Review by Frank Plowright
It’s been a long time since DC characters last met Marvel characters (or Marvel characters last met DC characters – don’t worry corporate lawyers, we’ll switch the credits for companion collection The Dead of Knight & Other Stories). Both volumes have Batman meeting Deadpool, and Superman teaming with Spider-Man, but the accompanying shorter stories feature some more obscure ideas.
The Cosmic Kiss Caper & Other Stories leads with some subtlety on Grant Morrison’s part as the personifications of two universes meet and merge, explaining how Batman can run across Deadpool. Much is clever on Morrison’s part, but it’s crucially dependent on a knowledge of his back catalogue, and without explanations it’ll transmit as too random to readers lacking that familiarity, especially his long ago created avatar. Morrison’s written enough assorted Batmen over the years, and uses this one as a monosyllabic foil for Deadpool’s comedic whittering, which has the necessary boundary-free wit. Dan Mora’s first rate art sparkles on the eccentric and disorienting locations and he works well with the fiddly detail of Deadpool’s costume.
Mark Waid and Jorge Jiménez supply Superman meeting Spider-Man in the smartly titled ‘Truth, Justice and Great Responsibility’. Much else is clever, such as running the genius level human intelligence of Doctor Octopus alongside the AI of Brainiac, and heroism is highlighted via the weakened Superman still using the energy he has to save lives when humanity goes haywire in Metropolis. Waid throws in multiple homages, with Jiménez astutely echoing those requiring visual interpretation, while Jiménez also keeps the story flowing and the action scenes dynamic.
The remaining content runs between four and eleven pages, with only Supergirl and Blade, and Flash meeting the Fantastic Four hitting the maximum pages. Adrían Gutiérez draws Jeremy Adams’ plot of Gorilla Grodd attacking the FF to acquire their technology, but his multiple small panels and extensive use of white space don’t maximise the visual possibilities, constricting the action rather than emphasising it. Supergirl’s innocence and Blade’s cynicism is fun as concocted by CRC Payne, but there’s not enough deviation from head shots in Mikel Janín’s art.
That leaves eleven brief teamings of characters from Superman’s world with those associated with Spider-Man, and four more random shorts. Matt Fraction and Steve Lieber reprise their Eisner Award-winning Jimmy Olsen over four pages. How does Jimmy fare when meeting Carnage? Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott’s assessment of The Daily Planet and The Daily Bugle is smart, Gail Simone and Belén Ortega’s meeting of Power Girl and the Punisher is funny, and Jim Lee draws the hell out of Tom King’s plot of Lois Lane and Mary Jane in a danger zone.
The four remaining stories, in order, team John Constantine and Dr. Strange, Nightwing and X-23, Harley Quinn and the Hulk and Static with Ms. Marvel. All have nice moments, but none would be essential for any character involved.
Be warned going in that roughly a quarter of the page count of both this and the companion volume is occupied by the massive array of alternate covers for the collected comics. There’s some great art, but 25% of the book without actual comic stories is a high percentage.
Overall, this is a slightly weaker selection than The Dead of Knight & Other Stories due to much being ordinary rather than spectacular and Morrison’s Batman and Deadpool being too haphazard unless you bring the background knowledge.
