Batman/Spawn artist Greg Capullo said the upcoming crossover was proposed as a series rather than a one-shot.
When answering inquiries from fans in a CBR exclusive Q&A, Capullo and writer Todd McFarlane were asked why Batman/Spawn is a one-shot rather than a limited series. Capullo responded, "The one-shot is on me. I’m in the midst of working on my creator-owned project, The Creech. There was no way that I wanted to be sidelined for months doing a series, which was proposed. This 48-page one-shot was all that I’d agree to do."
McFarlane added, "As a collector myself, I liked some of the one-shot stories that came out when I was a teenager (like a bunch of the Marvel Treasury Editions or the Silver Surfer softcover and especially Arkham Asylum). So, a 48-page one-shot, given Greg's schedule, was enough to tell a nice little tale, though I wish we had a few more pages near the end!"
Batman/Spawn's Creators on Bringing the Story to Life
For Capullo, working on Batman/Spawn was an opportunity to show fans both the similarities and differences between Bruce Wayne and Al Simmons. "With both characters, it’s a lot to do with their shape," he explained. "My Batman is monolithic, dark, and somewhat streamlined, whereas my Spawn is more free-flowing, organic, and jagged. Each of them looks dangerous in their way. Both characters are cape-centric, but Spawn’s enormous cape is actually alive! So, I handle that quite differently than I do for Batman."
McFarlane echoed a similar statement, as he said he was excited to explore what differentiates Batman from Spawn when penning the one-shot. "Having never written a Batman story before, that was kind of cool, but I was more interested, personally, to be able to show some of the differences in these two characters," he said. "We know about their dark, moody similarities, [and I] just wanted to expose some of the things that separate them."
Batman/Spawn #1 will see the Hellspawn make his way to Gotham City and be pitted against the Dark Knight as the two characters cross paths for the first time in nearly two decades. DC has also revealed the Court of Owls will play a role in the story, along with a brand-new, cosmic version of Talon. The one-shot is written by McFarlane, features art, cover art and variant cover art by Capullo and additional variant cover art by McFarlane, Gabriele Dell'Otto, Sean Murphy, Francesco Mattina, J. Scott Campbell, Jim Lee, Joshua Middleton and Brett Booth. Batman/Spawn #1 releases Dec. 13 from DC.
Source: CBR