From Arkham, The Penguin, Tom Kenny, and The Joker, Kevin Michael Richardson, break free and race toward a buried fortune hidden in a crypt beneath Gotham Cemetery. The Joker is quickly spotted by Batman, Rino Romano, and a tense confrontation ends with the vigilante incapacitating him with a burst from his own electrified joy buzzers, sending the would-be thief plummeting into a river as if he were defeated for good. But the escape sets off a darker chain of events: Penguin slips into the cemetery, injures his hand, and his blood drips onto a corpse, waking Dracula, the ancient vampire king who has somehow found his way to Gotham after his supposed death in Transylvania. The bite that follows transforms a watchman into a fresh vampire, and Dracula compels Penguin to serve as his daytime sentinel, guarding the newly revived master and his growing influence over the city.
One night, Batman witnesses a vampire attack but decides to keep it at arm’s length as he hosts a high-society party at his manor. Dracula arrives in disguise as Dr. Alucard, presenting himself as a cultured visitor studying Batman while taking a keen interest in Vicky Vale, Tara Strong. After Dracula fails to bite Bruce Wayne, he bites a waiter instead, and the bite triggers fear and chaos as the servant’s transformation unsettles Bruce’s loyal ally Alfred, Alastair Duncan. Bruce quickly deduces that Dracula is behind a wave of disappearances in Gotham, with the missing citizens now labeled as the “Lost Ones” and turning into vampires who threaten to turn the city into a plague zone. Determined to save the innocent while containing the outbreak, Batman vows to fight Dracula without harming the Lost Ones, seeking a cure rather than annihilation. The public eye, however, misreads the events, with eyewitness reports painting Batman as the very creature they fear—a bat-like figure haunting the nights—further complicating his mission. When Batman probes Dracula’s nest, he is chased by a SWAT unit, all of whom Dracula has vampirically subverted, driving the chase back into the city and into a deadly stalemate. Dracula tempting Batman with a place at his side sparks a confrontation, but Batman refuses, and with dawn approaching, Dracula retreats, vowing to return with greater ferocity to complete his conquest.
The plot thickens when The Joker reemerges at the cemetery, convinced that Penguin has discovered the treasure and intends to keep it all for himself. The two chase one another into Dracula’s tomb, where Penguin warns against opening Dracula’s coffin. The Joker, driven by greed and hunger, disobeys and becomes Dracula’s slave, much to Penguin’s horror. The situation escalates as the Joker raids a blood bank to sustain his vampiric hunger, only to be captured by Batman. With the Joker quarantined, Batman begins to study the infected cells in hopes of crafting an antidote, a process that drives the investigation forward while Alfred uncovers a startling piece of Dracula’s history—that Dracula once had a vampire bride, Carmilla Karnstein, who perished in the sunlight, a fact that raises the stakes of any attempt to reverse the vampirism crisis. Amid this, Bruce himself steps in to protect Vicky Vale, only for Dracula to kidnap her, pulling the story into a race against time.
As the pieces come together, Batman finally identifies a viable path to salvation: a vaccine that can counter vampirism, derived from the Joker’s infected cellular structure, and a plan to confront Dracula in his lair. Batman cures the Joker of vampirism and uncovers Dracula’s hidden lair in Gotham Cemetery, then brings the captured vampire back to Arkham for containment. Yet the battle is far from over. Dracula intensifies his schemes, and Batman must move quickly to stop a ritual intended to resurrect Carmilla Karnstein by sacrificing Vicky’s soul. Armed with the vaccine and a full arsenal, Batman storms Dracula’s catacombs beneath the cemetery, where the Lost Ones converge in a chaotic assault. The Dark Knight fights his way through the crypts, freeing Vicky and disrupting the necromantic ceremony just as Dracula engages him in a dramatic showdown in the Batcave.
A pivotal misstep—Alfred’s crucial intervention—sees Dracula briefly strengthened by a temporary injection of vaccine, though the confrontation makes clear that a natural vampire cannot be cured that way. The climactic clash ends with Batman using a prototype solar energy-storing device to incinerate Dracula, reducing him to ashes and bones, his remnants safely secured by Alfred. With Dracula defeated, Penguin is forced to confront the consequences of his actions, finally released from Dracula’s control and discovering the long-sought treasure, which he seizes only to be immediately arrested and blamed for the disappearances and kidnappings that plagued Gotham. The public narrative shifts, Batman’s name is cleared, and the city breathes a cautious sigh of relief as Gotham’s protector resumes his vigil, determined to keep the balance between the living and the Lost Ones in check and to ensure that the vaccine remains available to stop future outbreaks.
