Comic Book / DC vs. Vampires

What's coming will turn friends into foes and make allies of our enemies.

Batman: If it comes to it, are you going to be able to do the same to someone you care about, Ollie?

Green Arrow: Hell of a hypothetical, Bruce.

DC Vs. Vampires is a 2021 Superhero Horror comic book Elseworld series published by DC Comics.

Written by James Tynion IV and Matthew Rosenberg, with artwork by Otto Schmidt, Simone Di Meo, Daniele Di Nicuolo and Francesco Mortarino and colors by Schmidt, Di Meo, Rex Lokus and Pierlugi Casolino, it depicts an Alternate Universe where the Justice League must face a secret army of vampires that has been infiltrating their ranks, leaving our heroes unsure of who they can trust.

The series consists of a 12-issue maxiseries that is divided into two halves. Additionally it has several spin-offs that take place after the end of the first half:

• DC vs. Vampires: Hunters (2022) and DC vs. Vampires: Killers (2022), two one-shot tie-ins written by Rosenberg, the first drawn by Neil Googe and and the second by Mike Bowden. Taking place before the start of the second half, they focus on Damian Wayne and Harley Quinn, respectively, as they try to navigate this new world.

• Dc Vs. Vampires: All-Out War (2022): a six-issue companion miniseries written Rosenberg and Alex Paknadel, with artwork by Pasquale Qualano, it takes place concurrently with the second half of the series and it centers around a team assembled by John Constantine (consisting of Azrael, Bane, Booster Gold, Deadman, Deathstroke and Mary Marvel) to assassinate a powerful vampire lieutenant.

• All-Out War also includes backup stories (that star different characters) by different writers and artists, including Guillaume Singelin (#1 - Who's Trapped?), Emma Vieceli and Haining (#2 & #3 - Dark Birth), Matthew Manning and Acky Bright (#4 - Kill the Messenger), Danny Lore and Haining (#5 - Dead Cities), and Mirka Andolfo (#6 - Thirst).

A second series, titled DC Vs. Vampires: World War V, was announced in October 2023. Set six months after the end of the main series it will start publication in August 2024.

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This series contains examples of:

• Above Good and Evil: Vampires take this attitude towards vampirism, albeit combined with Blue-and-Orange Morality (see below). They need to drink people to survive, so from their point of view, what they do isn't more immoral than humans eating cows and chickens.
• Affably Evil: The general result of taking good-natured superheroes and stripping them of their morality via magical curse that turns them into vampires is that you have polite, nice and even friendly vampires that prefer to talk their loved ones into joining them before fighting and aren't unable of petting the dog from time to time... but will still swiftly and gleefully kill you if you to feed or if they perceive you are threat. Characters that already had darker qualities in life lean more into Faux Affably Evil however.
• Ambiguous Ending: Nightwing is dead at the hands of the new Queen of the Vampires, Barbara Gordon, who gives a speech to her new subjects that suggests she's blissfully confident that her knowledge of the hidden human resistance will allow her to wipe it out in a matter of hours and end the War, but while she rants on we see the Resistance preparing for the next stage in their fightback while a repowered Supergirl brings sunlight back to the world. As it's daytime where Supergirl is in Australia, Queen Barbara and her main armies should have most of a day to grok the changed situation before they get turned into sizzle cakes, but after that humanity has a fighting chance.
• Ambiguous Situation: Black Manta is among the supervillains that seemingly died during the attack on the Legion of Doom at the very beginning of the series and Aquaman later mentions he's disappeared yet he, or at least someone using his costume and identity, appears to be alive and well months after the vampires have conquered the world living among the surviving humans on Kandor. The following issues confirm that Black Manta died during the first days of the conquest, and it's in fact Mera under the armor.
  • The ending of All-Out War reveals that the Deathstroke that appears in the final scene conforting Mary was in fact Deadman possessing Slade Wilson, with Constantine knowing it but keeping it secret. Due to Deadman also thinking that keeping it secret was the good choice, Constatine's narration implying they've manipulated the truth before to make it more palatable, Deathstroke's characterization seeming more heroic than normal in moments to some readers and even Deathstroke's own inner monologue having hints of being a Posthumous Narration, it's unclear which moments could have been Deadman possesing Deathstroke, and which moments were Slade. The story ultimately leaves it ambiguous.
• And Show It to You: Jayna of the Wonder Twins turns herself into water and gets inside the body of an Atlanten soldier that had been turned into a vampire. Then she transforms into a tiger (which rips the vampire's body apart) and grabs the soldier's heart. Notably, even outside of his body, until the heart is staked the vampire doesn't crumble into dust.
• Anyone Can Die: As befits an Elseworld apocalypse Alternate Universe:
  • The attack on the Legion of Doom killed prominent supervillains like Sinestro, Giganta, Toyman, Solomon Grundy and Black Manta; others, like Gorilla Grodd, Scarecrow, Cheetah, and the Riddler were instead turned into vampires. Lex Luthor dies soon after.
  • The vampire Hal Jordan kills both Andrew Bennett and Zan of the Wonder Twins to keep the Justice League from learning about the vampire threat.
  • In issue 2, the vampire Hal Jordan kills Anton Arcane. He then goes on to murder Barry Allen, as the vampires are convinced that turning someone with his speed and metabolism into a vampire would end up killing every human on Earth.
  • In issue 3, a now-vampiric Zatanna kills the Penguin. In issue 4, Zatanna herself is killed by Doctor Fate.
  • In issue 6, Green Arrow succesfully stakes Hal Jordan. As a consequence, the King of the Vampires reveals himself and kills Batman and Tim Drake. Jason Todd also asks Green Arrow to kill him before Nightwing and Wonder Woman finish turning him into a vampire. In addition, the Joker is confirmed long dead.
  • In Killers #1, the vampires seemingly kill James Gordon (who was trying to smuggle Luthor's blood out of Gotham City), Clayface and Solomon Grundy (again). The vampiric Mr. Terrific and Dr. Mid-nite are staked. Catwoman reveals herself to be a vampire and tries to turn Harley Quinn, but dies as she'd injected herself with Lex's blood.
  • Adam Strange, Peacemaker, Crazy Quilt, Killer Frost and Wild Dog are all killed by an ambush as they're making their way to a human sanctuary, Raven is bitten by Plastic Man and Negative Man is taken away by a vampiric Hawkgirl. Director Bones eventually dies after leading Jayna of the Wonder Twins to said sanctuary. Jayna herself is able to stake the vampire Firestorm.
