Hey, where’s DC’s hat?
1995 promotional flyers for Marvel Vs. DC/DC Vs. Marvel tie-in clothing
1. Both shirts “available in XL only!!” — so enjoy, kids!
2. Hey, at least Wonder Woman’s breast and arm made it into the ad…thank goodness they’re not blocking our view of Remarkably-1990s Superboy. (In fairness, she does appear to be more properly represented on the shirt.)
3. I wonder if DC did have a cap to match off against Marvel’s Wolverine hat…if so, it probably featured Lobo, keeping the shirts’ theme of matched-up characters being in the same sequence on each. (NOTE: cap is “fresh.”)
4. You know, looking at the shirt designs now (and admiring Marvel’s “this is what the winners will be showing off!” blurb)…I can’t recall the outcomes of all the battles between these characters. I remember who won between Superman and Hulk, and the Wolverine/Lobo battle (which should have been just crazy violent, but ended up being pretty lame, as I recall), but no idea on the Wonder Woman/Storm or Superboy/Spider-Man battles. Time has taken those precious memories away from me…but not from Google, I guess, if I ever feel like looking it up.
I do seem to remember the Batman/Captain America fight was bit of a cheat, too…like it was called in favor of one of them without really doing a proper fight. I need to get a look at that again and see if it makes any more sense to me now. …Because as a fully-grown adult, I demand satisfying resolutions to my superhero battles.
5. Of course, the real disappointment was no Swamp Thing/Man-Thing fight. I guess Marvel and DC just plain didn’t want to sell any comics.
I would love to see a photo of two fans wearing these shirts side-by-side with an arm around each other. Kinda like the old 70’s “I’m With Stupid” t-shirts.
And fresh hats always sell better than stale ones.
It’s strange that I remember the outcomes so well, given how much (or perhaps because of how much) I hated that mess.
SPOILERS (like anyone cares)
Storm kept electrocuting WW until she fell; Flash overcame Quicksilver’s cheating by dint of his greater variety of speed-stunts; DC’s Captain Marvel changed to Billy Batson in an attempt to fool Thor (who promptly hammered the kid); Wolverine aced Lobo mostly off-screen as they comic-book-swore at each other; Silver Surfer beat Kyle’s GL because POWER COSMIC, B*****S; Bats beat Captain America because the venue was a flooding sewer (!!!); Aquabarbarian beat Namor by ordering an Orca to flop on him (uh huh); Superboy lost because, hey, they’re not going to have Spidey drop THAT ball. Robin bested Jubilee and then they made out (uh huh).
I’ll just assume that Ray Palmer outshrank Hank Pym and Doc Strange gave Zatanna a mystical spanking.
I’m not gonna bother running the tally again, but DC generally won the most-recognized-name battles while Marvel won the numbers, which should’ve led to the eradication of the DCU except the Competing God-Things grew to respect each other and shook God-Hands and gave up their God-Feud. Straight out of Star Trek, yo.
You know, it wasn’t a total loss. I did enjoy “Spider-Boy and the Legion of Super-Heroes,” just to see the writers struggle to come up with all those ridiculous amalgams –like merging the Trapster and Matter-Eater Lad into Paste-Eater Pete. Heh.
This just makes me want to read JLA/Avengers again.
I would like to see a shirt on which Dr. Strange gives Zatanna a magical spanking! …Or maybe a silk smoking jacket.
Mike, this is unrelated to your post, but what’s your opinion of the news Swamp Thing series so far?
I’m a bit frustrated with it. It’s certainly better written than the disaster that was The Search for Swamp Thing, yes. However, in numerous interviews, Snyder claimed he was taking everything from past series into account, right up through Dysart’s run, but that’s clearly not the case. Series 3 and 4 seem to have been ignored entirely, and there are also many incompatibilities with series 2:
* The Parliament of Trees is no more–it was burned to a crisp by The Word because it had turned evil. So where was this new Swamp Thing rooted all these years?
* Millar’s run revealed that the Parliament hated humanity and was actively working to destroy it, so there’s no way they actually REQUIRED humans for bonding purposes.
* The Parliament knew well who Alec Holland was, as they revered him as their Holland-Father–he spawned the Parliament during his trip through time–so everything this new Swamp Thing said about why they consider Alec special doesn’t fit what we already know.
* We already know who the reigning Earth Elementals were in the 1940s–Aaron Hayley and Albert Hollerer–and it wasn’t this new guy. It was already unclear why Hayley and Hollerer were chosen simultaneously–now it was someone else instead. Ugh.
* The very idea that all previous elementals except for Alec have actually contained the flesh of their hosts is completely inconsistent with everything that we know.
* Alec’s soul was reincarnated at the end of Millar’s run in the body of a newborn baby who respresented the next step in human evolution. If he’s walking around again, then that baby–who’d now be in his late teens, if I recall correctly–must have dropped dead. So much for that poor kid, and for the next step in human evolution.
* Even ignoring that last point, Hellblazer and Diggle’s and Dysart’s Swamp Thing runs already dealt with the fate of Alec’s soul. That seems to have been wiped out as well.
