Batman has fought some crazy foes over the years but nothing quite as strange as a Joker Xenomorph. Batman made his debut in Detective Comics in 1939 and he’s been fighting crime ever since. He’s appeared in every medium imaginable, which has naturally led to some strange crossovers. Considering he and Superman are two of the most iconic superheroes it makes sense they’ve come to blows more than once, with the most famous examples being Frank Miller’s seminal graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns and Zack Snyder’s DCEU entry Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice.

There’s barely a famous pop culture superhero or villain he hasn’t encountered or battled over the years, including Green Lantern, The Punisher, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Scooby-Doo. He’s even crossed over with Looney Tunes, facing off against a gritty, hard-boiled reimagining of Elmer Fudd. In 1997 he crossed over with the Aliens franchise, coming face to face with the Xenomorphs in Batman/Aliens. This team-up managed to be a surprisingly successful blend of both franchises, which ended with Batman taking down a huge Xeno/Crocodile hybrid.

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This comic was popular enough to spawn a sequel in 2002’s Batman/Aliens 2, which really upped the stakes. The story opens with a Gotham City construction crew unearthing a long-buried Xenomorph, which sparks Batman into action when it escapes. It’s eventually revealed a scientist named Dr Fortune wants to splice the Xenomorph DNA with that of Arkham Asylum’s most dangerous criminals to create new hybrid creatures that can be controlled.

For this, she’s selected Two-Face, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, Mr. Freeze, Killer Croc and Batman most dangerous foe, the Joker. The third issue of Batman/Aliens 2 has the Caped Crusader brought to an oil rig where the hybrids – which are sentient creatures capable of speech and firing weapons – hunt him down. Each hybrid is a unique Xenomorph take on the villain it was spliced from, with the Joker Xeno being albino with bright red lips and a creepy grin. While they might be smarter than the typical Alien, Batman is able to use his knowledge of the psychology of each criminal against them.

He ultimately defeats them with relative ease, with the Joker Xenomorph being blasted by the Two-Face Xeno, and Dr Fortune meeting a decidedly unfortunate fate when the Killer Croc Xenomorph bites her head off. The Batman/Aliens 2 comic is a fun crossover event which is packed with action, but purists of either series may not be impressed with the liberties taken. It doesn’t feel like it takes advantage of the supervillain/Xeno team either, with the Joker Xenomorph meeting a swift end and none of them really presenting Batman with a real challenge.

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Padraig Cotter
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It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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