• An Arm and a Leg: In issue 6, Alfred cuts off vampire Hal Jordan's ring arm.
• Anthropomorphic Personification: Jenny Sparks and Jack Hawksmoor from the Authority experience weird effects in the wake of the vampire war:
  • Jenny Sparks is the “Spirit of the Century” and represents whatever concept will define the century she’s in. Thus once vampires succesfully take over the world, she herself rises undead, without even being bitten. Once she’s killed, her successor (in the main comics, Jenny Quantum) is reborn as baby who is seemingly human.
  • Similarily, Jack Hawksmoor, as the “King of the Cities” has his powers fluctuate as he draws them from the cities themselves and their inhabitants. Once they start emptying from humans, Jack loses power but, not unlike Jenny, once they’re inhabitants start to get replaced by vampires, he himself also starts to turn. Thankfully, he manages to turn the tide around before it’s to late.
• Archenemy: While the series' plot eschews the established hero/villain relationships, it uses the trappings of this trope both thematically and visually:
  • The person that confronts Aquaman using Black Manta's armor and has taken his mantle is none other than Mera herself, showing how destroyed their original relationshjip is.
  • Similarily, Baron Cinder, aka vampire Superman needs to use Lex Luthor's armor which combined with his appearance due to the burning sunlight in his body, makes him a dead ringer for the supervillain, showing how he's become his own antithesis.
• Asshole Victim:
  • The vampires start their attack targeting super-villains and while some are converted, others like Lex Luthor, Sinestro and Penguin are simply killed instead. Considering they were all notable killers, nobody misses them, in-universe or out.
  • Similarly, the Joker, who in most incarnations is a mass-murdering psychopath, is killed early on only for the vampires to use his persona as a fall guy for their leader. The vampires even stage a scenario for the heroes to find, with his bloodless corpse on display.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Both Midnighter and Prometheus have computers in their heads that analyze the situation to show their user how the battle will go. When they face each other, the fight consists of them looking at each other and their computers simulating every possibly outcome. As Midnighter's is much better, he wins, so Prometheus begrudgingly kills himself.
• Bait-and-Switch: The narration implies Andrew Bennett first went to the Hall of Justice to ask for help on Luthor's orders, but the ending reveals Luthor actually sent him to Wayne Manor first.
• Betrayal Insurance: Batman's paranoia leads him to have several contingencies in place, in the case he has to fight his teammates in the Justice League, most of them based on their weakness:
  • He keeps a Kryptonite pill inside a dental implant, that he can activate with his tongue, in case he needs to incapacitate Superman while he can’t use his hands.
  • He tricks Cyborg into connecting with the Batcave computer and disables him with an electromagnetic pulse strong enough to leave Gotham without electricity.
  • Uses a synthetic yellow powder that can neutralize Hal's Green Lantern abilities momentarily.
• Big Bad: The mysterious new lord of the vampires. Mary, the former queen, kept the vampire community on a tight leash while avoiding direct conflict with the outside world. After killing her, the new ruler initiates a covert invasion to take over the world and subjugate humanity, killing or turning any superhumans who could stand in their way. In Issue 6, the Vampire King is confirmed to be Nightwing.
• Big "NO!": From Cassandra Cain of all people, after Nightwing kills Batman.
• Bittersweet Ending: The story ends with Barbara now Queen of the Vampires and she believes the last remnants of humanity are broken, toothless and gone. She doesn't realize that the mission to repower Supergirl is successful and Green Arrow, Grifter and Swamp Thing have liberated the prison camp of humanity. The last shot is of Supergirl shooting through the sky, blowing away the clouds to reveal sunlight for the first time.
• Blessed with Suck: Being turned into a vampire does come with a significant power boost for most people and even most metahumans, but the traditional vampiric weaknesses are apparently stronger than any turned hero or villain's powers. Even a heavy-hitter like Black Adam gets badly hurt after a few seconds of exposure to enough concentrated ultraviolet light.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: As with Affably Evil, the general result of taking good-natured superheroes turning them into amoral vampires. Nightwing first normalizes their situation comparing themselves to humans that eat other animals and then softens it by saying they try to limit themselves to people that were vicious and cruel and seeing most humans as perfectly capable of becoming monsters themselves. When Barbara points out both arguments are fallacious, Nightwing has also no problem admitting they have been too aggressive. It's him combining an outwardly confident attitude with a sincere sense of vulnerability and doubt that makes it lean into this trope.
• Brought Down to Normal: After a year of living in a world without sunlight to recharge her powers, Supergirl is as weak as any human.
• Combat Pragmatist: Batman uses the fact that the vampires either can’t or aren’t willing to go all-out (be it because it’ll blow their cover or because they’re pulling their punches against their friends) for all it’s worth, like tricking Cyborg into a trap or hiding from Green Lantern who isn't battle ready to sucker punch with his Kryptonite Factor.
• Crazy-Prepared:
  • When he summons the rest of the Bat Family to discuss the vampire threat, Batman makes it a point of meeting in Wayne Manor's brightly-lit sunroom. He then has Alfred spike all of their drinks with holy water, then asks everyone to hold a cross before outlining his plan. And even still he doesn't consider all of that to be guarantee enough to trust them with the information about Luthor's blood. Later, Alfred drinks the holy water tea in front of Batman to prove he hasn't been turned; Bruce thanks him, then casually explains that he'd already had Wayne Manor's boiler blessed so that Alfred's evening bath would have destroyed him if he actually were a vampire.
  • Batman's tendency to be this is also works against him. The first time, Green Arrow, who's been testing him and other members of the Bat-family, considers Bruce capable enough to circumvent any test he can come up with. The second time, it's used as an argument by the vampires to blame him for Barry's death. When Bruce pleads innocence and accuses Hal of doing it, saying he can prove it with files he's got on his computer, Hal counters Batman's perfectly capable of faking evidence.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: With no weaknesses for them to exploit and being outside their weight class, Batman and Green Arrow are on the receiving end of this by a vampirized Wonder Woman, who shrugs off everything they throw at her. By the end of the "fight", Bruce only landed a single hit by using holy water when she was about to turn him and can barely stand on his own.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: The vampire Hal Jordan murders Zan of the Wonder Twins by trapping him in a giant blender construct and turning him into a gory smoothie.
