes home to Wayne Manor and gives Alfred a nasty start -- ranting about what a disgusting monster he (Bruce) has become and very nearly biting Alfred in the heat of the moment -- before his self-control asserts itself and he rushes out again. (In a later scene in this issue, Vampire Batman catches a burglar in the act and feeds upon him instead in order to satisfy that horrible craving for fresh blood.)

Alfred, shocked and confused, is still trying to figure this one out when someone else shows up! A mysterious Roman Catholic priest (or a man dressed like one, anyway) who shows up at the front door of Wayne Manor and introduces himself as Father Green.

His conversation makes it clear that he somehow already knows the following things: Bruce Wayne is Batman. Batman has met the Monk and Dala tonight. They are vampires. One of them bit him. He's turned into a vampire himself. He desperately needs help.

Alfred, of course, is extremely reluctant to concede the truth of the basic proposition that Bruce Wayne, master of Wayne Manor, is Batman, but that doesn't discourage Father Green. He sits down and spends several pages bringing Alfred up to speed on the details of the "origin story" of how Dala and her brother (the Monk) became "vampiri," as he calls them, given to us as a flashback sequence with narrative captions being spoken by the priest. When I reread that issue a while back, I noticed it had something of the feeling of an Anne Rice story about witches and/or vampires. (Although much shorter!)

Batman #351. The climax of this vampire story arc. Father Green gets around to mentioning that he knows of a "cure" that will work for recently afflicted victims (such as Dick and Bruce). Batman manages to capture all three of them so that the cure can be forced upon Dick.

Detective Comics #518. The first few pages of this issue "wrap up" the vampire story arc, although the main story is about something else. As we open, Dick is acting normal and is back on his feet again. (We are told that Batman insisted Dick be treated and cured first.) Batman is lying unconscious in the Batcave hooked up to an IV (to inject him with the cure, I suppose) and someone comments that the fangs are already receding.

Apparently the cure won't work on Dala and the Monk, but Father Green has them strapped down on stretchers and loads them into the back of his vehicle, promising to keep them out of trouble at "Saint Jude's." (Apparently a hospital or some other sort of institution at which he works.) Then he drives off with them and is never heard from again.

So that was the vampire saga, or whatever you want to call it. Gerry Conway was the main writer on both titles, but an online resource I checked tells me that Paul Levitz is supposed to have helped out with the scripts of some of those issues, for some reason.

I've called it "the vampire saga" or "the vampire story arc" because in those days it wasn't such a strong custom to give each multi-issue story arc a special title of its own, nor to put that title and a chapter number on the front cover. You didn't have many comics that said: "The Vampire Saga, Part 1 of 4" or whatever. That sort of thing came later; so there's no special "official" title for this sequence of events! And it's never been collected in TPB, so DC never chose a title for the entire story arc retroactively, either! If you want to read it, you'll have to hunt down each individual issue. (It's definitely worth reading. Lots of suspense and colorful narrative prose and so forth. All I could do here was to give you a bare-bones outline of the most significant plot twists.)

 

[Grim Goblin]

Thanks Lorendiac !

oh, btw, OneKnight, the issues I had were Batman 349-350 although I clearly remember losing 350 in the subway !

 

[CyberFaust]

the only one i know woth bats and vampires is Red Rain and i didn't like it that much, It was cool and they managed to give it a twist but it wasn't my cup of tea

 

[Memphis Slim]

When I saw this thread title, I was going to mention the story arc illustrated by Gene Colan in 1982 if nobody else had. Well, it turned out someone already had, but it also appears there's a bit of an argument about just how long that story arc was, which issues are important to have if you want to read the whole thing, and so forth. Since I own all of those issues, let me take a crack at sorting it all out for anyone who's interested!

I admit that this one is very tricky because right around that time (1982), DC was starting something new: putting the separate titles "Batman" and "Detective Comics" in "permanent crossover mode," as I call it. Both titles were being written by Gerry Conway, and if he had a story in "Batman" end with a big cliffhanger, then two weeks later the next issue of "Detective Comics" would pick up where "Batman" had left off and resolve that cliffhanger, as well as advancing any other subplots Conway had building up in the background. Then, in the next issue of "Batman," on of those subplots might develop into the main plot problem Batman had to face in that issue, and then the storyline would snap back over to be continued in the next issue of "Detective Comics" again. Back and forth, back and forth! This pattern continued for years, even after Conway left those titles and Doug Moench took over as the scripter for both of them, until the transition from Pre-Crisis to Post-Crisis continuity in the Bat-titles in 1986.

So just having several consecutive issues of "Batman" from 1982, or just having a run of "Detective Comics" from 1982, doesn't give you the "full story." You've got to have runs of both titles, and keep switching back and forth as you read them, to get the full effect! In my collection, I have the issues of both titles from that era filed together in chronological order in one box -- an issue of "Batman," an issue of "Detective," an issue of "Batman," etc.

I remember this well because it was right then in 1982 that I, as a kid, started buying comic books regularly and it took me a month or two to figure out that I needed BOTH of Batman's core titles for either one to make any sense!

(By the way: In the 1990s, DC did the same thing to Superman on a larger scale: Four monthly titles, staggered to come out in different weeks of the month, and all of their stories were tied together into one great big ongoing weekly soap opera!)

