Deadpool/Batman #1

Deadpool/Batman #1

Originally released in 2025

Written by Zeb Wells et al.

Art by Greg Capullo et al.

In the past year or so, Marvel and DC have been a lot more cooperative, releasing omnibuses of their past crossovers and various new ones.  On the DC-published side, you've got Batman/Deadpool, written by Grant Morrison who's also known for All-Star Superman and Animal Man, which were two of my favourite comics that I read in 2024. (this one seems like it won't be available on the app until May) On the Marvel-published side, you've got Deadpool/Batman, written by Zeb Wells whose Amazing Spider-Man run was one of my least favourite comics that I read in 2024.  Though I'll try to stay optimistic; maybe Zeb Wells has some really good runs that I haven't read yet.

The story has a lot of familiar beats to it, and it almost feels like Deadpool could be replaced with the Creeper without much changing. Deadpool shows up in Gotham, figuring that he'd offer his mercenary services to Bruce Wayne before heading off to track down Batman.  This doesn't go well for him.

There's a nice gag in there about how these crossover fights usually go.  Deadpool claims that they're too evenly matched, so they'll respect each other's skills and work together... except Deadpool was completely outmatched by Batman, and Batman only agrees to work with him because the Joker's creating enough toxin to poison the entire city and they don't have a lot of time to track him down.  As such, they need someone who can think similarly to the Joker.

Batman gets captured by the Joker, who manages to talk his way out of the situation by playing to the Joker's ego.  Suggesting that Deadpool (who, as the comic explains, was brought to the DC universe because the Joker called in a favour with Reverse-Flash) could be crazier than the Joker, or more of a threat, causes the Joker to betray Deadpool earlier than he presumably had planned.

The comic also has a wide variety of back-up stories, which is understandable since this is a very rare opportunity for creators to work with both Marvel and DC properties at the same time.  Chip Zdarsky's crossover between Wonder Woman and Captain America is a highlight, taking advantage of both of them being around since World War 2 and having a long history in this shared universe as a result.

This story faced some controversy, as part of it involves Wonder Woman talking Captain America down from killing Hitler and convincing Steve that Hitler will face justice in a trial instead.  This conversation is nothing new for the superhero genre, especially as a series goes on and a hero with a "no killing" policy goes up against more depraved threats, but people seem tired enough with that argument being used for the likes of the Joker, and having it be made for real-world genocidal lunatics went too far.

Other stories in this issue deal with lighter premises, such as a crossover between Jeff the Land Shark and Krypto the Super-Dog that's illustrated by Gwenpool artist duo Gurihiru.  There's very little dialogue, but the art is expressive and entertaining as you'd expect from them.

There's also a Kevin Smith-written story that crosses over Green Arrow and Daredevil.  Apparently he's written for both characters before, though I haven't read either one of those runs.  In another story, Rocket Raccoon gets a Green Lantern Ring, a decision which goes about as well as one would expect.

Even Frank Miller gets involved, doing the writing and art for a story where Wolverine fights the Dark Knight Returns version of Batman.  The writing contains some fun tough talk as the two of them try to one-up each other, though the art isn't great. (there's also a story featuring an amalgamation of Wolverine and Lobo, but nothing really happens in it so there's not much to talk about)

All in all, I feel like this was a mixed bag.  The Wonder Woman/Captain America crossover was the highlight, the Krypto/Jeff story was cute, the Rocket Raccoon story was entertaining, and the Green Arrow/Daredevil story made me want to read one of Kevin Smith's runs on either character, but the main story was underwhelming, and some of the back-up stories felt way too short (only 2-3 pages).  Still, I'm glad to see Marvel and DC being open to cooperating like this; the apps also have one-shots crossing over Captain Marvel (Billy Batson, not the various Marvel ones) and Thor, or the Flash (Barry Allen) and the Fantastic Four, and hopefully past crossovers get added to the apps at some point, or more crossovers like this get made in the near future.