Retro-Review: Daredevil/Batman #1(1997)

Review: This issue gets started with Two-Face stealing some experimental brain drugs from Wayne Enterprises, which naturally leads to Batman investigating. Batman's investigation leads him to New York, where it seems that Two-Face has hooked up with Mr. Hyde, with the two villains stealing a bunch of technological items. Batman winds up running into Daredevil, who was investigating the New York side of the crime wave. The two heroes don't hit it off, getting into the obligatory “super-heroes meet, have a misunderstanding, fight, and then make up” thing, although DD and Bats don't bother with the “make up” part, mainly because DD is hoping that Two-Face could be saved, since they had met in college. Bats doesn't believe Harvey Dent is there anymore, only Two-Face, while DD feels the opposite to be true. The two heroes split up, but wind up back together again after coming across a body left behind by Two-Face and Hyde. After some more searching, the heroes manage to track down the villains and discover that Two-Face was in the process of betraying Hyde with the stolen brain drugs from Wayne Enterprises. DD and Bats inform Hyde of Two-Face's duplicity(ha!), which leads to Hyde going on a rampage and attacking everybody. Unfortunately, this was a part of Two-Face's plan, as an angry Hyde winds up making the drugs speed up the process of turning Hyde's brain into a living computer... Yeah, that's the big plan here... Batman goes after the rampaging Hyde, while DD talks Two-Face into giving up the control that would knock Hyde unconscious by referencing their past in Law School. With that, DD KO's Hyde and Bats collects Two-Face to take him back to Gotham. The epilogue here involves Matt Murdoch(DD's alter ego)and his law partner, Foggy Nelson, heading to Gotham to attend a Wayne Foundation charity event. Matt and Bruce Wayne(Batman's alter ego)meet up and seem to recognize each other, and this issue end with Bruce telling Matt to never think about coming back to Gotham again.

Thoughts: Hmm... So far this was the worst of the Marvel/DC x-overs I've read this week. I never really got the story(why the hell was Two-Face trying to turn Hyde's brain into a computer?!), and Batman was really playing the role of jackass here... I mean I get that he's unlikable and all, but you'd think DD pissed in his coffee or something. I found myself feeling bad for DD, and the ending just hammered home Batman's nasty attitude throughout this comic after he flat out tells DD not to come back to Gotham... Jeez Bats, chill out! Anyway, there were some good moments here, and I enjoyed the interactions between lawyers Two-Face and DD. Unfortunately, that was about the only thing I enjoyed here...

Score: 5 out of 10.Batman: a jerk in any comic book company.