DC Versus Marvel (partially lost alternate fight endings to superhero crossover event; 1996)
Marvel Versus DC #3 cover.
Status: Partially Lost
DC and Marvel Comics are home to some of the most iconic superheroes in the entire world so it's only natural for them to have crossed over multiple times with the biggest one happening in early 1996. The crossover featured 11 fights between Marvel and DC heroes, whoever won the least fights was to have their universe be destroyed. While a majority of the fights were determined by the staff working on the mini-series the 5 fights featuring the each of the company's most iconic characters were selected by fan vote. Every possible ending for these fights were drawn but only of the alternate endings has ever been released.[1]
Background
After the comic book market crashed in the latter half of the early-90s both DC and Marvel were looking for a big event to hopefully kick start sales again. They ultimately decided it was best to join forces and have have 22 of their characters face each in 11 1-1 battles to determine the fate of their universes. While 6 of the battles' victors were chosen by the books creative team with the other 5 being chosen fans who could chose the battles winner by dropping off their ballot at their local comic shop, mailing in a ballot physically, or by emailing a certain email.[2]
Fan Voted Battles
As stated before there were 5 battles determined by fan vote which all took place within issue #3 of the mini-series.[2] These battles can be seen below with the victors of each battle being in bold.
- Batman vs. Captain America
- Hulk vs. Superman
- Superboy vs. Spider-Man
- Wolverine vs. Lobo
- Wonder Woman vs. Storm
Since the creative team wouldn't know who was going to win the fan vote the alternate endings were mostly kept to one page to reduce the amount of material that would have to be drawn twice.[1]
Availability
While Ron Marz has released the page from the alternate ending of the Hulk vs. Superman fight no pages from the other alternate endings has been released and with this being crossover between two companies who seem to have little interest in releasing them an official release seems unlikely.