BatSpawn

Thought I’d dig into that wonderful treasure trove of eBay flotsam I mentioned awhile back and see what other jewels lied therein.

Well, looky here, not one but two versions of the Batman-Spawn team-up from way back in 1994, when the logic seemed to be, “When all else fails it’s time for a crossover.” Or two.

When I first pulled these out I thought they were variants of the same book, only later realizing they were completely different books, with completely different creative teams. So then I thought, “Wow, that Batman-Spawn crossover was so popular they had to do a follow-up. One of these must be really good.” Which only goes to show that I think too much. In reality this is some kind of DC/Image quid pro quo where DC produced the Batman/Spawn: War Devil version, with the creative team of Doug Moench, Chuck Dixon and Alan Grant writing and Klaus Janson doing basically all the art; and Image put out the Spawn/Batman book by way of Frank Miller and Todd McFarlane.

Let’s use our skills from English 1A to compare and contrast.

We would naturally expect a powerhouse duo like Miller and McFarlane to put out a far superior product to one that took three writers, yet only deserved one artist. Right? (Notice my clever attempt to downplay the creative efforts of one book, while secretly setting the other up for the fall.) Not so fast my friend! In fact, the Miller/McFarlane book is bad. Really bad. This may not be the worst Batman book of all time, but it’s in the team photo. Maybe it started with the book’s premise, an Elseworlds plot where a Batman with 70 less IQ points fights against, and then, surprise, with Spawn. First off, I’m not at all crazy about McFarlane’s blocky, Imaged-up Batman. And Miller’s script is horrid. Batman’s vocabulary is reduced to about 37 words, preeminent among them is “punk”, which Batman must use a dozen times in this slog. The story? Eh. It’s not a story it’s an excuse. Well, if they’re going to team up something’s gotta happen. Don’t bother me with details.Man, this thing stunk on rye. Of the two, this book should really have been the Batman/Spawn title so it would have carried the appropriate initials.

This picture pretty much sums things up:

Cro-Magnon Batman.

But hey kids, it's not a complete loss! In this one issue you get -- for no additional charge -- a full complement of nearly every sound effect ever used in the history of superhero comics! For one low, low price you'll get everything listed above plus: klang, shchakk, chudd, vmmmm, skrukk, thok, vreeee, poom, snap, blam, kludd, kunk, snak, ching, krakk, whokk, smek, koogh, whuk, thud, tunch, whap, kak, swak, krunch, rakka, whump, and much, much more! (Exclamation points included!!!!)

So was the DC book that much better? Well, yes in the sense that Three’s Company was better before Suzanne Somers left. Nobody is going to call it really good, but by comparison…

The art. I like what Klaus Janson has done here. His Batman reminds me of Jim Aparo’s, which I always enjoyed. His Spawn is serviceable. It’s hard to compare this Spawn to McFarlane’s, whose love for the character clearly shines through. And there’s actually a real, live plot here. Is it a plot worthy of the one-two-three punch of Moench, Dixon and Grant? Probably not, but for a one-shot it’s decent. Batman, and actually Spawn too, are far more believable here and there’s a nice little twist at the end that positions the story nicely within Spawn’s continuity.

Although the DC effort was okay, neither of these will inspire a return to the “glory days” of crossover books. I think we can all be thankful for that.

Comments

[Zilla]

great post kurt. loved it.

[Zilla]

ps did you see we got a shout out over at Yet Another Comics Blog today... and I found me a new contributer who's been on hiatus for a while too... the gang of 2 is quickly becoming more of an army my friend ;)

[Kurt]

Thanks Zilla. I haven't had a chance to make my regular blog rounds - traveling the last two days and on the East Coast right now visiting family. But hopefully I'll make it over there today. Amazing how many people like us seem to be out there.

[Nuadha]

I remember the Spawn/Batman title for one main reason: It was the first issue where I knew for a certain fact that Miller hated Superman. I had my suspicions after Dark Knight Returns but this book actually had Batman thinking (about Spawn) "he's almost as stupid as Clark."

Since I'm a Superman fan, I didn't care for this and was not suprised when Miller had more of "Superman acts like a jerk" in The Dark Knight Strikes Again" and just avoided buying the comic.

[Kurt]

Yeah, I've noticed that as well. Never quite understood all the negativity towards Supes. I'me reading Eisner and Miller right now. Maybe he'll explain it.