10) Spider-Man
Batman and Spider-Man had to have teamed-up at some point over the decades, right? After all, they’re two of the world’s most popular superheroes. However, it’s rare for the boundaries of Marvel and DC to break down and allow the companies’ competing characters to meet. Thankfully, though, it happened on two occasions, allowing the Dark Knight and the webslinger to work together.
In 1995’s Spider-Man and Batman: Disordered Minds, the Joker and Cletus Kassidy AKA Carnage – the craziest, most dangerous foe of each hero – form a terrifying team-up that causes the Bat and the Spider to pool their resources in order to stop them.
The duo then came together again in 1997’s Batman and Spider-Man: New Age Dawning. This time, Ra’s Al Ghul makes a bid for world domination, and blackmails Wilson Fisk AKA Kingpin to work for him in the process. Naturally, this sparks the interest of both Batman and Spider-Man, who team up to bring their enemies down.
9) Judge Dredd
For those not familiar with the character, 2000AD comics’ Judge Dredd is sort of like an more militarized Batman who has been legitimized by the law. Given that, their crossover in 1991’s Batman/Judge Dredd: Judgement of Gotham saw the similar yet very different heroes at loggerheads.
Unusually, the Batman and Judge Dredd team-up proved so successful that it produced three further miniseries, each linking together to tell one larger story. As all were written by Dredd‘s creator John Wagner, with Alan Grant, the four volumes are standalone yet connected tales.
Probably because of Wagner’s involvement, the crossovers lean into the sci-fi trappings of Dredd’s universe more than Batman’s – with one story featuring a trip to an alien world – but fans of both heroes will find much to enjoy here. As always with these crossovers, the stories are packed full of villains, too – including the Joker, Riddler and Dredd’s nemesis, Judge Death.
