Marvel and DC Just Made the Coolest Combo Hero (& Took Down An Incredibly Powerful MCU Villain)

What could be better than a crossover that brings Marvel and DC Comics’ heroes together? How about a crossover that literally brings them together? After months of waiting, fans have finally gotten the second half of the Big Two’s crossover that brings together Deadpool and Batman. Expectations were high for months as fans wondered what the union of the Merc with the Mouth and the Dark Knight could actually bring. And after Marvel/DC: Deadpool/Batman, readers saw just how violent and wacky things can get when these two heroes cross paths.

But now, it’s months later, and we’ve gotten the second half of Marvel and DC Comics’ 2025 collaboration, DC/Marvel: Batman/Deadpool. And as outrageous as the last crossover got (and it was plenty outrageous), this new crossover goes even further. Grant Morrison and Dan Mora take the titular titans of comic book storytelling into a world of pure imagination and pit them against a powerful villain that threatens to tear both their worlds apart. Fortunately, this crossover ends up creating a new hero with all the tenacity of Batman and the violent psychopathy of Deadpool.

Meet Deadbat, Batman and Deadpool’s New Amalgamation

As you can probably imagine, DC/Marvel: Batman/Deadpool #1’s main story, “The Cosmic Kiss Caper” by Grant Morrison, Dan Mora, Alejandro Sánchez, and Todd Klein, is incredibly wacky and high-concept. The Dark Knight is on the hunt for the Quantum Keyboard, a powerful relic that can rewrite reality. But he’s not the only one looking for that powerful MacGuffin, as the sinister Cassandra Nova wants it too, and she traps Batman in a mental landscape along with Deadpool, who’d been contracted by the TVA to eliminate Nova at all costs.

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I Really Need This to Be the New Marvel/DC Crossover

The two heroes work together to navigate the strange space they’ve been contained in. As Batman begins to work out the mental trap, he and Deadpool are attacked by an army of cartoon ninjas. Bruce tests to see if this environment is real and allows himself to be shot by dozens of arrows. But Batman’s physical body is fine, and thanks to a save by Damian Wayne, the mental hold on the two heroes is broken, allowing them to find the Quantum Keyboard, which is possessed by none other than the Writer (aka Grant Morrison’s avatar from Animal Man).

Cassandra Nova attacks the Writer and tries to manipulate them into writing a dark fate for Batman and Deadpool. But as the Writer reveals, Cassandra is subject to the author’s whims, and now that the Writer is out of ideas, they pull out one offbeat idea to wrap up the story: Batman and Deadpool fuse into Deadbat, a garish combination of the two, who attacks Nova with a sword. The fusion only shows up for one panel, but Deadbat was powerful enough to decapitate the villain and have Deadpool take her head to the TVA.

Deadbat is the Wild Kind of Creation That Makes Comics Fun

I think we all love the idea of combination heroes. There’s something that’s just plain fun about seeing comics smash two characters together to create something new and exciting. Heck, Marvel and DC Comics made an entire line out of that premise, Amalgam Comics, something that fans still look back on as one of the most unique parts of the Big Two’s history. Does a Deadpool and Batman fusion make sense? Not exactly. But is it one of the highlights of this crossover? You’d better believe it.

What makes Deadbat even better is Morrison’s tongue-in-cheek approach to the fusion. The Writer describes the fusion as what they make when they “run out of ideas”. Admittedly, merging two heroes into one isn’t the most novel idea. But Morrison recognizes it’s the kind of mad idea that can only exist in a book where Marvel and DC have agreed to work together. Plus, any excuse to let Dan Mora come up with a killer character design is a good one, and he positively nailed Deadbat’s brief cameo.

Much like the rest of Amalgam Comics’ heroes, Deadbat’s existence is brief and unlikely to be seen much in the future. But it makes for a hell of a third-act twist. It’s unexpected, it’s creative, and it absolutely works in the kind of outrageous story Morrison and Mora crafted here. While I don’t expect to see Deadbat ever again, I’m really grateful we got to see him this once at least. And who knows? Maybe down the line, Marvel and DC Comics may decide the fusion is worth it and give us more with the Bat with a Mouth.

What did you think about Deadbat? Let us know in the comments or on the ComicBook Forum!