Every so often, a good bit of comic book news trickles makes its way out of the sewers that is the modern industry – and this time, that news comes in the form of Marvel Comics and DC finally sending their various intercompany crossovers back to the printers.
As first relayed to the public by Bleeding Cool, this publishing decision was initially brought to public attention courtesy of a post made by seasoned comic book artist Barry Kitson – who provided interiors for the Batman/Punisher: Lake of Fire miniseries and Amalgam Comics series Magneto and the Magnetic Men, and in his private Facebook art collector group.
“Marvel and DC are collaborating on reprinting many of the Amalgam titles including Magneto and the Magnetic Men, and the crossover events including the Batman/Punisher books,” the artist, whose work graces the interiors of both books, revealed. “To this end they have asked for any extras they can include in the new versions – I don’t have too many originals left, but if any one on the group have any of the pages and are willing to share scans please do let me know.”
Leading by example to close out his request, Kitson ultimately concluded his post by announcing, “In the mean time one of the things I did uncover are these unused cover thumbnails for Batman/ Punisher – hope you enjoy seeing them here first! :-)” and sharing them for the group to see.
While neither Marvel nor DC have yet to officially announce these reprints, and thus which specific series are receiving new editions, the fact that the publishers reached out to Kitson for extra materials related to both their Amalgam Comics mash-up line and their unrelated, one-on-one hero meetings suggests their efforts will extend to every single official crossover to ever take place between them.
This includes the aforementioned ‘individual crossover’ stories:
Superman vs The Amazing Spider-Man (1976)
Superman and Spider-Man (1981)
Batman vs The Incredible Hulk (1981)
Uncanny X-Men and The New Teen Titans (1982)
Batman / Punisher: Lake of Fire (1994)
Punisher / Batman: Deadly Knights (1994)
Darkseid vs Galactus: The Hunger (1995)
Spider-Man & Batman: Disordered Minds (1995)
Green Lantern / Silver Surfer: Unholy Alliances (1995)
Silver Surfer / Superman (1997)
Batman / Captain America (1996)
Daredevil / Batman: Eye for an Eye (1997)
Batman & Spider-Man: New Age Dawning (1997)
Superman / Fantastic Four: The Infinite Destruction (1999)
The Incredible Hulk vs Superman (1999)
Batman / Daredevil: King of New York (2000)
The Marvel Versus DC crossover, wherein readers were invited to vote on the outcome of various intercompany fights:
DC vs Marvel / Marvel vs. DC
The fan-favorite Amalgam Comics imprint – a line of one-shots which saw the publisher’s heroes mashed together with their other-universe counterparts and has not been available for nearly 30 years:
Amazon
Assassins
Bat-Thing
Bruce Wayne: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Bullets and Bracelets
Challengers of the Fantastic
Doctor StrangeFate
Dark Claw Adventures
Generation Hex
Iron Lantern
JLX
JLX Unleashed
Legends of the Dark Claw
Lobo the Duck
Magneto and the Magnetic Men
The Magnetic Men featuring Magneto
Speed Demon
Spider-Boy
Spider-Boy Team-Up
Super-Soldier
Super-Soldier: Man of War
Thorion of the New Asgods
X-Patrol
The Exciting X-Patrol
Its two resulting miniseries starring the event’s original character and in-universe catalyst, Access:
All Access
Unlimited Access
And finally, the seminal 2003 JLA/Avengers miniseries, which outside of its initial run of oversized editions and trade paper backs has never been made widely available to the general public (the operative phrase being ‘widely available’, as the hardcover published to raise for money for The Hero Initiative charity following artist George Perez’s 2022 passing received a limited printing of just 7,000 copies).
As of writing, word remains out on whether or not any of these editions will feature a reprint of Marvel Comics’ Quasar Vol. 1 #17, wherein a race to determine the fastest being in the Marvel-616 is eventually won by a an amnesiac, multiversal traveler clad in red-spandex by the name of ‘Buried Alien’ – an unofficial tribute by writer and Mark Gruenwald and artist Mike Manley to the then-relatively-recent, self-sacrificing death of Barry Allen in DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earths.
