A large part of that is, of course, that Spawn/Batman was drawn by Todd McFarlane, and his art was, of course, the main selling point for the comic featuring the character he had created.
Perhaps an even larger part, though, was that it was written by Frank Miller.
Miller had previously written Spawn in 1993's Spawn #11 (part of a four-issue run in which McFarlane had a series of surprising guest writers, including Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman and Dave Sim), but the character he is most associated with is Batman. And here Miller would be returning to Batman for the first time since his 1986 Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. These days, after Miller has returned to the world of the Dark Knight Returns repeatedly, and written Batman in a couple of other projects as well, it probably doesn't seem like such a big deal, but I have to imagine it was in 1994.
And the Batman that Miller was writing in Spawn/Batman was, indeed, his DKR version of the character, albeit a younger version, as this story would have been set well before the events of that seminal near-future set series. McFarlane hints at that fact on his cover, an homage to the famous Miller-drawn silhouette of Batman leaping before a bolt of lightning cover from Dark Knight Returns, and there's a note on the 2022 Batman/Spawn: The Classic Collection hardcover's credit page for Spawn/Batman making it explicit.
The readers, and Batman, know that Spawn will, of course, live, but man, what a dick this version of Batman is, huh?
I can't help but wonder if this image, and the wordplay leading up to it, wasn't something that Miller conceived of very early in the project and then worked backwards from to tell a story that might get to it.
Miller had previously written Spawn in 1993's Spawn #11 (part of a four-issue run in which McFarlane had a series of surprising guest writers, including Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman and Dave Sim), but the character he is most associated with is Batman. And here Miller would be returning to Batman for the first time since his 1986 Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. These days, after Miller has returned to the world of the Dark Knight Returns repeatedly, and written Batman in a couple of other projects as well, it probably doesn't seem like such a big deal, but I have to imagine it was in 1994.
And the Batman that Miller was writing in Spawn/Batman was, indeed, his DKR version of the character, albeit a younger version, as this story would have been set well before the events of that seminal near-future set series. McFarlane hints at that fact on his cover, an homage to the famous Miller-drawn silhouette of Batman leaping before a bolt of lightning cover from Dark Knight Returns, and there's a note on the 2022 Batman/Spawn: The Classic Collection hardcover's credit page for Spawn/Batman making it explicit.
"Spawn/Batman is a companion piece to DC Comics' Batman: The Dark Knight Returns," it reads. "It does not represent current DC continuity."
I'm not sure of the exact wording that might have run in the original one-shot, but it must have been similar, as I remember knowing at the time that this was meant to be a story of the Dark Knight from DKR and not the "real" Batman (Say, if this is the Batman from Dark Knight Returns, only from an earlier point in his career, does that mean that 1994's Spawn/Batman is technically the first appearance of Frank Miller's All-Star Batman, from the pages of All-Star Batman and Robin, The Boy Wonder...?)
I'm not sure of the exact wording that might have run in the original one-shot, but it must have been similar, as I remember knowing at the time that this was meant to be a story of the Dark Knight from DKR and not the "real" Batman (Say, if this is the Batman from Dark Knight Returns, only from an earlier point in his career, does that mean that 1994's Spawn/Batman is technically the first appearance of Frank Miller's All-Star Batman, from the pages of All-Star Batman and Robin, The Boy Wonder...?)
So, what's the difference between this Batman and the one then-current DC continuity...?
Well, not much, actually. The main thing seems to be that Miller writes Batman here as an extremely stubborn, unrepentant asshole...arrogant to a fault, and unable to admit he's wrong or change course when that fact that he might be becomes apparent. That, and he's more violent.
Well, not much, actually. The main thing seems to be that Miller writes Batman here as an extremely stubborn, unrepentant asshole...arrogant to a fault, and unable to admit he's wrong or change course when that fact that he might be becomes apparent. That, and he's more violent.
On page three, there's a panel showing him stalking away from eight men sprawled on the floor, saying "Punks.. ...you're lucky I went so easy on you...", while the blue narration boxes read "Tonight's foes are left behind him, broken things."
Later, when he catches Spawn setting two men on fire, "a wanton act of murder," Batman drops thirty feet and drives his heel into his kidney ("Shouldn't cause too much damage," the narration reads, "Six months in the hospital and he'll be ready to face the judge.")
