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Dc Versus Marvel

Dc Versus Marvel

List Price: $15.95
Your Price: $10.85
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A good example of how NOT to do a crossover.
Review: It's pretty well known among comic book readers that Marvel and DC are the top two comic book companies. For nearly forty years, they have been. So naturally, fanboys have long debated on the way meetings between various characters in both companies would go. And this mini-series finally shows us these meetings. Unfortunately, it has little substance to elevate it to mega-event status.

The first problem in this series would probably be the concept: two cosmic entities that control their respective universes, namely the Marvel and DC universes, feel that reality is not big enough for the two of them. So, they bring in various players from the two universes to slug it out. The universe with the most defeats is destroyed. And so is--Thor vs. Captain Marvel, Aquaman vs. the Sub-mariner, Quicksilver vs. the Flash, Robin vs.
Jubilee, the Silver Surfer vs. the Green Lantern, Elektra vs. Catwoman, Wolverine vs. Lobo, Storm vs. Wonder Woman, Spider-man vs. Superboy, Superman vs. the Hulk, and Batman vs. Captain America.

You can clearly see the inherent problems here. First of all, you
can already tell how relient this series is on action. Action should never take center-stage. Action should be considered a tool utilized by character development and plot. It should not be
the driving force, but it clearly is. Also the idea that the fates of the two ralities are decided by two cosmic dudes that have never appeared in either continuity and that they are are deciding the fate of the two universes is dumb. The "Power Rangers" influence from the time period can clearly be felt.

Now we get to the fights. I believe it was a mistake to poll fans
on who they wanted to win the fights. I respect the writers for acknowledging their readers, but the way the votes went for certain battles made illustrating them quite difficult. While they did a good job of having the underdog win in the case of Superboy vs. Spider-man believable, the same could not be said of

Wolverine vs. Lobo. A Batman-level guy with claws in his hands and quick healing out-muscles a Superman-level opponent. Whatever.

Another problem is that it's hard to tell what the DC characters'
power levels are at times. As we know, unless you look deep into Marvel, DC's power is generally higher than Marvel's. Even though this was before their recent power boosts, this was still the case. And Superman vs. Hulk and Flash vs. Quicksilver seem to
acknowledge this. But compare them to Wolverine vs. Lobo and Storm vs. Wonder Woman, in which two of the strongest characters in DC are beat by two medium-level Marvel characters, and you must conclude that the writers clumsily altered power levels all the time in order to suit them best as much as possible.

But although the last two paragraphs seem to be what this series is best known for (and not in a positive way), I consider it a bigger problem that the battles just plain [stank]. Almost every fight consisted of no more than two pages with a X-hits-why-Y-hits-X-so-and-so-wins. The worst battle would have to be Silver Surfer vs. Green Lantern. This was a fight between two of the most powerful heroes in either company. Sadly, it was nothing but
the two whining about how they didn't want to fight, but had to and only actually battling for one panel. The best fight was Batman vs. Captain America, which only laster four pages and still could have been better, but at least didn't [stank] as bad as the other fights.

This book did get some things right. The romance they did between
Robin and Jubilee was done well, as was the bond that formed between Batman and Captain America. The artwonk is downright excellent. And I also particularly liked the subplot of normals in both universes betting on the fights. It was a pretty good idea to show that it's easier for them to make light of the situation than it is to face it.

This series might have gathered three stars if not for the final two chapters. This has the friction between the universes getting
out of control, with combinations of various pairs of them sharing the same bodies. This part is downright ridiculous. Again, the "Power Rangers" influence is present.

Well, there certainly have been worse stories, but "DC vs. Marvel" is still pretty bad. If you really want to see DC and Marvel duke it out, be my guest. Otherwise, it's not worth your money.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not bad, not good...
Review: Mediocre at best....but a fanboy's dream. A book such as this has been HIGHLY anticipated for years. The thought of DC's heroes going against Marvel's heroes is a dream come true. Unfortunately, the battles left a lot to be desired. First off, Marvel won. Not that that really means anything, because the battles were rigged. Voted on by the fans, it was more of a popularity contest than a true test of comic book strength and powers. Some think this was biased towards Marvel because of their status as the number one comic book company, but hold on. As far as the non-comic book reading public is concerned DC's characters are more widely known throughout the world and enjoy a status based solely on cultural "iconism" not actual comic book knowledge. Ask any non-comic book fan who is the most powerful male superhero and 99% would say Superman, but to those who are serious about comics, Green Lantern is more powerful. So is M'Onel of the Legion of Superheroes, being a Daxamite. Grant Morrison has oft times said that Martian Manhunter is more powerful. And lets not forget the Silver Surfer, Phoenix and others over at Marvel who have the abilities in a "serious" universe to best the Man of Steel.

