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The Amalgam Age of Comics
Return to the Amalgam Age of Comics: the Marvel Collection
Combining characters from both DC comics and Marvel comics, this graphic novel merges the world's best-known superheroes and villains, turning them into all-new characters. For example, X-Force and Doom Patrol become "X-Patrol".
Paperback
First published December 1, 1997
About the author
Barbara Randall Kesel
363 books32 followersBarbara Randall Kesel is an American writer and editor of comic books; her bibliography includes work for DC Comics, Marvel Comics, CrossGen, Image Comics and Dark Horse Comics. Kesel is a very outspoken opponent of sexism in the comic book industry. She is known for her strong female characters, influencing her then husband Karl's work on Lois Lane in the Superman titles and creating Grace, the ruler of the Golden City location in Comics' Greatest World.
Kesel initially came into the comics world after writing a 10-page letter to editor Dick Giordano regarding the portrayal of female comic book characters. At Dark Horse, Kesel was part of Team CGW, responsible for most of the design and creation of the setting and characters in the Golden City location. She is currently part of book packaging company The Pack, alongside Lee Nordling, Brian Augustyn, Gordon Kent and Dave Olbrich.
Kesel has been nominated for the 1991 "Best Editor" Eisner Award for Badlands, Aliens: Genocide and Star Wars. In 1995, she was nominated for "Best Anthology" and "Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Material" Harvey Awards for, respectively, Instant Piano and Hellboy: Seed of Destruction. She won the 1996 "Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Work" Harvey Award, for Hellboy: The Wolves of St. August.
Kesel initially came into the comics world after writing a 10-page letter to editor Dick Giordano regarding the portrayal of female comic book characters. At Dark Horse, Kesel was part of Team CGW, responsible for most of the design and creation of the setting and characters in the Golden City location. She is currently part of book packaging company The Pack, alongside Lee Nordling, Brian Augustyn, Gordon Kent and Dave Olbrich.
Kesel has been nominated for the 1991 "Best Editor" Eisner Award for Badlands, Aliens: Genocide and Star Wars. In 1995, she was nominated for "Best Anthology" and "Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Material" Harvey Awards for, respectively, Instant Piano and Hellboy: Seed of Destruction. She won the 1996 "Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Work" Harvey Award, for Hellboy: The Wolves of St. August.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 7, 2017
Up, up and Excelsior!
I bought this in its single comic books, but I chosen this TPB edition to make a better overall review.
Combining both TPBs (the one of DC and the one of Marvel) those TPBs include: Bat-Thing, Dark Claw Adventures, Generation Hex, JLX Unleashed, Lobo the Duck, Super-Soldier: Man of War, Challengers of the Fantastic, Exciting X-Patrol, Iron Lantern, The Magnetic Men featuring Magneto, Spider-Boy Team-Up, Thorion of the New Asgods.
IN BRIGHTEST DAY, IT’S CLOBBERIN’ TIME!
Since the first Amalgam event resulted so popular and best-selling, DC and Marvel got together once again and they published a second run of merged unique comic books, where fusions of characters of both comic book houses becoming new unique characters.
One of the funniest was certainly “Lobo the Duck” (fusion of Lobo and Howard the Duck), what else can you ask?!
Since Dark Claw (Batman plus Wolverine) resulted in the most popular character of the first event, they leveled up the hype publishing Dark Claw once again BUT using the art style of Batman: The Animated Series, oh yeah!
And one of the most ambitious comic books, in the angle of presentation of characters, was the one with Spider-Boy (Spider-Man plus Superboy (Connor Kent)), already created in the first year of the event, but here in “Spider-Boy Team-Up”, he joins the Legion of Galactic Guardians 2099 (Triple fusion of Legion of Super-Heroes, Guardians of the Galaxy and the Marvel 2099 future).
Maybe the second year of the Amalgam event wasn't that solid like the first year, but still is one cool run of comics to get!
I bought this in its single comic books, but I chosen this TPB edition to make a better overall review.
Combining both TPBs (the one of DC and the one of Marvel) those TPBs include: Bat-Thing, Dark Claw Adventures, Generation Hex, JLX Unleashed, Lobo the Duck, Super-Soldier: Man of War, Challengers of the Fantastic, Exciting X-Patrol, Iron Lantern, The Magnetic Men featuring Magneto, Spider-Boy Team-Up, Thorion of the New Asgods.
IN BRIGHTEST DAY, IT’S CLOBBERIN’ TIME!
Since the first Amalgam event resulted so popular and best-selling, DC and Marvel got together once again and they published a second run of merged unique comic books, where fusions of characters of both comic book houses becoming new unique characters.
One of the funniest was certainly “Lobo the Duck” (fusion of Lobo and Howard the Duck), what else can you ask?!
Since Dark Claw (Batman plus Wolverine) resulted in the most popular character of the first event, they leveled up the hype publishing Dark Claw once again BUT using the art style of Batman: The Animated Series, oh yeah!
