The Batman and Daredevil team up

This is a weird one, let’s not beat around the bush.  Not the two paired together — that I can see, but the circumstances of the pairing.  In this (obvious) non-canon adventure, Matt Murdock (Daredevil) and Harvey Dent (Two-Face) knew of each other as fellow lawyers.  There’s no explanation or mind-warping needed.  The two former best lawyers in their respective cities were buddies or acquaintances back in the day.  DC’s Gotham City and Marvel’s New York City both exist, they both occupy this same universe, and the Batman/Daredevil duo will beat up bad guys together in the one-shot Daredevil and Batman: Eye for an Eye, written by D.G. Chichester and drawn by Scott McDaniel.  These two wrote and drew Daredevil together for about three years in the early ’90s, back when Daredevil was happy and his whole life hadn’t shattered into the thousands of tiny miserable pieces that occurred about a decade later.  Let’s take a look at their initial confrontation, which of course involves a fight – can you imagine the outrage if those two didn’t try to concuss each other?

It’s drawings like that above that remind me just how scary Batman is supposed to be.  Strangely, for someone with the name “devil” in his superhero moniker, Daredevil’s costume may be one of the least scary in comic books.  Maybe Daredevil just needs a cape, something Marvel superheroes severely lack in their ranks.  Actually, while we’re on this subject — of the original Justice League members, three of the seven have capes (Batman, Superman, and Martian Manhunter).  That’s a 42% capes to no capes.  But of the original six Avengers (and I’m counting Captain America), only Thor is brave enough to wear one.  That’s only 16% of members wearing capes.  And honestly, this is almost certainly the most useless information you’ll read all week.

Oh, and now Daredevil and Batman have their brief tussle:

Here’s the beauty of Batman: he knew from the start that Daredevil was working on the same case he was.  There is absolutely zero reason for him to fight Daredevil, and it should be noted, he did it anyway.  Because he’s a crazy person.  You can blame his ambush on wanting to “test” Daredevil or whatever, but our Dark Knight just felt like punching another superhero.  Seriously, he made a claim of wanting to ask Daredevil questions, but he also didn’t ask anything before attempting to tackle him either.  And you see how they both enjoyed it?  Two insane superheroes are going to team up to hunt down two insane supervillains.

They’re not done being jerks to each other.  Actually, it never stops the entire fifty pages of this issue.

I wouldn’t say Batman’s against rehabilitation as he admits above — he is the same man who brings escaped supervillains back to the mental hospital they stay at every few months they break out.  The main story line involves DC’s Two-Face and Marvel’s Mr. Hyde teaming up to do something with poison or bombs or technology or whatever — I didn’t read the non-superhero parts that carefully. Instead, I became fascinated by Daredevil and Batman’s neverending crusade of seeing who has the biggest schlong.  We get it — you’re both alpha males and the very best of the best of superhero-ing. Isn’t it about time the two of you kissed?

That’s right — Batman doesn’t even give Daredevil a ride.  Luckily, our Marvel superhero jumps from rooftop to rooftop to get to the same crime scene at the exact same time as Batman’s fastest car in the world.  But I don’t want to write 100% snark.  Despite their differences (mainly the cape), they’re both still kind-hearted superheroes out to protect the innocent, dish out justice, and punish the wicked.  This page sums it up nicely for me in the melodramatic fashion I look forward to in my comic book stories:

I’m skipping thirty-ish pages to the very last scene.  As you can expect, they win.  Two-Face and Mr. Hyde are safely locked up once more thanks to the tireless detective work/skull bashing of our two protagonists.  But as they celebrate their victory, why not end their time together like most crossovers do, with the two warmly embracing a bro-hug as Batman softly musses up Daredevil’s hair.  Right?  Please?

Then they kiss.