A lot better than I thought it would be! Dark Horse has the Tarzan franchise when it comes to comic books. Although their partner in this particular publication, DC, the proud owner of Batman, used to have Tarzan in their own stable for a long time, back around the 60s and 70s, I believe. Wonder how they let him get away? Or was he forcibly yanked away from them by the Tarzan owners for some reason? It was a long time ago and I've never researched the history. Dark Horse also has the franchise for comic books featuring the characters from the Alien movies, the Predator movies, the Star Wars movies, the Terminator movies, Xena, Buffy the Vampire Slayer . . . you get the idea. Usually I don't feel much need to pay attention to the crossovers they do featuring those characters.

And this story was written by Ron Marz. I had seen his work before, on such things as Marvel's Silver Surfer and DC's Green Lantern, and had never become sufficiently enthused to make a regular subscription to any of the comics he was writing monthly in the 1990s. But when this storyline began to appear in the comics stores in four monthly installments, I bought the first one because hey, it was Batman and Tarzan! I had looked at some of Dark Horse's previous Tarzan efforts (other writers, other artists) without becoming addicted, but after reading the first 25% of this one I knew I'd be buying the rest of them. Now you have the chance to get the complete storyline in one package deal for a couple of dollars less than what I had to pay to get it in bits and pieces.

I should caution you that it's obvious (to an old Batman fan like myself) that this is not part of the official continuity of the Batman comic books sold every month in the stores. Looking at the cars and clothing of the early scenes in Gotham City, I estimate we're in the 1930s. This makes sense - Edgar Rice Burroughs first wrote about Tarzan in the early 1910s, and continued through the 20s and 30s (and one or two novels in the 40s, I believe, but the bulk of the material had already been done by the time World War II started). Meanwhile, Batman's first appearance in print occurred in 1939. So I'd say this story occurs somewhere in the late 30s, with Tarzan still going strong, this version of Batman having just recently started his nocturnal work, and World War II presumably still a cloud in the future, since no one mentions it in the dialogue. Also, aviation was still developing and it's easier to have your heroes discover a long-lost city in the heart of an African jungle if the story is occurring before satellites had mapped the earth's surface for us. In case you aren't familiar with the old Tarzan novels (for shame!) he had an uncanny talent for stumbling across one "lost city" after another in various obscure little corners of the African wilderness. Sometimes it seemed the continent must be so packed with them that you could stand in one and heave a stone into the middle of the next one! This adventure runs true to form in that regard.

Naturally we open up in Gotham City. Millionaire Bruce Wayne is arriving at the Museum of Natural History for the grand opening of a new wing named in honor of his parents. (In other words, he donated most of the money necessary to gather the exhibits which now fill it.) Famed archaeologist/adventurer Finnegan Dent has brought back several tons of eye-catching artifacts from somewhere in Africa. To my eye, they look vaguely Egyptian, but he's remarkably vague on just where he found them. Trade secrets, you know. Wayne is introduced to a distinguished guest: John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, aka Tarzan of the Apes.

Later that night, a woman wearing a cat-costume breaks into the museum, descending through a skylight on a rope. She begins to collect some of those artifacts Dent brought back, but Batman was keeping an eye on the place and tries to arrest her. She scratches him with metal claws built into one glove and makes a run for it over the rooftops. Batman has finally cornered her when a big brawny hand reaches for his shoulder from behind. He spins around and he and Tarzan seize each others wrists. It could be the start of a beautiful wrestling match, except Tarzan immediately says softly, "Bruce Wayne." He generously admits that Batman's voice and posture are well-disguised, but the man can't change his scent.

They turn to interrogate the Catwoman, who proves to be the Princess Khefretari of hidden Memnon. In an interesting twist, she is black. Those of you familiar with Batman mainly through his movies will recall Catwoman as a blonde Caucasian; those who have read a lot of comic books will recall her as a black-haired Caucasian; this "unofficial" story changes all that around. This Catwoman has too much dignity to flirt with anything and everything that is a) masculine, and b) still has a pulse; but somehow we just know that whenever there's a Catwoman around, sparks are going to fly between her and Batman, in any continuum.

The princess claims Dent walked into her still-inhabited hidden city with armed mercenaries and stole whatever he wanted at gunpoint, instead of digging the stuff up out of the ground as he has permitted his sponsor (Bruce Wayne) to assume. Tarzan and Batman are, of course, shocked, and agree to go back home with her to ambush Dent, who is headed back to Africa for another expedition now. As soon as they say that, they are attacked by a gang of Africans Dent had imported as mercenaries. Batman manages to persuade Tarzan in the nick of time that killing your enemies on the spot really isn't good form in Gotham City, but Tarzan warns him that the rules are very different when you're slogging through an African jungle. Later, after they're in that jungle, Batman sees Tarzan kill a wild animal that attacked them and says, "I hope you at least draw some distinction between the life of a wild animal and that of a man." Tarzan says blandly, "Other than finding wild animals more admirable than a great many men . . . not really."

These quotes illustrate Marz's appreciation of the fundamental philosophical differences between Batman and Tarzan, which continues through the rest of the story and makes this more memorable than several of the unlikely crossovers of other franchise characters that I've seen in the past. Although I cannot call this breathtakingly brilliant, it is an extremely satisfactory answer to the question of how Batman and Tarzan would get along if they were partners on a case, and if that concept represents a dream come true for you, you shouldn't be disappointed when you spend a little money to get your own copy of this.

Recommended: Yes