Marvel Vs. DC crossover battles...should there be another one?

Karma

Heart Attack
Joined
Jan 12, 2005
Messages
7,430
Location
Outside of time and space
how many of you are old enough to remember the cross over battle in which on of the catalysts was the abduction of Lois Lane (D.C.) and Mary Jane (Marvel). and the surprise partnership between Dark Phoenix and Darkseid?

or how about the highly pubicized cross over battle between Marvel and DC's "heavy hitters" and "secondary characters" in 1996 that resulted in the Amalgam titles?

What are your memories of these battles and what did you like/dislike about them. the LAST one was especially "Important" because Marvel stood to loose more than just the "battle results" they were in the midst of financial hardship and were facing bankruptcy. the major publicity promotion behind this crossover even reached into news papers, major magazines and online websites.

Should there be another cross over battle with all the changes marvel inc's characters have gone through (not to mention the mass departure/overhaul of some of DC's mainstays like Wonder Woman )

what as your FAVORITE MOMENT in any of these cross over battles?

there are other ones im sure im not aware of, so if anyone would like to point THOSE out (along with their highlights and such) please do so. this way we can all see how many there've been over the years
 
No no no

I have no favourite moment that I can draw from these crossovers. They always mismatch characters by over-powering one or de-powering another.

I was all for the last cross-over until I flicked to the page where Superman caught Thor's magical hammer. That disgusted me and I probably will never touch a DC marvel crossover again.
 
The best intercompany crossover series I saw was quite limited, but so cool. Wildstorm's WildC.A.T.S/Marvel's X-Men. It was truly sublime, 4 stories (Golden Age, Silver Age, Modern Age, Dark Age), all of terrific power and cohesiveness, yet all in clear and distinctive style.

Of course, the Silver Age one drawn by Jim Lee was fantastic. It had the Silver Age Jean Grey teamed up with the Grifter, who was drafted into S.H.I.E.L.D by Nick Fury in order to rescue a Coda agent (Zealot) from Mr Sinister, who was leading the Brood/Daemonite coalition's genetics department. Pure genius.
 
apparently there are a few that ive missed over the years. i think probably the one with Dark Phoenix teaming up with Darksied was the first one i saw ( i missed the one in 1981..i wasnt collecting at the time). the one in 1996 i clearly remember...the readers were able to determine the outcome of the battles by voting online or via ballots found in news papers.

who did WONDER WOMAN go against in the Avengers v. JLA?
 
from everything2.com...

The Battles:
In the quickest battles, Elektra stomped Catwoman, the Silver Surfer busted Green Lantern (in a battle that consisted of one bright flash of light--LAME!), the Flash ran rings around Quicksilver, and Robin beat Jubilee (apparently, those two were paired up because they both had red and yellow costumes--LAME!). Somewhat better fights were between Aquaman and the Sub-Mariner (Namor might be superstrong, but Aquaman can talk to sea animals, so he had a killer whale kick the Sub-Mariner's ass for him) and between Thor and Captain Marvel--Thor wins after he's able to use his mystic hammer Mjolnir to short-circuit Cap's magic lightning, but he loses the hammer in the process. When Wonder Woman finds it and picks it up (Mjolnir can only be picked up if the wielder is "worthy", which makes Wondy the only person outside the Marvel Universe to ever pick it up), it makes her a lot more powerful, with powers that fuse Thor's and her own (a bit of semi-subtle foreshadowing of what was coming at the end of Issue #3, maybe).

All the other battles were the ones that the readers got to vote on, and they were all generally disappointing. Wonder Woman threw Mjolnir away, because fighting Storm when she had all that extra power just wouldn't be fair (LAME!), then Storm zapped her with lightning bolts 'til Wondy went to sleep. Why? 'Cause Storm was more popular! Superman and the Hulk pounded on each other for a couple of pages 'til Hulky went to sleep. Why? 'Cause Supes was more popular! Batman knocked out Captain America with a lucky shot with a Batarang. Why? 'Cause Batman's more popular! Spider-Man beat Superboy--which really says bad things about Superboy's popularity, 'cause at the time, Spider-Man was the infamous and much-despised Spider-Clone.

