Todd McFarlane and DC Reveal Full Preview for Batman/Spawn #1

Todd McFarlane and DC Comics are building hype for the upcoming Batman/Spawn #1 crossover by releasing a full-fledged preview of the book! As you can see below (and over on the official DC blog), McFarlane and DC are giving fans both a look at the epic artwork of artist Batman and Spawn comics icon Greg Capullo, as well as an interview with more insight into what McFarlane and Capullo did together, re-uniting for this book. 

NOTE: Todd McFarlane and Greg Capullo also talked full Batman/Spawn #1 SPOILERS wth our ComicBook Nation show – that interview you can check out when Batman/Spawn #1 goes on sale starting Tuesday, December 13th. 

This won’t be the first Batman/Spawn crossover: McFarlane and Frank Miller did the first one in 1994 as the one-shot comic Spawn/Batman. That comic (set in the continuity of Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns) was followed in the same year by Batman/Spawn: War Devil, which was done without McFarlane being on the creative team (Doug Moench, Alan Grant, and Chuck Dixon). With nearly three decades having passed since then, McFarlane approached this new Batman/Spawn project as more reboot than sequel: 

“The easy thing about it is that it was 25 years ago when I drew the first one. It’s sort of like doing a movie 25 years ago. It’s like, we’re not making a remake of it. It’s more like a reboot McFarlane explained to DC. “I wasn’t ever concerned about a reader having read the earlier ones, and if you’re interested in them, you can now get them. DC is reprinting them. But what Greg and I are doing is a reset-doing a modern-day Spawn and Batman story without worrying about what came out before.

Over the course of so many years both Batman and Spawn have, obviously, developed and changed. McFarlane and Capullo addressed what fans can expect from a new era of these characters meeting after they’ve evolved so much: 

“The characters are very different,” Capullo explains. “Spawn will kill or do anything—he’s a mercenary from hell. Batman is very distinct to me. Why he’s so cool and awesome is because he was given a chance to claim either victimhood or victory. He could’ve been an alcoholic or drug addict, but he didn’t. That strength of will makes the character so special and identifiable. Spawn’s the opposite. There are no moral barriers to keep him in line and just do whatever. That’s what divides them. But they’re both highly skilled physical fighters. Batman doesn’t cross the line to kill, but if he did, he’d be on par with Spawn. That’s how I see them and describe them.”

“I would say pairing the two of them together is different in comics than in anything else,” McFarlane said. “Outside of comics, the Batman brand is way, way stronger, especially on a global level. Spawn isn’t what Batman is in that arena. In comics, they’re much closer. In the past, Spawn has outsold Batman. The two being next to each other isn’t a gimmick, they’re both A-listers. It’s fun to do that with any heavyweights in the industry. This is just going back to what’s worked before, for a whole new generation of fans that didn’t read them both together the last time we did this. You might’ve heard about it, but you were never able to share in the moment. Not until now.”

Batman/Spawn #1 will go on sale Tuesday December 13th.