Let me take this chronologically, working partly from memory and partly from some quick examination of online resources. Here are the issues that I think are the important ones to have (although Dala had first met Dick Grayson on a college campus a few months earlier, and he found her captivating at first glance):

Detective Comics #515. The beginning of a story arc about "The Academy of Crime." Batman learns there's a guy in Hollywood called "the Headmaster" who is training hoodlums in the benefits of teamwork and planning ahead, before you actually commit your crimes. Batman assumes his "Matches Malone" identity and flies out to California to enroll in the academy.

Meanwhile, in a subplot that Batman knows absolutely nothing about, Dick Grayson has gotten worried and confused by the behavior of a girl named "Dala" whom he met in a previous issue and dated a few times. He secretly follows her home. In his Robin costume, he enters the house to investigate quietly -- and is ambushed. Somebody in a purple (or maroon?) hooded robe hits him over the head with a metal object (I think a candlestick) and knocks him unconscious. The hooded guy would be the Monk, but Dick (and any new readers, such as I was at the time) didn't know that yet. Dala and the Monk had been "introduced" into the Earth-1 Batman's continuity some time earlier, but this was the first scene in which they actually started acting like "violent enemies" of Bruce or Dick.

Batman #349. Batman is still enrolled in "the Academy of Crime," but apparently not ready to make his move to arrest the Headmaster and all his students, quite yet. (I don't remember why not, if we ever knew.) Dick, meanwhile, wakes up to find that Dala and the Monk are vampires. During this issue, they bite him on the neck. You see what's coming next, don't you?

Detective Comics #516. Batman, totally unaware of what has recently happened to Dick, wraps up the "Academy of Crime" case in Hollywood. As I recall, Dick, Dala, and the Monk do not appear in this issue at all (although one or two other subplots back in Gotham get a few pages). Implicitly, they're just lurking in the shadows back home, waiting for Bruce to return and walk into a trap.

Batman #350. Batman returns to Gotham and is lured into an ambush by Dick. At the end of the story, Batman has been bitten on the neck by the Monk, and then gets blindsided when Dick hits him over the head from behind. I don't remember all the details, but I believe Batman gets away eventually -- that is, even though he's turning into a vampire now, he somehow avoids falling under their hypnotic spell the way Dick did (I don't know how long that would have lasted, though).

Detective Comics #517. At the start of the story, Vampire Batman, with big fangs showing (but still with free will, unlike Dick), comes home to Wayne Manor and gives Alfred a nasty start -- ranting about what a disgusting monster he (Bruce) has become and very nearly biting Alfred in the heat of the moment -- before his self-control asserts itself and he rushes out again. (In a later scene in this issue, Vampire Batman catches a burglar in the act and feeds upon him instead in order to satisfy that horrible craving for fresh blood.)

Alfred, shocked and confused, is still trying to figure this one out when someone else shows up! A mysterious Roman Catholic priest (or a man dressed like one, anyway) who shows up at the front door of Wayne Manor and introduces himself as Father Green.

His conversation makes it clear that he somehow already knows the following things: Bruce Wayne is Batman. Batman has met the Monk and Dala tonight. They are vampires. One of them bit him. He's turned into a vampire himself. He desperately needs help.

Alfred, of course, is extremely reluctant to concede the truth of the basic proposition that Bruce Wayne, master of Wayne Manor, is Batman, but that doesn't discourage Father Green. He sits down and spends several pages bringing Alfred up to speed on the details of the "origin story" of how Dala and her brother (the Monk) became "vampiri," as he calls them, given to us as a flashback sequence with narrative captions being spoken by the priest. When I reread that issue a while back, I noticed it had something of the feeling of an Anne Rice story about witches and/or vampires. (Although much shorter!)

Batman #351. The climax of this vampire story arc. Father Green gets around to mentioning that he knows of a "cure" that will work for recently afflicted victims (such as Dick and Bruce). Batman manages to capture all three of them so that the cure can be forced upon Dick.

Detective Comics #518. The first few pages of this issue "wrap up" the vampire story arc, although the main story is about something else. As we open, Dick is acting normal and is back on his feet again. (We are told that Batman insisted Dick be treated and cured first.) Batman is lying unconscious in the Batcave hooked up to an IV (to inject him with the cure, I suppose) and someone comments that the fangs are already receding.

Apparently the cure won't work on Dala and the Monk, but Father Green has them strapped down on stretchers and loads them into the back of his vehicle, promising to keep them out of trouble at "Saint Jude's." (Apparently a hospital or some other sort of institution at which he works.) Then he drives off with them and is never heard from again.

So that was the vampire saga, or whatever you want to call it. Gerry Conway was the main writer on both titles, but an online resource I checked tells me that Paul Levitz is supposed to have helped out with the scripts of some of those issues, for some reason.

I've called it "the vampire saga" or "the vampire story arc" because in those days it wasn't such a strong custom to give each multi-issue story arc a special title of its own, nor to put that title and a chapter number on the front cover. You didn't have many comics that said: "The Vampire Saga, Part 1 of 4" or whatever. That sort of thing came later; so there's no special "official" title for this sequence of events! And it's never been collected in TPB, so DC never chose a title for the entire story arc retroactively, either! If you want to read it, you'll have to hunt down each individual issue. (It's definitely worth reading. Lots of suspense and colorful narrative prose and so forth. All I could do here was to give you a bare-bones outline of the most significant plot twists.)

That was very interesting......