In the late 90s, ((6 and (7, to be exact, DC and Marvel finally got together with the long promised crossovers between the companies. A new character, owned by both companies, Access was created. He was pretty lame, but he could to both worlds. A new amalgamated world sprang into being. In fifth week events we saw combos of DC and Marvel characters grace the comics page, written and drawn by some of the best in the biz.

The first crop of comics included:

Super Soldier: a combo of Captain America and Superman.

Speed Demon: Ghost Rider and The Flash.

DarkClaw: Wolverine and Batman

Bruce Wayne, Agent of Shield

X-Patrol: X-Men and Doom Patrol

JLX

Spider Boy: Spider Man and SuperBoy

Bullets and Bracelets: Wonder Woman and The Punisher.

Amazon: Wonder Woman and Storm

Dr. Strangefate;

Assassins: Deathstroke, Elektra, Daredevil, and who knows what else

Magneto and the Metal Men.

In 97 the line up included:

JLX Unleashed

Generation Hex: Jonah Hex and the X-Men

Dark Claw Adventures: One of the few adventures books ever I liked less than the real title.

Lobo The Duck

Bat-Thing: Man-Thing and Man-Bat

SuperSoldier: Man of War set in WWII this time.

Challengers of the Fantastic: Challngers of the Unknown and Fantastic Four

Thorion of the New Asgods

Iron Lantern: Iron Man and Green Lantern

SpiderBoy Team up

Exciting X_Patrol

Magnetic Men featuring Magneto

Both line ups were pretty strong. Challengers of the Fantastic is one of the best Kirby homages ever. Iron Lantern is really good, as were both Spider Boy books.

I really think the concept has staying power. Every two or three years, a fifth week or something of the kind would be most welcome.

But, Joe Q opened his big mouth, and DC refuses to work with Marvel as long as he is EIC.

And the consumers lose. Too bad. Maybe in a few years, they'll return.

Glen...you are the man!

I love these posts!!!!

And I loved a lot of these books.....some of my favorites included..

Dark Claw. His arch enemy...the Hyena was a great mix between the Joker and Sabretooth.



Speed Demon. Three...that's right...three classic characters rolled into one. Jack Kirby\'s Demon, Ghost Rider, and the Flash.





A formula that worked so well they did it again in my favorite book....Doctor Strangefate. Doctor Strange meets Doctor Fate....and one more guy who is revealed when the helmet comes off. Great last page.

The best thing about all of the books, is that even though they were all supposed to be issues in the middle of the story arc, they all had a beginning, middle, and ending, and were completely accessible to the new reader, because everyone was a new reader.

Comic book writers should study these to learn how to do it.

I remember loving the whole thing and even some of the marvel vs dc event before it. I'd say strangefate was the coolest and then dark claw was right behind him.

Hell the big reveal with strangefate was executed so well.

I never really understood why so many fans hated the Marvel v.s D.C limited series. I liked it...thougut it had a lot of high points....and a few low points.....Thor's costume at the time....and not enough Green Arrow/Hawkeye as I would have liked.

Over all I thought the series was better than what either company was offering at the time...and this was one of the comics that got me collecting again after a few years away from reading and collecting.

Emotions ran high during the voting.

I remember a fight almost broke out over whether Batman could beat Captain America.

The series itself was fine, but a pretty much a one shot deal, where the Amalgam imprint could last forever.

Some of the fights didn't make much sense. Wonder woman vs storm? Lobo vs wolverine with logan winning? Robin vs Jubilee?

Over all it was fun and had some good moments though.

Huh...Speak of the devil,

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=18663

I saw that as well, sir. It seems you are a man ahead of your time.

Got to thinking, that if Amalgam had stayed active, we could have concepts like merging Power Man and Iron Fist with Blue and Gold, along with melding Agents of Atlas with Secret Six.

I'd pay to read that.

Joey Q should have kept his mouth shut.

I would have loved to read more Dark Claw, Speed Demon, and Doctor Strangefate.

Don't get me started on Joe.

Hopefully one of these days we'll see more.

I wasn't reading comics at the time and missed this entire event. As a result, I would like to get you started on Joe!



Seriously.

Amalgam was a lot of fun. I think I liked Doctor Strangefate the most, probably because at the time I was not very familiar with either Strange or Fate, so the character was "newer" to me than many of the others. I loved the revelation of his secret identity too.

Same here on missing these all together. I believe these came out during my five year or so absence away from all things comics. I did have skins of some of the characters in The Sims though. lol

Maybe I need to read them again but I don't have fond memories of them.

I quite liked Spiderboy - the Spider-Man/ Superboy mash up. I haven't read it in many, many years but I remember it being a lot of fun.