Welcome to Double Take, a column dedicated to highlighting different comics and each’s merits through a discussion between two veterans of the comic site space. One is yours truly, the person behind the Eisner Award-losing SKTCHD, David Harper. The other is friend of the site and the Eisner Award-winning comics critic Oliver Sava.

It finally happened.

The Big Two finally crossed over again in 2025.

After a much bandied about surprise announcement at ComicsPRO’s Annual Meeting in February, the two publishers revealed that Batman and Deadpool would be crossing over in a pair of one-shots showrun by each publisher. Marvel’s hit first, and it was Deadpool/Batman from Zeb Wells and Greg Capullo, to say nothing of a legion of backups from an even greater legion of creators. Then, Batman/Deadpool arrived, and it found Grant Morrison and Dan Mora reteaming for a blockbuster read that toured the minds and mentalities of these two disparate characters.

That wasn’t all, though! Unsatisfied with just two crossovers in a single calendar year, the Big Two then announced a couple more digital-first releases in The Flash/Fantastic Four and Thor/Shazam! crafted for each’s all-you-can-eat digital apps, more specifically for the vertical scroll. That’s a lot after 20 years of “No more crossovers,” and there’s more to come in 2026.

But before we flip the calendar and move on to Spider-Man/Superman, 3 we need to look back on the four crossovers we found under our Christmas trees this year. So, that’s what we’ll be doing today, as we discuss the pros and cons of corporate crossovers in 2025.

David Harper: Oliver, it’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Or some of us have been waiting for, at least. DC and Marvel are friends once again, as they’ve teamed up to make a lot of money to tell some fun comic stories. It wasn’t just the two big print crossovers, but two digital ones as well. Before we get into that, I just have to ask: Was there excitement in your fanboy heart when these were initially announced? Did the Big Two crossing over awaken anything in you, at least in concept?

Oliver Sava: Some excitement but no awakening, especially with Marvel’s one-shot being announced first. While I generally liked Wells’ Amazing Spider-Man run, it was definitely uneven, and Alex Sinclair isn’t my favorite colorist for Capullo and Tim Townsend’s linework — everything has a distracting metallic sheen to it. Not to mention Deadpool’s schtick can get old really fast.

As a huge Klaus fan, I was much more intrigued by DC’s installment. Both of the one-shots had some fun creators on back-ups, and I was very impressed to see the surprise digital releases with accompanying promotion for the rival company’s digital comic platforms. Generally, I think the Big Two working together is a smart commercial move for both of them. Does it inspire the most creative material? Let’s get into it.