But I digress. Anyone who knows the creative history of both the Marvel and DC universes in terms of character development, storytelling approach and continuity realizes that they are too incompatible for their respective characters to occupy the same universe. Let alone fight a good fight in a meeting of the two companies top characters.

Now, of course we know ALL of these stories are pure fantasy and that we don't "believe a man can fly" nor can he "do whatever a spider can", but there should be some care taken as to how far one goes with respect to a particular characters powers. Mainly:DON'T MAKE THEM INVINIBLE. What makes the book a bit of a throwaway is that on the surface, DC's characters are extremely powerful, but not in anyway that can be qualified as being able to fairly match the "weaker" Marvel opponents that were created to be more "realistic", adult and story driven.

Simply put, DC's characters are ridiculously over-powered. Since their inception they appealed to the childhood power fantasy of being able to do anything and everything without thought to the veracity of how these powers would work over years in terms of storytelling. Marvel's characters on the other hand were more "down to earth" and their powers were merely a tool by which they fought villains and accomplished their tasks.

DC's characters were always perfect with no problems other that someone discovering their secret identity. With Superman for instance, in the comic books he is supposedly strong enough to move an entire planet and can fly, move and react at the speed of light. Well, anybody who has looked out the window of an airplane at twenty-thousand feet and viewed the vastness of this world we call earth can pretty much say if a human-sized man can "lift" this planet that person is pretty much invincible to all save God himself. Yet on a monthly bases, this supposedly invincible man struggles with characters who are FAR less powerful. Villains or heroes who are only able to lift mountains, which sit like lily pads on the planet and who can only move at speeds approaching, at best 2000 miles an hour as opposed to Superman's 186,000 miles a second! This is typical fare for DC. Believe it or not, because of these complaints Superman has been revamped more times than the Cadillac. And he has even received "power-ups" over the last few years as if he actually need them, as have Wonder Woman, the Flash and Green Lantern. The bottom line is this: don't give a character signature powers that makes it obvious to the audience that he's not using to get himself out of a life and death situation. That almost goes beyond bad writing.

Marvel's characters, which caught on big a college campuses like soap operas were more "reasonably powered". Super-strong, ultra-fast and meta-durable, but they were not invincible. They were human first, trying to be superheroes. In fact, Marvel's original stable of characters sound like poster children for the weak and the infirmed rather than a list of great superheroes. For example: Iron Man suffered from a bad heart and need his suit of armor just to survive, Dr. Strange was a surgeon that suffered from nerve damage in his hands, Thor was a lame, Professor Xavier of the X-Men was crippled, Daredevil was blind, the Hulk suffered from Multiple Personality Disorder, the Fantastic Four were a dysfunctional family, the X-Men were victims of racism and Spider-Man was a nerdy teenager that was abused by bullies. These were the reasons Marvel's characters caught on so quickly and was propelled to the number one comic book company in the early seventies.

As for DC's characters "humanization" they relied mostly on a flimsy secret identity and for the most part were given a single weakness that villains could exploit to compensate for the invincibility that they were created with. Superman had kryptonite, Wonder Woman would loose her powers if she was bound by a man. Green Lantern was useless against wood and later the color yellow, Martian Manhunter was weakened by fire. But these were just temporary fixes to a larger problem.

This is the stage on which Marvel vs. DC is set. "Realistic" heroes vs. "Fantasy" heroes. This fight might as well have been originally conceived as Marvel vs;. the Looney Tunes, or DC vs. Doc Savage, Indiana Jones or any other group of "realistic" fantasy characters. Both of which are ridiculous.

