He’s seen many faces of terror from his years watching over Gotham City—he’s seen murderous clowns, strange creatures and all forms of psychopathic killers. But he’s never seen anything like this. Amongst the Mayan ruins of the Amazon forest, the Dark Knight of Gotham is out of his element as he faces an intergalactic infestation of…Aliens!
Greetings!
Welcome back to another exciting week here at DC Universe Book Club! DC Universe’s very own community run book club. I’m so happy to see you!
This week we are headed to the Amazon Rainforest with our favorite Caped Crusader! Batman/Aliens is the crossover you didn’t know you needed! I can’t wait to hear what you think.
I’ve read this book before and I didn’t care for it. I tried it again this week, with an open mind and hoping for the best, but I still didn’t like it. With a few exceptions, I just don’t enjoy cross-company crossovers. The art was pretty sweet though.
Experience with the Alien franchise:
Alien: Covenant aside, I’ve seen all of the movies. Aliens is the absolute best of the bunch, and bar none one of the absolute best sequels of all time.
I had some of the Kenner Aliens and Aliens vs Predator toys when I was a kid.
I’ve read some of the Dark Horse Alien comics.
Dead Man’s Hand…was fine. I didn’t have a favorite member TBH.
Favorite moment: the last panel of the last page of the last issue, because that meant the story was over.
For anyone interested, NECA produced a San Diego Comic Con 2019 boxed set based on this story (eBay photos):
Thanks for the read @MattMcDonald. I was hoping my re-read of this book would endure me to it this time around, but, nope, its still an entry in the “Goofy Crossovers” stack for me.
First club i joined just a few hours and read this creepy but predictable crossover for the first time. Its an average story both parts with unlikable characters (including Bats ) and good art that saves it. 3 stars
Never knew this was a thing before i got this service this week
First time reading - I had no idea there was a Batman/Aliens crossover and I like it!
Two things: I watched this as a kid and was (1) absolutely terrified by the scene with Sigourney Weaver and the little alien mouth, and (2) absolutely inspired by a woman fighting an Alien that was so scary - I really felt like women could do anything after watching that movie.
I liked the guy that did the mercy killing. Yeah, it was bad, but killing his partner was the merciful thing to do to stop his suffering. They couldn’t save him, so saving him from suffering was the next best thing.
The beautiful Amazonian art! I was so excited when I read in the topic we’re going to the Amazon! Such lush green scenery and history!
Is this your first time reading Batman/Aliens (1997)?
Yep – like I said, if I knew the creative team was this, I probably would have read it sooner. Overall I really liked it. It really goes to show just how adaptable Batman is as a character, that he can fit in to stories like this and still work pretty well.
What is your experience with the Alien franchise?
I guess you could say semi-casual. I’ve seen Alien and Aliens loads of times, I think I saw Alien 3 and Resurrection only once. Prometheus I saw a couple of times and haven’t seen Alien Covenant. The only other outside media I’ve done with the franchise before this was the Alien Isolation video game.
What did you think of Dead Man’s Hand?” Who was your favorite member?
They were decent. At first I saw them and thought “oh, this is just them doing a retread of the Colonial Marines from Aliens,” but most of them seemed to have at least a little decent twist to them. That said, I can’t say there was enough to say any of them were faves. Maybe if that one guy freaking out actually screamed “Game over” he might have been it.
What was your favorite page or panel?
There’s a lot of pretty good ones, though I guess the one that pops to mind is the double-page spread near the end of the Chonky Xenomorph looming over Evil Ripley and Batman.
I think a better question is what franchises Batman hasn’t crossed over with. I mean, just on DCU alone we have:
Batman '66 Meets Steed and Mrs Peel (the Avengers 60s British show)
Batman '66 Meets The Green Hornet
Batman '66 Meets The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
Batman/The Shadow
Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles I/II
Batman/The Spirit
Harley & Ivy Meets Betty & Veronica
Superman & Batman Vs Aliens & Predator
There’s also a Batman/Aliens 2 under the “DC Comics/Dark Horse Crossover.”
And there’s plenty more that aren’t on the site. On Comixology I see:
This is part of why I love the community - someone always graciously and enthusiastically has an answer to my many questions! Thank you so much @Jay_Kay
Oh yes, Spawn/Batman, that’s a favorite of mine. So many of these stories have the heroes crossing over in conflict at first, but grow to respect each other by the end of the story. Not that one though. Batman and Spawn hate each other and think the other is a total toolbag until the very end. It’s great.
(Fun fact: the crossover does technically count as canon within the Spawn comic because Al keeps the batarang scar he got from that story for a while.)
Thinking of the Spawn/Batman crossover makes me hopeful that McFarlane Toys will produce a two-pack or a box set based on that book next year. It strikes me as something that Todd would want to check off in his first year.
Yes, first time, but I think I read the sequel. Or maybe I’m thinking of Batman/Predator, I don’t know. I liked this a lot better than I thought, I would, maybe because I had really low expectations after reading @Vroom’s comments. Thanks, Vroom!
But Book 1 was a lot better than Book 2. Like the first issue was inspired by good 80s action camp, and the second by bad 80s action camp.
I’ve seen the originals right up through the one with Wynona Ryder, but if there’s been any since, I’m clueless.
The captain. I like this a-hole leader characters who are jerks but are still right. You know - like Batman.
There were a couple of splash page reveals of Aliens that were great. But it’s Bernie Wrightson so I would expect it to look good.
Read all three issues between 2019-12-02T06:00:00Z → 2019-12-08T06:00:00Z 
Tackle the below discussion questions at your leisure
Let us know what you thought of the book as a whole!
Spoiler discussion begins right now!
Discussion Questions
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