And one of the most ambitious comic books, in the angle of presentation of characters, was the one with Spider-Boy (Spider-Man plus Superboy (Connor Kent)), already created in the first year of the event, but here in “Spider-Boy Team-Up”, he joins the Legion of Galactic Guardians 2099 (Triple fusion of Legion of Super-Heroes, Guardians of the Galaxy and the Marvel 2099 future).
Maybe the second year of the Amalgam event wasn't that solid like the first year, but still is one cool run of comics to get!
March 11, 2026
Good interesting stories. Recommended
December 6, 2024
Questo volume raccoglie gli albi prodotti dalla Marvel per la seconda tornata dell'Amalgam Comics.
Challengers of the Fantastic #1 di Kesel, Grummet e Vey, riesce nello scopo di dare una profondità narrativa e di continuity, riallacciandosi tantissimo agli albi migliori dei FF di Lee e Kirby, ed è ben disegnato. 3 stelle.
The Exciting X-Patrol #1 di Barbara Kesel, Hitch e Neary è un albo tutto azione con poco senso, e sebbene all'epoca apprezzassi un poco i disegni, oggi sono davvero invecchiati male. Diciamo che siamo alla singola stella.
Iron Lantern #1 di Busiek, Paul Smith e Al Williamson è decisamente ben disegnato, ma chiarisce anche perché una armatura di Iron Man verde e oro sia veramente brutta e inguardabile. Come storia è uno dei pochi passi falsi di Busiek, e non va oltre la singola stella.
The Magnetic Men featuring Magneto #1 di Peyer, Kitson e Panosian, è uno di quegli albi invecchiato davvero male, poco leggibile oggi e con problemi di trama e disegni. Mezza stella.
Spider-Boy Team-Up #1 di Stern e Kesel, Ladronn e Velasco. Disegnata da un Ladronn molto kirbyano, questa storia è una sarabanda incredibile che riesce nello scopo di narrare i fondamentali della Legion of Super Heroes. Diciamo che siamo sulle 3 stelle anche oggi.
Thorion of the New Asgods #1 di Giffen e John Romita jr è l'albo migliore di tutte le produzioni Amalgam. I due riescono a catturare l'epica Kirbyana in pieno, sia per la storia sia per i disegni. Ancora oggi a leggerlo da fan del Thor e del Quarto Mondo fa venire qualche brivido. Siamo sulle 4 stelle e mezza.
In complesso al volume posso dare le 3 stelle.
Challengers of the Fantastic #1 di Kesel, Grummet e Vey, riesce nello scopo di dare una profondità narrativa e di continuity, riallacciandosi tantissimo agli albi migliori dei FF di Lee e Kirby, ed è ben disegnato. 3 stelle.
The Exciting X-Patrol #1 di Barbara Kesel, Hitch e Neary è un albo tutto azione con poco senso, e sebbene all'epoca apprezzassi un poco i disegni, oggi sono davvero invecchiati male. Diciamo che siamo alla singola stella.
Iron Lantern #1 di Busiek, Paul Smith e Al Williamson è decisamente ben disegnato, ma chiarisce anche perché una armatura di Iron Man verde e oro sia veramente brutta e inguardabile. Come storia è uno dei pochi passi falsi di Busiek, e non va oltre la singola stella.
The Magnetic Men featuring Magneto #1 di Peyer, Kitson e Panosian, è uno di quegli albi invecchiato davvero male, poco leggibile oggi e con problemi di trama e disegni. Mezza stella.
Spider-Boy Team-Up #1 di Stern e Kesel, Ladronn e Velasco. Disegnata da un Ladronn molto kirbyano, questa storia è una sarabanda incredibile che riesce nello scopo di narrare i fondamentali della Legion of Super Heroes. Diciamo che siamo sulle 3 stelle anche oggi.
Thorion of the New Asgods #1 di Giffen e John Romita jr è l'albo migliore di tutte le produzioni Amalgam. I due riescono a catturare l'epica Kirbyana in pieno, sia per la storia sia per i disegni. Ancora oggi a leggerlo da fan del Thor e del Quarto Mondo fa venire qualche brivido. Siamo sulle 4 stelle e mezza.
In complesso al volume posso dare le 3 stelle.
September 21, 2022
One review for all four Amalgam collections since I kind of just read them all in short order:
Fun. Hit or miss for quality in writing and art, but overall it was just a lot of fun. I wish that we could do a new round or two with the current style of writing and art which I think could be amazing. Anyway, worth checking out if you are a fan of both worlds.
Fun. Hit or miss for quality in writing and art, but overall it was just a lot of fun. I wish that we could do a new round or two with the current style of writing and art which I think could be amazing. Anyway, worth checking out if you are a fan of both worlds.
February 3, 2015
I guess at best these comics are ok and once again I found that they (like the first ones) usually did not age well for me.