In my mind, the only way to really do the battle such as this right if for the shared universe that DC and Marvel characters occupy to operate by the same rules. Superman, Hulk, Captain Marvel, Thor and Lobo all operate on the same strength level. The difference in the battles being how each character, based on what makes him or her unique, uses the power that they have. If you take that into consideration, the book works. But, if you try to judge the based on past continuity and company paradigms, well...then the book shouldn't even exist.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not bad, not good...
Review: Mediocre at best....but a fanboy's dream. A book such as this has been HIGHLY anticipated for years. The thought of DC's heroes going against Marvel's heroes is a dream come true. Unfortunately, the battles left a lot to be desired. First off, Marvel won. Not that that really means anything, because the battles were rigged. Voted on by the fans, it was more of a popularity contest than a true test of comic book strength and powers. Some think this was biased towards Marvel because of their status as the number one comic book company, but hold on. As far as the non-comic book reading public is concerned DC's characters are more widely known throughout the world and enjoy a status based solely on cultural "iconism" not actual comic book knowledge. Ask any non-comic book fan who is the most powerful male superhero and 99% would say Superman, but to those who are serious about comics, Green Lantern is more powerful. So is M'Onel of the Legion of Superheroes, being a Daxamite. Grant Morrison has oft times said that Martian Manhunter is more powerful. And lets not forget the Silver Surfer, Phoenix and others over at Marvel who have the abilities in a "serious" universe to best the Man of Steel.

But I digress. Anyone who knows the creative history of both the Marvel and DC universes in terms of character development, storytelling approach and continuity realizes that they are too incompatible for their respective characters to occupy the same universe. Let alone fight a good fight in a meeting of the two companies top characters.

Now, of course we know ALL of these stories are pure fantasy and that we don't "believe a man can fly" nor can he "do whatever a spider can", but there should be some care taken as to how far one goes with respect to a particular characters powers. Mainly:DON'T MAKE THEM INVINIBLE. What makes the book a bit of a throwaway is that on the surface, DC's characters are extremely powerful, but not in anyway that can be qualified as being able to fairly match the "weaker" Marvel opponents that were created to be more "realistic", adult and story driven.

Simply put, DC's characters are ridiculously over-powered. Since their inception they appealed to the childhood power fantasy of being able to do anything and everything without thought to the veracity of how these powers would work over years in terms of storytelling. Marvel's characters on the other hand were more "down to earth" and their powers were merely a tool by which they fought villains and accomplished their tasks.

DC's characters were always perfect with no problems other that someone discovering their secret identity. With Superman for instance, in the comic books he is supposedly strong enough to move an entire planet and can fly, move and react at the speed of light. Well, anybody who has looked out the window of an airplane at twenty-thousand feet and viewed the vastness of this world we call earth can pretty much say if a human-sized man can "lift" this planet that person is pretty much invincible to all save God himself. Yet on a monthly bases, this supposedly invincible man struggles with characters who are FAR less powerful. Villains or heroes who are only able to lift mountains, which sit like lily pads on the planet and who can only move at speeds approaching, at best 2000 miles an hour as opposed to Superman's 186,000 miles a second! This is typical fare for DC. Believe it or not, because of these complaints Superman has been revamped more times than the Cadillac. And he has even received "power-ups" over the last few years as if he actually need them, as have Wonder Woman, the Flash and Green Lantern. The bottom line is this: don't give a character signature powers that makes it obvious to the audience that he's not using to get himself out of a life and death situation. That almost goes beyond bad writing.

Marvel's characters, which caught on big a college campuses like soap operas were more "reasonably powered". Super-strong, ultra-fast and meta-durable, but they were not invincible. They were human first, trying to be superheroes. In fact, Marvel's original stable of characters sound like poster children for the weak and the infirmed rather than a list of great superheroes. For example: Iron Man suffered from a bad heart and need his suit of armor just to survive, Dr. Strange was a surgeon that suffered from nerve damage in his hands, Thor was a lame, Professor Xavier of the X-Men was crippled, Daredevil was blind, the Hulk suffered from Multiple Personality Disorder, the Fantastic Four were a dysfunctional family, the X-Men were victims of racism and Spider-Man was a nerdy teenager that was abused by bullies. These were the reasons Marvel's characters caught on so quickly and was propelled to the number one comic book company in the early seventies.

