Amalgam Comics

Amalgam Comics
Amalgam Comics logo

Amalgam Comics was a 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's Wolverine became the Amalgam character Dark Claw). These characters first appeared in a series of twelve comic books which were published in 1996, between issues 3 and 4 of the Marvel vs. DC miniseries. A second set (of another twelve comic books) followed a year later.[1]

The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005 designated the Amalgam Universe as Earth-9602.[2][3]

Contents

Publication history

On two separate occasions, Marvel and DC co-published titles from Amalgam Comics. During the publication of Amalgam Comics, the companies treated it as if it had existed for decades, giving it a fictional history stretching back to the Golden Age of Comics, as well as retcons and reboots, such as the Secret Crisis of the Infinity Hour (an amalgam of Secret Wars, Crisis on Infinite Earths, Infinity Gauntlet and Zero Hour), including an Amalgam version of the cover of Crisis on Infinite Earths #7, with Super-Soldier holding his sidekick's body.

The books even went so far as to have letter pages with readers talking about stories they had read for years from the company line. In the 24 Amalgam Comics printed, one-third of those printed included letter-columns by fictitious fans to give a larger background to the stories and to help give hints of what might happen in the next issue. The "fans'" hometowns were usually fusions of existing American cities.[4]

The first Amalgam event occurred near the end of the Marvel vs. DC crossover event in 1996. The first twelve Amalgam titles were released in a single week, temporarily replacing both publishers' regular releases. Half the comics in the event were published by Marvel and half by DC. A year later, the stunt was repeated, but without the crossover as background.[4] Later, both publishers collected their issues into trade paperback collections.[5]

Between the two rounds of Amalgam Comics, the two publishers released a second crossover, DC/Marvel: All Access. A third mini-series, Unlimited Access, followed the second round. Both crossovers featured additional Amalgam characters.

Fictional origin of the Amalgam Universe

The two comic 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; several of the matches were determined through fan voting. Access, a character created for the event and co-owned by Marvel and DC, served as a gate keeper who became stuck while traveling between the two universes.

When the fighting concluded, neither universe was willing to go. To prevent total destruction, the Spectre and the Living Tribunal created an amalgamated universe, in which only Access and Dr. Strangefate knew the truth about the merge. The two characters fought against each other to reverse or preserve the change.

Access managed to separate the Brothers with the help of Amalgam's heroes; before the merge had taken place, he had planted 'shards' of the universe in Batman and Captain America. Once he discovered Dark Claw and Super-Soldier, he used those shards to give the Spectre and the Tribunal the power to restore the universes. Batman, Captain America and Access were thus able to make the Brothers realize that their conflict was pointless, and the universes were separated once again.[1]

Amalgam characters

During the event, pairs of Marvel and DC characters were merged into single characters. The same process was used for the teams and the fictional locations. Usually they had something in common to start with (for example, the Jack Kirby creations the Fantastic Four and Challengers of the Unknown, or water-themed heroes Namor the Sub-Mariner and Aquaman), or their names or themes allowed for clever combinations (such as Superman and Captain America's amalgamation, Super-Soldier, a reference to the Super Soldier serum that created Captain America; Bat-Thing, an amalgamation of Man-Bat and Man-Thing; or Shatterstarfire, the amalgamation of Shatterstar and Starfire).

Some minor characters are only an Amalgam version of a Marvel or DC character. For example, in Iron Lantern # 1, Senator Harrington's personal assistants Garner and Gyrich are Amalgam Universe versions of respectively Guy Gardner of the DC Universe and Henry Peter Gyrich of the Marvel Universe.[6][7]

Amalgam comic books

The 24 comics have been reprinted in 4 collected edition

  • Amalgam Age of Comics (DC Comics collection):
    • Amazon
    • Assassins
    • Doctor StrangeFate
    • JLX
    • Legends of the Dark Claw
    • Super Soldier
  • Amalgam Age of Comics (Marvel Comics collection):
    • Bruce Wayne Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.
    • Bullets and Bracelets
    • Magneto and the Magnetic Men
    • Speed Demon
    • Spider-Boy
    • X-Patrol
  • Return to Amalgam (DC Comics collection):
  • Return to Amalgam (Marvel Comics collection):
    • Challengers of the Fantastic
    • Exciting X-Patrol
    • Iron Lantern
    • The Magnetic Men featuring Magneto
    • Spider-Boy Team-Up
    • Thorion of the New Asgods

Metafictional stories

During the Amalgam Comics run, several metafictional comics and storylines were mentioned in relation to the Amalgam Comics characters, though they were never published as actual comics, they helped to give background knowledge of existing characters.[8] All historical information below (e.g., publication dates) is untrue, part of the metafictional history.

Action and Suspense Comics: The first of the metafictional Amalgam Comics beginning in World War I with Sgt. Rock, and was later integrated into the All-Star Winners Comics at the outbreak of World War II. The series lasted until 1917 with 50 comics being produced before they were recycled for the war effort. An amalgamation of Action Comics and Tales of Suspense.