And in the lamest fight of them all, Wolverine beat Lobo. Lobo is a big alien biker thug who could go toe-to-toe with Superman, who'd killed everyone on his home planet, who was serious bad news. Wolverine was a scrappy mutant with a little extra strength, a healing factor, a bad attitude, and claws--hell, at the time, he didn't even have his indestructible adamantium claws. Wolverine should've been a stain on the floor after one punch from the Main Man. But Wolvie and Lobo rassle a little in this interstellar saloon, then they disappear behind the bar, then Wolverine reappears, smokes a cigar, and looks very satisfied with himself. Gee, I guess Wolverine beat Lobo with sex or something. That's what happens when you let readers vote on your plots--they always suck.

Then, at the end of the third issue, the creators pulled off their biggest coup: the two universes were combined into one. (How? Can't say it was ever made clear--in the third issue, the cosmic brothers did it; in the fourth, they didn't do it) All the characters were fused together: Batman and Wolverine were turned into Dark Claw, a millionaire playboy with metal claws; Superman and Captain America were combined into Super Soldier, World War II's greatest hero, revived in the present day and working as a mild-mannered reporter; the Joker and Sabretooth became the Hyena, a musclebound feral freak with green hair and a nasty giggle. Marvel and DC published a week's worth of "Amalgam Comics", then resolved the whole thing and got everything back to normal in the last issue of the miniseries.

Basically, this whole series was, aside from the inventive and fun Amalgam Comics issues, very disappointing. Besides the overwhelming lameness of many of the battles and the thundering illogic of the plot (the flip-flop on what caused the two universes to merge is absolutely inexcusable), there were so, so many missed opportunities--team-ups that could have been really cool, but were only briefly pictured or wasted entirely. Iron Man and the Fantastic Four barely show up at all. Battles that could have been great--Batman vs. Venom, Captain Marvel vs. Dr. Doom, Superman vs. Annihilus--are given only one panel. Some of the neatest superhero team-ups--Supergirl and the She-Hulk spring immediately to mind--are just barely mentioned, and the only supervillains who team up are the Marvel and DC versions of the Scarecrow. Spider-Man meets the Joker, and they just talk. Everyone say it with me: LAME!

They still do Marvel and DC crossovers from time to time, and they're often not bad, mostly because they focus on only a few characters at a time. That's probably the formula for success right there.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
that is from the crossover in 1996. i remember that well (i own the issues) because it was HIGHLY promoted..they even had a mock comic strip about it in the news paper. everyone that i knewwas talking about superman vs. hulk, batman vs. cap america, wonder woman vs. storm and catwoman vs. elektra.

some of those battles were HORRIBLY played out and even though the reader votes determined the winners...some of those battles were just handled horribly (robin vs. jubilee was ridiculous)

i preferred the overall storyline involving the cosmic brothers and the catastrophe that threatened both universes...and in the last issue of the four part series you saw the unveiling of the "Amalgam" characters....now THAT was interesting to read. too bad Amalgam universe didnt stick around long.
 
that is from the crossover in 1996. i remember that well (i own the issues) because it was HIGHLY promoted..they even had a mock comic strip about it in the news paper. everyone that i knewwas talking about superman vs. hulk, batman vs. cap america, wonder woman vs. storm and catwoman vs. elektra.

some of those battles were HORRIBLY played out and even though the reader votes determined the winners...some of those battles were just handled horribly (robin vs. jubilee was ridiculous)

i preferred the overall storyline involving the cosmic brothers and the catastrophe that threatened both universes...and in the last issue of the four part series you saw the unveiling of the "Amalgam" characters....now THAT was interesting to read. too bad Amalgam universe didnt stick around long.


That's what I liked about it as well :nod: Well, that and the Dan Jurgens and Claudio Castellini artwork :vamp: They focused too much on the popularity contests...er, I mean battles. Remember, Marvel had more animated shows on the air at the time so that played the most significant role. There's no way Storm would be able to touch Wonder Woman. Wolverine would NOT defeat Lobo let alone in 3 or 4 panels :mad:

That Amalgam series ended to soon. I heard that the two companies had disagreements over how the characters were/would be used. That's supposedly the main reason the original Avengers/JLA crossover was put on hold.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Back
Top