Carlin's essay notes that several editors and writers had moved from Marvel Comics to DC Comics, including himself, Archie Goodwin, Denny O'Neil, Louise Simonson and Roger Stern, a fact that diminished the sense of "Us Vs. Them" that had previously existed between the publishers.
Additionally, this generation of editors and creators were, unlike those that preceded them, genuine fans of the superhero characters they had grown up reading about, and thus approached something like, say, the possibility of Batman and Spider-Man teaming up for the first time with the same sort of enthusiasm their readers might, rather than simply as a money-making venture.
What Carlin doesn't explain, however, is why in the world DC and Marvel finally resumed with this particular crossover, 1994's Batman/Punisher: Lake of Fire. It is here that while reading the collection I really started to miss all of those introductions and forewords from earlier in the book, those original to the omnibus and those reprinted from 1991's Crossover Classics, which shared a great deal of behind-the-scenes information and provided a sense of what the publishers were thinking with particular character pairings.
Of course, both Batman and The Punisher were popular characters. The former perennially so, and the latter was, at that point, not too far removed from the zenith of his popularity, I believe.
Both were urban, street-level vigilantes whose focus was often fighting real-world crime, but they had vastly different, opposing philosophies on how to do so. Batman refused to ever take a life, a position he held to such a zealous extreme that he would often risk his own life to save that of unrepentant murderers like The Joker, who he knew would certainly go on to kill again and again. The Punisher happily, regularly took the lives of the criminals he faced, racking up a body count that could probably eclipse that of any mass murderer, The Joker included (At this point in the character's history, though, Marvel was playing the Punisher as a hero, if a deadly one, and not the unrepentant psychopath that 21st century writers like Garth Ennis would depict him as).
The catch with this particular crossover, however, is that The Punisher wouldn't be meeting the "real" Batman at all, but the temporary replacement Batman, Jean-Paul Valley, the Batman ally codenamed Azrael who would go on to assume the mantle of the bat during the 1993-1994 trilogy of Batman events, Knightfall, Knightquest and KnightsEnd. (As for Bruce Wayne, he was busy elsewhere; after Bane broke his back in the climax of Knightfall, he was relegated to a wheelchair but nevertheless pursued the kidnappers of his girlfriend at the time, Dr. Shondra Kinsolving.)
It's not entirely clear to me why Marvel Comics would necessarily want a crossover with the substitute Batman rather than the real deal or, you know, any other DC character at all, but then, this was long before I paid attention to things like sales charts, so I couldn't even guess how popular the "AzBats" Batman was at the time, and if the Punisher crossover sold well or not. (Ask Mike Sterling, maybe.)
It is clear reading this in this collection and then, immediately afterwards, reading its same-year sequel Punisher/Batman: Deadly Knights, that the publishers must have planned both comics around the same time, always intending to follow up the Punisher's meeting with the Jean-Paul Valley Batman with another story in which he met the Bruce Wayne Batman (despite the fact that the books have two entirely different creative teams).
Rather late in the game of Lake of Fire, The Joker appears, coming to the aid of Punisher villain Jigsaw (Who, as far as I can tell, was, like, the only Punisher villain, given Frank Castle's habit of executing his foes). The Joker is only in five panels of the entire book, presumably because he was being teased for a lengthier, more substantial role in the sequel.
Though Lake of Fire was the first of what would end up being about a dozen such DC/Marvel crossovers in the next half dozen years or so, it doesn't read as too terribly special a book. It's only 48 pages long, the shortest DC/Marvel crossover to date, and thus lacks the larger scope and more epic feel of the original round of inter-company crossovers.
It's also somewhat confined in focus, mostly just featuring the two title characters, and not doing much of the way in terms of exploring their home cities, supporting casts, interior lives or even their differing crime-fighting philosophies (Although it's worth noting, I suppose, that this more violent, more brutal version of Batman isn't quite as opposite the Punisher that the Bruce Wayne Batman is; while Jean-Paul Valley and Frank Castle find themselves coming to blows by the end of their team-up, Valley is far more sympathetic to Castle than Wayne would have been).
As for the creators, the publishers chose writer Denny O'Neil and artists Barry Kitson and James Pascoe.