Otherwise, there's nothing here that really signals this as an entirely different Batman; it's more a matter of the character's attitude and voice than any specific facts. And, given how often other writers have tried to emulate Miller's Batman writing over the years, this take on Batman doesn't sound too off.
Somewhat remarkably given that War Devil had three writers so used to working within the constraints of Big Two corporate super-comics, Miller, who by that time had already become something of an auteur, does a far better job of presenting a real team-up comic, one which does a pretty decent job of introducing Spawn to new readers...of which I think it is safe to assume the character had gotten quite a few of with this comic, as Batman fans and Frank Miller-on-Batman fans likely picked this book up and were meeting McFarlane's hero for the first time.
Somewhat remarkably given that War Devil had three writers so used to working within the constraints of Big Two corporate super-comics, Miller, who by that time had already become something of an auteur, does a far better job of presenting a real team-up comic, one which does a pretty decent job of introducing Spawn to new readers...of which I think it is safe to assume the character had gotten quite a few of with this comic, as Batman fans and Frank Miller-on-Batman fans likely picked this book up and were meeting McFarlane's hero for the first time.
When Spawn appears for the first time, a splash on page 12, the narration tells us that "He is a dead man brought to a wretched life--a slave of Hell who seeks redemption." As Batman investigates the unhoused people in New York ("the dregs of humanity"), the narration tells us that "now and then he hears legends of one of their own named "Al"--a bum possessed with magic powers."
That there is more than War Devil told us about Spawn, really. The story reflected that, of course, but didn't make any of it explicit. We also learn that Spawn is super-strong and nearly invulnerable, that his magic comes from Hell, and that while he seems to be able to do almost anything with it—including, in this comic, bringing a dead Batman back to life, teleporting the pair of them and manage some sort of psychic mind meld with Batman—he seems to have a limited supply of it, so that he prefers not to use it unless he has to.
As I said, the fist 10 pages or so belong to Batman. The very first page is a 12-panel grid, the panels hosting terse, tough-guy narration that, at this point, I find hard to tell if Miller is writing in earnest or in parody. The first panel features the light of the moon and the words "A cold night," and the "camera" slowly pans from the full moon to Gotham City; it is the first of three, four-panel sequences pulling from a white space to reveal some information about the scene.
As I said, the fist 10 pages or so belong to Batman. The very first page is a 12-panel grid, the panels hosting terse, tough-guy narration that, at this point, I find hard to tell if Miller is writing in earnest or in parody. The first panel features the light of the moon and the words "A cold night," and the "camera" slowly pans from the full moon to Gotham City; it is the first of three, four-panel sequences pulling from a white space to reveal some information about the scene.
So yes, the page opens with the words, "A cold night. A dark night." And it ends with, "A cold night. A dark knight:"
Get it? (Oh, and that's not a typo; there's a colon in the last narration box of the first page; a turn of the page reveals a splash page of an angry looking, wounded Batman standing amid a bunch of intricate pipework, his logo and name atop the page, apparently connected to that colon.)
After having beat up the previously mentioned foes, Batman discovers crates of weapons, "sold by agents of a fallen dictatorship to Gotham street gangs":
Weapons--Built for a war that never happened.Guns. Grenades. Rocket launchers----And strange, high-tech devices that hint at the smaller horrors that would have followed the nuclear nightmare.
Batman is investigating these ("A pair of battle gloves, humming with the promise of power"), when he's attacked by a robot that looks silly, almost sarcastic in design; a round-ish body topped with triangles of armor, two big three-fingered fists atop spindly arms and a periscope-like protrusion from its underside, all perched atop a trio of spindly, too-small legs.
Batman defeats it, using the gloves (although the one he dons is actually different looking then the ones McFarlane originally introduces two pages previous), gloves that seem to give him a degree of super-strength (This will, of course, come in handy later, when he finds himself duking it out with the super-powered Spawn).
Batman defeats it, using the gloves (although the one he dons is actually different looking then the ones McFarlane originally introduces two pages previous), gloves that seem to give him a degree of super-strength (This will, of course, come in handy later, when he finds himself duking it out with the super-powered Spawn).
