''DC vs. Marvel'' (issues #2–3 titled ''Marvel vs. DC'') was a
comic book
A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
miniseries
A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...
intercompany crossover
In comic books, an intercompany crossover (also called cross-company or company crossover) is a comic or series of comics in which characters, that at the time of publication are the property or licensed property of one publisher, meet character ...
published 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 ...
from April to May 1996. Each company would publish two issues of the series, thus the title difference between issues #1 and 4 as ''DC vs. Marvel'' from DC and issues #2–3 from Marvel as ''Marvel vs. DC''. The series was written by
Ron Marz
Ron Marz (born November 17, 1965) is an American comic book writer, known for his work on titles such as ''Batman/Aliens'', ''DC vs. Marvel'', ''Green Lantern'', ''Silver Surfer'', and ''Witchblade''.
Career
Marz is known for his work on ''Silv ...
and
Peter David
Peter Allen David (born September 23, 1956), often abbreviated PAD, is an American writer of comic books, novels, television, films and video games.Buxton, Marc (March 29, 2014)"From 'Future Imperfect' to '2099': Peter David's Greatest Hits" Co ...
, with art by
Dan Jurgens
Dan Jurgens (; born June 27, 1959) is an American comic book writer and artist. He is known for his work on the DC comic book storyline "The Death of Superman" and for creating characters such as Doomsday, Hank Henshaw and Booster Gold. Jurgens ...
and
Claudio Castellini
Claudio Castellini (born 3 March 1966) is an Italian Comic book creator, comic book artist. According to his website, Castellini has a "love for technical details, influenced by artists like Neal Adams and John Buscema".
Biography
Castellini ...
.
The special crossover series pitted Marvel Comics superheroes against their DC counterparts in battle. The outcome of each battle was determined by reader ballot, which were distributed in advance to comic book stores.
[
]
Plot
Two god-like Brothers who personify the DC and Marvel Universe
The Marvel Universe is a fictional shared universe where the stories in most American comic book titles and other media published by Marvel Comics take place. Super-teams such as the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, the Guardians of ...
s each become aware of the other's existence, and challenge one another to a series of duels
A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people, with matched weapons, in accordance with agreed-upon rules.
During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the rapier and lat ...
involving each universe's respective superheroes. The losing universe would cease to exist. The story had an "out of universe" component in that the outcomes of the primary battles were determined by the readers' votes.
Numerous smaller, story-driven skirmishes occur throughout the series, not counted with the primary duels meant to determine the outcome between the Brothers.
There were 11 battles fought between the two universes.
The result of the following six battles were determined by the miniseries' creative team:
*Aquaman
Aquaman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Paul Norris and Mort Weisinger, the character debuted in ''More Fun Comics'' #73 (November 1941). The character is a pastiche of Namor. Initially ...
(DC) vs. Namor the Sub-Mariner
Namor (), also known as the Sub-Mariner, is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Debuting in early 1939, the character was created by writer-artist Bill Everett for comic book packager Funnies In ...
(Marvel). Aquaman won by summoning a whale to leap out of the water and land on top of Namor. Since Namor is pinned and unable to move, he is declared the loser.
* Elektra (Marvel) vs. Catwoman
Catwoman is a fictional character created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly in association with the superhero Batman. Debuting as "the Cat" in ''Batman'' #1 (spring 1940), she ...
(DC). Elektra won by cutting off Catwoman's whip as she hung from a girder on a building under construction, but Catwoman survived by falling into a dumpster filled with sand.
*The Flash
Flash, flashes, or FLASH may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Fictional aliases
* Flash (DC Comics character), several DC Comics superheroes with super speed:
** Flash (Barry Allen)
** Flash (Jay Garrick)
** Wally West, the first Kid ...
(DC) vs. Quicksilver (Marvel). The Flash won using superior speed.
* Robin (DC) vs. Jubilee
A jubilee is a particular anniversary of an event, usually denoting the 25th, 40th, 50th, 60th, and the 70th anniversary. The term is often now used to denote the celebrations associated with the reign of a monarch after a milestone number of y ...
(Marvel). Robin won by using his cape as a decoy and then tying up Jubilee.
*The Silver Surfer
The Silver Surfer is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character also appears in a number of movies, television, and video game adaptations. The character was created by Jack Kirby and first a ...
(Marvel) vs. Green Lantern
Green Lantern is the name of several superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. They fight evil with the aid of rings that grant them a variety of extraordinary powers, all of which come from imagination, fearlessness, ...
(DC). The Silver Surfer won when both collided with each other and released a huge explosion which knocked out Green Lantern, but left the Silver Surfer unfazed.
*Thor
Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding æsir, god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology, sacred groves ...
