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Since Marvel's soon to be part of Disney I don't see an another DC/Marvel crossover happening again not for the forseeable future if ever.
These days comics are all about crossovers and events. Dark Crises on Infinitely Secret Civil Earths and all that. But with all the events and one-upsmanship between the Big Two, we have to wonder: when are Marvel and DC going to do another intercompany crossover?
SUPERMAN VS SPIDER-MAN cover by Ross Andru
Technically speaking, the first intercompany crossover featured characters from National Publications and All-American Publications teaming up to form the Justice Society of America. And there have been plenty of homages and unofficial crossovers throughout the years, but for the purposes of this article, we’re going to glaze over all that stuff and talk about the superhero stuff. Our apologies to fans of Marvel & DC’s joint publication of the Wizard of Oz adaptation; that’s not what we’re talking about here.
1976 gave us America’s bicentennial birthday and the first Superman/Spider-Man team-up. It was only natural that the two companies’ biggest stars would be featured in such a publication and in true superhero fashion, they battled before teaming up. The two wouldn’t meet again until 1981 which also saw Batman and the Hulk team up. The following year gave fans an X-Men/Teen Titans team-up.
There were a lot of other intercompany team-ups after that, including Batman and Spawn, Batman and Grendel, Batman and Judge Dredd and Batman and Predator. Batman even teamed up with Daredevil and the Punisher a couple of times. And of course, the ‘90s saw a bunch of indie companies get in the mix as well: Savage Dragon teamed up with the Ninja Turtles, Nexus teamed up with Magnus, Robot Fighter and Charles Barkley fought Godzilla. Like anything in the ‘90s, it sold well and there was more of it than anyone could stand, but none of it had the same magnitude as the earlier Marvel/DC crossovers. There were some good stories and some bad, but nothing that felt truly important like it did when we first saw Superman and Spider-Man on the same cover.
Cover art to SPIDER-BOY TEAM-UP by Ladronn
1996 saw a four issue DC vs. Marvel miniseries pitting the two universes against each other. Aquaman fought Namor, Quicksilver raced against The Flash, Superman battled the Hulk, Elektra and Catwoman had a catfight to end all catfights, Lobo tussled with Wolverine and Captain America matched wits with Batman. There were a few other fights, but that sentence was getting a little long and you can look ‘em up if you really care that much.
The cool thing about this event was that fans got to vote on the outcomes of each match. As expected, it turned into something of a popularity contest as Wolverine received more votes than Lobo, which makes no sense at all as Wolverine was only nigh-invulnerable back in those days. Ahhhh, the 90’s, when Wolverine took a few minutes to heal from a fatal wound… he can move planets out of orbit these days, right? But we’re getting off track here.
The super-coolest part about this event (even better than the voting) was the Amalgam Universe, a smooshed-up version of Marvel and DC. Batman and Wolverine combined to become Dark Claw, Superman and Captain America became Super-Soldier and so on and so forth. A fictional history was created dating back to the Golden Age and combined elements of both universes. They even did one called Whatelse? that acted as a combination of Marvel’s What If…? and DC’s Elseworlds! Awesome! It was really nothing more than glorified fan fiction that actually saw the light of day, but the Amalgam Comics of 1996 and ’97 rank among one of the most fun things we’ve seen in comics in a long time. They’ve been collected in trades and if you’re lucky you can still find them in quarter bins at your local comic convention – they’re definitely worth your time.
Cover art JLA/AVENGERS #4 by George Perez
In 1979, Marvel and DC promised to deliver an Avengers/Justice League crossover. In 1981, George Pérez had drawn 21 pages of story and in 2003 the story finally saw the light of day. It was a big-time, long awaited event, but by the time it finally happened, it certainly wasn’t the blockbuster mega-moment everyone had hoped it would be. At least, we didn’t think so. It had Kurt Busiek, it had George Pérez… it just didn’t seem to have any oomph.
