DC Showcase: Death

As a boy, Vincent spends hours lying on his bedroom floor drawing, dreaming of becoming an artist. Time seems to stop when he creates, giving him a sense of purpose and escape. This early spark will haunt him through adulthood.

At Gotham University, a cruel professor tells him he is not talented enough and suggests dentistry as a safer career. Embarrassed and discouraged, he drops out and returns to practicing art at his home studio. The rejection plants the seed of doubt that follows him into adulthood.

Over the years, his relationship with Charlotte deteriorates as his art remains unrealized and his life frays at the edges. After six years together, Charlotte walks out, taking his hope with her. Her departure deepens his isolation.

His stubborn pursuit of art yields no real success as he takes a string of dead-end jobs, always returning to the easel in his apartment. The constant failure gnaws at his mental health and fuels his smoking habit. He becomes increasingly isolated from any real future.

Now a groundskeeper, Vincent spends his days painting Arkham Asylum's gates, hoping for meaning in a routine that never satisfies him. He is fired for his slow pace and defiant attitude, throwing his fragile sense of purpose into chaos. The setback pushes him further toward seclusion.

Seeking solace, he drinks at a bar where fiery demons—his father, the art professor, Charlotte, and his former boss—haunt him with memories of his failures. They taunt and magnify his insecurities, making him feel small and trapped. The bar becomes a corridor to his memories rather than a refuge.

A pale woman in black clothes and gothic makeup sits across from him, instantly drawing his fascination. He says he wants to paint her portrait, but she explains she must go and leaves the bar. She heads out to meet Pedro, an employee who has collapsed nearby.

Vincent staggers home to a decrepit apartment and, after a heroin-fueled sleep, wakes to a crash outside his window. He sees the pale woman being yelled at by two strangers, then goes outside to help and discovers the two people are victims of the crash. The woman offers to see his work, and he brings her up to his apartment.

Inside, Vincent is shy about his unfinished canvases, and his demons ridicule him. The woman remarks that he is gifted, but there is a spark missing from his work. Vincent recounts his childhood on the bedroom floor and tells her he sees something special in her, so she agrees to pose for him.

As Vincent paints, the demons burn away one by one. When he finishes, time seems to stop and the world around him freezes. It dawns on him that the pale woman is Death and that he died hours ago.

Time resumes and ash from the cigarette in Vincent's corpse's hand falls onto loose papers, igniting the apartment. He tries to save the painting, but his ghostly body cannot touch it. Death explains that the end of his life story was written in the book of Destiny long before he was born.

Vincent morphs into his younger self and thanks Death, who reveals she was the spark behind his childhood drawings. She leads him by the hand toward the afterlife, suggesting his art mattered beyond the living world.

Firefighters extinguish the blaze and find the apartment ruined, yet the portrait stands intact among the ashes. The painting becomes Vincent's lasting legacy, finally given purpose by the events that preceded his death.