Amalgam Comics was a collaborative publishing imprint shared by

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

and

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

, in which the two comic book publishers merged their characters into new ones (e.g., DC Comics'

Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...

and Marvel Comics'

Wolverine The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for " glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscul ...

become the Amalgam Comics character the Dark Claw). These characters first appeared in a series of 12 one-shot comic books which were published in April 1996, between ''Marvel vs. DC'' #3 and ''DC vs. Marvel'' #4, the last two issues of the ''

DC vs. Marvel ''DC vs. Marvel'' (issues #2–3 titled ''Marvel vs. DC'') was a comic book miniseries intercompany crossover published by DC Comics and Marvel Comics from April to May 1996. Each company would publish two issues of the series, thus the title d ...

crossover event A crossover is the placement of two or more otherwise discrete fictional characters, settings, or universes into the context of a single story. They can arise from legal agreements between the relevant copyright holders, unofficial efforts by ...

. A second set of 12 one-shots followed one year later in June 1997, but without the crossover event as a background. All 24 of these one-shots chronologically occurred between the aforementioned issues of ''DC vs. Marvel''. ''The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005'' designated the Amalgam Universe as Earth-9602 in the Marvel Multiverse.Page 436 of the book ''The Essential Wonder Woman Encyclopedia'' (2015) by Phil Jimenez and John Wells (under the entry "Wallis, Angelica" in the "W" section) designated the Amalgam Universe as Earth-496 in the

DC Multiverse In DC Comics, the Multiverse is a "cosmic construct" composed of the many fictional universes the stories of DC take place in. The worlds in this multiverse share a space and fate in common, and its structure has changed several times in the h ...

Publication history

On two occasions – April 1996 and June 1997 – DC and Marvel co-published a total of 24 one-shot "first issues" (12 in April 1996 (six by DC and six by Marvel) and 12 in June 1997 (again, six by DC and six by Marvel)) under the ''Amalgam Comics'' imprint. The issues were presented as if the "company" had existed for decades, with stories and editorial comments referring to a fictional history stretching back to the

Golden Age of Comic Books The Golden Age of Comic Books describes an era of American comic books from 1938 to 1956. During this time, modern comic books were first published and rapidly increased in popularity. The superhero archetype was created and many well-known char ...

, including

retcon Retroactive continuity, or retcon for short, is a literary device in which established diegetic facts in the plot of a fictional work (those established through the narrative itself) are adjusted, ignored, supplemented, or contradicted by a subse ...

s and

reboot In computing, rebooting is the process by which a running computer system is restarted, either intentionally or unintentionally. Reboots can be either a cold reboot (alternatively known as a hard reboot) in which the power to the system is physi ...

s; for example, they referred to ''Secret Crisis of the Infinity Hour'' (an amalgamation of Marvel's '' Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars'', DC's ''

Crisis on Infinite Earths "Crisis on Infinite Earths" is a 1985 American comic book crossover storyline published by DC Comics. The series, written by Marv Wolfman and pencilled by George Pérez, was first serialized as a 12-issue limited series from April 1985 to March ...

'', Marvel's ''

The Infinity Gauntlet ''The Infinity Gauntlet'' is an American comic book storyline published by Marvel Comics. In addition to an eponymous, six-issue limited series written by Jim Starlin and pencilled by George Pérez and Ron Lim, crossover chapters appeared ...

'', and DC's '' Zero Hour: Crisis in Time!''), which featured the well-known cover of ''Crisis on Infinite Earths'' #7, but with Super-Soldier holding the dead body of his sidekick (who is female and wears a costume similar to that of Marvel's Captain Marvel), instead of Superman holding the dead body of

Supergirl Supergirl is the name of several fictional superheroines appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The original, current, and most well known Supergirl is Kara Zor-El, the cousin of superhero Superman. The character made her fir ...

. Nineteen of the 24 issues included phony

letter column A comic book letter column is a section of an American comic book where readers' letters to the publisher appear. Comic book letter columns are also commonly referred to as letter columns (or lettercols), letter pages, letters of comment (LOCs), o ...

s to provide the illusion of background to the stories, with the fans' hometowns formed by amalgamating the names of existing

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

cities. The first Amalgam event occurred near the end of the four-issue ''

'' crossover event in April 1996. In ''Marvel vs. DC'' #3, the DC and Marvel Universes were shown being combined into one – the Amalgam Universe – and the Amalgam one-shots were presented as the result of that. The first 12 Amalgam titles were released the following week, delaying both publishers' regular releases by one week. Six of the issues in the event were published by DC and six by Marvel. In June 1997 the process was repeated, but without the crossover event as a background. Later, both publishers collected their respective issues into four trade paperback collections. All 24 of the Amalgam one-shots took place between ''Marvel vs. DC'' #3 and ''DC vs. Marvel'' #4, the last two issues of the crossover event. Between the two events of Amalgam Comics, the two publishers released a sequel crossover miniseries to ''DC vs. Marvel'' #1-4 primarily published by DC, ''DC/Marvel: All Access'' #1-4 (Dec. 1996-Feb. 1997 (issues #2-3 were both cover-dated Jan. 1997)). A second sequel crossover miniseries primarily published by Marvel, ''Unlimited Access'' #1-4 (Dec. 1997-March 1998), followed the second event. Both crossover miniseries featured additional Amalgam characters.