All-Star Winners Comics: The Golden Age comic-books of the All-Star Winners Squadron and, presumably, the Young Commandos. The series lasted between 1941 and 1942, ending with Super Soldier Action. It was in these comics that American Belle, The Whiz and Human Lantern debuted along with Brooklyn Barnes. It is an amalgmation of All Star Comics (A DC imprint) and All Winners Comics (a Marvel imprint).

Amalgam 2099: Mentioned in Spider-Boy Team Up #1, and an Amalgam Comics equivalent of Marvel 2099, featuring the Legion of Galactic Guardians and briefly Spider-Boy.

Bonghunters Special: A Lobo the Duck special featuring Doctor Bongface.

Dare the Terminator: The series featured Dare The Terminator and Catsai before their adventure in Assassins #1, as well as The Big Question. The series ran for under 200 issues before it was integrated into the Assassins series. Outstanding events include the teaming-up of Catsai and Dare in Issue #168 against Tombstone the Ravager, Dare losing her eye in a fight against Deadeye in Issue #13 and her experimentation by The Big Question in Issue #3.

Dark Claw: The Murder Gag: The only known Graphic Novel to exist in Amalgam Comics continuity. It featured Bruce Wayne (Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.) travelling to New Gotham City and teaming up with Dark Claw to stop Hyena. It also saw the end of Jason Todd as Moonwing. The Amalgam equivalent of The Killing Joke, with elements of A Death In The Family.

Whatelse: An alternate-reality storyline that looked at different ways that Amalgam Comics characters may have changed, including Dark Claw. This combines elements of Elseworlds of DC Comics and What If? of Marvel Comics.

Giant-Sized Bat-Thing: Bat-Thing continues his tales in this series, with Lobo the Duck as a backup feature. (Named for the infamous double entendre title Giant-Sized Man-Thing.)

The Negative-Phantom Zone It's a place in the Amalgam Universe that has never been shown but has been mentioned in Spider-Boy and Challengers of the Fantastic. An amalgamation of The Negative Zone from Marvel and DC's Phantom Zone

Marine Mystery: The Golden Age comic featuring the debut of Aqua Mariner.

Mighty Amazons: Featuring the Amalgam Comics equivalent of Wonder Woman, Shatterstarfire briefly appeared in this series in Issue #34 before moving onto the X-Patrol in X-Patrol #1.

New Titans: A crossover between New Mutants of Marvel Comics and Teen Titans of DC Comics. It is mentioned in Assassins #1 that Jericha, a daughter of Dare The Terminator, had died in Issue #83 of this comic.

Tales of My Great Astonishment: One of the Silver Age series featuring the Challengers of the Fantastic. It was in this series that Tino Lumpkin became a Challenger. The name combines My Greatest Adventure with Tales to Astonish.

Showcase of Suspense: A series featuring Iron Lantern. Issues included:

  • Issue #1 - The death of Rhomann Sur and the emergence of Iron Lantern
  • Issue #29 - The Coming of 5700, featuring Iron Lantern 5700[9]
  • Issue #77 - A battle with Madame Sapphire[10]
  • Issue #84 - The Other Iron Lantern, debut of Green Guardsman.[11]

Other unnumbered issues that involved a fight with Great White and a team-up with Aqua Mariner against .H.E.C.T.O.R.. It is an amalgamation of the DC imprint Showcase and the Marvel one Tales of Suspense.[10]

Sleuth Comics: The debut of Dark Claw in Issue #27. This is an Amalgam Comics equivalent of Detective Comics, where Batman first appeared.

Tales of the Strange and Unexpected: The Silver Age imprint that featured the debut of Challengers of the Fantastic and the Un-People, whose member Dream Crystal fell in love with Johnny "Red" Storm. Sections of these tales were reprinted in Challengers of the Fantastic #1. An amalgam of Marvel's Strange Tales and DC's Tales of the Unexpected

Strange Tales of War: A spy-thriller series introducing Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D. in the Amalgam Comics world. An amalgam of Strange Tales and DC's Weird War Tales.

Tales to Astonish: Some of the earlier comics featuring Thorion and the New Asgods. Borrows the title from the Marvel series of the same name.

Radiotower Comics: An imprint with ties to the Challengers of the Fantastic. The main heroes in the imprint were the Thunder Crusaders, whose membership included the superheroes No-Fly, Black Dynamo, and Mancomet. The imprint is named after Tower Comics; the characters are amalgams of Tower's T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents and the Mighty Crusaders, at the time being published under the DC imprint !mpact.

