PAIN IN THE NECK

Batman and blood don’t mix: DC Comics is apologizing for the cover of just-out Batman Comics No. 399, which features a severed head alongside a gleaming ax--out of keeping with the non-gore tradition of the Caped Crusader.

DC exec editor Dick Giordano told the Comic Buyers Guide, “If I had a chance to do it over again, I’d have a different cover.”

No. 399 received an “Approved” stamp from the once-strict Comic Books Code Authority. But publisher Kahn told us the cover was an oversight that “somehow was passed on.”