The Batman of Earth-43 was a version of Batman who had been transformed into a Vampire.
History
Edit
The specifics of Batman's life prior to the events of the trilogy are unclear, but it can be safely assumed that Bruce Wayne experienced the deaths of his parents and the subsequent years of training to become Batman, encountering villains such as the Joker, the Penguin, Poison Ivy, the Riddler and Black Mask before the throat-slash murders began.
Red Rain
Edit
Investigating a series of murders of Gotham City's homeless, the victims' throats having been slashed, Batman finds himself becoming unusually stronger while also developing an aversion to sunlight and going out in the day, accompanied by strange dreams about a mysterious woman appearing in his bedroom. After he surprises a killer just after the woman has killed a new victim, he notes that the body has only two pinpricks on the throat rather than the slashes he had seen earlier, prompting him to consider that there is more going on than he suspected. After talking with occult expert Ariane about the history and abilities of vampires, Batman enters a storm-drain to track the killer and discovers that the murders are being committed by a family of vampires, being barely saved from a group of vampires hiding in the sewers by another strange group. When another vampire appears and commands Batman's saviors to kill themselves, Batman attacks him and drives him into another part of the sewers, subsequently using his blood from an injury inflicted by his foe to draw a cross on the wall, forcing the two into a stalemate until daybreak.

Batman confronts Dracula

Batman as a full vampire
Bloodstorm
Edit
Now a full vampire, Batman continues his work to protect the people of Gotham, sustaining himself via Tanya's blood substitute to avoid the need to feed on real blood. However, he soon learns that a small nest of vampires escaped the trap that sacrificed Wayne Manor, but is initially unaware that these vampires are now led by the Joker, the clown exploiting the vampires' inability to think beyond their next victim after their master's death, coordinating their feedings as he works to convert and take control of the city's criminal families. Despite Batman's constant struggle against his thirst for blood as the blood substitute becomes increasingly ineffective, he continues to hunt the vampires, aided directly by Selina Kyle (who becomes a werecat after being bitten by a vampire that turned into a wolf while hunting her), while Commissioner Gordon, Alfred, and a group of Gotham police turned vampire hunters worked to eliminate the vampires in the daylight. The human group managed to destroy the crime bosses in the day, while Batman and Selina took out the remaining vampires in a warehouse the following night when the Joker's last trap backfired on him.

Joker's final victory
Unfortunately, Catwoman is killed after successfully killing the vampire that turned her, intercepting a crossbow bolt that the Joker had tried to shoot Batman with. After realizing that the only person able to control his bloodlust is dead, the enraged and grief-stricken Batman turns his anger towards the Joker, draining him of all his blood after breaking his neck with a single blow. Horrified by what he has done, Batman fled the scene of the crime (after staking the Joker in the heart to prevent him returning as a vampire), leaving Gordon and Alfred a note encouraging them to drive a wooden stake through his heart to stop him, now that he has become a monster like Dracula[2].
Crimson Mist
Edit

