Good art ^ this comic has realy stunning art and good storyline. one of the best marvel,dc,team-ups.the only problem was that the ending fight could have been longer(and batman shouldent have been able to beat carnige
Buy it for the novelty only... ^ "Spider-Man and Batman: Disordered Minds" was published in 1994 and it was created by the veteran Spidey team J.M. DeMatteis and Mark Bagely. It's a decent book that is really only worth buying if you're a die-hard fan of either title character or the creative team.
The story revolves around a new piece of technology that promises to tame the most psychotic of super villains. It's a chip that's placed inside the brain to calm down a psychotic criminal. The chip is first tested upon Cletus Kasaday aka Carnage and when the operation seems to be a success, the chip's creator parades him across the country bragging about it. The first stop? Gotham City, of course, where the plan is to apply the chip to the Joker. During the press conferance both Kasaday and Joker are on stage, both docile, except it turns out that Kasady was faking the whole time. He turns into Carnage and takes off into Gotham on a killing spree while taking Joker with him. Spider-Man, who was skeptical of the chip all along, had followed them to Gotham and naturally, he teams up with Batman to stop both villains.
The story here is rather clunky as DeMatteis has a hard time finding a reason to team up Batman and Spider-Man. The chip is really only a McGuffin, an excuse to see the two heroes together. Also, the Spider-Man side of the story works a little better than the Batman side. What I mean is that DeMatteis seems more at home writing Spidey than Batman. The web slinger's dialogue sounds more like him while Batman's seems stiff. Joker is well-written however and Carnage...well, he's there, trying to kill everyone in sight. He was never exactly a deep character anyhow.
The story isn't very long and is quite predictable. It's pretty obvious that the chip wasn't going to work and it's not a surprise to find that Carnage was toying with everyone. His motivation for doing so was clever (he desperately wanted to meet the Joker). Batman and Spider-Man have the typical confrontation when heroes meet. At first, Batman tells him to leave and that doesn't need nor want Spider-Man's help. Naturally, Spidey doesn't leave town and Batman eventually changes his mind once he realizes what he's up against. The climactic battle is a little anti-climactic as Batman surprisingly takes down Carnage quickly and unsurprisingly, Spider-Man has no trouble with Joker. The decision to use Carnage is not that inspired to be honest. It seems as if the no-brainer was to use Joker and then Carnage was the only Spider-Man villain that was equally psychotic and yet dumb enough to trust him.
The bright spots are the character studies that DeMatteis does. You might not realize what a parallel exists between these two heroes until they're pointed out here. DeMatteis shines in this respect and it's the best part of the story.
Mark Bagely's pencils are quite good here. As usual, his Spider-Man and supporting cast is excellent and his take on Batman and Joker has a classic feel to it. He's helped out by gorgeous coloring and inking by Scott Hanna and Mark Farmer. The art might be the highlight of the book for me and I don't often enjoy books solely for the artwork.
All in all, this is a novelty. Despite the amount of talent gathered here, the end result isn't much. Die-hard fans should give it a look but it's nothing special.
What a team up ^ If you a fan of both Marvel and DC or like on over the other, this title is the right choice for you! You'll love the combination of Batman and Spiderman. You'll love how they share similarities such as the killed parent tragedy and the mad freaks they battle. Watch as they battle 2 of the most deadliest madmen, Carnage and the Joker!
Best team-up ever. ^ If anything it was worth it just to see Mark Bagley draw Batman and see Spider-man fight the Joker.
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