page 20 over the Edge Dec 6, 1995
Comic Book Corner

The Clash of the Superheroes:
Marvel Comics vs. D.C.
Comics

By Vince Yim

They can shrug off
hails of armor piercing rounds
and nuclear bombs. They can
exceed the speed of light by
flying. .They can level massive
buildings with a single blow.
They can scale walls like
spiders. They can fire
destructive beams of energy
from their eyés and fists. They
fight crime/with amazing
assortments of weaponry and
gadgets. They can perform
amazing feats of acrobatic
prowess. They violateevery
law in the field of physics.
They are men of steel. Women
of tomorrow. Children of the
atom. Gods of thunder. They
are the comic book
superheroes.

Currently, Marvel and
DC are two of the most
dominant comic book
publishers on the comic book
scene. They have produced the
majority of comic books
published since the 1930’s
(Action Comics #1, the first
appearance of Superman, was
published in June, 1938) and
have become a dominant force
in today’s culture. Comic book
characters are not limited to
comic books, as they have
branched out into other media
such as licensed apparel,
posters, video games, toys,
movies, prime time television,
and Saturday morning
cartoons. December 12, 1995
will see the release of the first
issue of one of the biggest
events in comic book history
for a long time, Marvel vs. DC
comics.

, Marvel vs. DC is a
four issue mini-series that pits
the heroes of the Marvel
Universe against the heroes of
the DC Universe. This is what
is known as a crossover, a
storyline that includes two or
more comic books or
characters that are unrelated.
This is different from most
comic book crossovers, not
only because it is between two
different comic book
publishers, but the readers
have a say in who wins the
various battles.

This is similar to
another comic book storyline,
called “Batman: A Death in the
Family”. At the end of Batman

a bomb exploded. On the last
pages was two 1-900 numbers
to call, in which the reader had
two options, one in which Robin
survived and one in which
Robin died. The voters wanted
blood and voted for Robin’s
death. (For all those who are
unaware, in the current D.C.
comic books, Batman’s sidekick
Robin, also known as Dick
Grayson, “grew up” and
became another superhero
named Nightwing. He was

replaced by another Robin
named Jason Todd.)

The voting system for
the Marvel/D.C. crossover is
going to be relatively easier
than the 1-900 numbers,
because this involves a much
larger cast of characters than
the Batman storyline. One way
is through your local comic
book shop, where you fill in
your ballot and have the comic
book store owner send them.
Another way is through the
internct via e-mail.

Unfortunately, this
voting system may be slightly
flawed. “People aren’t going to

vote for the characters that
they think are going to win,”
said Tony Gambato of Great
White Northern
Entertainment. “They are
going to vote for the
characters that are more
popular.” This couldn’t be
closer to the truth. One
category in the voting is “Lobo
vs. Wolverine.” Wolverine is a
character in a comic book
called “X-Men”. X-Men comic
books are consistently in the

Top Ten selling comic books in
any given month. Lobo comic
books rank considerably
lower. Comparatively, Lobo is
a much stronger character
than Wolverine, but people are
most likely going to vote for
Wolverine.

Because comic books
are such a dominant force in
today’s media, major changes
in popular characters recieve a
lot of press. This is one of the
ways that comic book
companies can get new
readers. One of the more

- recent ones was the infamous

Death of Superman storyline

Comic Corner

at the end of 1992. Superman
#75, the comic book where’
Superman was killed, sold
several million copies. Prices
for that comic book shot up
into the hundreds range.
Unfortunately, the end result
of this was the flooding of the
comic book market of
speculators buying tons of
comic books in an attempt to
cash in on them at a later date.
“Hopefully people will
realize that comic books is an

entertainment field, not for
investment purposes,” added
Tony Gambato. “This should
be a lot of fun, although it is
simply a ploy to get people to
buy more comic books.”

Steve Odonnel of
Fanboy Comics feels otherwise
in regards to its purpose to
some extent. “Initially, I did
think it was a ploy to get more
readers, but I think it’s kinda
neat. I like the way they’re
getting people involved. It’s
the first good idea in comic
book crossovers in a long
time.” :

The voting period will

last until December 31. Until
then, you can drop by your
local comic book shop and vote
for the character that you’d
want to win in each battles.
There are five battles that
readers can vote on. They are
Superman vs. the Incredible
Hulk, Storm (of the X-Men) vs.
Wonder Woman, Superboy vs.
Spider-Man, Wolverine vs.
Lobo, and Batman vs. Captain
America.

This crossover will be
published for four issues on a
monthly basis starting on
December 12th. The creative
team will include stories by
Peter David (writer of.
Incredible Hulk, Aquaman,
various Star Trek novels) and
Ron Marz (writer of Silver
Surfer and Green Lantern),
artwork by Dan Jurgens
(penciller of Sensational
Spider-Man and Superman),
Claudio Castellini (penciller of
Fantastic Four Unlimited),
Josef Rubinstein (inker of
countless comic books that we
can’t even begin to list), and
Paul Neary (artist on
Excalibur). Each issue will set
you back about $5.45
Canadian.

Indeed, this is one of

the largest events in comic
book history, as it has been
covered in major news
networks. The comic book
creators of both companies
even had a large press
conference at Planet
Hollywood in New York City.
Hopefully, it will succeed into
bringing people into comic
book stores so they can buy
comics for the purposes of
entertainment, not for a
secondary market value.

(Special thanks to Steve
Odonnell of Fanboy Comics
and Tony Gambato of Great
White Northern
Entertainment. The cheque’s
in the mail.)