Batman decaying in his coffin
In Batman's absence, Gotham City becomes swamped with crime. Desperate for a solution, Alfred removes the stake in Batman's heart, hoping to give Gotham a savior again. Although he is lucid enough to rebuke Alfred and leave without attacking him, Batman is now a slave to his vampire impulses.
The bloodthirsty former hero proceeds to slay most of his rogues' gallery for their blood, including Penguin, Riddler, Poison Ivy, Black Mask, and Scarecrow, all while taking care to decapitate his victims to prevent them from returning as vampires themselves. After Batman has left the heads of the Black Mask gang on the fences around Blackgate Penitentiary as a 'warning', he then proceeds to fly into Arkham Asylum and kill all the homicidal inmates, leaving Two-Face and Killer Croc as Gotham's only remaining villains.
With no other way to stop the vampire Batman, Two-Face forms an alliance with Commissioner Gordon and Alfred to combat Batman, the Dark Knight's former allies recognizing that, even if Batman only targets criminals, the fact that he was killing them in the first place nonetheless proved he was no longer the man he had been. Even Batman himself was uncertain how much of the man he once was still existed in this state, committing brutal murders while uncertain if they were motivated by his own bloodlust or intended to provoke Gordon and Alfred into attempting to destroy him. Tormented by grief and guilt at what he has become, Batman also broods on the certainty that he will eventually run out of criminals to feed on, and that, like Dracula before him, he will eventually create his own vampire brood in order to escape the loneliness of eternity; for the moment, he only intends to kill those who are themselves killers, and most of Blackgate's inmates (who are in for theft or less) do not deserve to die at his hands. However, he is convinced that he has taken in too much evil from his victims to be redeemed, while also reflecting that the world will be doomed if he is not stopped.
Although the Gordon/Two-Face alliance was able to track Batman to his new lair in the damaged Batcave, with the intention of setting off explosives in the roof to expose Batman to the sun, after Batman was shot through the heart with a crossbow and sent falling into a cavern during the struggle, Two-Face and Killer Croc attempted to kill Commissioner Gordon and Alfred. Having recovered his master (the bolt only grazing his heart rather than penetrating it), Alfred gives his life to give the badly-injured Batman the strength needed to save Gordon, still having faith in the Dark Knight, even after everything he has done.
Batman threatens Gordon to destroy him
Countdown
Edit

The three Batmen of Monarch's conflict
In Countdown: Arena, the Bat-Man later becomes one of three alternate versions of Batman, that fight to be in Monarch's army against the Monitors. Bat-Man wins his place in Monarch's army, turning one of the other Batmen during their fight[5].
Convergence
Edit

Swamp Thing faces the vampire Batman
Powers and Abilities
Edit
Like all Batmen, the Batman of Earth-43 began his life as a human operating at the peak of physical and mental perfection, even proving capable of briefly standing up to a relatively newly-turned vampire despite his opponent's strength, although prolonged conflict against a vampire was obviously impossible. After his transformation into a vampire began, Bruce Wayne demonstrated greatly enhanced strength, able to lift a Mercedes up onto two wheels with only one hand, although he was still notably weaker than Dracula himself in a direct confrontation, relying on his silver batarangs to do damage in a simple physical fight.
Bruce reveals his wings

Batman's pure heart grants him immunity to holy artefacts
However, the long-term paralysis and decay that resulted from the stake in his heart had a significant effect on Batman's mental state after he was restored. Although he apparently retained enough detective skills to deduce the Riddler's latest riddle, he was now consumed by his longing for blood, eagerly decapitating his old enemies after drinking their blood even as he privately brooded over his guilt and grief at what he had become, often reflecting in a grimly philosophical manner about his new state of corruption and its impact on his relationship with his enemies and allies. When flying, he also transformed into a bat-like monster rather than simply gaining wings in human form as he had before. When in human form, he appeared almost dry and physically frail as a result of the decay he had suffered while staked, although he retained enough raw physical strength to effortlessly throw off even the obviously physically powerful Killer Croc in a fight.
In other media
Edit
- The Bat-Man of Earth-43 made a brief cameo in the recent cartoon Batman: The Brave and the Bold during the episode "Legends of the Dark Mite!". When Bat-Mite decides to change Batman's appearance and costume, he turns Batman into the Bat-Man of Earth-43, to which Bat-Mite remarks, "Imposing, but too dracula." Also, in the season one finale "Game Over for Owlman," where he teamed up with other parallel Earth versions of himself. The Bat-Man of Earth-43 had been recruited in an army of Batmen by the mainstream Batman to battle Owlman and his army of villains
Appearances
Edit
- Batman & Dracula: Red Rain
- Red Rain: Blood Lust
- Night of the Bat
- Batman: Bloodstorm
- Batman: Crimson Mist
- Countdown: Arena
- Countdown Presents: The Search for Ray Palmer
- Justice Society of America#5
- Batman/Superman#25
- Countdown#40
- Tales of the Multiverse: Batman - Vampire