(Marvel) vs. Shazam (DC). Thor won when Shazam was forced to change back to his alter ego of Billy Batson. Billy tried to change back, but Thor used Mjolnir to intercept the lightning bolt that would have transformed him back into Shazam; the resulting impact knocked Billy out and sent Thor's hammer flying off into the distance.
The result of the following five battles were determined by the readers' votes:
*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 ...
(DC) vs. the Hulk
The Hulk is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in the debut issue of ''The Incredible Hulk (comic book), The Incredible Hulk' ...
(Marvel). After exchanging punches and a burst of heat vision, Superman defeated the Hulk.
*Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in the anthology comic book '' Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in the ...
(Marvel) vs. Superboy
Superboy is the name of several fictional superheroes appearing in American comicbooks published by DC Comics. These characters have been featured in several eponymous comic series, in addition to ''Adventure Comics'' and other series featuring ...
(DC). With the advantage of his spider-sense, Spider-Man won by tying up Superboy with impact webbing and electrocuting him with high voltage, knocking him out.
*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 ...
(DC) vs. 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 ...
(Marvel). The match ultimately ends in Batman's victory – though both are evenly matched after hours of combat, a sudden flushing of the sewer knocks Captain America off balance as Batman manages to strike him with a batarang. Batman rescues Captain America from certain death via drowning, but Captain America's unconsciousness from nearly drowning causes him to lose. As Batman pulls him out of the sewer, he exclaims, "I lost. And may have doomed an entire universe".
*Wolverine
The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for "gluttony, 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 ...
(Marvel) vs. Lobo (DC). Wolverine beats Lobo in a brutal barfight, which was largely off-panel.
*Storm
A storm is any disturbed state of the natural environment or the atmosphere
An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmos ...
(Marvel) vs. Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman is a superhero created by the American psychologist and writer William Moulton Marston (pen name: Charles Moulton), and artist Harry G. Peter. Marston's wife, Elizabeth Holloway Marston, Elizabeth, and their life partner, Olive Byr ...
(DC). After Wonder Woman drops Thor's hammer in order to allow the fight to happen as it was intended to, Storm won the battle after repeatedly hitting Wonder Woman with lightning after a brief meleé encounter.
Although the final victor of the fights is Marvel, the new character of 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 man capable of traversing between the two universes, infuses Batman and Captain America each with fragments of their respective universes before 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 Liv ...
attempt to create a compromise by fusing the two universes together. This resulted in the creation of the Amalgam Universe, which sees various amalgamated versions of the heroes and villains acting as though they have been in existence for years.
Access is eventually able to find the Dark Claw and Super-Soldier – versions of Batman and Captain America who have been 'amalgamated' with Wolverine and Superman, respectively – and use the fragments of the original universes in them to return the universes to normal. As the Brothers engage in direct battle, the Spectre and the Living Tribunal attempt to stop the conflict, but Batman and Captain America convince Access to take ''them'' to the conflict as well. Reading the minds of Batman and Captain America as ''they'' try to stop the fight, the Brothers realize that the two men are essentially the Brothers in miniature, each one unique among their worlds, but with no interest in the conflict that the Brothers have engaged in. Realizing the pointlessness of the conflict, the Brothers withdraw and congratulate each other, with both of them saying together "You've done well".
Collected editions
To promote the event, Skybox released a series of trading cards.
After completion, the series was collected into a trade paperback titled ''Marvel versus DC/DC versus Marvel'' (collects the miniseries and ''Doctor Strangefate'' #1 (April 1996); 163 pages; September 1996; ).
See also
* Amalgam Comics
Amalgam Comics was a collaborative publishing imprint shared by DC Comics and Marvel Comics, in which the two comic book publishers merged their characters into new ones (e.g., DC Comics'
Batman and Marvel Comics' Wolverine become the Amalgam C ...
* List of Amalgam Comics characters
The following is a list of fictional characters that appear or are only mentioned in the comic books of Amalgam Comics. They are listed by comic book and a team section is also provided. The amalgamations of characters or the Amalgam versions of o ...
* List of Amalgam Comics publications
Near the end of the ''DC vs. Marvel'' Intercompany crossover, crossover event in 1996, Amalgam Comics released a series of One-shot (comics), one-shot comic book issues combining characters from the DC Universe with characters from the Marvel Unive ...
* ''JLA/Avengers
''JLA/Avengers'' (issues #2 and 4 are titled ''Avengers/JLA'') is a comic book limited series and crossover published in prestige format by DC Comics and Marvel Comics from September 2003 to March 2004. The series was written by Kurt Busiek, with ...
''
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:DC vs. Marvel
1996 comics debuts
1996 comics endings
Amalgam Comics
Comics by Dan Jurgens
Comics by Peter David
DC Comics titles
Marvel Comics titles
Intercompany crossovers
Comics about parallel universes
Team-up comics