Publication history
On two separate occasions – April 1996 and June 1997 – DC and Marvel co-published a total of 24 one-shot "first issues" (12 in April 1996 (six by DC and six by Marvel) and 12 in June 1997 (again, six by DC and six by Marvel)) under the imprint Amalgam Comics. The issues were all presented as if the "company" had existed for decades, with stories and editorial comments referring to a fictional history stretching back to the Golden Age of Comic Books, including retcons and reboots; for example, they referred to Secret Crisis of the Infinity Hour (an amalgamation of Marvel's Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars, DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths, Marvel's The Infinity Gauntlet, and DC's Zero Hour: Crisis in Time!, respectively), which featured the well-known cover of Crisis on Infinite Earths #7, but with Super-Soldier holding the dead body of his teenage sidekick the American Girl (an amalgamation of DC's Supergirl and Marvel's Carol Danvers and James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes)[7] instead of Superman holding the dead body of Supergirl. Nineteen of the 24 issues included phony letter columns to provide the illusion of background to the stories, with the fans' hometowns formed by amalgamating the names of existing American cities.
The first Amalgam event occurred near the end of the four-issue DC vs. Marvel crossover event in April 1996. In Marvel Comics versus DC #3, the DC and Marvel Universes were shown being combined into one – the Amalgam Universe – and the Amalgam one-shots were presented as the result of this. The first 12 Amalgam titles were released the following week, delaying both publishers' regular releases by one week. Six of the issues in the event were published by DC and six by Marvel. In June 1997 the process was repeated, but without the crossover event as a background.[8] Later, both publishers collected their respective 12 issues into four trade paperback collections.[9] All 24 of the Amalgam one-shots took place between Marvel Comics versus DC #3 and DC versus Marvel Comics #4, the last two issues of the crossover event.
Between the two events of Amalgam Comics, the two publishers released a sequel crossover miniseries to DC vs. Marvel #1–4 primarily published by DC, DC/Marvel: All Access #1–4 (Dec. 1996–Feb. 1997 (issues #2 and 3 were both cover dated Jan. 1997)). A second sequel crossover miniseries primarily published by Marvel, Unlimited Access #1–4 (Dec. 1997–March 1998), followed the second event. Both crossover miniseries featured additional Amalgam characters.
The Amalgam universe was later revisited in 2025, starting with Deadpool/Batman, with the introduction of Logo, an amalgamation of DC's Lobo and Marvel's Wolverine in a backup story. The story also features Kultron and Thanoseid and references Super-Soldier, characters who had made their debut in the original 1996–1997 events.[10] Batman/Deadpool also introduced Deadbat, an amalgamation of DC's Batman and Marvel's Deadpool, while featuring the return of Dark Claw from the 1996–1997 events.[11]