In the process, though, he discovers there's actually a still-living, severed human head wired up into the robot innards; the robot is actually a cyborg, then, using an unwitting victim's head to provide it with computing power.
Examining the recovered (and now deceased) head back at the Batcave, Batman discovers that it belonged to a presumed dead "vagrant" and "acute alcoholic" last seen in Manhattan.
Examining the recovered (and now deceased) head back at the Batcave, Batman discovers that it belonged to a presumed dead "vagrant" and "acute alcoholic" last seen in Manhattan.
"What's the brain of a New York bum doing inside of a Soviet cyborg?" he asks aloud. The Batcave sequence also features Alfred, and Miller handles their typical rapport nicely ("I don't get nightmares," Batman tells Alfred, "I give them." "No need for punchlines, Sir," Alfred replies, "You're among friends.")
So, Batman goes to New York to investigate, while Miller uses TV talking heads and news broadcasts to advance the plot, as he did so extensively in DKR (Spawn readers may recognize them, as McFarlane had drawn them in his own book before and since). Also investigating the rash of missing homeless men is, of course, Spawn. The narration boxes tell us he has some friends missing. He encounters a pair of men dousing sleeping homeless man with gasoline and attempting to set him on fire, but, using his magic, Spawn redirects the fire towards the would-be murderers.
"When you meet Satan-- Say hello for me," Spawn frowns at them, and this is where Batman comes in with his kick to Spawn's kidney, saying "You must be Al" on the splash page in which he makes contact, sending Spawn reeling and his chains jangling around crazily.
The pair fight for four-and-a-half pages, and it is a much less one-sided fight than the one in War Devil. Batman is shocked at how strong Spawn is ("It's like punching a brick wall"), while Spawn, who here seems to know exactly who Batman is and to address him by name, fights back effectively hand-to-hand, foregoing magic, except for using it to make himself strong enough near the end "to beat the crap out of Batman."
"When you meet Satan-- Say hello for me," Spawn frowns at them, and this is where Batman comes in with his kick to Spawn's kidney, saying "You must be Al" on the splash page in which he makes contact, sending Spawn reeling and his chains jangling around crazily.
The pair fight for four-and-a-half pages, and it is a much less one-sided fight than the one in War Devil. Batman is shocked at how strong Spawn is ("It's like punching a brick wall"), while Spawn, who here seems to know exactly who Batman is and to address him by name, fights back effectively hand-to-hand, foregoing magic, except for using it to make himself strong enough near the end "to beat the crap out of Batman."
Their exchanges are silly. "I 'm not in the mood-- And I don't have the time," Spawn says, catching a batarang in one hand and using a chain to block two more. Batman flying kicks him, saying "Got time for this, punk?"
Eventually the fight devolves into just mostly dark panels, narration and sound effects (SMEK SMEK, KOOGH, WHUK! and so on), Batman deciding he's over-powered and that, if dead, he's no use to anyone. He ultimately retreats.
But, having realized that Spawn still needs to breathe (which reminded me of Batman's first fight with The Hulk, where he made a similar observation about that super-powered foe), Batman had dosed him with "nerve gas-- --enough to make a mob take a nap." While Spawn kept fighting through it, as soon as Batman slinks away, he relaxes the magic he was using to make himself strong and starts vomiting from the gas.
Soon Spawn encounters one of the cyborgs, and, using a makeshift Bat-signal, the book's villain, a humanitarian named Margaret Love, sics Batman on Spawn, telling the Dark Knight that Spawn has been attacking her operation and plans to attack her fundraiser aboard her boat that the president himself plans to attend.
Of course, by this point, we have already learned that Margaet Love is really Nadia Vladova, and, using the cover of helping the homeless, she has been disappearing some of them and installing their heads in her cyborg killing machines.
Her ultimate goal? To fire a nuclear missile at New York City from her boat, setting off World War III and using all the weapons and cyborgs she commands to rule the aftermath.
Before our heroes can stop her, there's another six-page fist fight. This time Batman is armed with the power gloves we saw earlier, and the heroes are essentially now evenly matched. They beat the hell out of one another, desperately trash-talking the whole time. At the end of it, they are both sprawled on the ground and panting for air, unconvincingly continuing to threaten one another.