Eh… maybe you liked it. At any rate, we think it’s time for Marvel and DC to do it again.
WOLVERINE VS LOBO. You know you want it.
DC has had their Crises and Marvel has been in a constant state of change for half a decade. They’ve spent the past few years trying to outdo each other with Blackest Nights and Dark Reigns. With the status quo of both universes being so significantly altered, there’s no time like the present to team ‘em back up! We know that these things take time and even if a crossover was approved, it would be a year or more before it saw print. But since this is all about wishful thinking, let’s think about what we might see…
Imagine the new Batman meeting the new Captain America, Superman returning to earth only to find that a Superhero Registration Act has been put into effect in his absence or Lex Luthor teaming up with Norman Osborne. Heck, let’s take it even further and have the Black Lanterns meet up with the Marvel Zombies! How about Ultimate Earth-2? DC has reestablished their multiverse and Marvel has been creating one of their own. Why not delve into this myriad of new worlds and see what happens? The last time we saw a real Marvel/DC crossover, Superman had a mullet, Hulk was wearing a tank top and Spider-Man’s secret identity was Ben Reilly. It’s time for another go-round from the Big Two.
In this era of one-upsmanship and “the next big gimmick”, why not give us the biggest bang for our buck? Give us the gimmick-to-end-all-gimmicks and do another intercompany crossover! At the very least, give us another round of Amalgam. We’re dying to see the Red Winter Soldier or the All-New, All-Different X-Patrol!
Since Marvel's soon to be part of Disney I don't see an another DC/Marvel crossover happening again not for the forseeable future if ever.
WARNING - NOSTALGIA ALERT. May cause younger folks to immediately nod off. Like...now. Sorry.
I still recall how jaw-droppingly amazingly WOW it was to see Spider-Man and Superman... in the same @#$#@$#$ comic book! Lex Luthor and Doctor Octopus! You kidding me? AMAZING! It actually felt a bit... surreal. Like... hey, this isn't supposed to happen, right? These "people" can't meet. They CAN'T! It was like when I was ...er...much younger and the Green Hornet and Kato had a crossover appearance on the BATMAN TV show! NO WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The subsequent SUPERMAN / SPIDERMAN team-up wasn't quite that amazing, except for having Doctor Doom confronting Superman ... and using not force or weapons but Superman's respect for rule of law as his trump card. Kinda cool in that it really showed an understanding of the characters.
Over time... for me anyway, the crossover events lost some of their luster, mostly because you just can't go back again. They became more common, and thus less novel. It was great to see Simonson draw the X-Men AND Teen Titans, and yeah, to see Perez draw JLA and Avengers (although I felt the scripting of the DC characters there didn't ring true for me)... and yeah, to see Batman and Judge Dredd in a contest to determine who could be more tight-lipped.... but as we saw more and more and more cross-company appearances (Marvel, DC, Image, etc), the novel impact (for me) grew less and less.
What MIGHT be interesting would be to take an almost "What if" or "Elseworlds" approach, and do something with the impact and seriousness of, say, KINGDOM COME or the like. Setting the bar kinda high there, I guess, but... just saying, something that really felt epic and meaningful and serious, not because you have a thousand characters on the page, but because these are the "big guys" on the page, and the story has corresponding weight. Don't try to mesh it with continuity (not that this was ever a big crossover concern anyway) and have some "things happen". And hey, while we're at it, how about getting Alex Ross to do it? ;-)
Shadow
shadowprime, you're speaking my language!
"What if Marvel and DC really did cross over?" ... what would the impact be? What kind of ginormous implications would an event like that have?!?! Maybe something along the lines of the 1985 miniseries by Mark Millar and Tommy Lee Edwards.
It probably would not be a possibilty, but I can dream.
