Missing Links: DC Versus Marvel #1

DC Versus Marvel/Marvel Versus DC #1
“Round One”
Written by: Ron Marz (with thanks to Peter David)
Penciled by: Dan Jurgens & Claudio Castellini
Inked by: Josef Rubinstein & Paul Neary
Lettered by: Bill Oakley
Colored by: Gregory Wright
Separated by: Digital Chameleon
Cover: Jurgens and Rubinstein
Assistant Edited by: Chris Duffy & Joe Andreani
Edited by: Mike Carlin & Mark Gruenwald
Released: Dec. 14, 1995

I'm so excited Marvel and DC are crossing over again that I'm not even going to complain about it being Batman and {sigh} Deadpool.

After all, that's just the headliner, with several other characters crossing paths as well. My copy's waiting for me at my friendly neighborhood comic shop as I write this, but I thought it's arrival was the perfect opportunity to do a Missing Links entry I've waited almost 30 years for … and finally read DC Versus Marvel #1.

I don't remember how or why, but I got issues 2-4 of the series when they came out but somehow not the first one. I also don't remember feeling very lost. Sure, the Marvel and DC universes were already merging and crossing over when I started the story, but I knew a homeless guy in an alley was trying to keep them apart by duct taping a cardboard box/portal and Clark Kent and Peter Parker* were working together. But as soon as Gambit and Wolverine stole the Batmobile, my attention was focused forward, not backward.

All due respect to Ron Marz and Peter David, who each wrote two issues, but the story was all pretext for getting the biggest stars in the universes to battle it out.

Nevertheless, I did recently complete my collection when I got this issue, and a whole lot of other comics, at a mega sale at a local shop. The fact that I was able to acquire it so cheap suggests selling it won't put either of my kids through college, or even breakfast, but that's OK, because I don't want to sell it anyway.

We open on Spider-Man, at least the Spider-Man of 1995, which as you may recall was Ben Reilly, who thought he was the real Peter Parker and therefore the genuine wall-crawler. Various and sundry revelations haven't been kind to Ben, so we'll just let him have his moment here.

He's enjoying a quiet night of web-slinging until his spider-sense goes off due to that glowing cardboard box I mentioned earlier. Before the Not-So-Scarlet-Spider(-Man) can do much investigating, he's hit by an errant beam of light and disappears. The man trying to duct tape the box asks a passing teenager** to help, but he is understandably reluctant to enter an alley with a strange man and glowing box.

Spidey awakens in a rainy Gotham City and comes face to face with the Joker. This meeting as rendered by Jurgens is striking, even though it's at least the second time it's happened. I even have the first one, released earlier in 1995. But I remember that one as being set in a shared universe rather than people hopping between dimensions. Still, the Joker references having met Spidey in a different costume before, and these worlds are merging, so I guess it could be the one.

Next up, Juggernaut vanishes from a fight with the X-Men only to find himself face-to-fist with Superman. Then Captain America, Wonder Woman, Hulk, Superboy and Lobo disappear. As the X-Men try to figure out where Juggernaut went, another beam of light blips away Gambit, Wolverine and Storm. They're followed by Green Lantern, Elektra, Flash, Thor, Aquaman, Silver Surfer, DC's Captain Marvel, the Sub-Mariner, Quicksilver and Catwoman.

We finally get to see a battle play out between denizens of different universes when Bullseye and Batman face off in the Batcave. Bullseye is threatening to kill Robin unless Bats tells him how he got there, but Robin extricates himself with an elbow to Bullseye's throat. Batman hurls a Batarang, which Bullseye catches and returns to sender, only...

I'm almost as surprised as Bullseye. I thought his power was he didn't miss. I mean, weapons can be deflected, sure, or blocked by Karen Page*** but Batman ducks, then takes the assassin down like he was Guy Gardner with a single punch. As Bullseye descends into unconsciousness, he remarks that Batman hits harder than Daredevil. Then Robin vanishes in a beam of light and winds up in Jubilee's room at the Massachusetts Academy, headquarters of Generation X.

But it's not just characters switching worlds, which we learn as Superman flies through a Metropolis skyline that includes Four Freedom's Plaza. Changing back to Clark Kent, he gets chewed out by his new boss – J. Jonah Jameson, who replaced Perry White after he was fired by the paper's as-yet-unidentified new publisher.

Then we get a piece written by Kent, musing about the shifts in reality and new heroes and villains emerging. It reads like a really self-indulgent column but the words are spread over a host of images that could, mostly, be standalone issues of their own. The exception might be Green Lantern vs. Green Goblin. I'm not sure if that's Norman Osborn or Phil Urich, and I know Kyle Rayner was still new to slinging a ring, but I feel like that one doesn't go past two pages.

Clark's purple prose is interrupted as Lois Lane introduces him to their new photographer: Ben Reilly, who says they can call him by his professional name of Peter Parker. I have no idea what was actually going on in the Spider-Man books at this point in time, so I'm not sure if Ben really did look just like Peter or somebody forgot to remind the artist that this was blond-haired Ben Reilly. And I don't care, because I want classic Spidey in this story and frankly want more of Clark Kent and Peter Parker doing journalism, or what passes for it in most comics, alongside their crimefighting.

But we don't get that, as the scene shifts to a cosmic scale and DC's Spectre and Marvel's Living Tribunal admit they don't know what the heck is going on. Then on the last story page, we meet these guys:

So after finally reading the first part of this story... I feel like I'm about where I started. This issue was necessary setup, but gets me more or less to the point I managed to find when I just began with issue 2.

That's not to say it isn't fun. The cover matches the characters from the announced main bouts up, but this issue gives us glimpses of interesting clashes like Daredevil vs. the Riddler and Superman vs. Juggernaut. It's excellent fan service, and while I do want more than a panel of these and other showdowns, I understand they only had four issues to work with.

Many of the subsequent battles, including the five main contests whose outcomes were determined by reader votes, were underwhelming, although the Aquaman-Sub-Mariner showdown still makes me smirk. I'm also still mad about the Superman-Hulk outcome.

Kurt Busiek and George Perez's “JLA/Avengers” is the superior crossover, with much more depth to go with the Easter eggs. But DC Versus Marvel/Marvel Versus DC delivers the No. 1 requirement for a project like this: It's a blast.

Plus, it sets up Amalgam...

* – Sort of. We'll get to that.

** – Who we'll learn in subsequent issues is Axel Asher, the man who would be Access.

*** – Too soon? I really hope we don't see that happen with Deborah Ann Woll.