Read the first six pages of Batman/Spawn #1

art from Batman/Spawn #1
art from Batman/Spawn #1 (Image credit: DC)

On Tuesday, December 13, arguably the most popular superhero in the world Batman and arguably the most popular non-Marvel or DC superhero in the world Spawn will meet again for the first time in nearly three decades.

Batman/Spawn #1 is a 48-page one-shot intercompany crossover special written by Todd McFarlane and drawn by Greg Capullo featuring the villainous Gotham City secret society the Court of Owls, who enlist the Hellspawn to finally put an end to the Dark Knight.

Todd McFarlane Productions has just released a fully-lettered, six-page preview of the issue, and without further ado, here are those pages:

Batman/Spawn marks the first teaming of these two iconic characters since 1994's Batman/Spawn: War Devil, written by Doug Moench, Alan Grant, and Chuck Dixon, and illustrated by Klaus Johnson, which marked the second official meeting of Batman and Spawn. The first was Spawn/Batman, written by Frank Miller and illustrated by McFarlane. Both were reprinted in Batman/Spawn: The Classic Collection last month.

Batman/Spawn (Image credit: DC)

Batman/Spawn #1 will be sold at Barnes & Noble (in addition to Direct Market comic book shops), with an exclusive cover by McFarlane and Capullo. This is the mainline DC comic to be sold at the book retailer since 2019 when Barnes & Noble carried the milestone Detective Comics #1000.

"Look, this is really simple. I get to play with one of the greatest comic characters ever (Batman), get to reunite with amazing artist Greg Capullo, AND am able to mix in my own creation (Spawn) into the storyline. These are the types of projects many of us creators in the comic industry only get to be a part of a few times in our careers," McFarlane says. 

Capullo adds, "I was fortunate enough to be able to draw both Spawn and Batman each for over a decade. Now I get to use those decades of experience to bring fans the event they’ve waited nearly 30 years to see happen. Spawn and Batman together again. It’s gonna be fire."

Here's a gallery of all variant covers to Batman/Spawn #1 including the Barnes & Noble exclusive. Batman/Spawn #1 will feature main cover art by Capullo and variants by McFarlane, Gabriele Dell'otto, Sean Murphy, Francesco Mattina, J. Scott Campbell, Jim Lee, Jason Fabok, and Brett Booth, with signed covers available from both McFarlane and Capullo.

Finally, DC also recently released a first look at special DC/Spawn-themed variant covers, featuring the character along with other DC heroes. 

Here's a gallery of those covers, along with the schedule and list of  titles and artists:

On sale Tuesday, November 29

  • Superman: Kal-El Returns #1 by Dan Mora/Tomeu Morey

On sale Tuesday, December 6

  • Batman #130 by Clay Mann/Tomeu Morey
  • Poison Ivy #7 by David Nakayama
  • The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing #3 by Tony Daniel/Tomeu Morey 

On sale Tuesday, December 13

  • Superman: Son of Kal-El #18 by Ryan Sook
  • WildC.A.T.s #2 by Ben Oliver
  • Wonder Woman #794 by Jim Cheung/Jay Ramos

On sale Tuesday, December 20

  • Catwoman #50 by David Marquez
  • Nightwing #99 by Javi Fernandez/Tomeu Morey

On sale Tuesday, December 27

  • Harley Quinn #25 by Kael Ngu

Spawn is one of the best non-Marvel or DC comic book superheroes. 

I'm not just the Newsarama founder and editor-in-chief, I'm also a reader. And that reference is just a little bit older than the beginning of my Newsarama journey. I founded what would become the comic book news site in 1996, and except for a brief sojourn at Marvel Comics as its marketing and communications manager in 2003, I've been writing about new comic book titles, creative changes, and occasionally offering my perspective on important industry events and developments for the 25 years since. Despite many changes to Newsarama, my passion for the medium of comic books and the characters makes the last quarter-century (it's crazy to see that in writing) time spent doing what I love most.