So once upon a time, we took a look at Spawn/Batman, the Frank Miller-penned crossover between the Dark Knight and… I don’t know if Spawn has any “cool” nicknames. Anyway, that book was published by Image Comics and is supposedly part of Miller’s Dark Knight Universe, for whatever that’s worth. That same year in 1994, DC Comics put out their own Batman/Spawn crossover comic called War Devil and also features both heroes taking on demonic forces from Hell… it also features the artwork of Klaus Janson, who happened to be the artist behind The Dark Knight Returns. Funny how that works out.
Right off the bat, War Devil feels a bit less tongue-in-cheek than Spawn/Batman does, as the characters feel less like shallow parodies of themselves and are more true to their usual interpretations circa 1994. I also find the story somewhat intriguing and would later learn that the backstory of War Devil is based on a real historical mystery regarding Roanoke Colony, the first attempt at an English colony in what would become North America that failed due to the mysterious disappearance of the colonists. Tying it to more demonic forces seemed like a natural choice.
It’s only unfortunate that War Devil doesn’t quite dwell into this as much as it could have, as the prestige one-shot format meant they had to get through this in roughly forty or so pages. Some aspects would’ve benefitted from more fleshing out, particularly any interactions between Spawn and Batman to build up that partnership more than the couple moments at most. The artwork is kinda messy at times, but I wouldn’t call it outright terrible; merely a different style. It almost works. Almost.
Between the two books, War Devil is only slightly better than Spawn/Batman in that it tells a better story and the heroes aren’t treated like one-note caricatures. I wouldn’t necessarily call it a must-read, either. Maybe some day, we can revisit the idea of a Batman/Spawn crossover story and give it some real juice.
dtm666 