Batman To Team Up With The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

One of the big comic book stories we missed while we were stuck in Hall H at San Diego Comic Con International 2015 was an announcement that DC Comics and IDW Publishing would be teaming up to produce a Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book crossover.

The Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles mini-series will see Krang zapping the Ninja Turtles and Shredder to Gotham City in an effort to get rid of his adversaries.

In the ongoing power struggle between the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, General Krang, and the Foot Clan, allegiances have shifted and the battle lines have been drawn. Krang concocts a plan to rid himself of both the Turtles and Shredder by transporting them to another dimension, where they land in the dark and dangerous streets of Gotham City. It isn't long before they encounter Gotham's most famous resident, Batman. The Caped Crusader may be their only hope of overcoming their enemies and getting back home. But not before they encounter a whole cast of Gotham's most infamous rogues.

The Batman Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles six-part monthly miniseries will be written by James Tynion IV (Batman Eternal, Constantine) and drawn by Freddie E. Williams II (Robin, Captain Atom). Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman and other to-be-announced artists will be providing some fun variant covers.

"I've been extremely luck to spend so much time working in Gotham City, but it's always a thrill to see the world of Batman through new eyes," said Tynion in IDW's press release. "Taking the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on a Gotham adventure is a fanboy dream come true."

Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is scheduled to hit comic book store shelves in November.

One of the things that attracted me to comic books as a kid was the crossovers, characters from different companies and universes somehow sharing the comic book panels in an impossible story. At the time things like Aliens vs. Predator and The Avengers seemed like they couldn't happen in any other medium but a comic book, but we've since seen film adaptations of both of those titles. I don't think we'll ever see the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles share the big screen with Batman, but you never know — if you had asked me a couple years ago if Spider-Man would share the screen with The Avengers one day, I would have been very skeptical.

The problem with these kine of crossover miniseries is they are never really taken seriously and usually not considered part of the comic book canon. But they can be good fun, just like the old school Marvel "What If" comics I used to collect when I was younger.