DC vs. Marvel: Who Said Ads Couldn’t Be Fun?

DC and Marvel crossovers have been happening for almost 50 years now. At first, these stories – designed to advertise the characters of one company to fans of the other – were shy about the publicity side of their purpose. But as time went on, they began to lean more and more into the pomp and circumstance these issues inevitably entailed. With Ron Marz, Peter David, Dan Jurgens, and Claudio Castellini’s DC vs. Marvel series in 1996, DC and Marvel finally fully embraced the commercial side of their endeavor. The creative team gave readers exactly what they were looking for. This four-part miniseries never pretends to be anything other than what it is – a whole lot of fun.

1976 was the year of DC and Marvel’s first crossover. Apparently, as Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man suggests, Clark Kent and Peter Parker have always lived on the same Earth. They’ve just never bumped into each other before. This is a charmingly simple explanation, though it immediately rings a little false. However, you can see what the creative team is going for. They seem worried that the more contrived the story feels, the more the reader will see this one-shot for what it is: one big ad.

Yet, this first outing from both companies is exactly that. Gerry Conway, Ross Andru, and Dick Giordano – the creatives behind Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man – are constantly pointing us to how similar the titular characters are to one another. They’re both orphans. They’re both reporters. They’re both superheroes. The plot can essentially be summed up as “If you like Superman, you’ll love Spider-Man!” and vice versa. DC wanted to entice Webheads and Marvel wanted to lure over lovers of the Man of Steel. But Peter Parker and Clark Kent are only really alike in surface level ways, and so the writing falters at times.

As DC and Marvel continued to crossover in the following years, they started to champion their characters in more effective ways. They created issues about Bruce Banner and Bruce Wayne, the Teen Titans and the X-Men, Galactus and Darkseid. Wildly different characters had to figure out how they could work together. We finally got stories that were more concerned with what made characters unique from one another. They began asking a different question with these crossovers. “You already have a Batman… Have you heard of the Punisher? Because they couldn’t be more different. Are you ready for something different?”

This is where DC vs. Marvel came in, blending these two approaches, and outright rejected the idea the advertising facet to the narrative needed to fly under the radar. It matched characters that are each other’s counterpart in each universe. Thor and Shazam, Aquaman and Namor, The Flash and Quicksilver. At first you’d think we’re back to square one. “These characters are so similar, you should just read both their comics.” But Marz, David, Jurgens, and Castellini were more interested in showing just how different they were from each other. They pointed out that their similarities – the things which made us think of one as the DC version of the other or vice versa – were all incredibly surface level. The Flash and Quicksilver are both fast, but one is a fun-loving hero of the people while the other is a melodramatic outsider. Aquaman and Namor are both kings of Atlantis, but the ways they rule and how they interact with the surface world are miles apart.

The creative team didn’t have the same fears as the folks behind Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man did. They weren’t worried about the plot feeling contrived or forced. They knew they were dealing with a set of readers who were used to this kind of thing by now. People reading DC vs. Marvel knew this was – at least in part – a big advertisement. The creative team seemed like they were okay with this level of awareness. In fact, the main question this series asks could be summed up as “Who said ads couldn’t be fun?” Every issue ended with a list of the showdowns that were coming up in the story. Hulk vs. Superman, Jubilee vs. Robin, and so on.

And in another stroke of advertising genius, the creative team decided that the winner of each battle would be voted on through reader ballots. Not only were they answering the age old questions of “Who would win in a fight between Superman and the Hulk?” but they were letting readers be part of the decision making process. And yes, there were plenty of things that had to happen in the plot to make sense of any of these battle sequences. Many of the stories earlier on in the stages of DC and Marvel crossing over had heroes fighting over big misunderstandings. But DC vs. Marvel boasted 11 different showdowns. The creative team sets up a framing device – which still requires a few logical leaps on the part of the reader to accept – for all of these clashes to make sense.

But again, the purpose of DC vs. Marvel isn’t the subtlety of its writing and the depth of its character development. This isn’t a story that’s inviting you to think deeply. It’s showing you what makes the heroes of DC and Marvel unique, letting you revel in the chaos of these characters going head-to-head. Marz, David, Jurgens and Castellini aren’t creating a story to be picked apart. They’re just inviting us in to have a good time, and this series is certainly that.

Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man, along with the other crossovers mentioned, will be collected in the upcoming DC Versus Marvel Omnibus. The DC vs. Marvel miniseries is included in the upcoming DC/Marvel: The Amalgam Age Omnibus. Both of these will be released on 24th September and can be pre-ordered at all good comic book shops, online retailers, eBay, and Amazon.