As for DC's characters "humanization" they relied mostly on a flimsy secret identity and for the most part were given a single weakness that villains could exploit to compensate for the invincibility that they were created with. Superman had kryptonite, Wonder Woman would loose her powers if she was bound by a man. Green Lantern was useless against wood and later the color yellow, Martian Manhunter was weakened by fire. But these were just temporary fixes to a larger problem.

This is the stage on which Marvel vs. DC is set. "Realistic" heroes vs. "Fantasy" heroes. This fight might as well have been originally conceived as Marvel vs;. the Looney Tunes, or DC vs. Doc Savage, Indiana Jones or any other group of "realistic" fantasy characters. Both of which are ridiculous.

In my mind, the only way to really do the battle such as this right if for the shared universe that DC and Marvel characters occupy to operate by the same rules. Superman, Hulk, Captain Marvel, Thor and Lobo all operate on the same strength level. The difference in the battles being how each character, based on what makes him or her unique, uses the power that they have. If you take that into consideration, the book works. But, if you try to judge the based on past continuity and company paradigms, well...then the book shouldn't even exist.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Rigged fights!
Review: NO WAY can Superman beat the Hulk. The Hulk is far stronger, almost immune to fire, and has unlimited regeneration. I think, with the exceptions of Flash vs Quicksilver, Robin vs Jubilee, and Batman vs Cap, the marvel character should have won every fight.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Rigged fights!
Review: NO WAY can Superman beat the Hulk. The Hulk is far stronger, almost immune to fire, and has unlimited regeneration. I think, with the exceptions of Flash vs Quicksilver, Robin vs Jubilee, and Batman vs Cap, the marvel character should have won every fight.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: It was... amazing!
Review: Of course, many readers were expecting for this fight and I really enjoyed these comics but,... I don't think deciding some of the results via a reader's poll was such a good idea

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Under-rated
Review: OK I'll be first to admit most of the fights were pretty disappointing. Instead of having people vote for the winner they should had just went but ACTUALLY should have won. And some of the match ups could have been more interesting like instead of Robin vs. Jubilee and Catwoman vs. Electra, Thanos vs. Darkseid and Hawkeye vs. Green Arrow. And although the story is confusing at first but a second reading clears up just about all questions. I found the story to be intriguing and original. I also enjoyed the ending for Batman and Captain America end up saving two universes (I don't want to spoil how but if your a fan of either check this out). As for the art, excellent. It gave to look and feel of the characters as you've always wanted them to be. If it were possible I would have given the book 3.6 stars because of how some of the battles went.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Overall good but at times confusing.
Review: Overall the story is good. There are some very good matchups and the battles are interesting. It also shows a few brief periods of the characters actually working together. However the fights between the characters is at times unfair and sometimes a character who would logically win, loses. In my oppinon they could have had more matchups. Also near the end of the book things start to get strange. However if you've ever been curious about how your favorite character would do then this is the right book for you!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: DC and Marvel battle it out to see who will live.
Review: Strange things start happening in the DC & Marvel universe. The two worlds merge and each universes superheroes have to fight eachother. The winning team's world will survive. The loosers will all be destroyed and forgotten.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Could Have Been Better.
Review: The illustrations are pretty cool; full of color and movement. Some of the situations that arise when the two universes crossover are also interesting, e.g. Ben Reilly (Spider Clone) hitting on Louis Lane and the King Pin taking over the Daily Planet. Some of the battles were also interesting. And the creation of the Amalgam universe makes for an unique twist. That's the good stuff.

Now for the bad. All of the fights are too short. Most get a full page, while the major battles run about three pages. Some of the fights are so short the outcome doesn't make sense (Silver Surfer and Green Lantern would have lasted much longer) and at least one (Batman vs Captain America) was not a fair outcome (Batman lost because he hit his head in the sewer saving Captain America).

Besides that, the story is rather convoluted, not making much sense (not that comic books ever made much sense). The heroes act like a bunch of idiots; they fight each other like a bunch of mindless pawns, rather than joining forces and putting together a plan like the rational beings they are supposed to be.

It seems that the project had too many writers to stay focused and as a result, what could have been an amazing, marvelous, spectacular comic was just average.


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