• Darkest Hour:
  • By the end of issue #6, Nightwing has revealed himself as the King of the Vampires, the Bat-Family is reduced to Alfred, a badly-injured Damian, and the Batgirls, and Superman has been turned. Even worse, the vampiric Justice League have destroyed various seats of power and set fire to the world's forests and jungles to create a cloudy, ashy shroud that plunges the planet into perpetual night.
  • By the end of the main series and All-Out War, Barbara Gordon, as the new Vampire Queen, insists that her victory is at hand. The story wisely leaves it ambiguous.
• Dead Guy on Display: Once the vampires begin their takeover, Batman's corpse is strung up outside Gotham as a warning against any resistance.
• Decoy Protagonist:
  • Andrew Bennett uncovers a vampire conspiracy to take over the world and rushes to the Hall of Justice to tell the superheroes about it, but Hal Jordan reveals himself to be a vampire and kills him before he can do so, but not before he's sent a letter explaining the situation to Batman.
  • Batman himself. While he is one of the lead (non-vampiric) characters for the first part of the story, he gets killed by Nightwing after the latter reveals himself as the Vampire King halfway through the plot.
• Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: John Constantine doesn’t seem fazed at the fact that Zatanna is now a vampire and is simply content to have a friend listen to him gripe.
• Dramatic Irony: Batman suggests that it's unlikely the vampires have managed to infiltrate the Justice League due to how difficult doing so would be. The reader already knows that the vampires already have an inside man on the team: Hal Jordan.
• Driving Question: Who is the new lord of the vampires, and how deeply have they infiltrated the superhuman community? It's Nightwing.
• Dying as Yourself/Better to Die than Be Killed: Lex Luthor refuses to let the vampires turn him. He also asks Andrew Benett to kill him via Neck Snap instead of being left with them to be tortured.
• Daywalking Vampire: While vampires are normally burned by sunlight, Hal Jordan gets around this by using his Green Lantern ring to shield himself from its harmful effects, thus appearing human and catching Andrew Bennett by surprise. When Nightwing is revealed as the Vampire King, he explains that he's been experimenting with drinking Starfire's blood to similar effect.
• Dramatic Irony: In his backstory, Dick Grayson is betrayed by his own sister and gets turned into a vampire, just like later down the road, he himself will betray his own family to try to turn them. For bonus points, one of the last things he does as a human is to try to kill Melinda, but is unable to go through it, unlike what he’ll do as a vampire.
• Eskimos Aren't Real: Harley Quinn is surprised to find out that vampires are real, having thought they were just as fictional as werewolves... and dinosaurs. Another character lampshades it, commenting that in the DC universe both of those things are real.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • Even after being turned into a vampire and gleefully embracing the murder and consumption of humans, Hal Jordan still deeply values his friendship with Barry Allen. He admits to the captured Barry that, when ordered to murder him by his new king, Hal genuinely argued for his being turned instead so that they could both be part of the vampire conquest.
  • Once Zatanna discovers that John Constantine has no intention of harming her and doesn't care she's a vampire, she stops attacking and they start chatting like old friends instead.
  • Later, Wonder Woman and Hal Jordan constantly reiterate they they would prefer their friends join them willingly instead of fighting.
  • Zig-Zagged with Nightwing. At the end of issue six, Nightwing laments that he wished his brothers could have joined him in unlife, right after crushing Tim's head with zero hesitation and with a smile on his face. Later in Hunters, he lets Alfred and Damian go and says he's sorry for killing members of his own family, as if he hasn't been directly responsible for their deaths.
  • Even five months into the vampire conquest, Catwoman is still friends with Harley Quinn, keeping an eye on her while pretending to be human so that they both live comfortably and Harley doesn't get herself killed.
  • Despite them being in the middle of a battle, after Mera reveals herself, Vampire Aquaman freezes for a moment and tries to approach her and explain. She’s having none of it:
  Vampire Aquaman: Mera... I...
  Mera: Do not speak to me as as if you know me anymore, creature.
• Extremely Short Timespan: The first half of the series happens over the span of less than a week. The events that take place in between Batman informing the rest of the Batfamily about Andrew Bennett's letter and the Vampire King putting his plan into motion happen over the course of three consecutive nights.
• Fairy Tale Motifs: All-Out War styles itself with a lot of Fairy Tale trappings and imagery, specially as the story advances.
  • The heroes are a Ragtag Bunchof Misfits with knightly and mythological motifs (Azrael, Mary Marvel...) assembled by a heroic wizard (John Constantine), to find a mythic MacGuffin (a Lazarus Pit).
  • The villain, Baron Cinder, styles himself after a medieval nobleman, makes prominent use of (high-tech) armor and, unlike other vampires in this setting, seemingly considers his new state a curse, but cannot fight against it.
  • To escape his curse, he has captured Princess Koriand'r a.k.a. Starfire, whom he keeps trapped inside a Cinderella Castle, that's part of an abandoned amusement park, near the Blood Farm in Florida. In the wake of the apocalypse, the swamps around it resemble a decrepit forest.
  • The Baron's defense consists of a group of literal vampire knights (Prometheus, Atomic Knight, Arkham Knight and Shining Knight) that he uses to oppose the heroes. The vampire he's using to control the flow of sunlight and keep the darkness is called a wizard (Weather Wizard).
• False Reassurance: As an injured Superman recovers from the aftereffects of kryptonite, vampire members of the Justice League assure him that "We've got you now". As the art shows them looming over him with glowing red eyes, it's very clear what they really mean by that.
• First-Episode Twist: The vampires already have an agent inside the Justice League in the form of Hal Jordan, who kills Andrew Bennett and Zan before they can warn the rest of the League about the vampires' plan.
• Foreshadowing:
  • When Andrew Bennett is spying on the Legion of Doom members who have been turned into vampires, Gorilla Grodd notes that their inside man on the Justice League has confirmed the whereabouts of all of its members except for "Green..." before getting interrupted. This foreshadows the reveals that Green Lantern is said inside man, and that Green Arrow is already aware of the vampire threat and fighting against it.
  • Doubling as Rewatch Bonus, there are several clues pointing out to the identity of the new vampire king before the reveal:
    • Once Batman unites the Batfamily to inform them about the vampire conspiracy, Nightwing gets startled and worried when Batman mentions Lex Luthor had been able to contact him via Andrew Bennet's letter.
    • Nightwing is also the only one who questions killing the vampires instead of capturing them. They're, after all, his people now.
    • The vampires were explicitly told not to attack members of the Batfamily, indicating whoever was in charge had a personal relationship, either good or bad, with them.
    • Barbara Gordon had discovered that the former vampire queen had traveled to Gotham in secret before dying. Green Arrow's own investigation about the vampires' leader had brought him to Gotham as well, though he erroneously suspected Batman.
    • Notably, many of these clues also work as Red Herrings that point towards a false culprit: The Joker, as he's also a Gotham-based prominent figure with a personal relationship with the Batfamily.
  • While traveling to Australia, Black Manta tells Steel to be careful as Atlanteans can control the ocean itself. With the reveal that's actually Mera using Black Manta’s armor, who better to know about the Atlanteans' capabilities to control the water?
  • At the very beginning of the series, the Vampire King later revealed to be Nightwing warns Hal Jordan to keep the superheroes distracted, because the wrong person finding out who they are could prove disastrous, as the scene cuts to Barbara Gordon. Because he's unwilling to hurt her, Barbara ends up being the only mortal capable of getting close enough to Nightwing to trick him and kill him.
• Frame-Up: The vampiric Hal Jordan and Wonder Woman frame Batman for the murder of Barry Allen, both to provide cover for Hal (the actual murderer) and to turn the Justice League against itself as it's being infiltrated.
• Fully-Embraced Fiend: Green Lantern Hal Jordan has no problem selling out the human race, betraying his teammates in the Justice League, or killing and consuming people after being turned an unspecified amount of time before the start of the story. When he reveals his vampirism to the Flash and Wonder Woman, he flat-out describes being a vampire as a good thing.
  • Played with in the second issue: the vampire Hal Jordan still values his friendship with Barry Allen and sincerely regrets killing him on orders from his master, but only because he "wanted to conquer the world" with him.
  • This seems to be the case with almost anyone who becomes a vampire, regardless of how heroic or moral they were previously. The only exception seen so far is Damian Wayne, who remains firmly allied with Alfred and other human survivors after being turned. Later, it's shown to also apply to Kate Kane/Batwoman, who was taught how to control her ravenous vampiric hunger by Damian, and thus she also remains on the side of the angels.
• Ghost City: The Bottle City of Kandor, of all places. When the resistance went there for help, they discovered that the vampires had already taken out the population of Kryptonians living there. They take the city itself instead to use as their base of operations.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: Superboy is torn in half by the vampiric Wonder Woman and Shazam. Vertically.
• Have You Told Anyone Else?: Probably the first hint that Hal Jordan was part of the conspiracy from the beginning is the fact he asks Andrew Bennett this when they're alone.
• Heel–Face Turn: Harley Quinn spends most of the early part of the conquest selfishly looking only for herself and running a criminal underground ring. After Jim Gordon asks her to smuggle Lex Luthor's blood out of Gotham, at the end of Killers #1 Harley injects herself with it and flees the city to truly help save the world from vampires, whom she thinks are going to be her biggest problem. But...
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: Come issue 7 and she's been captured and imprisoned by the human refugees in Kandor. She's been experimented on by the fully human supervillains Professor Pyg, Hugo Strange and the Thinker, all with the knowledge of the still human Constantine. As she lies Strapped to an Operating Table, she swears revenge on all of them.
• Henshin Hero: The fact that the members of the Marvel Family can do this becomes a plot point when it's revealed that, prior to the events of All-Out War, Mary got vampirized while untransformed. However, before the thirst could overtake her, she transformed into her Mary Marvel form. As both her forms are completely separate bodies and entities, Mary Marvel remained completely infection-free and on the side of the heroes, while her Mary Batson form was a vampire. The reverse happened to Billy, who was a vampire in his Captain Marvel form, but a human in his mortal one.
• Hope Bringer: Even without her powers, Kara Zor-El is considered to be this by the surviving human resistance. As the only remaining uninfected Kryptonian, Kara wants to go to space to recharge her powers with sunlight and clear the ash cloud covering the Earth.
• Hope Spot: After several close calls, Batman, Green Arrow and the rest of the Bat Family manage to contain both Wonder Woman and Green Lantern using artificial sunlight. Bruce finally understands the solo approach isn't feasible so he calls the rest of the (unturned) Justice League to try and organize a counter-offensive. Though not without heavy loses, the human heroes seem to have the situation under some semblance of control. Then the Vampire King, who had been Nightwing all along, puts a fist through Bruce's chest.
• Horror Hunger: Batwoman describes her bloodthirst as something so uncontrollable that she felt her personality completely absorbed by it, until Damian found her and taught her a way to separate her mind from the thirst. Azrael similarly describes being a vampire as being lost.
• Human Popsicle: After being infected, but not fully turned, Captain Cold decides to find a quiet place and uses his Cold Gun on himself, hoping people in the future have found a cure. He's pretty angry that Midnighter, Deathstroke and Booster Gold thaw him before that.
• Hunter of His Own Kind: As of Hunters #1, Damian Wayne has become this, as he maintains his morality despite Nightwing turning him into a vampire, actively killing other vampires in the process.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Attempted by the more idealistic characters, urging the people they know to fight their urges, as they think their friends can still be saved:
  • Barry Allen pleads with Hal Jordan to fight his new nature, saying this isn't him. It doesn't work.
  • The Justice League, including Superman, ask Batman to stop fighting even though they think he's the vampire who killed Barry and are only fighting to capture him, not harm him.
  • Even a year into the apocalypse, once Aquaman arrives to capture Supergirl, she tells him he's better than this.
  • Averted with more cynical characters or characters who have taken a level in cynicism, like Green Arrow and Mera. For that, see That Man Is Dead.
• Ideal Hero / All-Loving Hero: Even in the middle of the apocalypse, Mary Marvel is this. She’s not only lost so many people, she knows her human half is vampirized and is ashamed of it, yet she's mature, keeps her determination and tries to keep a positive attitude against all odds. Even though she knows perfectly well she’s been working with pretty terrible people, she still is trusting and gives everyone a second chance.
• Impostor-Exposing Test: Batman tests the Bat Family (and Alfred) to see if they are vampires (having them touch holy water, hold a crucifix or walk under the sun without being hurt). Green Arrow also takes blood samples to try to figure out who if someone is turned. Notably, even after that Bruce still makes a point to withhold crucial information and Oliver decides Batman may be turned anyway (and have found a way to subvert whatever test he could come up with), as neither of them trusts the tests to be completely effective. They're right.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: The final lines of the miniseries are Barbara, now queen of the vampires gloating that she has no more weaknesses^note having killed Dick, she is right. She also killed Harley, making sure that whatever agent her blood contains that kills vampires cannot be used against her, she rules^note we get a picture of all the vampires in Gotham kneeling outside of the tower, acknowledging her role, that all of her enemies have been weakened and a Curb-Stomp Battle shall ensue^note the remaining superheroes on Earth are licking their wounds but they are shown getting ready for this fight, not to mention that a huge number of the superhumans Dick has turned are now dead, including Superman and Power Girl, that she will be able to out-think them at every turn^note she is one of the smartest members of the Bat-Family, but she is not invincible on that end. Many other smart people, like John Henry Irons and Damian Wayne, are on the side of the heroes, and we see Alfred and others starting to work on plans right now, that the humans are small in number and will be overwhelmed^note there is a much smaller number than they were at the beginning, but thanks to Green Arrow's rebellion, they are now freed, organized and looking for payback, and that now they have no hope^note Supergirl has regained her powers, is the only Kryptonian left on the planet, and is starting to clear the ash clouds on some part of Earth that very second. Other stories in the universe like All-Out War showcase other superhumans alive, including Jenny Quantum - who, as the Spirit of the Century, takes the form of whatever concept molds said century. And she is still human..
• Insult Friendly Fire: After an encounter with the Martian Manhunter, Steel expresses prejudicial disdain for aliens, after learning they're leaving Earth to suffer under vampire rule, in front of Jayna and Kara who then take offense. When he tries to justify it by pointing out alien invaders, they rebut that the vast majority of sapient alien life is minding their own business on their home planets.
• Killed Offscreen: By the time Andrew Bennet reaches their headquarters, most of the Legion of Doom have already been killed.
  • Upon discovering that the Bottle City of Kandor is the resistance's home base, Supergirl asks what happened to the Kandorians themselves. The resistance sadly explains that the vampires (with the turned Superman's help) had already gone through the city and wiped out the population by the time they reached it.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: A group of vampirized magic users (comprised of Morgan Le Fay, Enchantress, Circe, Jason Blood and Raven) as well as Klarion attack the House of Mystery. By the end of it, Constantine (and by implication, the other wizards there that were trying to come up with a solution to the vampire problem) can't remember where he was or what he was trying to accomplish.
• Late to the Tragedy: When Andrew Bennett's investigation leads him to the Legion of Doom's headquarters, he finds that most of its members have either been killed or turned into vampires.
  • When Supergirl is brought to the Bottle City of Kandor, the resistance explains that they had initially sought out the city in the hopes that the Kryptonians living there could help them. Unfortunately, the vampires (with the turned Superman's help) had already been there and wiped out the population.
• Let's You and Him Fight: Black Canary gets into a brief and comical fight with Damian Wayne, when they find each other on patrol and suspect the other of being a vampire. It ends when Dinah takes a sample of Damian's blood, so she can confirm or root out her suspicions.
  • Green Arrow later decides to take on Batman straight on and tries to surprise him in the Batcave, which degenerates into a violent brawl until they both realize the other is trying to kill a vampire.
• Logical Weakness: Vampires are explicitly dead. The Lazarus Pits bring the dead back to life, which means any vampire thrown into a Lazarus Pit turns back into a mortal. By the time the human resistance discovers this, the vampires have been systematically destroying every Lazarus Pit they could find and Man-Bat laments the fact they had a cure under their noses all this time. Deathstroke has doubts about its long-term efficacy and it's hinted it may not be perfect though, as Jean-Paul Valley starts hearing voices in his head, though of course that's muddled by the fact that Jean-Paul wasn't the most stable person to begin with.
• Man of Kryptonite: When the Legion of Doom was attacked by vampires, Lex Luthor did something to his blood to make it toxic to vampires so that they couldn't turn or feed off of him. He gives Andrew Bennett a syringe full of it to pass along as a weapon against the vampire threat. When Bennett injects a small amount into the vampiric Riddler, the villain is instantly reduced to ash. The syringe eventually ends up with Jim Gordon, who passes it along to Harley Quinn. After injecting herself with the blood, Harley gains the same lethality to vampires.
• Mid-Season Twist: The first half of the main series ends with the reveal that Nightwing had been the new King of the Vampires all along. This is punctuated by his killing of Batman, who'd been the main character up until that point, as well as Tim Drake and Jason Todd. He then puts his plan into motion, turning the world into what had been up until that point a very familiar fascimile of the normal DC Universe into something completely different.
• Mysterious Watcher: As Andrew Bennett desperately makes his way to the Hall of Justice, Green Arrow can be seen observing him out-of-sight at a couple of points.
• Mythology Gag:
  • While Andrew Bennett and Mary, the Queen of Blood debuted in House of Mystery, their designs harken back to the New 52 I, Vampire series. A vampire conquest of the world was also the plot of the first arc of that series, though in that case, the idea was Mary's. Andrew even mentioned she'd have to face the superhuman community eventually, if her first attacks were successful.
  • Batman refers to an incident early in his career when he fought a vampire called the Mad Monk as his first bout with the supernatural (which happened way back during The Golden Age of Comic Books, in Detective Comics #32).
  • Green Arrow references Batman's contingency plans against the Justice League members, which has been a notable part of the character in stories like Tower of Babel and The New 52. And like in The New 52 he doesn't have any plan against Wonder Woman.
  • The heroic magic users take residence at the House of Mystery and Doctor Fate mentions John Constatine used to be the owner, as he was in The New 52 until he lost ownership to Zatanna. As in main continuity, it's implied to exist both on Earth and in the Dreaming, in the form of an idea.
    • For bonus points, House of Mystery was the title where I, Vampire debuted and in the New 52, the House was also the place where Cain, the Progenitor of all Vampires, was trapped. Cain had been said to own the House in some Post-Crisis stories as well. All in all, perhaps not the best place to hide from vampires.
  • Many characters (including the non-corrupted members of the Justice League) think Batman is the vampire lord causing the infestation, Green Arrow thought he was always secretly a vampire (due to his night motif, living in a cave...) and Wonder Woman apparently thought he secretly wanted to be one:
    • In Earth-43, Batman became a vampire after fighting Dracula and later actually managed to turn his universe's Justice League.
    • In Justice League: War, Green Lantern thought Batman was a vampire and had superpowers (for basically the same reasons Green Arrow does) before actually meeting him.
  • In Justice League Unlimited Wonder Twin Expy Downpour tries to take down Aquaman by attacking turning into water, which fails miserably. In a rather dark callback, actual Wonder Twin Jayna tries to do the same here with similar results and she’s seemengly bloodily killed for her efforts. For bonus points, both Aquamans mock the idea of attacking him with water.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Batman's use of Kryptonite on Superman leaves him vulnerable to the vampiric Green Lantern and Wonder Woman, resulting in him being turned and the vampires gaining a powerful weapon in the Man of Steel.
• The Night That Never Ends: When Andrew Bennett infiltrates the Legion of Doom's HQ (now in control of the vampires), he discovers plans for a giant space construct that will block sunlight from reaching the Earth, allowing the vampires to run rampant over the planet.
  • Once they begin their conquest of Earth, the vampires begin setting fire to the world's crops, jungles, and forests; the smoke this kicks up into the atmosphere blocks out sunlight from reaching the surface, giving the vampires free reign.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Vampirism can affect not only humans and metahumans, but also non-humans like Gorilla Grodd (sentient gorilla) and King Shark (humanoid shark).
• Not Enough to Bury: After Hal Jordan runs Zan through a blender construct, all that's left of his body is the tip of one of his fingers. Since Hal didn't do a great job of disposing of it, Batman and Jayna are able to find it in the sewers beneath the Hall of Justice and figure out that Hal murdered Zan.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: While most of her idealism and optimism aren't a mask, Mary Marvel at first puts on an exaggeratedly positive façade that partly serves to mask her shame at the fact that, in her human form, after being bitten, she chose to be turned instead of death, as well as to cope with her sadness towards the whole situation. As the story advances it’s pretty clear she knows perfectly well how dreadful the situation is, the fact that she’s working with terrible people and she doesn't hesitate to get serious when confronting her loved ones.
• Our Vampires Are Different:
  • These vampires possess the classic powers (inhuman strength, speed, mind manipulation...), are weak to holy symbols and holy water and get burned by direct sunlight (though can still operate during daytime if covered), they can switch between their former living appearance and a more monstrous one when attacking and can transform into bats.
  • Other than direct sunlight, the only method that seems to put them down for good is a stake to the heart. When Amanda Waller blows the heads of the Suicide Squad members that were vampires, the rest of the their bodies remain intact, and Batgirl even theorizes that their heads may even grow back.
  • The turned metahumans also retain the abilities they had in life and can use them to circumvent their weaknesses. Hal uses his Green Lantern ring to filter the direct ultraviolet light that would normally harm him, and Diana can't be pierced by a normal stake (or arrow) due to her strength and durability.
  • The process of turning one into a vampire consists of making the victim drink the vampire's blood, and also seems to be extraordinarily fast. After being bitten, Wonder Woman appears as a vampire at the end of the same day. When Red Hood is being turned, the process seems takes a matter of panels, though it is interrupted when Red Hood is mercy-killed by Green Arrow.
  • All-Out War establishes that vampire bites in this universe are extraordinarily painful (Captain Cold describes the bite as being more painful than being shot in the gut), and their saliva is a powerful anticoagulant. Upon being bitten, a human is likely to either rapidly bleed out or accept being turned in order to stop the pain. Even if they survive that, the bite itself can still force a vampiric transformation, albeit a slower one.
• Oxymoronic Being: In life, Baron Cinder needed cosmic radiation, which included UV light, to nourish himself. He still needs to do so as a member of the undead, but UV burns him like any other vampire. He's constantly burning as a result, needs Lex Luthor's armor to keep his body from breaking down and wants Starfire to filter out the UV so he can keep his vampiric advantages.
• People Farms: When Andrew Bennett uncovers the vampire threat, he discovers that this is what the vampires have in store for humanity. They plan to fully subjugate humanity as their food source, complete with human farms and slaughterhouses.
  • After the vampires take over the world, Green Arrow mentions that human farms have been constructed outside Smallville. All-Out War also features one in Florida.
• Pet the Dog: In Hunters #1, Damian lies nearly dead and all of his other allies are killed or incapacitated, so Alfred is left alone with Nightwing. After a tense but civil conversation, Nightwing decides to let them both go, only telling Alfred not to come after him again and asking him to promise to take care of Damian.
  • Even though she's killed countless vampires, a vampirized Martian Manhunter tells Jayna that she can go back to her home planet of Exxor unharmed if she wants, provided she stops fighting and gives them Supergirl.
• Playing with Syringes: As Harley Quinn had injected herself with Lex Luthor's blood, the Thinker, Hugo Strange and Professor Pyg start doing this to extract it. From the looks of it, the process seems to be extremely painful.
• Poor Communication Kills:
  • Even though both Batman and Green Arrow separately know about the escalating threat, they aren't informing each other or the Justice League due to fear and paranoia, which indirectly leads to the death of the Flash and the conversion of Wonder Woman. After her brief tussle with Damian, Dinah tells Oliver outright that keeping this to themselves is a bad idea because they need help.
  • Played literally for dark comedy in issue 6. When Harley Quinn manages to contact Amanda Waller, she informs her that most of the remaining members of the Suicide Squad have been turned, she neglects to mention that Captain Boomerang is still human, leaving him to be killed as Waller activates the Explosive Leashes on them, sans Deadshot and Harley herself.
• Plot-Triggering Death: Mary, the queen of the vampires and Andrew Bennett's former lover, is murdered by a mysterious individual who takes her place as ruler of the vampires. Bennett discovering this and his subsequent investigation is what kick-starts the plot of the story.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Hal's master orders him to kill Barry Allen rather than attempt to turn him, reasoning that a vampire with a speedster's abilities and metabolism would drink the world dry of humans and doom the rest of the vampire race with them.
  • In Killers #1, Selina Kyle tries to persuade Harley Quinn into giving the vampires the vial of Luthor's blood invoking this trope, saying that the Vampire King being indebted to them will make their lives much easier. The fact that she was already a vampire but was hiding it so that she could keep an eye on Harley and prevent her from getting herself killed without making a fuss is also an example of this trope.
  • Following Martian Manhunter’s advise, Nightwing decides against killing the extraterrestrials the vampires won’t turn or feed from, deciding instead to let them go back to their homeworlds. This proves to be a wise decision, as in exchange those the galactic community allow the vampires to feed on the humans on Earth without intervening.
  • On the mortals' side, several supervillains have allied themselves with superheroes in order to avoid becoming food. Notably, Killer Croc acts as the guard for the Bottle City of Kandor where the resistance has made their base, Black Manta is a member of the resistance (though as it turns out, it's actually Mera under the armor), and several evil geniuses including Professor Pyg, Professor Hugo Strange and the Thinker are shown working on extracting Lex Luthor's blood from Harley Quinn.
• Protective Charm: John Constantine places a spell on Director Bones that he assures will keep him alive until he manages to bring Supergirl to Kandor. It even keeps him alive after taking Firestorm's explosion at point-blank range (albeit as only a head and a spine) and he doesn't die until he and Jayna have reached the city.
• Psychic Block Defense: Martian Manhunter cannot use his telepathy to find answers in a vampire's mind, which makes impersonations difficult once the vampire in question starts asking him personal information about whoever he's imitating. It also presumably prevented him from finding out their plans early on.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Two appear in issue #7:
  • A group consisting of Director Bones, Negative Man, Adam Strange, Peacemaker, Crazy Quilt, Killer Frost, Wild Dog, and Raven appear trying to make their way to a human sanctuary. After being attacked by several vampire Justice League members, most them end up dying with Raven and Negative Man's fate left uncertain.
  • The main human resistance against the vampires consists of Green Arrow, Black Canary, Batgirl (Barbara Gordon), Big Barda, Steel, Doctor Fate, the Atom (Ryan Choi), Black Manta, Killer Croc, John Constantine, several mad scientist villains (the Thinker, Hugo Strange, and Professor Pyg), with Supergirl and Jayna of the Wonder Twins joining them.
• "Ray of Hope" Ending: The series so far ends with a pretty literal example as Barbara's gloating that, as the new Queen of the Vampires, she is invincible and will make sure that the even-more-depleted-than-at-the-beginning heroes and humans will be subject to a Curb-Stomp Battle and "they have no hope"… as Supergirl is clearing the skies and letting sunlight come in.
• Religious Vampire: Azrael and his Order of the Grey Sun seem no less devout as vampires. Notably, they wear crosses on their clothes, consider the Lazarus Pits to be blasphemous and say humanity siding with people like Blue Devil will lead them to damnation, something Blue Devil calls them out on.
• Red Herring: The Bat-Family spend some time following clues that the king of the vampires is the Joker, but they eventually learn that the Joker has been dead for ages.
• Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain: Averted. While destroying a vampire's head may render them immobile, the rest of their body remains intact and will only turn to dust if the heart is staked. Batgirl theorizes their heads regenerate eventually.
• Revealing Cover Up: When the Joker is found dead after the clues the Bat-Family found suggested that he was the vampire king, Batman realises that the true vampire king must be one of his team as only they would have known enough about the Joker to plant that many false leads. Unfortunately, he doesn't have time to work out the truth before the vampire Nightwing kills him.
• Running Gag: See Mythology Gag above. Apparently a lot of people in this universe, from Nightwing's sister, to Green Arrow, to Wonder Woman thought Batman secretly was and/or wanted to be a vampire. Slightly macabre in that it also makes it easy to think of him as the prime suspect of the infiltration, which aids the vampire's plans.
• Snow Means Death: After the vampire victory, Central City is covered in fresh snow generated by Captain Cold’s Cold Gun. It’s also the place where Billy and Mary have their final confrontation.
• Shout-Out:
  • All-Out War features several to The Matrix. The Florida Blood Farm is, in both aesthetics and function, an almost exact replica of the Human Power Plants the Machines use; a vertical column of pods with unconscious people inside, that are being drained as an energy resource.
  • The outside world also looks remarkably similar to the apocalyptic Earth of said franchise: The Planet is devoid of sunlight due to an artificial atmospheric cloud and humans create a city underground, constantly on the watch for their enemies.
  • When Barbara calls Damian out on his failure to kill the Vampire King when he had the chance, she tells him not to act like he’s "some fearless vampire killer”.
• Someone Else's Problem: After the vampires take control of the Earth, many planets of the Galactic Community are content with letting them feed of humanity, provided they simply allow the extraterrestrials living there to leave without harm.
• Small Steps Hero: Even after the vampires have conquered the planet, Green Arrow is still looking out for the common people. Notably, he prioritizes rescuing people from human farms over trying to strike at the Vampire King or going to space where they could try to clear the ash cloud covering the world, which puts him at odds with Doctor Fate and Black Manta, who argue about his lack of pragmatism.
• Stab the Scorpion: While the three of them are on a covert mission and trying to avoid detection by the vampires, Black Manta declares that Supergirl and Steel have put their trust in the wrong person and will die for their insolence before throwing a trident at them... and killing the Atlantean that was sneaking up behind them, declaring that they've been spotted and will have to fight the rest of the way.
• Staking the Loved One: Discussed between Batman and Green Arrow as per the page quote. It becomes a recurring theme in the series and whether some are willing, capable or succesful in doing so, depends on the character and moment:
  • At first Batman says they should stake the vampires outright and starts the series seemingly willing to fight seriously, but when the moment comes that they've captured Hal and Diana, he hesitates and changes his mind, telling Green Arrow they shouldn’t kill them. He gets killed before he can stake anybody.
  • The reverse happens with Green Arrow, who at fails to do this the first time he confronts Hal Jordan when Batman tells him to do so, pretending he's just missed. He changes his mind later and succesfully stakes Hal, after seeing how far gone he is.
  Green Arrow: I missed his heart.
  Batman: You don't do that.
  • Completely averted with John Constantine, who never tries to kill or attack Zatanna (and in fact chastises Dr. Fate when he does so).
  • Also averted by the non-turned members or the Justice League, like Superman, who are under the (false) assumption that Batman is a vampire. Their only interest is to contain Batman and find a cure.
  • Averted by Supergirl, who even a year into the conquest still tries to talk Aquaman down. Mera, however, has no such doubts.
  • Barbara Gordon wants to kill Dick Grayson personally, but her lingering feelings for him still put doubts in her head. Ultimately, as he renders himself defenseless, she's unable to kill him. At least not while her humanity is intact.
