Perennial competitors Marvel and DC have always had fun dealing with one another. Their interactions can range from the odd small parody right up to something as weird as the 90s Amalgam Universe which combined DC and Marvel characters with one another. It’s even been confirmed that the two multiverses exist in parallel with one another, with Thor somewhat cheekily appearing to kill off the entire DC Universe as part of its Black Winter event.
Now, the second issue of Hawkeye: Freefall seems to confirm that Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises were released in the Marvel Universe. The issue sees Spider-Man running into the mysterious Ronin, with the pair trading blows in classic superhero meet-cute style. But Spider-Man notices something about Ronin’s voice, and says “Holy crap, are you doing a voice? Are you really doing a scary voice? This is a joke, right?” Ronin begins to leave, and Spider-Man stops him: “Slow down Christian Bale, we need to talk.”
You can check out the full exchange below:
Spider-Man doesn’t specifically namedrop Batman, but let’s face it, when you’re talking about Christian Bale and “a scary voice,” there’s only one contender. I’m honestly surprised that the Dark Knight is even popular in the Marvel Universe though. Given that New York City is reduced to rubble by cosmically and technologically powered showdowns every few months or so, you’d assume they wouldn’t be quite as popular in the cinema.
I think Alan Moore got it right in Watchmen when he argued that real-world superheroes would have killed off superhero comics. In the Watchmen-verse, pirates rose to the top of popular culture instead, so perhaps it’d have made more sense for Spider-Man to tell Ronin he sounded like (I dunno) Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean.
