So earlier this afternoon, I did finally come across my collection of Amalgam Comics, the Marvel/DC crossover where they literally combined the universes and characters into one world. It was from the late 90's, and it was a really awesome experience. The best writers and artists from both companies pitched in and delivered some truly special books.
So my question is this: How much interest is there on this board in doing a reading project through these books? I'd love to get one going if anybody else is game, and I'm pretty sure Jeff of Earth J would love to join in as well, although I can speak only for myself.
I know I will get much more out of a current reading, because my only Marvel reading at the time barely scraped the surface of the company. The majority of my Marvel reading experience was within about the last ten or fifteen years. I know I will pick up many more references this time.
Let me know who else would be interested in one of the most grin-inducing events of the 90's.
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I'd already done a read-through, but I'd be interested to see your impressions..
Awesome. I've read a few of them already (couldn't help it).
Legends of the Dark Claw #1
Writer: Larry Hama
Artists: Jim Balent and Ray McCarthy
The title character of this book is a combination of Batman and Wolverine. He battles Hyena, who is a combination of the Joker and Sabretooth. Dark Claw has a sidekick who is Jubilee in place of Robin by the name of Sparrow. This book also features Huntress, who is--in this world--Carol Danvers. When I saw the blonde hair, I thought she was going to be Bobbi "Mockingbird" Morse of Marvel, but they threw me a curve ball here. I guess looking back, it wasn't as much of a surprise as it is in today's world.
I have to say that the stories in these one-shots are extremely straight-forward. The beauty in these books is not their creative storytelling, but rather the creative ways in which the two universes are combined.
The art in this book is what I was most apprehensive about. I was pleased to find that it was not nearly as bad-girl as I thought Jim Balent would have been. Of course, Balent didn't have all that much female to work with here, and Sparrow did show a lot of buns and thighs, but luckily we were mostly only able to see Balent at his most 90's.
As for the writing, I thought Larry Hama did a nice job of combining the two worlds. It's interesting looking at this 20-some odd years later and finding that some of the writers combined the characters and some of them simply mixed them and then mixed the names around also.
This book, the first one I re-read, reminds me of how much I would have loved for the Amalgam Universe to really exist, and have writers be able to explore this world beyond just the surface level. I didn't read this one the first time around, I remember. It wasn't until later that I picked it up, but I'm glad I did, because it's an awesome mix of two characters that I would never put together today, but at the time, who were both at the top of their popularity.
“How much interest is there on this board in doing a reading project through these books? I'd love to get one going if anybody else is game, and I'm pretty sure Jeff of Earth J would love to join in as well, although I can speak only for myself.”
I remember Bob’s discussion from 2014, and I just read through all of my posts to that thread from five years ago. I was really busy at the time (and I do remember why) so I didn’t really participate as much as I would have liked to. My opinions haven’t really changed all that much, but Bob’s post did get me to read a couple I hadn’t read before. In a nutshell, my “Amalgam” titles fall into one of three categories: 1) those I have read once, 2) those I have read multiple times, and 3) those I haven’t read at all.
I’ll be following along (maybe reading along from time-to-time), hoping to think of something to say I haven’t said before.
Dark Claw Adventures #1
Story by Ty Templeton
Art by Ty Templeton and Rick Burchett
This book came a year or two after the original issue, Legends of the Dark Claw #1. This one was based on a fictional cartoon, a la Batman Adventures.
This story contains not only the Dark Claw (Batman and Wolverine), but also his undercover alter ego, Patch Malone, who is a combination of Matches Malone and I assume an alias of Wolvie's known as Patch? Anyway, Patch Malone is attacked by some ninjas, and after destroying them, figures out that this must be an attack by Lady Talia (Lady Deathstrike and Talia al Ghul). Dark Claw and Lady Talia have a past in which her father, Ra's Al Pocalypse (Ra's al Ghul and Apocalypse) was flying over the desert when Dark Claw shoots down his plane. Talia wants revenge on Dark Claw, naturally.
This issue contains a lot of characters for such a simplified story. We have Harvey Osborne (Two-Face and Green Goblin), Cybercroc (Killer Croc and a character I don't know), and Bloodcrow (Scarecrow and another character I don't know).
Like issues of Batman Adventures (and all of the similar comics that came after), this story is pretty simple, but it's cool. I liked seeing the characters combined, and there was a surprising amount of Marvel throughout this issue. It made me very interested in seeing what the Bruce Timm/Paul Dini team could have done with the Marvel properties.
This was a great issue. Anybody else remember reading this?
And thank you for participating, Thomas! Glad it stirs up good memories for you too.
Wandering Sensei: Moderator Man said:
Got it! I am much more well-read in Marvel lore than I used to be, but I clearly still have many gaps to fill in. Thanks for the info!
Dave Palmer said:
Spider-Boy #1
Written by Karl Kesel
Drawn by Mike Weiringo
This issue was so jam-packed that I went through after I read it and tried to make note of all of the references to both Marvel and DC throughout it.
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Man, I'm going to have to do the other half of this comic another time. There is so much in this book!
Spider-Boy and The Challengers of the Fantastic were the two Amalgam titles I wanted to see as ongoing series.
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