Fictional origin of the Amalgam Universe

The two comic book universes came together when the two physical incarnations of their respective universes (referred to as "the Brothers") became aware of each other after eons of slumber. To prevent the Brothers from destroying each other, characters from each universe battled to determine which universe would survive (a real world vote by readers of the series was conducted to determine the outcome of five of the in-comic battles, with three of them favoring the Marvel hero).

Access Access may refer to: Companies and organizations * ACCESS (Australia), an Australian youth network * Access (credit card), a former credit card in the United Kingdom * Access Co., a Japanese software company * Access Healthcare, an Indian BPO se ...

, a character created specifically for the event and co-owned by both Marvel and DC, served as a gatekeeper who became stuck while traveling between the two universes. When the battles were finished, neither universe was willing to go. To prevent their total destruction, the

Spectre Spectre, specter or the spectre may refer to: Religion and spirituality * Vision (spirituality) * Apparitional experience * Ghost Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Spectre'' (1977 film), a made-for-television film produced and writ ...

and the

Living Tribunal The Living Tribunal is a fictional cosmic entity appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in '' Strange Tales'' #157 (June 1967) and was created by Stan Lee, Marie Severin, and Herb Trimpe. The ...

created an amalgamated universe, in which only Access and Doctor Strangefate (Charles Xavier) (the amalgamation of

Doctor Fate Doctor Fate (also known as Fate) is the name of multiple superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The original version of the character was created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Howard Sherman, debuting in ''More F ...

Doctor Strange Doctor Stephen Strange is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Steve Ditko, the character first appeared in ''Strange Tales'' #110 (cover-dated July 1963). Doctor Strange serves as Sorce ...

and

Professor X Professor X (Charles Francis Xavier) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is depicted as the founder and sometimes leader of the X-Men. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-writ ...

) knew the truth about the merge. The two characters fought against each other to reverse (in the case of Access) or preserve (in the case of Doctor Strangefate) the change. Access managed to separate the Brothers with the help of the Amalgam Universe's superheroes; before the merge had taken place, he had planted 'shards' of the two universes inside

and

Captain America Captain America is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by cartoonists Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the character First appearance, first appeared in ''#Golden Age, Captain America Comics'' #1 (cover ...

. Once he discovered the Dark Claw (an amalgamation of Batman and

) and Super-Soldier (an amalgamation of

Superman Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publi ...

and Captain America), he used those shards to give the Spectre and the Living Tribunal the power to restore the two universes. Batman, Captain America and Access were thus able to make the Brothers realize that their conflict was pointless and the two universes were separated once again.

Amalgam characters

During the event, pairs of DC and Marvel characters were merged into single characters. The same was done with teams and fictional locations.

Amalgam comic books

The 24 one-shots have been reprinted in four trade paperbacks: *''The Amalgam Age of Comics: The DC Comics Collection'': **''Amazon'' #1 ** ''Assassins'' #1 **''Doctor StrangeFate'' #1 **''JLX'' #1 **''Legends of the Dark Claw'' #1 **''Super-Soldier'' #1 *''The Amalgam Age of Comics: The Marvel Comics Collection'': **''Bruce Wayne: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.'' #1 **''Bullets and Bracelets'' #1 **''Magneto and the Magnetic Men'' #1 **''Speed Demon'' #1 **''Spider-Boy'' #1 **''X-Patrol'' #1 *''Return to the Amalgam Age of Comics: The DC Comics Collection'': **''Bat-Thing'' #1 **''Dark Claw Adventures'' #1 **''Generation Hex'' #1 **''JLX Unleashed'' #1 **''Lobo the Duck'' #1 **''Super-Soldier: Man of War'' #1 *''Return to the Amalgam Age of Comics: The Marvel Comics Collection'': **''Challengers of the Fantastic'' #1 **''The Exciting X-Patrol'' #1 **''Iron Lantern'' #1 **''The Magnetic Men featuring Magneto'' #1 **''Spider-Boy Team-Up'' #1 **''Thorion of the New Asgods'' #1

References

External links