- The Dark Knight crosses over with the world of Fables.
Batman Vs. Bigby! A Wolf In Gotham is a Crossover Comic Book by Bill Willingham, Brian Level, Jay Leisten, and Lee Loughridge.
On a mission from the Fables, Bigby Wolf has come to Gotham City on a mission: find a magical book that came from their world before it falls into the wrong hands. However, Batman is on a case as well, looking into a number of murders that are happening around the city. The connection is that they all look like they were attacked by a giant wolf.
While all this is going down, z-list villain Bookworm has gotten together a gang of men and women to aid him in his mission: get his hands on a certain book.
The series was published on September the 21st, 2021.
Batman Vs. Bigby! A Wolf In Gotham contains examples of:
- Conflict Ball: The initial conflict between Batman and Bibgy is out of character for both heroes. This is late in both characters careers (After Grayson is an adult and the main Fables comic run has ended), but the punch-first-ask-questions-never attitude would be aggressive even for the start of their runs. At one point, Batman even states that he's fighting Bigby because he's in a bad mood. It seems poorly written simply to get the fight going when both characters should be willing to talk and both characters have discovered holes in the villain's Let's You and Him Fight plot.
- Crossover: Between Batman and Fables.
- Disproportionate Retribution: As Bigby finds out, causing any crap at the Gotham City Executive Exchange will get you beaten to death by everyone there.
- Hijacked by Ganon: It's revealed that the Bookworm is possessed by the disembodied spirit of Frau Totenkinder, wanting the book so that she could use its magic to bring herself back to life.
- I Have a Family: When Mr. Ostergard is pleading not to die at Mr. Salinger's hands, he states he has a wife and young daughters. In response, Mr. Salinger asks him if he has a will, and proceeds to to the task when Mr. Ostergard answers yes.
- Let's You and Him Fight: It's clear that the murders aren't being committed by Bigby, but are a plot to get both the heroes to target each other rather than focus on the actual villains. Frustratingly both characters see this early in the story but continue their destructive conflict rather than talk it out.
- Magical Incantation: To get the book back from Bigby, Bookworm speaks an incantation that envelopes Bigby in multiple tentacles.
- Take This Job and Shove It: At the end of the comic, when Batman returns to the Batcave, Alfred angrily chews him out for getting himself injured. Bruce says Alfred will patch him up, but Alfred states he's done doing it over and over again and shouts "I Quit!" while storming away. Robin is shocked, but Bruce assures him it won't stick, stating that Alfred does that from time to time.
- Shout-Out: The face of an evil ghost possessing a host, as is the case with Bookworm and Frau Totenkinder is a lot like when Voldemort's spirit possesses Quirrel in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
- Staying Alive: All of the Fables characters in this book have died at least once, and people not familiar with the reboot series would be shocked to see Cindy back again. Totenkinder states that this was her 22nd death.
- Two-Faced: The Bookworm has a second face hidden under his hat. This face belongs to the villain who's taken over Bookworm's body and is using him as a host.
- Versus Title: Batman vs. Bigby, obviously.
