DId you happen to miss the Amalgam Universe when it first arrived? Well, you are getting another chance at it, including a reprint of the original Spider-Boy book coming soon to a local store near you!
SPIDER-BOY, SPIDER-BOY…
We need to enjoy the current period of apparent truce between the “big two,” Marvel and DC. We have no idea when or even if it will ever take place again!I think the comics industry is really beginning to understand the genuine “crisis” we are facing these days! We’re still (and I do mean STILL) sorting out the Diamond bankruptcy fallout. We need to put all pettiness aside and work together to keep comics alive in the years to come!
In the 1990s, things were somewhat different, but also somewhat similar. The “big two” were facing the challenge of a new competitor in Image Comics, and they were concerned about their survival. A common enemy tends to bring foes together, and that’s what happened back then.
DC and Marvel wondered what they could do to blunt that “Image Invasion,“ as some put it. So they put their heads together and decided to combine their assets to create an entirely new event, blending many characters into something new that the fans had never seen before! And the fans did like it, too!
AMALGAM RISES!
We saw Captain America and Superman merge into a new hero, the Super Soldier! Wolverine and Batman became the Dark Claw! And the X-Men’s Storm combined with Wonder Woman to become Amazon, just to name a few!I don’t know if I buy the notion that Spider-Boy, mixing Spider-Man (who wasn’t at his current levels of popularity) and the remade Superboy, was a “stand out” character, but if it sells, I say go for it!
Remember that in the pre-Crisis days, Clark Kent was “super” almost his entire life, going from Superbaby to Superboy before moving to Metropolis to become Superman. But Superman was taken down by Doomsday, and several possible replacements arose, including the new Superboy. He was one of the clearest and most heroic of the new Super-guys, but he was not without his own flaws. Still, that name was sitting around unused, so DC decided to make sure it stayed in their wheelhouse, unlike the Captain Marvel name they had let slip away.
So Amalgam rose, and many of us fans enjoyed seeing a new take on these characters, although I felt that Marvel received a bigger share of the attention in Amalgam. The characters felt like they were mostly from the House of Ideas, with a little DC mixed in to make them not exactly the same as we had seen before.
AMALGAM RETURNS?
Recently Marvel and DC reprinted a lot of the Amalgam offerings in a huge, pricey hardcover collection as well as the other collaborations like JLA/Avengers. If I’d had enough money, I would have picked them up (still might if I get enough cash on hand).So, this Spider-Boy reprint can serve as an ad for those other collections, if nothing else.
I wouldn’t mind more Amalgam stories, actually. I mean, DC has been doing a great job with anthology books, including the recent Super one named DC’s Kal-El-fornia Love. What if DC and Marvel decided to follow the old JLA/JSA yearly crossover, but with new Amalgam stories or even new characters? I know I would buy it!
Then, too, with both Marvel and DC making their alternate universes, what if those groups crossed over? Ultimate Marvel could interact with Absolute DC. Again, I would plunk down my hard-earned quatloos for that, even if they came out once a year or so!
What about a Spider-Boy/Spider-Boy team-up? Amalgam meets Marvel! I’d like that! Just no Disney characters involved, okay?
Hey, I would happily buy another JLA/JSA crossover even though many of them are on the same team these days! What can I say? I still love team-ups and crossovers!
What do you think? Did you buy the recent Amalgam collections? Would you like to see more Marvel/DC crossovers? What else would you like to see Marvel and DC bring back? Whatever your opinion, be sure to share it on our Discord Server!
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Wayne Hall creates the Wayne's Comics Podcast. He’s interviewed Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, John Layman, Kyle Higgins, Phil Hester, Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray, David Petersen, Christos Gage, Mike Grell, and Matt Kindt. On this site each week, he writes his "Comics Portal" column (general comics comments and previews) and reviews comics.