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When Todd McFarlane announced the first crossover between Spawn and Batman back in 1994, it was a big deal — not least because the Image Comics edition would reunite Frank Miller with Batman for the first time since his groundbreaking 1980s comics The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One. That reunion was something McFarlane was hoping would draw attention to the comic — and the lack of attention DC executives at the time paid to the contract was the second ingredient McFarlane was relying on to make the book as profitable as possible.

“I had made a deal with DC, and I knew that somebody was going to get fired,” McFarlane explained during his San Diego Comic-Con 2025 spotlight panel when reminiscing about the 1994 one-off special issue. “I went, ‘We’re gonna do Spawn/Batman, and I keep all that money on my side, and you do Batman/Spawn, and you keep all the money on your side.’ And they said, ‘fine.’ That was when I go, ‘somebody’s getting fired.’”

Why? Well, the devil — or, really, devil spawn in this case — was in the details, as always.

“I’m getting Frank Miller, who hasn’t done any Batman since Dark Knight [Returns], right? He’s coming back. And Frank’s a rebel like I was. They said, ‘Fine, we each get our own money, but you only do one printing. We don’t want you to exploit it.’ Fine, cool! Fine, let’s sign it. Let’s do it,” McFarlane continued. “Seven years later, Frank and I were still making money. 20 years later, Frank and I are still making money off that book. You know why? I printed fucking two million books.”

Clearly, no-one at DC today held a grudge; not only did Spawn and Batman cross over again back in 2022, but DC reprinted the 1994 original at the same time as part of the Batman/Spawn: The Classic Collection edition.

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