The SUPERMAN/BATMAN vs ALIEN/PREDATOR Dark Horse/DC Crossover Series – review and reading order

REVIEW OF THE CROSSOVER SERIES

Recently, I used curbside pickup at one of my local comic shops (as detailed in this episode of the podcast) and as I wracked my brain trying to remember what they had in the store that I’d been wanting to read, I remembered the DC/Dark Horse crossover collections I’d passed over a few times over the last few years. Specifically, the Batman/Alien collection and the Batman/Predator collection. As I started digging deeper into the set of crossover collections, I realized there was a possible Elseworlds style alternate universe in which the Alien and Predator species (and franchise) existed in a DC Universe (if not THE DC universe). Starting with Batman vs. Predator in 1991 and Superman/Aliens in 1995, the two biggest heroes from DC took on the two biggest alien creatures in all of the “horror sci-fi” genre many times, culminating in the long winded title Superman and Batman Verses Alien and Predator (2007). Along the way, they were joined by other heroes, including a Justice League story with the Predator and Green Lantern verses the Xenomorphs.

But what I really wanted to know as I looked into things was “are they connected?” Already familiar with the three Batman vs, Predator series and knowing they were connected by referencing each other and building on each other, I had to know. Was S&B vs A&P a true culmination of a couple decades of story? Or was it just a cool, big idea to end a publishing relationship on?

The answer to the question above? Yes. It’s a little bit of both. As the series continues, they do reference the events in the previous chapters. However, each story tends to stand on its own (except when referencing an earlier chapter in a direct sequel). While obviously there is no over arching plan, there are through-lines and themes.

The primary themes and through-lines come from what I love about this series at its core. They explore the core of the titles characters as they are pushed to deal with an alien species: one, the Aliens, ruled by the ultimate in natural selection; the other, the Predators, ruled by a code of honor that is alien to us but understandable.

And so you have Batman, detective that he is, not just figuring out that alien hunters are killing people in Gotham, but also figuring out their honor system.

And you have Superman, dealing with the idea that the Xenomorphs, while killers, are also an alien race that lives in our universe and as such are they life to be valued?

And you have Darkseid, using the Xenomorphs as the weapons they were created to be.

There are ups and there are downs, but the entire series, taken as a whole, has some value when you do take it as a whole. The build up, from Batman verses a single Predator in the first chapter to Batman and Superman teaming up to take on a secluded branch of the Predators who have developed their own code of honor in the final chapter, made for some fun reading for me.

I plan to read this series again in the near future, and possibly do a podcast episode (or a couple) when I do.

READING ORDER

Because of the way they are collected, it is easy and reasonably affordable to get the entire “Aliens/Predator/Justice League” universe.

Here are all of the DC Comics/Dark Horse collections:
DC Comics/Dark Horse Comics: Batman vs. Predator
DC Comics/Dark Horse Comics: Aliens
Dark Horse Comics/DC Comics: Superman
DC Comics/Dark Horse Comics: Justice League Vol. 1
Dark Horse Comics/DC Comics: Justice League Volume 2

But also because of the way they are collected, it is NOT easy to read them in the order they were created. And so, whether you have to bounce around from one collected edition to another OR bounce round from one back issue set to another, here is the reading order I have created.

BATMAN VS PREDATOR (1991)
Collected in DC/Dark Horse: Batman Vs. Predator.

BATMAN VS PREDATOR II: BLOODMATCH (1993)
Collected in DC/Dark Horse: Batman Vs. Predator.

SUPERMAN/ALIENS (1995)
Collected in Dark Horse Comics/DC Comics: Superman.

BATMAN VS PREDATOR III: BLOOD TIES (1997)
Collected in DC/Dark Horse: Batman Vs. Predator.

BATMAN/ALIENS (1997)
Collected in DC Comics/Dark Horse Comics: Aliens.

SUPERMAN VS PREDATOR (2000)
Collected in DC Comics/Dark Horse Comics: Justice League Vol. 1.

GREEN LANTERN VERSES ALIENS (2000)
Collected in Dark Horse Comics/DC Comics: Justice League Vol. 2.

JLA VS PREDATOR (2001)
Collected in Dark Horse Comics/DC Comics: Justice League Vol. 2.

SUPERMAN/ALIENS 2: GOD WAR (2002)
Collected in Dark Horse Comics/DC Comics: Superman.

BATMAN/ALIENS II (2002)
Collected in DC Comics/Dark Horse Comics: Aliens.

SUPERMAN AND BATMAN VS ALIENS AND PREDATOR (2007)
Collected in DC Comics/Dark Horse Comics: Aliens.

NOTE ABOUT THE COLLECTIONS

The above collections contain a LOT of other material, from Superman battling Terminators to Batman teaming up with Tarzan to a really weird crossover between Batgirl and Ghost that, as a story, was hard for me to follow. Some of them are good, some are not as good, but all of them have their audience.

The most interesting of the bunch, and most relevant here, is the WILDCats vs. Aliens story that I’m not including here because when it was created the characters were not part of the DC Universe, but this crossover, when it occurred, had lasting effects in the actual WILDCats storyline. Characters were killed off by the xenomorphs and STAYED dead afterward in their regular series. (The same was true for the Madman/Superman crossover, in that there were lasting effects in the Madman series after the crossover.)