* Abby is way too young at the end–she should be in her 50s. Unlike in most comics, the Swamp Thing/Hellblazer characters have aged in real time. And there’s been no mention of Tefe. (Granted, that could change, so it’s not an actual inconsistency… yet.)
I know there were other things that struck me, but I’ve only read it once so far, so I can’t recall the other things. But pretty much every single statement this new elemental told Alec cannot be made to fit what came before. More importantly, he can’t exist at all, given that the entire Parliament was destroyed after being exposed as human-hating villains, and are now eternally burning ashes.
This new series seems to be a direct continuation of Moore’s run, as it’s the only run with which it’s not inconsistent. So what about all those stories from Veitch, Wheeler, Collins, Millar, Vaughan, Diggle and Dysart? So much for continuity. I had such high hopes for this series, too, based on what Snyder has said about it in interviews. It’s well-written, yes, but it’s frustrating to see all that previous continuity discarded.
I was disappointed that Alfred never faced off against Jarvis.
Dig how Marvel includes the DC logo in theirs, but DC just has the words Marvel down in little tiny type. In the “showdown of the century,” never give your opponent free airtime, maybe?
I can’t help but notice the Giant Records logo on the first ad; was there a soundtrack album for this?!
And thats why I,ve missed you so much,Rich!Now that’s what I call a critique.By the way,I guess the last post on your site is out of continuity since it states
that you’re not going to read this stuff.LOL.Great to have you back,bro!
The Wonder Woman/Storm outcome was the only one that really made me mad, IIRC. Storm can be defeated by being locked in a small room, and yet she can beat Wonder Woman. Riiiiiiiiight.
Bryan, that “Giant” logo was on the tag of several rock T-shirts I owned during my junior high and high school days in the ’90s. I’m guessing that Warner set up some arm of Giant to sell music merchandise apart from the label’s musical output. Never really gave it any thought before.
I always thought using Superboy as a counterpart to Spider-man was kind of a crap on Spidey’s legacy, but I guess Con-El kind of inherited the legacy of the old “young Superman” Superboy. But that means that Superman is both Cap and Spidey, and that doesn’t seem right I’m done.
Weren’t the outcomes determined by some kind of fan ballot?
Rich – I assume any continuity conflicts are “wiped out” by the Flashpoint rebooting. Flashpoint #5 explicitly presents the Vertigo universe as one of the “heroic universes” that needed to be re-merged with the other two (the regular DCU and Wildstorm) to form the proper timeline. So I guess if any of the new stories conflict with old continuity, they can just say “well, it didn’t happen that was in this ‘new’ universe.” Which will give us all headaches, of course!
Also, much in the same way the DCU Constantine is now a younger dude, I presume Abby is also younger in the same fashion, also giving credence to the idea that the DCU Swamp Thing continuity isn’t the same as the Vertigo ST continuity. …There’s that headache again!
Mr. Lawless – Yes, indeedy. The outcomes of all the battles between the characters on the shirts were determined by ballots that could be given to participating stores, who would then send them in to be tallied. Somewhere I have all the promo posters and “Vote Here!” signs and even a tally sheet where you can keep track and display how your customer base was voting!
Hi, Mike. Yeah, I’m sure you’re right about all of that. It’s frustrating, though, as Snyder specifically said, in several interviews, that he was not going to throw out the continuity of the previous four series, from Wein to Dysart–and yet, that’s precisely what he’s done. Granted, he may not have had a choice, given the whole “New 52” schtick, but still, he shouldn’t have misled fans in interviews.
Of course, the truly frustrating part is that I actually really enjoy this new Swamp Thing series. The art is beautiful, and Snyder has a great grasp on how to write this type of story. I want to give him a fair shake, as I can’t help but admit that despite the above-noted continuity issues, I AM enjoying it. Grrr. I guess I’m just an old-school fan who doesn’t like seeing everything I loved for years dashed on the ground as though by one of Tefe’s elemental tantrums… oh, wait… I guess we won’t be seeing THOSE anymore either. :::sigh::
As for new, young Constantine… ugh. I thought Justice League Dark was ridiculous. I’ll give it a few more issues before ditching it… but it’s just not my cup of tea. I prefer my John Constantine pre-Milligan.
A memory: Tom Bergeron, now of DANCING WITH THE STARS, was the host of a morning talk show on FX at the time this series came out. He would occasionally kill some time by reading news stories and commenting on them. Once, perhaps because Mark Hamill was on the show to promote his new comic, Bergeron read a story about the Marvel vs. DC series, including the detail that Batman defeated Captain America. He responded to this with indignation: “No way! Batman couldn’t beat Captain America! Captain America beat THE RED SKULL, man!”
Don’t worry, guys: DC’s continuity has about nine to ten months — tops — before it’s overhauled again.
“Somewhere I have all the promo posters and “Vote Here!” signs and even a tally sheet where you can keep track and display how your customer base was voting!”
Now, you know we wanna see those tally sheets! Be interesting to see how your shop voted.