DC & Marvel Cross-overs / The Early Years

The first DC / Marvel collaboration came out in 1975, although it wasn't a mixing of DC and Marvel superheroes. It was a comic book adaptation of the 1939 MGM movie "The Wizard of Oz", called respectively "The Marvelous Wizard of Oz". The artwork was handled by John Romita Sr. ( the famous "Amazing Spider-Man" artist)

In January 1976, DC and Marvel made comic book history with their first superhero team-up / battle cross-over. That over-sized $2.00 comic would be "Superman VS The Amazing Spider-Man". The two heroes would first battle each other, then team-up to defeat the villains of the story : Lex Luthor & Doctor Octopus. The story was pencilled by Ross Andru and inked by Dick Giordano. I remember how excited I was to get this comic ( I was ecstatic )! I still have the comic to this day and it now has special significance ( I was able to get it signed by the writer,Gerry Conway; at the Emerald City Comicon in Seattle this year). This comic paved the way for countless other DC/Marvel superhero team-ups, which continue to this day.

Probably the three DC/Marvel team-ups that I would have liked to have seen are: Batman / Captain America (1996); The Hulk VS Superman (1999); and of course, Justice League / The Avengers (2003), but  I had stopped actively collecting comics by the end of the 1970's.

I can only imagine the great collaborations to come, between my two favorite comic book companies.