"I'll rip you to pieces," a bleeding Batman says, "Undisciplined slob." He follows that up by gasping "KHAGG".
Her ultimate goal? To fire a nuclear missile at New York City from her boat, setting off World War III and using all the weapons and cyborgs she commands to rule the aftermath.
Before our heroes can stop her, there's another six-page fist fight. This time Batman is armed with the power gloves we saw earlier, and the heroes are essentially now evenly matched. They beat the hell out of one another, desperately trash-talking the whole time. At the end of it, they are both sprawled on the ground and panting for air, unconvincingly continuing to threaten one another.
"I'll rip you to pieces," a bleeding Batman says, "Undisciplined slob." He follows that up by gasping "KHAGG".
"Catch my breath," Spawn replies. "Just catch my breath and I'll break you in half." Adding "Kheff".
Then Love/Vladova's cyborgs attack, inflicting a mortal wound on Batman, who was by then on the ropes and pretty much helpless. Spawn uses his magic to destroy the cyborgs, heal Batman and, in the process, spending about two and a half pages inside Batman's head. In the process, in which they come to know one another's origins and gain a new understanding with one another, Spawn shares the truth about Love/Vladova with Batman.
While Batman isn't exactly grateful for the save ("If there's one thing I can't stand, it's a dead punk that won't shut up," he tells Spawn), they finally team up, share a double-page splash (an image that artist Greg Capullo seems to have recreated for his contribution to the two-image gallery at the back of the Batman/Spawn: The Classic Collection), attack Vladova's boat full of brain-washed elites, a high-tech arsenal and a primed-to-launch, nuclear-tipped missile aimed at the city.
While the villainess dies during the battle—in maybe the messiest bit of storytelling of the whole comic, the precise circumstances of her death aren't clear—she launches the missile, and it's up to Spawn with his magic powers and Batman with his clear mind, deft hands and all-around know-how to stop it.
The two heroes bicker on the penultimate page, and, when Spawn points out how they just saved the whole city, maybe the whole world together and asks, "What do you say we just bury the hatchet?", Batman replies with, "Bury this."
The two heroes bicker on the penultimate page, and, when Spawn points out how they just saved the whole city, maybe the whole world together and asks, "What do you say we just bury the hatchet?", Batman replies with, "Bury this."
The last page, an otherwise silent splash page, reveals that the "this" was a batarang, and it has indeed been buried...right in the middle of Spawn's face, his sickly green blood covering the black, metal weapon and gushing from the wound.
The readers, and Batman, know that Spawn will, of course, live, but man, what a dick this version of Batman is, huh?
I can't help but wonder if this image, and the wordplay leading up to it, wasn't something that Miller conceived of very early in the project and then worked backwards from to tell a story that might get to it.
So that's Miller's story, a sort of simple team-up one, in which the character's are introduced separately, put into circumstances causing them to fight one another...put into circumstances to fight one another again, and then ultimately must unite to take on a common foe that they could only defeat by working together. Miller's only real innovation of the classic formula, which I feel was introduced and perfected by Marvel (but maybe not), is to add a second round of fighting, and, despite the initial misunderstanding, keeping the heroes at one another's throats throughout the proceedings.
As for McFarlane's art, he had, of course, drawn Batman before, rather famously in "Batman: Year Two"...at least the early parts of that story, which was, of course, positioned as a direct sequel to the Miller-written "Batman: Year One". Therefore, he had a decent amount of experience with both characters...though he was obviously much more experienced with Spawn, the character he created.
His Batman reminded me quite a bit of Norm Breyfogle's, especially in the way in which he would often draw the character mostly as a partial silhouette, an angry, jagged black shape with sharply pointed ears, the white of his triangle eyes and bared teeth and the yellow of the bat-symbol sometimes being the only details visible (In fact, McFarlane so often draws Batman's head in shadow, it's genuinely unusual to see the lower half of his face, the flesh-colored chin that juts out from beneath his cowl, at all in this book).
