Spawn meets the DCU in DC/Spawn variant covers

Wonder Woman #794 DC/Spawn variant cover art
Wonder Woman #794 DC/Spawn variant cover art (Image credit: DC)

On December 13, Batman and Spawn will meet again for the first time in nearly 30 years – and it's all because of the Court of Owls, who enlist the Hellspawn to destroy the Dark Knight.

Batman/Spawn is a 48-page one-shot crossover written by Todd McFarlane and drawn by Greg Capullo.

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."

DC has 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 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

And here's a look at interior pages by Capullo:

Finally, 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, Franceso Mattina, J. Scott Campbell, Jim Lee, Jason Fabok, and Brett Booth, with signed covers available from both McFarlane and Capullo.

Batman/Spawn marks the first reunion of these two 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 will be reprinted in Batman/Spawn: The Classic Collection on November 15.

"One of the great pleasures of collecting comics is being around when 'event books' are released. Each time one of these events happened I was always glad I was collecting at that moment because I felt like I was part of something really cool happening in our comic industry," McFarlane says. 

Batman/Spawn: The Classic Collection (Image credit: DC)

"So now, to be able to gather DC Comics and Image Comics together to release a new reprint of those two wonderful books from yesteryear; Spawn/Batman and the Batman/Spawn: War Devil crossovers to a new generation of collectors who missed out on all the excitement of when they first came out," he continues. "This, to me, is why I got into drawing comic books in the first place...to have as much fun and joy as I could. These books do that!"

Batman/Spawn: The Classic Collection will be available November 15 from DC, and Batman/Spawn #1 will be available December 13.

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

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Samantha Puc
Editor, Newsarama

Samantha Puc (she/they) is an editor at Newsarama and an avid comics fan. Their writing has been featured on Refinery29, Bitch Media, them., The Beat, The Mary Sue, and elsewhere. She is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative nonfiction at The New School.