Heroes vs. Heroes (Marvel/DC part 1)

So, when superheroes aren't busy saving the world from monsters of myth and legend, and the fevered nightmares of Tinseltown, sometimes, they like to hone their skills by smacking each other around.

And, on very special occasions, their parent companies will hop into the sack, allowing for heroes who don't usually mix to smack each other around.

And/or team up against some global/cosmic threat.

Often instigated from within their own respective rogue's galleries.

So, here we go with those occasions...

Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man

*Squash* *burn* the end.

Haaha , no, seriously, this one is pretty fucking cool.

There's some misunderstanding that causes them to fight, I think engineered by the villains. 

At one point, Spidey gets charged with red sun energy, and gets a couple good shots in on Supes.

Anyhoo, the misunderstanding is cleared up, and Supes and Spidey team up to stop the Blofeld-style machinations of Lex Luther and Doc-Ock teamed up.

Good stuff, done in the 70's, but holds up today, would make a kickass fuckin' movie.

Back in these days, there was no need seen to engineer mind-melting extra-dimensional cosmic bullshit to get these characters together, Spidey and Supes just plain exist in the same world, Metropolis and New York are separate cities, and all it takes is a fuckin' plane ticket.

Then, over the years, like Star Trek, they started over thinking it....

We'll get to that stuff...

Superman and Spider-Man

The 80's sequel to the first 70's one.

Some minor reference to the first, but really, they just get down to business.

This one ain't as long in pages as the first one...but it is fucking EPIC.

This time, the villain is Doctor Doom, and Parasite, the lead baddie being Doom, and Doom's plot is some planetary hostage shit that would make Goldfinger's ambition's go flaccid with envy.

Wonder Woman pops up, as does Hulk, and we get to see Supes and Hulk tussle for a few panels.

A rout in Supes's favor, natch.

Hulk is the strongest thing on Earth, but Supes is from Krypton.

Do this up as a movie, CG, IMAX, all the upgraded bells and whistles in production design, this thing would fucking liquefy faces.

It's fucking incredible.

And ope, sorry, industry rant part 3 coming...

(Part 1 Hulk/Dracula, Part 2 Termie/Robo2) 

Look at these 2 books, and how fucking MUCH they cram in, and without it causing a "kitchen sink", effect.

These books were giant sized, 2 bucks in a time when a regular issue was 60-70 cents, and they really gave you a fucking bang for your buck.

These people were fucking PROS.

Gone are these days. :(

But, they're in collected editions, you can dig 'em up on Amazon, check 'em out for a taste of the opposite of everything I've bitched about.

Well,...fuck it, here.

Crossover Classics.

Batman vs. Hulk

Oh, man.....this one is the masterpiece of the whole lot.

As good as the Supes/Spidey's were, this really has some meat on its bones.

Batman and Bruce Banner are angst-ier characters, so richer story gets pulled out of them.

Put 'em together, it's pure gold.

Just having these gentlemen meet would be good enough, but oh, no, there's more!

The Shaper Of Worlds, (picture the powers of Q in the body of a giant evil Mister Spock with a metal skullcap, fangs, and a metal cube instead of legs) comes to Earth, sickened by something out in the larger universe, and he needs Bruce Banner's gamma-gun to fix what ails him.

Joker is willing to heist the gamma gun in return for a genie wish from Shaper.

That being, to be his own genie, and to rule the fucking world.

But, until Shaper is cured, he's tripping balls, and causing various monsters to randomly physically appear from people's fears and nightmares.

So, it's Bats using his detective work to unravel Joker's scheme, Hulk fighting the nightmares with his fists, and then, the epic showdown with Joker.

As for the "vs", part between the title characters...Batman wins.

Quickly, and decisively.

Batman always wins.

Didn't we clear this up last time?

Batman pops out  a capsule of knockout gas from his utility belt, pops on a mini-gasmask, Hulk goes to sleep, turns to Banner, fight over.

The rest of it is the characters on task against the bad guys.

I LOVE this book.

I had the giant newspaper sized edition as a kid, read it 'til I mangled it, got another one gifted to me from a lawn sale, got it again regular sized when they reprinted it in the 90's, and I cherish it to this day.

And it's not just nostalgia talking, it really holds up.

More good movie fodder.

But, I do also have a history with it.

See...my very first comic book, was Batman #307.

Can still remember it.

But then, the Lou Ferrigno Hulk show came around, and I became a Hulk nut.

Talked about that some here.

THEN, the Tim Burton Batman came around, and all the great Bat-stuff like "Dark Knight Returns", and "Year One", and "Killing Joke", were reprinted to cash in, and I devoured those, and became a full fledged Bat-fan.

So, this book is the intersection of those two fandoms.

Heh, I remember my mother subtly hoping this book wold wean me over to Batman, because Hulk just threw tantrums, but Batman used his mind.

Well...it took awhile, but..:)

So, yeah, this book is special to me in a lot of ways, but it really is just plain good too.

The Uncanny X-Men and The New Teen Titans

Yet another kickass epic.

Darkseid resurrects Jean Grey/Pheonix, through some elaborate means, in order to...conquer the universe, I guess, starting with roasting the X-Men/Titans, and then, there's a big tussle to save the cosmos.

Story wise, bigger and beefier than even Batman/Hulk, but...eh, the artwork doesn't quite do it for me.

Gotta take points off for that, but otherwise, pretty fucking cool.

I keep saying it, but all these classic ones would make excellent movies.

The problem for Hollywood would be, they'd spoil the audience, and they'd have a tougher time getting away with schlock for awhile.

The Incredible Hulk vs. Superman

This one is from 1999, but I include it, because it's 60's ret-con, and in the general style of those first 4.

This one, Superman flashes back to having met, and tussled with the 60's Hulk, and it's done up like a lost Hulk issue, even aping the Jack Kirby art style.

See, Hulk was actually originally cancelled at issue 6, then, he came back in Tales To Astonish, then Tales got taken over by Hulk, and turned into Hulk, and that's been the Hulk comic ever since, but, the switch over happened in Tales...like, 150 or something, so there's this big publication gap between Hulk 6, and Tales/Hulk 150-something.

Various writers over the years have slipped stories into that gap.

"The Rampaging Hulk", magazine (which spawned the infamous issue 23) was one such attempt to fill that gap...but they didn't make it.

This one seems to pick up right from the "metal master", story in 6, so, count this as the lost Hulk 7.

Does this kick ass?

Well, of course.

It's brisk though, only 45 pages.

There, that one wasn't so bad.

I'm cutting this batch into smaller chunks, see.

Two to go.

Up next, more of the same, but from the 90's/00s.