In addition to Breyfogle, McFarlane's Batman reminded me a bit of that of Joe Quesada, who drew the Dark Knight in 1992 mini-series Batman: Sword of Azrael and, most memorably to me, the cover of the 1992 Batman Gallery. And, of course, I think there's more than a bit of Miller's own DKR Batman in there, particularly in the short, more broad triangle-shaped ears (in the mid-90's, Batman's ears tended towards the long) and the big bat-symbol.
His Batman reminded me quite a bit of Norm Breyfogle's, especially in the way in which he would often draw the character mostly as a partial silhouette, an angry, jagged black shape with sharply pointed ears, the white of his triangle eyes and bared teeth and the yellow of the bat-symbol sometimes being the only details visible (In fact, McFarlane so often draws Batman's head in shadow, it's genuinely unusual to see the lower half of his face, the flesh-colored chin that juts out from beneath his cowl, at all in this book).
In addition to Breyfogle, McFarlane's Batman reminded me a bit of that of Joe Quesada, who drew the Dark Knight in 1992 mini-series Batman: Sword of Azrael and, most memorably to me, the cover of the 1992 Batman Gallery. And, of course, I think there's more than a bit of Miller's own DKR Batman in there, particularly in the short, more broad triangle-shaped ears (in the mid-90's, Batman's ears tended towards the long) and the big bat-symbol.
McFarlane seems to have contributed a distinctly huge cape, one that flares up like titanic bat-wings in perhaps the most dramatic image of Batman McFarlane draws, and pools around the character when he's standing still. This was, remember, back before Kelley Jones had started as the regular artist on Batman, too; at this point, Jones was only drawing covers for Bat-comics (McFarlane had previously, somewhat famously, drawn a huge bat-cape with a life of its own on a 1988 Batman cover).
There seems to be, in at least one panel, a bit of Spider-Man to McFarlane's Batman too, in the way he gathers his bat-rope in his hands, the slack forming a crazy pattern that trails off at great length.
Beyond the drawings of the two heroes, I found the art serviceable but not particularly remarkable. Like I said, the cyborgs seemed a little too stylized, bordering on the cartoonish, and the handful of civilian characters, including the villain and Alfred, aren't particularly distinct nor notable.
Oh, one thing I noticed about the art was that McFarlane has Spawn's mask seemingly coming and going at random throughout the story, although given what we know about his costume being something of a living creature, I couldn't tell if this was due to the occasional art mistake in the book's continuity, or if it was intentional, as that's how Spawn's mask actually works (In War Devil, he's shown removing it, as if it was a piece of cloth he wore).
Tom Orzechowski, who seems to have been the original and regular Spawn letterer, handles the letters here as well, and thus the character's signature dialogue balloons look much more at home in this comic than they did in War Devil, where they stuck out as somewhat foreign or alien and, as I had said, seemed to suggest that Spawn was talking really, really, inappropriately loud all the time.
Overall, I think Spawn/Batman still reads as the superior of the two 1994 one-shots pairing the two characters. On a technical level, Klaus Janson's War Devil might be better drawn, but McFarlane's issue is more expressive, more highly stylized and thus a bit more visually interesting.
In terms of writing, it's hard to judge the two against one another. Miller's script is, like McFarlane's art, more stylized and, I think it's safe to say, more over-the-top. It's also a bit more unique, reading so unlike so many other superhero team-ups and crossovers. It's definitely a better Spawn story, if not a very good Batman story...which, of course, might be why DC took some pains to differentiate it as a story of Miller's Dark Knight Returns Batman, and not, you know, the real Batman.
Overall, I think Spawn/Batman still reads as the superior of the two 1994 one-shots pairing the two characters. On a technical level, Klaus Janson's War Devil might be better drawn, but McFarlane's issue is more expressive, more highly stylized and thus a bit more visually interesting.
In terms of writing, it's hard to judge the two against one another. Miller's script is, like McFarlane's art, more stylized and, I think it's safe to say, more over-the-top. It's also a bit more unique, reading so unlike so many other superhero team-ups and crossovers. It's definitely a better Spawn story, if not a very good Batman story...which, of course, might be why DC took some pains to differentiate it as a story of Miller's Dark Knight Returns Batman, and not, you know, the real Batman.
As for Batman and Spawn's 2022 team-up, I'm not rereading that and trying to write about it again. I covered it here, though, if you would like to read what I thought of it when it came out.
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