O'Neil was obviously a solid choice, having worked extensively as both a writer and editor for both companies. He had written both Batman and Punisher before and was, at the time of this book's publication, the editor of DC's Batman line. In fact, he had created the Jean-Paul Valley character (with artist Joe Quesada in 1992's Batman: Sword of Azrael) and obviously had a great deal of affection for him, going on to pen a 100-issue run on an Azrael solo title after the KnightsEnd conclusion.
Kitson had likewise drawn for both publishers at that point in his career but wasn't particularly associated with either character (O'Neil must have thought the two worked well together, though, as Kitson would go on to draw a large chunk of that Azrael series).
Though I appreciate Kitson's talents and have read and enjoyed some of his later work, I can't say I was particularly dazzled with his work here. The book opens with a two-page spread set in hell, as it was being dreamed by Valley, who was raised and hypnotically programmed by the crypto-Christian cult the Order of St. Dumas (When he eventually starts to lose it in the Batman storyline, a process that seems well underway by the time this crossover is set during, he increasingly has visions of St. Dumas.)
"Draw hell" seems like a great, compelling prompt for an artist to get, affording them a chance to really go to town, but Kitson's splash is a let-down. His hell is cavernous, with seemingly naturally occurring pillars holding a roof aloft, while untold numbers of suffering humans fill the infinite space. But Kitson only draws about 15 of the people, including a busty lady in a torn dress reaching up and screaming and a muscular, pupil-less bald man reaching out and doing...something to another pair of figures, the rest of the horde simply suggested by a brown mass filling most of the cave, little circles here and there intimating heads.
As far as comic book depictions of hell goes, it looks uninspired and, given the page real estate afforded the image, lazy. The book is not off to a great start.
Valley awakes from his dream, having fallen asleep in the Batcave, wearing his particularly uncomfortable-looking version of the Batsuit. He tells readers that the computers have intercepted and decoded a message from the Pentagon about a formula for rocket fuel that was stolen by an associate of a known Gotham criminal named Bressi. He dons his helmet and rushes into action.
Meanwhile, a big man in a big overcoat is narrating in PG comic book tough guy language: "Few places are worse than New York. Gotham City is one. I'm here because it's where the trail of a mook named Jigsaw took me...It's cruddy. That's okay. I'm used to crud."
This is, of course, The Punisher, who gets in a barfight looking for information on Jigsaw and ends up getting a lead pointing him to a church downtown. The lead, coincidentally, comes from the guy who has the rocket fuel plans ("You seem real interested in what's in this case. Papers...maybe I'll like 'em as much as you").
Meanwhile Jigsaw, who Kitson draws as a particularly big guy with a face like a quilt and a big, metal neck brace of some kind, explains his plans for the readers' benefit: The new rocket fuel has the ability to ignite water, and Jigsaw plans to use it on the city reservoir and then charge the city an astronomical fee to repair the damages and, I don't know, restore the reservoir somehow...?
The sub-title of the book thus has a double meaning, referring both metaphorically to hell and literally to what Jigsaw plans to do to Gotham's water supply.
The church lead turns out to be a trap, and The Punisher is splashed with drugged holy water and the building is set on fire. The new Batman comes to the rescue, bursting through a stained-glass window, and getting The Punisher to safety.
After introductions, and The Punisher convincing Batman that he needs him to track down Jigsaw ("I know Jigsaw...How he lives, thinks...breathes."), and some threats (Batman: "We are allies until Bressi is caught. Then— You become prey." Punisher: "Well...Somebody does."), they climb into the Batmobile and drive to a steam bath full of Russian criminal types in towels for a fight scene.
The Punisher manages to slip away from Batman, and they continue their investigation separately. In the end, The Punisher throws Jigsaw out of a window, and Batman is swinging by just in time to catch the villain, who he leaves tied up (For, it turns out, The Joker to discover and free).
Then it's time for the big fight, which I guess O'Neil makes feel somewhat unexpected by placing it after the cooperation portion of the team-up. It only lasts three pages before The Punisher finally pulls a gun and puts a couple of bullets into Batman's armored chest. That doesn't stop the new Dark Knight either, so The Punisher pulls a gas grenade from Batman's utility belt and detonates it in his face, allowing him to retreat, but not before offering the defeated Batman rather lame goodbye: "Hey, man...I cheated, okay?"
And that concludes the first DC/Marvel team-up in many years...although, as I said earlier, it wasn't exactly the end of Batman/Punisher story. The two would crossover again almost immediately, but next time it would be Bruce Wayne in the cape and cowl.
Next: 1994's Punisher/Batman: Deadly Knights
