Awful Comic O' The Week

Inter-company crossovers tend to suck for a number of reasons. Mostly, it's because the heroes never really fight each other. There's some misunderstanding, they scuffle for a few minutes and then team up against - who else - a pair of their arch-enemies that are also teaming up!

Luckily I picked this one up at the library for free because six bucks for this is about $7.00 too much. It had some real potential - Batman and Captain America are both strong characters, and while I'm not a huge fan, John Byrne knows his way around comics.

For starters, this book is incredibly campy and I'm not sure if it was intentional or not. It's set during the 1940s when Cap is fighting in WWII so that leads me to believe it's done in the style of comics when Batman and Cap first started showing up. Even then, it's a lame story. As mentioned, Bruce Wayne and Steve Rogers scuffle for a few panels, then figure out each other's secret identity and team up against The Joker who is also teaming up with - you guessed it - The Red Skull!

The storyline is so simple and so uninspired, it seems like Byrne just half assed his way through this whole thing. There are even a surprising number of panels with no backgrounds whatsoever. *sigh* I certainly don't expect much from intercompany crossovers, but this one has got to be at the top of the suck pile.