What if they traded characters for a period of time. I mean, trade Spiderman and Batman and place them in each others cities/universes for a few months. How would the universes react to having these newcomers. Spiderman would take on Btamans Rogues gallery and Vice versa. J.Jonah Jameson going after Batman like he did with Spiderman. The possibilities are endless.
Nova/Green Lantern, Superman/Hulk, Wonder Woman, Ms. Marvel...Marvels Gods, versus the New Gods. Or , you can even have some of the villains switch sides instead.
I just think it would be cool to mix things up.
I disagree with shadow, the problem with these crossovers is that they're not part of continuity so it always feels like a gimmick which only worked the first couple of times. After that it becomes obvious that they are in fact what ifs or else world stories. I mean they have no lasting effect or any effect at all for that matter in continuity nor are they ever referred to again. Making them feel as just filler
Now I like dbrock's idea. Something like that that becomes part of continuity and its effects are felt through each universe. I'm sure the companies can come to some sort of agreement where they can share in the profitts of such arcs and their trades without giving them the right to exploit the characters outside of said arc. But you can always reference nthose events band so on
The trick is to get the worlds largest, pervasive entertainment conglomerate (Time/Warner) to play nice with the world's most defensive and paranoid entertainment company (Disney). My how things have changed since the 70's.
Muenster.....couldn't have said it better.
Disney now OWNS Marvel....forget ANY cross-over for the next 432645368475689357612345136 years.
I agree that the 1st 4 Marvel/DC crossovers were the best. However, I think that JLA/Avengers was right up there in the top 5. Thanks cheifly to George Perez' artwork, its being something much greater than JLA/Avengers (we saw the FF & Doom Patrol & so many others) & moments like the Avengers vs Starro & Superman wielding Thor's hammer & Captain America's shield I'd place it even or better than X-Men/Teen Titans & higher than Batman/Hulk, at least.
The Amalgam Universe, on the other hand, was the worst part DC vs Marvel & the sequel, "All Access" (which wasn't mentioned here). I confess I don't remember "Whatelse?". Amalgam was fun, sure, but I would have much rather seen more of Marvel vs DC in its place.
I've always thought that something like what dbroc06 suggested would not only be great, but feasable. Nothing on a large scale, but imagine DC & Marvel swapping 1 character each to the other for a period of 1 year. It would probably only work as a special series (12 issues!) but would be even cooler to just see the character's inserted into a regular monthly. Hands off the biggies like Superman & Spiderman. DC could certainly spare any Green Lantern (doesn't matter which one; probably not Hal) for a year, to be used in the Avengers for that time. Marvel could send DC the Silver Surfer of Dr. Strange to be used in JLA. I envision it looking something like Captain Atom in the Wildstorm Universe, Majestic in Superman or, a better analogy, Nick Fury in the Supreme Squadron universe or Princess Zarda in the Ultimate universe (only handled better than any of these).
My suggestion for the next Marvel/DC crossover would be this: after a Crisis-like event, tell stories of one merged universe for 12 issues (or better yet, 24!) that could take place from the big bang through 2099 AD & beyond. Not an amalgated universe with Dark Claw, Spider-Boy & the like but rather one with Wolverine, Batman, the Avengers, the Teen Titans & everybody else all in it. Of course, in a universe like this the teams would be mixed - Batman might be an Avenger & Ms. Marvel might be in the JLA - but the team names would be the same. No Justice League of Avengers, etc...
I liked the Algamam Universe, it was fun, and YES it's OK for entertainment to be FUN...
LOVED voting and LOVEd seeing the matchups and subsequent mash-ups.
I don't need everything to be part of cintinuity. Continuity can be more trouble than it's worth, I love elsworld stories, or the Millar-Universe (when Mark Millar writes stories outside of main continuity)
It's nice to have a story that has a beginning middle and end, instead of a never ending but continuity concious storyline.
Chad,
Sorry, man, but the Marvel vs. DC miniseries sums up for me what was so awful about the 90s. Readers don't need more gimmicks, we want stories.
Daniel