It’s been a long time coming, but the DC/Marvel crossovers are back… and may just be hanging around a while!
BATMAN/DEADPOOL!
Come September this year, we’ll get to read the Deadpool/Batman one-shot (from Marvel) followed by the Batman/Deadpool one-shot (from DC) arriving in November.
Here’s the description provided:
>>It’s the crossover you never expected but always wanted! Deadpool and Batman cross swords and batarangs as Marvel and DC unite for the first time in decades! Wade Wilson has been hired for a job in Gotham City, but will the World’s Greatest Detective help him or destroy him?<<
Zeb Wells will be scripting the Marvel one (with Greg Capullo art), and Grant Morrison is writing the DC book. Here’s what each had to say:
>>“After writing Amazing Spider-Man for 60 issues, I told Marvel I needed a break. Marvel told me I could do that, or I could write a comic starring Deadpool and Batman with the best Batman artist of our generation. I no longer needed a break,” Wells shared in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “In Batman we’ve found someone who has even less time for Deadpool’s antics than Wolverine, but a city-wide threat from the Joker makes strange bedfellows (literally, if Deadpool had his way). It’s been a blast letting Deadpool loose in Gotham City and watching what happens.”<<
>>“I don’t do many comics these days, but there was no way I could turn down the chance to work with Dan Mora again, one of my all-time favourite artistic collaborators—and definitely no way I could turn down Batman and Deadpool!” said Grant Morrison. “Expect 4th wall busting mayhem, owls, blood, blades, and at least one giant typewriter!”<<
This is quite the big deal, but before I give my take on it all, Major Spoilers has more thoughts on this announcement on this week’s Major Spoilers Podcast Pre-Show, a Patreon exclusive! Be sure to check out what they had to say before proceeding with my thoughts below!
WHAT I LIKE!
Honestly, the comics industry needs this kind of thing to happen, and to take place for a while, at least! Whenever DC and Marvel work together, it gets everyone’s attention, so I hope this is only the first of many events like it!
It’s a no-brainer for DC to lead with Batman, their most popular (or at least, most used) hero. We’ve seen him used several times in these Marvel/DC crossovers, from Batman/Hulk to two Batman/Spider-Man events, followed by the Dark Knight’s interactions with Captain America in the JLA/Avengers crossover. (I’m still hoping to see Batman work with Daredevil more at some point, but we’ll see.)
Batman is known for his strategic thinking and his ability to outmaneuver the bad guys both when he has time to prepare and when he has to figure things out on the fly. He’s the good guy that, if we really worked hard to make it happen, we could possibly reach the level he’s been at for a long time. I mean, none of us was born on Krypton or are part of the royal lineage of an underseas kingdom, so being a hero like that is not possible–except in the comics.
Batman was my entryway into comics, and I identified with him because his last name was my first name. I was introduced to comics when I opened an annual that showed him gliding around a castle in England to protect it. As Frank Miller once described it, I opened the book and “fell in,” and thus my interest in comics began.
WHAT I DON’T LIKE!
Granted, my exposure to Deadpool isn’t on the same level as it has been for Batman, so teaming him up with the Dark Knight isn’t quite as attention-grabbing as the Spidey team-ups were. Still, Deadpool has been an accomplished name when it comes to movies. That’s also an area Batman has been busy in for a long time, so I can see them meeting up along those lines—at least perhaps appealing to more than comics fans.
I’m concerned about how these two will interact. Yes, Batman is much quieter and more focused than the guy known for saying lines like “hankerin’ for a spankerin’” and the like. When it comes to how they approach crimefighting, in my mind, Deadpool is more like Dick Grayson/Robin/Nightwing or Spider-Man than he is like Batman. That will make their interactions a challenge for both creative teams to do something new and different.
Then, too, I will be disappointed if the storylines in both one-shots follow a very “expected” plot, including the Joker hiring Deadpool to take out Batman, something the Clown Prince of Crime has often said he would not do, saying over and over that he prefers to take down Batman himself. I hope they will take a more unique angle on how they meet up.
Also, they can’t do what happened with Batman and Cap met. They spent several minutes sizing each other up before they realized that they were not the real enemies, so they should work together. I do have to give credit to Kurt Busiek for highlighting the similarities those two heroes have gone through, from Cap’s experience with Bucky and Batman’s loss of partners in the past. That touched me!
But they really can’t be too silly, either! When the Joker and Batman ended up laughing together at the end of the Killing Joke event, that didn’t work for me. These two books will have to walk a tightrope in order to make these books as classic as, say, the Superman/Spidey ones have been! They have to really hit a home run, to use a baseball analogy!
Grant Morrison’s time on the Dark Knight has been good at that, and his mention of including a “giant typewriter” gives me hope he will make Batman’s history be something strong to draw on instead of something to be ignored!
WILL IT BE A SUCCESS?
The worst thing that could happen would be these one-shots being released to very little interest among the fans. If sales numbers aren’t very good, we can be sure that this will be the very LAST Marvel/DC crossover we’ll see, at least for quite some time.
I’m optimistic that this will indeed be something that will help bolster the comics industry. Even the brief quotes from just a couple of the creators listed above makes me sure they won’t just “phone in” a story, but instead they will turn out stories that the artists will enjoy rendering and fans will want to buy and read much more of!
About Author