The Challengers of the fantastic were really not a good concept to begin with. Their "Let's try better the world" was just idiotic, it was goofy with the Fantastic Four already but this comes out of nowhere. At least the Fantastic Four had the whole superpowers thing but these here have none. Also the story just throws one thing after the other at you, making it far too fast paced. It also had too many holes with their computer apparently being able to predict the future and seemingly no one noticing the huge giant appearing in New York. Not to mention that the villains were jokes, everything far too easily solved and the ending was a quintessential cop-out.
And if this wasn't enough, I really wonder what was up with all the puns regarding "fantastic" and "amalgamated". Not to mention that the expository dialogue really got on my nerves.
The art style was mediocre at best, mostly due to the poses.
I think the best part of this volume was probably the X-Patrol storyline. For the most part the artwork was pretty good, very smooth and only somewhat exaggerated male musculature and sometimes silly costume details. Also most of the fighting was pretty competent and it was a decent story, well for the most part, the ending was kind of… cliché.
However one of the biggest problems was the character Beastling. Here he was suddenly a scientist and although the comic referred to him as shapeshifter he actually never did so. He seemed to be more like Marvel's Beast all things considered. Sure he had some good skills and all but it seemed they had switched out his character.
Also the puns seemed a tad odd and all those references to e.g. Teen Titan storylines could be annoying to the uninitiated. In addition they could talk a little less.
Now Iron Lantern was pretty bland, plain and simple. His origin is even dumber than that of Iron man The artwork was ok but did not always match the narration boxes. And they should have used narration boxes instead of lantern's constant inner monologue.
For Magneto and the Magnetic Men I can only say that while the premise of robots living as humans might be interesting, it had no purpose here and I don't know how it was supposed to work anyway, even with the forged identities. In the end it was quickly discarded and the problems were solved too easily. Which is a shame, I think you could have done more with this plot, but the way it is, there whole thing just moved way too fast.
The artwork on the Spider-boy team-up is pretty crappy; especially the older people look like they are melting or like they are descended of Jabba the Hut. The whole story with its "reboots" and time travel is kind of silly, but I guess when you like that it would be really good due to its goofiness.
Ps "Asgodian" sounds really stupid.
And from there we get to the Thorion story. The main problem with that one is that it moves too fast and it feels like several books were violently pressed into one. Thereby creating tons of plotholes and the main character was basically being replaced in the first issue.
Not to mention that the art style is kind of odd.
So all in all, not a very good collection of comics. If your humor swings that way I guess this could be goofy stories and a nice nostalgia trip but it was not for me.
The Challengers of the fantastic were really not a good concept to begin with. Their "Let's try better the world" was just idiotic, it was goofy with the Fantastic Four already but this comes out of nowhere. At least the Fantastic Four had the whole superpowers thing but these here have none. Also the story just throws one thing after the other at you, making it far too fast paced. It also had too many holes with their computer apparently being able to predict the future and seemingly no one noticing the huge giant appearing in New York. Not to mention that the villains were jokes, everything far too easily solved and the ending was a quintessential cop-out.
And if this wasn't enough, I really wonder what was up with all the puns regarding "fantastic" and "amalgamated". Not to mention that the expository dialogue really got on my nerves.
The art style was mediocre at best, mostly due to the poses.
I think the best part of this volume was probably the X-Patrol storyline. For the most part the artwork was pretty good, very smooth and only somewhat exaggerated male musculature and sometimes silly costume details. Also most of the fighting was pretty competent and it was a decent story, well for the most part, the ending was kind of… cliché.
However one of the biggest problems was the character Beastling. Here he was suddenly a scientist and although the comic referred to him as shapeshifter he actually never did so. He seemed to be more like Marvel's Beast all things considered. Sure he had some good skills and all but it seemed they had switched out his character.
Also the puns seemed a tad odd and all those references to e.g. Teen Titan storylines could be annoying to the uninitiated. In addition they could talk a little less.
Now Iron Lantern was pretty bland, plain and simple. His origin is even dumber than that of Iron man The artwork was ok but did not always match the narration boxes. And they should have used narration boxes instead of lantern's constant inner monologue.
For Magneto and the Magnetic Men I can only say that while the premise of robots living as humans might be interesting, it had no purpose here and I don't know how it was supposed to work anyway, even with the forged identities. In the end it was quickly discarded and the problems were solved too easily. Which is a shame, I think you could have done more with this plot, but the way it is, there whole thing just moved way too fast.
The artwork on the Spider-boy team-up is pretty crappy; especially the older people look like they are melting or like they are descended of Jabba the Hut. The whole story with its "reboots" and time travel is kind of silly, but I guess when you like that it would be really good due to its goofiness.
Ps "Asgodian" sounds really stupid.
And from there we get to the Thorion story. The main problem with that one is that it moves too fast and it feels like several books were violently pressed into one. Thereby creating tons of plotholes and the main character was basically being replaced in the first issue.
Not to mention that the art style is kind of odd.
So all in all, not a very good collection of comics. If your humor swings that way I guess this could be goofy stories and a nice nostalgia trip but it was not for me.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews