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Tick. . .Tick. . .Tick. . . The hands on the Grandfather clock move toward midnight. The witching hour. But the chime hasn't tolled yet and there's still a little life left in the Longbox Junk Halloween party!In 1989, DC came up with what is, in my humble opinion, THE best format for Batman stories.
Legends of the Dark Knight was an anthology title with short story arcs (No longer than 5 issues) and one shot issues done by a constantly rotating roster of some of the best creative talent working at the time, so that no two stories looked or felt the same.
It lasted for an astounding 214 issues, along with a good handful of annuals and specials. A rare feat for a 1990s comic, making the run a little harder to collect than your average 90s title.
The stories were (mostly) set outside of then-current Batman continuity and ranged from gritty crime noir to standard superheroics to science fiction, fantasy, and yes. . .horror.
Which brings us to the comic at hand.
Since this will be the last entry in the Longbox Junk 2026 Halloween celebration (I'm going to be out of town over the next few days) I thought I'd go ahead and throw in one of my personal favorites to close it out, which is this weird little Batman horror story.
You ready? Let's do it!
Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #54
DC (1993)
COVER: Mike Mignola
THE COVER:
My personal "Mount Rushmore" of favorite comic artists is as follows:
Joe Kubert, Timothy Truman, Jim Lee and. . .Mike Mignola.
I absolutely LOVE his super dark and weird art style. The cover of this comic is one of my favorite pieces by Mignola. I like everything about it. The bold red perfectly setting off his signature pure black spaces REALLY catches the eye. It's surreal. It's got a creepy gothic feel to it that just sort of grabs you.
I have this cover in a frame on my office wall as part of my Halloween comic cover display RIGHT NOW. I had to take it down to read and scan pages from it for this review. It's going right back up when I'm done.
Mignola really outdid himself on this one.
Let's get inside!
THE STORY:
Sanctum
SCRIPT: Dan Raspler & Mike Mignola
PENCILS: Mike Mignola
INKS: Mike Mignola
We begin our tale late at night, in a graveyard under a full moon. A serial killer named Lowther mutters to himself as he traces elaborate designs in blood on an old, overgrown crypt. . .
The killer is interrupted by Batman! Determined that tonight is the last night Lowther will kill, Batman leaps to attack. The two of them fight, Lowther is tricky and unpredictable, he manages to stab Batman several times. . .
Desperately trying to defend himself from the deranged killer, Batman accidentally kicks him into a spiked metal fence, impaling Lowther and killing him! Weakened by loss of blood, Batman passes out, falling onto the crypt Lowther had been painting with blood and collapsing its roof. . .
Batman wakes in a strange place. An underground space filled with odd Victorian statues, photographs, and other strange knick-knacks and decorations. Confused, the Dark Knight begins to explore the strange place, which seems like some sort of strange, dusty museum more than anything else. . .
Batman wanders the musty halls of the place until he comes to a large room, where he is greeted by a strange, skeletal man. Batman demands to know where he is and what's happened to Lowther.
The mysterious stranger informs Batman that his name is Osric Drood, and that Lowther is dead by Batman's hand. . .and that Batman himself is dead as well!
Batman refuses to accept that he is dead and attempts to attack Drood, but falls to the floor as he feels a sudden weakness come over him. Drood mocks Batman and tells him that it is Batman's murderer's blood that now sustains him and makes him stronger even as Batman becomes weaker.
And indeed, we see that Batman is laying on top of Drood's skeleton in the crypt, his blood draining onto the long-dead bones. . .
Batman kneels weakly before Drood, protesting that he's not a murderer, Lowther was killed in self defense! Drood mocks Batman's justification for the death. Visions of the past begin to appear as Drood somberly recounts the story of how he came to be in this strange place. . .
The Order lusted for secret, forbidden knowledge, but were unsuccessful in their rituals. . . until the night Drood murdered his wife after she stumbled upon his diabolical doings.
Using the blood of the murdered woman, Drood was FINALLY able to evoke the "Elder Ones" and beseech them for the gift of omniscient vision. . .the sight that would show all that was hidden!
While it seemed at first that the forbidden knowledge was denied to him, after burying his wife's body in the basement and returning to his studies to try and discover what he'd done incorrectly, Drood suddenly was blasted with horrific visions!
The relentless horror revealed beyond the limits of human sight and knowledge were too much for Drood. He took his own life. . .
The visions pass and Drood once again tells Batman that it is his murderer's blood that has revived and sustained him. Batman insists that he's no murderer and Drood tells Batman that fate has decided otherwise, and the best thing Batman can do now is to willingly give up his life force to Drood so that at least one of them can live again. . .
Batman tries to escape Drood by throwing himself out of the large window in the room. He's growing weaker and more skeletal as Drood grows stronger and more lifelike.
Outside the strange abode, Batman continues to waste away under a weird red sky while Drood watches from the broken window. Batman demands to know what Drood is scared of. . .
Enraged by Batman's challenge, Drood leaps from the broken window and begins to pummel the nearly-powerless hero. At this point, Batman is just a skeletal husk and Drood is nearly as he was when alive over a hundred years ago. Drood demands that Batman willingly give up what remains of his life so that he can live again!
But now that Drood has left his Sanctum, Batman can once again fight back. The two of them trade blows, while Batman mocks Drood for meddling in things humans should have no knowledge of!
With each blow he lands, Batman gains a bit more life and energy while Drood slowly returns to his skeletal form. Batman has learned Drood's secret. . .
Others fear death because it's the great unknown. Drood fears death because he knows EXACTLY what is waiting for him on the other side! As the beings that lurk beyond the edges of human vision and knowledge reveal themselves, Drood howls in agony as the last of Batman's stolen life force returns!
Let's pause for just a moment here to savor what is. . .in MY humble opinion. . .one of the most epic comic pages Mike Mignola has ever done. Thank you, Mr. Mignola!
Batman wakes! He rises, bleeding, from Drood's crypt. He tries to understand what just happened. Was it real? Was it a hallucination? He stumbles out. There's a strange tremor. He spots Lowther's impaled body on the spiked fence.
Suddenly, a blast of lightning strikes Drood's crypt, destroying both it and Lowther's body as the badly-wounded hero scrambles for safety!
Later, back at Wayne Manor, Bruce is haunted by what he believes was a dream or hallucination brought on by blood loss. Drood's voice accusing him of being a murderer still whispers to him. Could he have saved Lowther? Did he even want to save Lowther? Did he unconsciously let a man die? WAS he a murderer? The questions gnaw at the Dark Knight's very soul.
During his time healing from his wounds, Bruce investigated and discovered the location of Drood's house. He ponders whether or not to search the basement for the body of Drood's murdered wife. But what OTHER truths would be revealed if he did solve a murder hundreds of years old?
Bruce decides that it's better to just leave it alone.
The End.
THE REVIEW:
This story isn't really "scary". What it has is a creepy, strange atmosphere that digs its hooks into the reader. I like that they left it ambiguous as to whether or not it really happened at all, and ended it with Bruce deciding that maybe it's just better if he doesn't know the truth.
This contrasts nicely with Drood becoming a twisted wraith on the edge of life and death because of his insatiable lust to know the truth about everything.
This story owes a LOT to the work of H.P. Lovecraft. From the creepy Victorian atmosphere to the seeker of knowledge learning a little TOO much, to the "Elder Gods" that inhabit the spaces beyond human knowledge or vision. Take Batman out of this story and it could easily be something Lovecraft wrote. As a fan of Lovecraft's work, I can appreciate a good homage and this is definitely a good one.
On the art side of things. As you can probably tell from my look at the cover of this issue, I'm a HUGE Mignola fan. As far as I'm concerned, this weird little Batman horror story is some of Mignola's best work. The page I scanned above with Batman confronting Drood with the truth of why he refuses to die while the weird beings beyond human understanding writhe in the crimson sky is probably my favorite single page that Mignola has done.
This comic is absolutely PACKED with great Mignola art. From the fantastic cover, to the final, dark and moody page of Bruce Wayne deciding he doesn't want to know the truth. If you're a Mignola fan and haven't read this comic, you NEED this issue in your collection!
CONCLUSION
Reading this issue for review just makes me realize how much I miss Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight. DC really did hit on the perfect way to tell Batman stories with this long-running series.
Don't get me wrong. It's not ALL good. There's bad stories. There's AWFUL stories. But there are also good and great stories. This is one of the great ones, and a fine example of why Legends of the Dark Knight was such a good idea for a series.
If you are a fan of Mike Mignola's art, Lovecraftian (is that even a word?) storytelling, or darker and off the beaten path Batman stories, then I highly recommend this issue.
I've spotted this issue from time to time in the bargain bin. I see it more often in the regular back issue bin, where you might need to pay an extra buck or two. It's also been collected several times (at least three times, from what I can see). So it's not hard to find.
BUT. . .
While you're looking for THIS particular issue, check out some more of Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight if you haven't before. There are a LOT of issues and you can find most of them pretty easily (The back half of the series IS a bit harder to find. I guess it was lower print run).
Not every story is good, but it's probably the widest variety of Batman stories that's ever been put on the stands. I mean. . .where else are you going to get a Lovecraft-inspired Mignola-illustrated Batman horror story?
Well. . .there IS that great 3 issue "The Doom That Came To Gotham" Elseworlds mini-series (With Batman, Starman and HELLBOY). But other than THAT. . .well, you get my point. This is a great story, but there are quite a few other great stories in Legends of the Dark Knight you might want to check out.
And that's it for the 2026 Longbox Junk Halloween party. I had a great time this year. I hope you did as well! We had a pretty good mix and I got quite a few reviews in. Twelve this year. Not bad. The record is 16 reviews back in 2022, but still not a bad little party.
What's next? Back to Longbox Junk business as usual! What does that even mean?
Stick around and find out. And remember. . .comic books are worth more than money!
