Batman: Nosferatu
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Batman: Nosferatu | |
Cover to Batman: Nosferatu. Art by Ted McKeever. |
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Publisher | DC Comics |
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Schedule | Monthly |
Format | mini-series |
Publication date | 1999 |
Creative team | |
Writer(s) | Jean-Marc Lofficier Randy Lofficier |
Artist(s) | Ted McKeever |
Creator(s) | Jean-Marc Lofficier Randy Lofficier |
Batman: Nosferatu is a DC Comics comic book Elseworlds publication and is the middle of a trilogy based on German Expressionism cinema. It was written by Jean-Marc Lofficier and Randy Lofficier, and illustrated by Ted McKeever.
The story of Batman: Nosferatu is patterned after The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Nosferatu.
Contents |
[edit] Characters
DC characters which appear in the story (in order of appearance):
- Bruss Wayne-son
- Dirk Gray-son
- Alfred Pennyworth
- Dr Arkham
- James Gordon
- William Henderson
- Jimmy Olson
- Hugo Strange
- Vicki Vale
- Barbara Gordon
- The Laughing Man
- Lutor (flashback)
- Bane
- Clarc Kent-son
- Lois Lane
- The Penguin
- Man-Bat
- Poison Ivy
- Killer Croc
- The Scarecrow
- The Ventriloquist
[edit] Plot
Under Clarc and Lois' enlightened rule, Metropolis has begun to progress. However, some resist that progress, such as Dr. Arkham, the head of an asylum, who holds "psychomantic" seances for the entertainment of the depraved rich of Metropolis. The star of these is the "Laughing Man", a white-faced, murderous creature, a prototype cyborg built by Lutor from one of Arkham's patients. When Eschevin Gord-son tries to close Arkham down, the doctor sends the Laughing Man to kill him. Attorney Dirk Gray-son becomes suspicious of Arkham, but he, too, is killed by the Laughing Man. Dirk's friend, Bruss Wayne-son, is then drawn to investigate Arkham, after being turned down by the police and ignored by the Super-Man, who has greater concerns that require his attention.
Wayne-son discovers Arkham is in league with the new Chancellor, Hender-son. But he is captured and thown into a great pit, at the bottom of which lie vast, sentient computers who once built Metropolis and still sustain it and watch over humanity. They turn Wayne-son into the "Nosferatu" and send him back to the city above. The Nosferatu kills the Laughing Man, then goes after Arkham. He is then confronted by the Super-Man, who believes there is no place for creatures of the night in his city of light. The battle is inconclusive; the ancient machines reveal themselves to the Super-Man and he realizes that there can be no light without shadows. The Nosferatu's job is to catch these shadows. Bruss Wayne-son ends up in charge of the asylum where Arkham is now a prisoner.
[edit] Publication
- Batman Nosferatu (64 pages, 1999, ISBN 1563893797)
[edit] Trilogy
This is the second of the trilogy:
- Superman's Metropolis
- Batman: Nosferatu
- Wonder Woman: The Blue Amazon
Writer Jean-Marc Lofficier had a fourth and final volume planned, entitled The Green Light, which would have introduced counterparts of The Flash, Green Lantern and the Martian Manhunter (based on Leni Riefenstahl's The Blue Light (1922) and Arnold Fanck's Weiße Rausch - Der Neue Wunder des Schneeschuhs (a.k.a. The White Flame) (1931) (which also starred Leni Riefenstahl), and a female Aquaman (based on Georg Wilhelm Pabst's Die Herrin von Atlantis (a.k.a. The Mistress of Atlantis) (1932)). The book would have dealt with the rediscovery of Earth. [1]