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| Images copyright DC COMICS & MARVEL COMICS |
For those who missed out on the original DC & MARVEL team-up editions, they were re-released in 1995 in traditional comicbook format mags, which I'd imagine would be easier and less expensive to acquire from eBay if you were ever looking to add these classic crossover tales to your collection.
There was also a softcover collected edition for those who prefer to have their comics in a convenient single volume for ready accessibility and easy reading. Now's the time for you to nab these historic milestones and fill that space in your Marvel & DC titanic team-ups. Do it today!
Meantime, here are the front and back covers for you to drool over. (Remember to wipe your screen afterwards.)
I remember being so excited about the first Superman/Spider-Man team-up. I remember riding my bicycle to the local store, expecting it to be there. I read that one so much that I had it memorized at one time. I was 12-13 when it came out......just loved it.
ReplyDeleteI bought the other crossovers when they came out, but they were a few years later. I wasn't that fired up about Batman/Hulk.....would much rather have seen Batman/Capt. America. The X-Men/Titans pairing was pretty neat as I remember, but I don't remember too much about the details.
Even though I haven't read modern comics for a long time, other than the occasional collected series, I have read the JLA/Avengers team-up and though it was fantastic, but a little too late for me, anyway.
They eventually did do a Batman meets Captain America, G, but by that time they weren't consistent. For example, sometimes (like the Supes/Spidey team-up) the heroes existed in the same universe, but other times they lived in different dimensions. I forget which scenario applied to the Bats/Cap tale. I never saw the X-Men/Titans mag at the time it first came out, and I was surprised to learn that it was printed as a standard-sized comic mag (but with extra pages obviously), not a big Treasury Edition.
ReplyDeleteThe first DC-Marvel collaboration may have been a Wizard of Oz comic in the 1970's, but that wasn't quite the same thing as a crossover between the two companies' own major characters.
ReplyDeleteI never had the first Superman/Spider-Man team-up, but I did have the Titans/X-Men comic, and, later, reprints (in regular-sized paperback books) of Batman vs. the Hulk, and the second Superman & Spider-Man meeting.
With Superman vs. Spider-Man, it always seemed to me to be a Catch-22. They were obviously mismatched, so there had to be some contrived device to even the odds. They could un-super Superman with kryptonite or Q-energy, but then Spidey wouldn't really be fighting the "real" Superman. Conversely, they could amp up Spider-Man by giving him the Captain Universe powers or something, but then it wasn't the "real" Spider-Man. But Superman and Spider-Man were probably chosen because they were their respective publishers' most famous and popular characters at the time.
Similarly, the Teen Titans/X-Men crossover was probably because those characters were the Big Thing in the early 1980's.
Superman vs. the Hulk would seem a logical match-up (especially when the Hulk TV series made the character recognizable by the general public, including people who were not into comics). But maybe they were too evenly matched. (The opposite of Superman vs. Spider-Man.)
I actually thought Batman vs. the Hulk worked best. They were evenly matched in that each had an advantage that the other lacked (brains vs. brawn). And the Hulk was perceived as a menace, so Batman (or any other superhero, for that matter) could logically go after him without having to have some contrived misunderstanding in which each hero mistook the other for a villain.
I seem to remember a crossover that ended with Batman & Robin in their bat-submarine finding Captain America floating in a block of ice in the ocean, and reviving him. It turned out they were Batman II (adult Dick Grayson) and Robin II (Bruce Wayne Jr.) from that series of "what if" stories that were supposedly written by Alfred the butler.
I don't think I read that last one, TC - sounds interesting. There was a Superman versus Hulk book a few years back, drawn by Steve Rude - excellent stuff. I've got quite a few DC & Marvel company crossovers - Batman and Spidey, Batman and Cap, Superman and the FF, etc. Maybe one day they'll do a Howard the Duck and Captain Carrot team-up book, eh?
ReplyDeleteI only had/have the second one, which I loved. I do want the first and fourth though, I guess it's about time!
ReplyDeleteKid, have you ever read any Amalgam Comics? The covers look great! Bet they're pricey though?
I've got all of the Amalgam comics, JP. Couldn't tell you where they are at the moment 'though - I'm still unpacking boxes. I have the impression that the Amalgam comics were released in a collected edition a good few years ago. Might be worth checking eBay to get an idea of the prices if you're considering acquiring them.
ReplyDeleteI love the seconds Superman/Spider-Man comic- one of my favourite all-time issues. I still have the UK printing of it that I bought in a second-hand bookshop in 1987ish.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things I love about it is the almost low-key approach to the story- from the beginning the characters all exist in shared one universe and they react to each other without any surprise or amazement- we're straight into the story without any preamble.
It goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that John Buscema's take on Superman is absolutely stunning and well worth a look for anyone who hasn't seen it. (Actually, any comic with the words 'John Buscema' in the credits is worth looking at, IMO!)
For some curious reason, DD, Marvel published the U.K. edition - I don't think the U.S. edition was generally available in this country (unlike the first Supes/Spidey team-up). I didn't like the clumsy lettering alterations from U.S. to U.K. spelling, so when I saw a copy of the U.S. edition on sale at a comics mart a good few years later, I bought it immediately and still have it today. Again, curiously, when the tale was reprinted in the mag and book you see in this post, Supes' costume was coloured inconsistently, with it being almost purple in some panels. As for Big John, you could always rely on him not to let you down art-wise.
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