The Dream

Smiling Superheroes

Dream of crossover between Marvel/DC propagating on internet

Article at Polygon describes the possibilities of a crossover (about nil) and how long it's been since the last one (25 years).

One of the main problems with a crossover is, no matter the effort to be "fair" to both sides, who gets the advantage in the story in the crossover, Marvel or DC? It seems to me the simplest solution is to toss a coin, like the superbowl. For example, do a four issue crossover series and have Marvel heroes beat the DC heroes (or visa versa) based on a coin toss in issue one. In issue two switch it around the other way, in issue three the heroes begrudgingly start to work together because of the immensity of the threat against the earth, and in issue four they go off in triumph together, arm in arm.

The real issue isn't the story, though, it would be the executive suite corporate decision makers who will see problems that have nothing to do with story elements. They'll be looking at advantages and disadvantages to such an event.

First question is: would a crossover pull away dollars from the companies regular books? Since Marvel is often dominating the top ten in sales these days, a crossover might actually benefit DC more than Marvel by possibly creating a gateway for some Marvel readers to suddenly move over into DC books.

Another problem: what if the crossover series was a gigantic hit? That might seem like the whole point, but put it this way: an enormous crossover spectacular could create a far worse conundrum, fan pressure to do a crossover movie event. You could see the Disney decision-makers quaking at that one (and the DC decision makers smiling). With the most lucrative Hollywood movie series in history in the recent rear view mirror, the last thing Disney would want is anything that might help along the limping DCU movie series.

Comicbookdom has its tribal DC-fans and Marvel-fan groupings, but there are a lot of people in between who don't have tribal loyalties except to stuff they like on the funnybook pages. This sort of "independent voter" is the one that either side might love (or dread) to influence in a shift of attention. Either company could try to use a crossover series as a platform for better marketing appeal to that "undecided voter" that could tip the sales-scales to one or the other.

For Comicbookbrain, a crossover event should be a charitable effort from both companies to put money into some sort of third-party coffer to help with the medical bills for freelancer artists, writers, editors who often are left out in the cold when either the career goes bust due to age or events (or this virus pandemic, for example) knocks them out of their seat and leaves them unable to work for awhile. Such a joint-effort could make both companies look good.