Marvel v. DC

Fanboy bacchanal

I’m pretty sure the first comic book I ever read was gifted to me by my Godfather, Howard. Back then, I knew him as “Little Howard,” as his father was the original Howard (or “Big Howard,” as you might guess).

He gave them to me at church, which is awesome for two reasons: a) I mean, he’s my “god”father, right? and b) getting these things passed to me at church when they were still considered forbidden fruit is always the best way to enjoy a thing.

He mostly passed me a funnybook called “Marvel Super Heroes,” the most generic sounding title ever. At the time, it was reprinting old Hulk stories. The Bill Bixby TV show was on back then, and the Hulk was my favorite superhero, so it was all new for me.

And, he gave me my first comic company crossover, “Superman and Spider-Man.”

Dig that $2.50 cover price

You probably can’t tell from the photo, but this was at least twice the size of a normal comic book. That alone made it pretty impressive.

(The thin newprint it’s printed on is far less impressive. I’ve seen thicker toilet paper at rest stops.)

Well, this was pretty mind-blowing for a kid who only barely understood that there were two big comics companies, whose characters (almost) never met, due to… legal issues. (This was actually the second team-up of these two, the first being “Superman Vs. the Amazing Spider-Man about five years previous.)

It was an interesting read, as my exposure to the titular heroes was mostly limited to the “Superman” movies, the “Spider-Man” TV show, and his appearances on “The Electric Company,” as well the various cartoons for both. Superman was pretty much one-for-one with the movies, but live-action Spider-Man on TV was pretty much mute. So, to see the wisecracking web slinger constantly talking on the page was a touch jarring.

The subsequent “Batman vs. the Incredible Hulk,” became among my most treasured possessions, since those two characters were my favorites. Wholly ill-matched, the only reason they were paired together was because they were both equally popular, but the comic was surprisingly well-written, and came up with halfway decent reasons to have these two first fighting one another, then teaming-up to fight the REAL villains, which was every hero team-up story in those days.

For some reason, comic book readers love to see superheroes fight each other more than villains.

Other DC/Marvel team-ups followed: “The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans” (easily the best crossover the two companies have produced together), then a whole series of team-ups in the 90s - Punisher/Batman, Darkseid/Galactus, an entire crossover series called Amalgam, where the heroes of both universes fought, and were then combined into goofy new heroes (like “Darkclaw,” a combo of Wolverine and Batman, ugh), before being broken back up and sent home, and finally, culminating in “JLA/Avengers,” the last of the big-time comic crossovers.

From the “Superman/Spider-Man” days, I was wholly in, and unreasonably invested in the whole DC/Marvel crossover thing, and when the original “JLA/Avengers” book scheduled for the 80s was cancelled, I was bummed (there’s a great recounting about why that happened). When the later crossovers came, I was more grown - I bought some of the early ones, but didn't much care, ultimately. At that point, it seemed like a cash-in (unlike the totally not-for-cash crossovers of my youth, right?), and the novelty was lost. Then, when the “JLA/Avengers” crossover actually DID happen, it seemed like a return to the awesomeness of the early days, and I was interested again.

But then it was over.

It was weird, back before the first “Superman/Spider-Man” team-up, DC and Marvel combining heroes would’ve probably been unthinkable. But when they did it, it made so much money, they kept doing it. Until, one day, things (and personnel) changed at the two companies, and suddenly, there were no more crossovers. That was late 80s.

Then, mid-90s, they tried again, boom, money ensued, and they went in whole hog that time, with the Amalgam series, and all kinds of recurring team-ups. It became normalized, which seems impossible now. And then, once again, something changed, and became unthinkable again.

It’s probably all the comic book movies. They were making so much money for the individual companies, there was no sense in joining forces.

But, if time has shown anything, once that money starts to dip, it’s not so unthinkable anymore.

And we may have gotten a hint which way the wind is starting to blow.

For years, these comics and their various collections have been out of print. And then, in the last few months, there have been two giant omnibus editions, combining most of these collaborations (with the notable exception of the JLA/Avengers book, which is massively expensive to track down).

(These collections follow closely on the heels of two other out of print titles, “The Micronauts” and “Rom,” two Marvel titles based on pre-existing toy IPs from the 70s, that hung in legal limbo for decades, and are now being pressed into massive collections.)

Then, on Friday, there was a hint that a new Marvel/DC crossover was coming. I don’t know if this heralds a new day, the opening salvo of a new generation of team-ups, or if the companies are cashing in on reader nostalgia.

They didn’t mention which heroes would be teaming up. It led to a barrage of creators pitching books like “Howard the Duck vs. Captain Carrot!” I mean, they joke, but I think I’d rather see that than another Superman/Spider-Man. Or maybe “The Swamp Thing vs. The Man-Thing!”

This stuff writes itself.

(By the by, if you have any interest in any of these Marvel/DC books, you may want to grab them up, because I don’t imagine they’ll stay in print forever, and if you think the $100+ cover price is bad now, that’s probably as cheap as it’ll get. The Rom/Micronauts books you can get for $50 the each on Kindle, but the DC/Marvel books are print only, so get ‘em while they’re hot.)

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