POSSIBLE CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS

What is already settled...written in white.

What could be supposed...is written in that color...

ORIGINS : The two entities fight for the first time and, ultimately, destroy each others...

RESULT : Two separated universes are generated

Marvel Universe               DC Multiverse

                                                                                            Earth 1     /      Earth 2        (plus the others: 3,4,X,S...)

Eons pass...both entities are in a comatose state...

       Then, one day, several "flashes" of consciousness occur...

 

RESULT: Universes are unifying...as if it was ever the case...and the very first "crossovers" happen to be...

 

Chronologically speaking, we have :

Superman vs the amazing Spiderman   (Technically, the very first one)                                    

                                      

                        

Superman and Spiderman (The one in which you ‘ll find the "underground railway" we’ve been talking about)

 

                              

 

.and the others : Batman vs the incredible Hulk

                the uncanny X-men and the new Teen titans

 

Ok, for those who are lost, here's a little demonstration:

 

         's Earth                  ’s Earth 1 (Pre-Crisis crossovers)

After that, the first wave of " flashes " ends...both entities fall once again in a coma...but a concrete link remains : the tunnel, now separated in two ...

's Earth, with a part of the tunnel extending from NYC to a vanishing point...

's Earth 1, with a part of the tunnel extending from Metropolis to a vanishing point...

                                   Shortly after, the " Crisis " event shatters the DCU :                                                 

  's Earth       's Earths

                                                      Earth 1    /    Earth 2       /     Earth  4    /     Earth S    /     Earth X

                                                          DC's remaining Earths merge...

            At the end, a unified DC Universe remains...but Earth 1's part of the tunnel is still there!

 's Earth   :A new universe is born...with a rewrote                                                                                                                        history...a new earth, but with the pre-                                                                                                                        viouses as a basis (especially Earth 1!)

After that, cosmic events in both universes (such as Infinity crusade or Zero hour , occurring, if we consider the particular chronology in comics, shortly spaced) relaunch a second wave of " flashes "... and this wave announces the Marvel vs DC event.

This second wave generates the meetings of :

Galactus/Darkseid ( a "retcon" Xover, possibly

resulting from the "Infinity Crusade"/"zero hour" events)

The Incredible Hulk vs Superman  (the first part is in

fact a retcon crossover too...but part of the story takes

place in recent times anyway...)

Punisher/Batman (1&2)

Spiderman/Batman (Finally ! !)

Silver Surfer/Green Lantern

Then :   

DC vs MARVEL :The two universes unify, but not " perfectly " :the entities are fully awake. That’s why Metropolis, Gotham and DC/Marvel’s NYC are confusingly melted...

Months later :

  All Access...

But Universes are still unifying, due to the tunnel’s presence in both universes...

RESULT :  DareDevil/Batman (the " elseworld " logo stands for the fact that those 2 unified universes form another world...)

                               Batman/Spiderman (part 2)

We then have " Unlimited Access ", in which Access discovers he’s the one and only gatekeeper through time, and that he's condemned to constantly move from one earth to the other...

 After what, other crossovers with the concept of unified universes:

               Superman/Fantastic Four

                The Incredible Hulk vs Superman

                 (the part taking place in present continuity...)

CONCLUSION ? : Access is responsible for the inhabitants (of each universe) crossing from one universe to the other (when he stays in a place during a too long period of time), but the tunnel is responsible for the universes perfectly unifying (which facilitates crossovers in which characters interact naturally).

Of course, all of this little "theory" could be proven useless with the introduction of "Hypertime" in the DC Universe...in fact, you probably noticed that one DC/Marvel crossovers was missing...I'm talking about the Captain America/Batman one shot : I first thought this one could be presented as if the golden age marvel Universe had once unified with dc’s Earth2 Universe...but in the recent "Superman & Batman: Generations" (chapter one), John Byrne established a link between this elseworld mini-series and the "Captain America/Batman one-shot he actually wrote...The Joker is reported missing since 1945: he's been  considered dead after a nuclear explosion...in fact, he's been kept prisoner by the Nazis in a Siberian camp...the Red Skull was possibly responsible for this...well, regarding to those new facts, it seems the events didn't occur in a mix of the golden age marvel earth and dc's Earth 2 , but in one of dc's alternate Universe, part of the "Hypertime" concept...or maybe the golden age marvel earth unified with this particular hypertime alternate universe...who knows?

One last thing... I couldn't finish without mentioning one DC/Marvel crossover that really misses to the list: The cancelled JLA/Avengers (1983)...here's the most famous pic of it:

Thanks for your attention...

Any comments?

Just e-mail the...

Back to "DC/Marvel Crossovers: The beginning of an explanation?

You are viewer #

Aall images, format, content, and design are copyright © their respective owners. Disclaimer: I'm affiliated to neither DC nor Marvel. This webpage was designed for the entertainment of comic book readers.