Between the late '90s and the early 2000s, there were two collaborations between Marvel Comics and DC Comics which featured mash-ups of their respective stables of comics stars: the 2003 JLA★Avengers, which isolated the confrontation between the two super-teams, and the 1996 Marvel Comics versus DC that cast a wider net and included a more broad representation of each company's characters. And like the contests themselves, there are probably two schools of thought as to which one proved to be superior.
Each series has a catalyst that brings the two "worlds" together in conflict; each has a decent amount of interaction between the characters of each version of Earth; each comprises four issues, split evenly between each company in terms of publication and the order of the title wording; and, needless to say, each has its share of battles between characters whose meetings were presumably chosen to appeal to readers. There's also a nice sense of continuity in that the creative teams of each series are stable throughout. The Marvel-DC series is written by Peter David and Ron Marz, with pencils by Dan Jurgens and Claudio Castellini and inks handled by Josef Rubinstein and Paul Neary--while the Avengers★JLA books are scripted by Kurt Busiek with art by George Perez.
There are also some notable differences between the two. The earlier series isn't limited to the members of two specific teams (though with the number of members both teams have swelling their ranks, readers of the later series weren't likely to feel short-changed); in addition, the '96 series features meetings between villains as well as heroes, which is certainly an extra draw. There is also a noticeable dissimilarity in the size of the interior panels between each, with neither really finding a happy medium. The Jurgens/Castellini work is oversized to the extreme, which not only gives the impression of less story for your
One last observation has to do with the timing of the '96 event, which unfortunately catches Marvel Comics at the lowest point in its thirty-year history--its creative talent a fraction of what it once was, its financial position precarious, its staff undergoing sweeping layoffs, the production of its books about to be farmed out to other studios, and the Onslaught event decimating its lineup of major titles. In a way, the DC versus Marvel Comics series offers a snapshot of the point where Marvel effectively jumps off a cliff, leaving its "old guard" in the dust for once and for all. The circumstances cast something of a pall over the issues, though I'd be curious to hear if the DC reader was experiencing a similar reaction.
But let's take a brief look at some of the key scenes from each, starting with the '96 series. Thanks to Jurgens and the young mutant, Jubilee, we have an idea of who meets who in battle, as well as the stakes involved--all scribbled from Jubilee's own unique perspective.
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