Even amidst the shakeup with the future DCU on the cinematic front, Batman is arguably the most enduring aspect of DC Comics, with decades’ worth of history interacting with this universe’s various characters. Naturally, most fans will think of his various team-ups within his wider Bat Family in Gotham City and the Justice League pantheon.
However, he’s cooperated with some more random, colorful characters than few might have imagined. From the campy Scooby-Doo mystery gang to a sleuthing chimp, many of these were delightfully weird.
Batman & Scooby-Doo
On the surface, pairing up the Dark Knight with the colorful detective agency of Scooby-Doo and the gang seems like a jarring contrast. And while that may be so when seeing the likes of Christopher Nolan or Matt Reeves’ takes on the character — or many of the comics — the group have quite an extensive history together.
In addition to cartoons from the ’70s onward, there have been some comic book crossovers as well. There’s one even as recent as the last year in the form of The Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries. For a superhero that plies his trade as a detective, it’s quite an ingenious team-up to pull in young readers.
Batman & Spawn
When it comes to Spawn, it seems somewhat more on-brand for a team-up with DC’s brooding hero given his nature and the fact that many of the most acclaimed Batman comics are quite gritty. Even so, it’s hard to not look at this pairing and see it as at least partly strange, especially given that Spawn is a superhero/antihero published by Image Comics.
Batman’s typically grounded (for a superhero) setting is also an interesting sight when standing next to a demonic hellspawn. The ’90s saw the one-shot comic by the legendary Frank Miller and Todd McFarlane, with brand-new limited series that’s currently being published under DC in the form of Batman/Spawn by McFarlane and Greg Capullo.
Batman & Detective Chimp
While several of Batman’s most prolifically weird crossover team-ups happened with characters outside of DC Comics’ vast multiverse of heroes and villains, some still did come from within. One such character was the superhero Detective Chimp, who is exactly what his name suggests. Detective Chimp is a sleuthing chimpanzee that possesses superhuman levels of intelligence and applies it in a Sherlock Holmes-like wrapping.
In the comics, Batman has been known to collaborate with Chimp, including in an online chatroom where they exchange theories. Likewise, in the iconic Elseworlds-inspired DC Comics seriesInjustice: Gods Among Us, Chimp teamed up with the Dark Knight amid the corrupted Superman’s reign of tyranny.
Batman & Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Perhaps not on the same level of prominence as Batman’s crossovers with Scooby-Doo and co., his dynamics with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles still garnered affection among fans as far as bizarre team-ups go.
This group also has a bigger history together than one might think, spanning various comics and animated movies. One comic book series (Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) sees the Turtles transported to Batman’s universe while clashing with Shredder, with the success of it spawning two sequels.
Justice League & Jarro
Though it’s somewhat of a technicality, the nature of this collaboration is too colorfully weird to go unnoticed. Jarro is the genetical son of the supervillainous alien conqueror known as Starro, as Batman took a genetic sample from the latter that would eventually grow into him.
This led to the comical nickname for him, and he ended up spending quite a bit of time with the hero since Jarro lived in the Hall of Justice. From there, Jarro became incredibly affectionate toward Batman to the point of considering him his true father and going on to help him and the rest of the Justice League against the Legion of Doom. It’s a fun example of how a hilarious concept on paper could work touchingly within the realm of the comics — and still be hilarious.
Batman & Punisher
It’s considered a bygone era in the modern age of comics, even though it seems like a potentially lucrative concept to do now that the superhero genre has been elevated in popularity through movies. But back when Marvel and DC were fairly regularly doing crossover comics, the creatives in charge came up with some wild premises.
One example was the team-up between Batman and the Punisher, which seems baffling considering what these symbols stand for. That’s one aspect of what made this so odd, but even more, since the Batman in question for this series was Azrael — who fits Punisher’s mold better. Nonetheless, the loopholes and technicalities used to get such a specific team-up to happen were strange.
Bruce Wayne & S.H.I.E.L.D.
The Batman Marvel crossovers didn’t stop back in the ’90s, and one of the most bizarre iterations came in the form of Amalgam Comics‘ Bruce Wayne: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.
As the title implies, this was a blended universe that created a mix of unique characters, in this case, a version of Bruce Wayne that became an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. under Nick Fury. On paper, it does make a degree of sense thanks to Bruce’s astounding intellect and specialty in sleuthing and criminal science.
Batman & Sherlock Holmes
Even in the age of some of the Batman comic book arcs of the ’80s, DC Comics was making clever team-up stories with its heroes. It’s simultaneously weird and fitting, as the publisher released a celebratory edition of Detective Comics that saw the Dark Knight pair with none other than Sherlock Holmes as they investigate Professor Moriarty.
In a way, it’s a seamless fit considering Batman himself was created with Holmes in mind as inspiration. Even so, it’s strangely meta — in a fun way — to see the contemporary superhero interact with one of the oldest and most classical characters in fictional literature.
Batman & Tarzan
Perhaps one of the most “out-there” team-ups Batman has been involved with came in a miniseries paring him with Tarzan. That premise alone is sure to raise eyebrows among new and longtime fans alike, with the series coming to fruition through a collaboration between DC and Dark Horse Comics.
Titled Batman/Tarzan: Claws of the Cat-woman, this wild alternate-timeline tale puts Batman in 1930s-era Gotham City, with Tarzan/Lord Greystoke as they help a cat-cult priestess stop the villain 2-Face Dent from robbing them of their relics. This certainly was an inventive take on the Caped Crusader’s corner of the world, as well as some of the best Batman villains.
Batman & Elmer Fudd
Seeing Batman team up with Elmer Fudd and get tangled up with other Looney Toons is not only shocking at face value, but it’s just as shocking in how dark it manages to make this short story involving colorful children’s cartoon characters — and how it well it was received.
Of course, the superhero genre in general is meant to appeal primarily to kids as well, but it has a farther-reaching scope in target demographics, and these Looney Toons characters are very much in a traditionally dark, grim, and crime-noir Batman world. It features a conniving rendition of Bugs Bunny, a hitman Fudd, and Batman get mixed up in a classic murder mystery.