  • At the very beginning of the infestation, before being turned Nightwing tries to do this to his sister Melinda, who's betrayed him and left vulnerable for the other vampires to turn, but can't bring himself to do so.
• Supernaturally Delicious and Nutritious: Starfire's blood amps the vampires to the point it allows them to ignore all their weaknesses for a while. This is how Nightwing was able to pass all of Bruce's tests.
• Tarot Motifs: Once Punchline ambushes Barbara's crew, who've just snuck into Gotham, she's holding The Tower, which symbolizes sudden change, upheaval, chaos, revelation, and awakening, as well as being a symbol of human pride.
• Time Skip: Hunters #1 takes place an unspecified number of months after issue 6. Killers #1 explicitly mentions it's been five months since the vampires took over the planet and All-Out War #1 mentions it's been a year since the vampire takeover and the main series' issue 7 immediately after that.
• That Man Is Dead: Despite vampire Hal telling Oliver Queen all about their time as "hard-travelling heroes", Oliver makes it clear that he considers the true Hal to be dead when he stakes the vampire, stating that their past friendship is what assures him that Hal would rather be dead than continue in his current state.
  • Similarily, Mera doesn't hesitate for second to attack a vampiric Aquaman, even though the latter has stopped for a moment to talk, telling him to stop talking like they know each other anymore and calling him "creature". Justified as they've been a year deep into a vampiric dystopia and she knows what their turned friends are capable of.
• The Immune: Nightwing says they can't turn Martian Manhunter into a vampire, though he explains he's got the best minds of the Vampire Kingdom working on a workaround. Provided he wasn't just lying about the immunity, they eventually do so, and find a way to turn both him and Miss Martian.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Played with in Batman's case. While he tells the rest of the Bat-family they're going to kill the vampires outright instead of capturing them and he unsuccessfully tries to stake Diana when he has seemingly no other way to avoid being killed or turned by her (and even then, it's left ambiguous whether he thought it would really work or was just a desperate distraction, given that he's badly hurt and tells Green Arrow to run away), once he later finds a way to non-lethally subdue Wonder Woman and Green Lantern using UV light, he keeps them alive and even tries to tell Green Arrow he shouldn't have staked Hal. Ultimately, Bruce dies without having actually killed anyone.
• Trapped-with-Monster Plot: Batman and Green Arrow are cornered by the Justice League inside the Batcave. Knowing there's at least two vampires on their ranks and unable to identify who else is turned, they manage to evade or subdue several of their former companions until Wonder Woman, who is a vampire, prevents their escape. Unable to beat her or get away, they're only saved by the timely arrival of Tim Drake and Damian Wayne, and even so only momentarily because the vampires find a different, better target instead.
• Vampire Monarch: The vampires have a strict hierarchy that they almost all follow, with a ruler on top, though that doesn't necessarily prevent coups. Mary, the Queen of Blood, was the monarch before the start of the series, but she's is killed by Nightwing, who occupies her place. He explains that, even if he were to die, there would be other vampires in line to take the throne.
  • In issue #12, Nightwing mentions that if the (human) Barbara were to kill him, Clark or Diana would simply take his place. However, after Barbara gets turned by him, she tricks him into drinking from Harley Quinn, which kills him and gives her the position.
• Villains Act, Heroes React: Lampshaded as a plot point; Red Hood notes that infiltrating the supervillain community would be a good start for the vampire conspiracy precisely because the superheroes don't generally pay attention to supervillains when they're not committing crimes. Villains tend to lay low between jobs, which makes it unlikely that the heroes would notice them going missing as they're either killed or turned into vampires.
• Underestimating Badassery: In #6, while vampire Hal Jordan takes on most of the Bat-Family, he was unprepared for Alfred to cut off his ring arm with an axe.
• Uncomfortable Elevator Moment: Vampire Wonder Woman brings Barbara Gordon and Harley Quinn to the Throne Room in Wayne Tower. They take the elevator.
• We Can Rule Together:
  • Defied. Green Lantern wanted to make the offer to turn his best friend Barry Allen and have them conquer the world together, but the Vampire King wouldn't allow it. So Green Lantern just killed him instead.
  • In #5, Wonder Woman offers Batman the chance to join the vampires, both because he's a good friend of hers and because he'd make an excellent vampire, even though both of them know he'd never accept the offer.
• Willfully Weak: The vampires in the first half the of the series are told not to hurt members of the Bat Family. There’s also the fact that the fights occur between old friends (like Green Lantern and Green Arrow, or Batman and Wonder Woman) and that they’re more interested in convincing them to convert than attack. Batman exploits this to get some good hits on the vampire side but once they stop playing with kid gloves, see Curb-Stomp Battle.
• Wham Shot: From issue 6, Nightwing punching Batman through the chest, revealing that he's the new King of Vampires.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: It's a recurring element that most humans, even superheroes who otherwise have sworn to never take a life, have very little problems staking vampires, generally under the justification that they are already dead.
  • When Nightwing points out that Batman is basically telling the Bat Family to kill any vampires they encounter, Batman simply states that they're already dead. And while Nightwing himself is later revealed to be the new King of the Vampires, he still justifies his actions arguing that Bruce, and humans in general, were going to simply wipe them all out. Unbeknownst to him, Bruce had privately shown doubts about his attitude.
  • Defied by John Constantine, who doesn’t seem to be all bothered by the fact that Zatanna is a vampire and is in fact more angered when Dr. Fate kills her and cites this trope.
  • Played for morbid laughs when the magic users at the House of Mystery are using a captured vampire to try and find a cure. When another vampire accuses them of torture and the magic users say they aren't torturing him, the captured vampire immediately explodes covering everyone with blood.
  • Called out by Punchline, who tells Barbara and her crew they're hypocrites for killing vampires without remorse (and not considering it murder), and still maintain their no kill rule when it comes humans, even if those humans are murderers. Though Barbara later argues to Damian she’s trying to preserve humankind, so there’s a pragmatic motive for her choices.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: The Vampire King who is Nightwing, learns Andrew Bennett has managed discover their plans and has informed Batman about them before heavy-hitters like Flash, Wonder Woman or Superman are out of the board. Though intially startled, the vampires still manage to turn the situation around by quietly turning and/or distracting the JL and framing Batman for their crimes, while they're busy finishing implementing their plans. Notably, they sucessfully manage to do so with minimal losses.

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