DC unveils back-ups and all-star variants for Morrison & Mora’s BATMAN/DEADPOOL

DC Comics and Marvel are set to crossover for the first time in decades next month with the release of Deadpool/Batman, the Marvel-published one-shot written by Zeb Wells and illustrated by Greg Capullo. DC is following suit with their own Batman/Deadpool one-shot in November, and today the publisher revealed more details about the Grant Morrison-written, Dan Mora-illustrated spectacular, including characters and creators for the issue’s backup stories, and over a dozen variant covers from a cavalcade of top-tier creators.

Honestly, DC’s PR for this captures a pretty specific, delightful tone, so we’ll let that speak for itself:

What happens when the World’s Greatest Detective meets the Merc with a Mouth? Reality folds in on itself. Archetypes collide. Darkseid is. And, somewhere between Apokolips and Earth-TRN666, a sentient street named Danny hums show tunes about a crusading cape! 

But DC’s Batman/Deadpool #1 isn’t just a comic book crossover between iconic publishers, it’s a metaphysical car crash between two storytelling philosophies. One character broods in the shadows of trauma and justice. The other cartwheels through chaos, breaking the fourth wall and occasionally the laws of physics. Together, they’re forced to confront a threat that doesn’t just endanger their worlds—it questions their very existence as fictional constructs.

With a main story by Grant Morrison and Dan Mora, Batman/Deadpool #1 launches a reality-bending saga that’s equal parts cosmic horror, slapstick noir, and metafictional therapy session. It’s the kind of comic book that knows it’s a comic book, revels in being a comic book, weaponizes its comic bookiness—and dares you to keep reading anyway!

And yes, there will be owls. There will be blades. There will be blood. There will be a giant typewriter!

See? Specific and Delightful. It sounds like Morrison is taking the opportunity of writing Deadpool to dive deep into some of their favorite storytelling topics, and I am here for it.

Beyond the description of the main story, DC also revealed a quartet of backup stories for the one-shot, reuniting fan-favorite creators with characters they’ve worked on in the past. Here’s that info, as well as corresponding variant covers for three of the four stories:

Comic legends collide as Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, and Joshua Williamson join forces with Hayden Sherman to conjure a spellbinding Constantine meets Doctor Strange saga.

Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo deliver a kinetic, emotionally-charged encounter between Nightwing (Dick Grayson) and Wolverine (Laura Kinney), where acrobatics meet adamantium in a story that cuts deep.

Mariko Tamaki and Amanda Conner unleash chaos and charisma in a riotous Harley Quinn vs. Hulk showdown.

G. Willow Wilson and Denys Cowan electrify the page with a high-voltage tale starring Static and Ms. Marvel.

DC also delivered a volley of variant covers from top-tier creators, featuring even more imagined crossovers between DC and Marvel characters:

Dan Mora – Batman/Deadpool wraparound

Lee Bermejo – The Joker/Doctor Doom

Mark Brooks – Zatanna/Scarlet Witch

Jim Cheung and Jay David Ramos – Wonder Woman/Captain America

Nick Dragotta and Frank Martin – Batman/The Punisher

Jenny Frison – Wonder Woman/Storm

Andy Kubert and Alejandro Sánchez – Robin (Damian Wayne)/Gambit

Jim Lee, Scott Williams and Alex Sinclair – Batman/Wolverine

Alexander Lozano – Wonder Woman/Ms. Marvel

Sean Murphy and Simon Gough – Lobo/Deadpool

Sozomaika – Catwoman/Emma Frost

Jae Lee and June Chung – Big Barda/Savage Land Rogue

Frank Quitely – Batman/Deadpool

Bill Sienkiewicz – Batman/Deadpool — a The Incredible Hulk #340 homage

Ryan Sook – Batman/Deadpool — a Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 homage

Also available will be a foil version of Mora’s main cover, as well as a blank sketch cover on blue stock, to go with Marvel’s red blank cover:

DC’s number of variants for Batman/Deadpool is just about even with Marvel’s lineup of covers for their Deadpool/Batman one-shot. Some of the covers for the latter are incentive variants, while no info on whether DC’s covers are open-to-order versus incentive was provided. Could more covers of a limited nature be in the future?

With a main cover price of $7.99 and cardstock variants priced at $8.99, the 64-page Batman/Deadpool is set to arrive in stores and digitally on Wednesday, November 19th.