Tales of Strangefate: The debuts of Dr. Strangefate, Jade Nova, White Witch, and Skulk. Villains in the series included Mephistanus and Baron Wotan (combining Baron Mordo with Wotan), who were later mentioned in Dr. Strangefate #1. The title is another play on Strange Tales.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b DCO PattyJ. "DC vs Marvel". Superman Homepage. http://www.supermanhomepage.com/comics/comics-index-lists/comics-dcmarvel.php. Retrieved January 28, 2011. 
  2. ^ Earth-Amalgam at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe
  3. ^ "Amalgam Comics". June 20, 2008. http://comicsando.wordpress.com/2008/06/20/amalgam-comics/. Retrieved March 24, 2011. 
  4. ^ a b Radford, Bill (April 20, 1997). "New Amalgam comics bring back characters, add a few". Beaver County Times. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=IKNUAAAAIBAJ&sjid=eDsNAAAAIBAJ&pg=2912,4664384. Retrieved January 28, 2011. 
  5. ^ Weiner, Robert G. (2008). Marvel graphic novels and related publications: an annotated guide to comics, prose novels, children's books, articles, criticism and reference works, 1965-2005. McFarland. pp. 385. ISBN 9780786425006. http://books.google.com/books?id=npIsZV7grboC&lpg=PA228&dq=%22Amalgam%20Comics%22&hl=fr&pg=PA227#v=onepage&q=%22Marvel/DC%20Crossovers%22&f=false. Retrieved January 28, 2011. 
  6. ^ Gardner at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe
  7. ^ Gyrich at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe
  8. ^ Tom Knapp. "The Amalgam Age of Comics". Rambles a cultural arts magazine. http://www.rambles.net/amalgam_age.html. Retrieved January 30, 2011. 
  9. ^ Iron Lantern 5700 at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe
  10. ^ a b Iron Lantern at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe
  11. ^ Green Guardsman at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Amalgam Comics — ist ein fiktiver Comicverlag der aus einer Zusammenarbeit von Marvel Comics und DC Comics 1996 entstand. Die Prämisse von Amalgam Comics ist eine Welt, in der die populären Helden von Marvel und DC miteinander verschmolzen sind, so entstand… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Amalgam Comics — Cosplay de Dark Claw, un amalgam de Batman et Wolverine Amalgam est le nom désignant deux séries de one shots, publiés à l occasion des crossovers Marvel vs. DC et DC vs Marvel : All Access entre DC Comics et Marvel Comics. Les deux vagues… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • List of Amalgam Comics characters — The following is a list of fictional characters that appear in the comic books of Amalgam Comics. Any characters mentioned, but not seen, are excluded. They are listed by comic book and a team section is also provided. The amalgamations of… …   Wikipedia

  • List of Amalgam Comics publications — Near the end of the DC vs. Marvel crossover event in 1996, Amalgam Comics released a series of one shot comic books combining characters from the Marvel Universe with characters from the DC Universe. The first twelve Amalgam titles were released… …   Wikipedia

  • List of characters in Amalgam Comics — *Amazon (Amalgam Comics) Amazon was Princess Ororo of Themiscyra, who was the Amalgam version of the superheroine Wonder Woman of DC Comics and Storm of Marvel Comics. The origin of Ororo s rescue from the sea is similar to one of the many pre… …   Wikipedia

  • Speed Demon (Amalgam Comics) — Superherobox| caption= comic color=background:#c0c0c0 character name=Speed Demon real name=(I) Jay Garrick (II) Blaze Allen (III) Wally West publisher=Amalgam Comics debut=(I) unknown (fake), Speed Demon #1 (April 1996, real) (II) Speed Demon… …   Wikipedia

  • Magneto (Amalgam Comics) — Superherobox caption= no character name=Magneto real name=Erik Magnus species=Human Mutant publisher=Amalgam Comics debut= The Brotherhood of Mutants #1 (fake), Magneto and the Magnetic Men #1 (real) alliances=Brotherhood of Mutants Magnetic Men… …   Wikipedia

  • Firebird (Amalgam Comics) — Superherobox| caption=Firebird from JLX #1 ifdc| comic color=background:#c0c0c0 character name=Firebird real name=Beatriz Grey publisher=Amalgam Comics debut= JLA: The New Blood #1 (fake), JLX #1 (real, April 1996) creators=Mark Waid Gerard Jones …   Wikipedia

  • Captain Marvel (Amalgam Comics) — Superherobox| caption= comic color=background:#c0c0c0 character name=Captain Marvel real name=Billy Mar Vell publisher=Amalgam Comics debut= Whiz Marvels #1 (fake), JLX #1 (April 1996, real) creators=Mark Waid Gerard Jones alliance… …   Wikipedia

  • Goliath (Amalgam Comics) — Superherobox| caption= comic color=background:#c0c0c0 character name=Goliath real name=Oliver Queen publisher=Amalgam Comics debut= JLA #2 (fake), JLX #1 (April 1996, real) creators=Mark Waid Gerard Jones alliance color=background:#ffc0c0… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”