The Dark Crusader parachutes into a South American jungle to try and discover what happened to Abel Barrett, a geologist working for Wayne Tech, who had been sent down to survey cooper deposit, who hasn’t been able to be contacted in four days. Batman runs into Dead-Man’s Hand, a government covert operations team also sent into the jungle to investigate something unusual. After some conflict, which is interrupted by the discovery of a honking great alien space craft, everyone agrees to play nice. The space craft is explored, and oh no cocooned aliens, this can’t be a good development with a lot of chest bursting having gone down. Sure enough everyone discovers the most dangerous critters in the universe are calling a Mayan temple complex home. Is anyone going to survive this encounter?

There’s this weird idea DC had of mix and matching franchise, in order I guess to get some cross over from the franchise they were targeting. Not entire sure this is going to work with Alien devotees who tend to be more about the horror, but worth a shoot with Marvel being Marvel and offering stiff competition with, for mine, superior characters. As a kid I was a Marvel Guy, Superman was for nerdy twats. Which leads us to this two issue book, which sees the Dark Knight aka Batman leaving the confines of Gotham to tackle those intergalactic cockroaches the Xenomorphs. I’m approaching this review from the point of view of an extended Alien universe fan, and not as a superhero nerd, do your own review if you want to go topsy turvy on that one.

This is one massive graphic novel when both issues are tallied up. The reader gets an excellent 100 pages for their cash payout and the comics are colour throughout, which does lend itself to being in the collector’s category for both sets of fans; Batman and Alien respectively. I only had access to the comics from a serious collector, and you know everything was pristine under plastic. Both comics felt liked they had been well made, with some decent binding, and the whole package comes in standard U.S comic book size. Without owning the comics myself that’s about the best I can say, though because the novel isn’t likely to hit the reprint wagon anytime soon you are going to have to hunt out some existing copies. I would suggest eBay for starters. Therefore, I can in no way guarantee the condition of the comics you may purchase, check the sellers’ description I guess, cross your fingers, and hope for the best.

Ron Marz’s script does justice to both franchises, and he isn’t viewing either as being of lesser value. Batman is put in a position he cannot have envisaged prior to parachuting into Hell, but maintains his core beliefs as the encounters the stuff of nightmares, gung ho military types, and gets double crossed to round out the festivities. But just in case you thought it was going to be all Bat, we get the full Xeno life-cycle, though chest bursters are off the page, guess that was one step too far for the comics standard people. I had a feeling they might tone things down, but beside going the full chest explosion things are gritty with Marz not pulling his punches. And I have to say full marks and a standing applause for the croc Xeno hybrid, absolutely awesome, where can I pick up the action figure? And before anyone gets hot under the collar about plot holes, we are told there are a bunch of eggs on-board the alien ship, hence the propagation of Xenos. Marz says hold my beer, I have all angles covered.

[Editor’s note: Pedantic time, they don’t have crocs in South America, and I’m pretty sure alligators are not thick on the ground either]

But just when you think you are getting off lightly Marz drops a subplot on the reader, and it’s one that echoes ideas from both franchises. I’ve always viewed Batman as a fairly dark cynical character, and who can blame him with the history of Gotham city. Here this is at the forefront, he doesn’t believe knowledge of the Xenomorphs is something any human should have, that way lies mayhem and chaos. Similarly, and reflecting one of the core themes from the Alien universe, the question of who is the real monster is raised, and I have to say answered by various characters’ actions during the course of the two comic narrative. You want some depth in your reading, have at it, but don’t worry Marz doesn’t allow the subplot to overgrow the story being told.

Turning to the art, and for sure I was impressed by the work Bernie Wrightson in this regard, the comic is a good example of the time it was published. Lines are solid, there’s none of that modern blending of panels, things are crisp and get the script across in solid fashion. There’s nothing new here, guess corporate policy was to keep things within the lines, though the panel layout was played around with enough to keep interest in the art. There’s not much more to say, the art is off its age without any attempt at something original.

So this was a blast from the past, which given the state of the modern western comic industry, is probably something we are going to do quite a few times more. I really enjoyed the book, the pace and plot had me on board from page one, and I loved some of the ideas and panels being thrown my way. While I am in no way a Batman fan, well beside those Chris Nolan flicks, I still managed to get behind the dark detective as he clashed with the universe’s deadliest species. So yeah full recommendation folks if you read comics, nice amalgamation of two pretty divergent franchises. You might find it difficult to find the book, but holy heck it’s worth your time to do so.