Action Comics Annual Vol 1 1



 Skeeter 


 * "Call it self-preservation, Superman. I don't much fancy the idea of a super-vampire flying around."
 * --Batman

Summary
Volume: 1 Issue: 1 Month: November Year: 1987

Credits
Editor in Chief: Jenette Kahn Head Writer: John Byrne Cover Artists: Art Adams and Dick Giordano Pencilers: Art Adams Inkers: Dick Giordano Colourists: Petra Scotese Editors: Mike Carlin

Synopsis
Cast of Characters:
 * Superman
 * Batman
 * Clovis
 * Donnie
 * Greg
 * James Gordon
 * Mabel
 * Ms. Carson
 * Skeeter
 * Vinnie

Locations:
 * Gotham City
 * Metropolis
 * Gotham City


 * South Carolina
 * Fayerville

First Appearances: Clovis (a diner employee); Donnie (a Fayerville deputy); Greg (a Daily Planet employee); Mabel (a Fayerville police clerk); Ms. Carson; Skeeter (Ellie Mae Skaggs); Vinnie (a police officer) Final Appearances: Clois; Donnie; Greg; Ms. Carson (dies in this issue); Skeeter (dies in this issue); Vinnie

Synopsis: Batman has traced a series of Gotham City murders to a small town called Fayerville in South Carolina. He finds that the town is under the grip of a vampire and begins investigating. But because he's been working for three days straight, he decides he needs some help. He calls Metropolis and asks Clark Kent at the Daily Bugle to get in touch with Superman.

Superman flies to Fayerville and consults with local law enforcement concerning the recent rash of murders in the town. He learns that vampires are responsible for several grisly deaths.

Batman finds a young girl named Skeeter, who had been running from some pitchfork wielding villagers. He tries to help the young girl, and she leads him back to her home. Her house is a ramshackle cabin and inside are the desiccated bodies of her parents. The bodies have been there for over a century. Batman comes to realize that Skeeter is the vampire that has been terrorizing Fayerville. She tries using hypnosis on him and lunges at him, pushing him outside the cabin into some quicksand. As Batman sinks, she leaves him for dead.

Superman meanwhile begins rounding up all of the hypnotized living ghouls enslaved to the vampire. He corals them all together and imprisons them inside of a makeshift barrier wall that he constructs from the earth around him.

Skeeter encounters Superman and the two begin fighting. Superman forgets that he is vulnerable to the supernatural and Skeeter rakes her claws across his chest. She leaps upon him and prepares to turn him into a vampire. Batman comes up behind them and impales Skeeter with a stake destroying her.

In the aftermath, Batman returns to Gotham City to take care of the remainder of Skeeter's progeny. He tells Commissioner Gordon that Skeeter (real name Ellie Mae Skaggs) became a vampire three days after the assassination of President Lincoln. She has been terrorizing Fayerville ever since. Batman prepares a hammer and stake as he stands over the coffins of Skeeter’s leftover vampires.

Trivia

 * Batman uses the word, Magpie, as a code word to identify himself to Superman. Magpie is the name of the villain that Superman and Batman fought in their first Post-Crisis team-up, as revealed in Man of Steel #3.

Recommended Readings

 * Action Comics
 * Batman
 * Detective Comics
 * Superman (Volume 2)
 * World's Finest (Volume 1)

Related Articles

 * Magpie