DC vs Marvel. When voting sorta counted.

Wolverine versus Dee Snider!

In 1996, DC Comics and Marvel Comics combined for what should have been the greatest crossover in the history of comics.  Maybe it was.  I don't know.

I do remember a lot of hoopla around being able to vote for the winners of five superhero battles.  There was nearly some fanboy fisticuffs.  Just imagine the amount of empty basement bedrooms if things got too carried away and some of these comics nerds actually killed each other over this stuff.  Anyway, the fans were able to cast their votes at their local comic book store via secret ballot, and this way we could finally get our answer to who would win in a fight between Black Lightning and Quasar.

Okay, that fight never happened.  But really, who would YOU vote for?

Marvel Comics won three of the five voting battles, with Storm, Spider-Man, and Wolverine defeating Superboy, Wonder Woman, and Lobo.  While the on the DC side of things, Superman and Batman scored W's against The Hulk and Captain America.

Doesn't that all seem... uh... lop-sided to you?

There's no way Superman or Batman were going to lose to the Hulk and Captain America.  Even the biggest Marvel fans will show respect to the big two.  But did Superboy ever stand a chance against Spider-Man?  And what about Lobo?  I think Lobo is awesome, but he was pitted against the most popular comic book character of the 90s.  At first glance, seeing Wonder Woman lose to Storm could be surprizing, until you remember again that in the 90s the X-Men were the #1 selling comic book around.

The Royal Rumble!  30 will enter!  Only one will go to the main event at Wrestlemania!

I can just imagine the boardroom meeting for this "event"...

DC: Okay, this is gonna make us a shitload of money.  And the fans get to vote, so they feel a part of it!
Marvel: Sweet!  Let's have Spidey duke it out with the Flash, and Silver Surfer fight Green Lantern!  Those would be awesome to see.
DC: Uh... I dunno... Warners doesn't really like talking about any characters that aren't Superman or Batman.  So let's throw Superboy in there against Spidey.
Marvel: Oh.  That's... ummm... sure, I guess.  Well, Batman's really popular in the movies right now, and our number one guy is Wolverine, so they should totally battle.  The fanboys will drool at that!
DC: Yeah... so here's the thing... we know just how popular your X-Men characters are... and we really can't have Batman lose here.  Warners is planning on making a fourth Bat-flick and they want it to be the best one ever.  I hear Clooney is gonna be in it!  So you got any characters that everyone knows but nobody cares about?
Marvel:  Yeah... The Hulk and - -
DC: Perfect!  He can fight Superman!  We've got a new movie for him coming too with Nicolas Cage!  

So why didn't we get the REAL match ups that would have us all excited?
What about Superman versus Iron Man?
Or Batman versus Wolverine?
Aquaman versus Namor?

Okay, Aquaman DID fight Namor in that story, but nobody got to vote for it.  I'm pretty confident everyone would vote against Aquaman anyway, even his own mommy.  Poor Aquafucker.   Nobody likes his fishy smell.  And there's always those nit-picky arguments like,Superman would just rip off Iron Man's armor and throw him into space. Game over.  Well, yeah, but that wouldn't be a very fun story.  In the right scenario, Iron Man could actually beat Superman in a fight.

Anyway, my point of all this is, a lot has happened in 15 years.  Superman is about to become popular again this summer.  People actually know who Iron Man is now.  We now have this fancy technology called the Inter-something-or-other for voting.  The Spider-Man in that classic battle was some clone who wasn't a clone but really was a clone... ?  Confusing, I know.

I say they do it again, and this time do it right. 

Don't play the safe bets.  Let the fans vote on the fights that matter, and if their favorites lose, then oh well, suck it up and do it again ten years later when their popularity changes.  What's in it for them?  Uh, fucking market research.

And the winning comic book company should be allowed the rights to one of the others' big name  characters for a year.  Just imagine Captain America in the Justice League.

Who would YOU vote for?