Before they start to parse things like which characters are owned by which companies and remain blissfully unaware of corporate strictures like “trademark” and “copyright, new superhero fans almost universally end up asking the same question: “Who would win in a fight?”
Starting with their very first collaboration in 1976, it was a question that DC and Marvel, the twin titans of western comic book publishing, conspired to answer together in a series of crossovers spanning decades. Now collected and available in a hardcover omnibus, from 1976’s Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man to the first DC/Marvel crossover of the 21st century, 2000’s Batman/Daredevil: King of New York, these remarkable stories can be revisited by nostalgic fans or experienced for the first time by new ones. Will there ever be more? Only time will tell, but for now let’s see where the debate stands…by analyzing the results of every Marvel and DC crossover so far.
Let’s go to the data.
ROUND ONE: Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man (1976)
Motivated as superhero bouts all too often are by a misunderstanding, Spider-Man puts up a surprisingly good showing after he is convinced that Superman has abducted his beloved Mary Jane and gets temporarily powered up by a blast of red solar radiation from Lex Luthor. But Superman is able to wait out Spider-Man’s surge of superpowers, forcing Spidey to call it quits once he returns to his usual strength.
VERDICT: DC
ROUND TWO: Superman and Spider-Man (1981)
Superman and Spider-Man don’t fight in this one, but rather work together against a frightening alliance of Parasite and Doctor Doom. However, Superman does have his first battle with the Incredible Hulk, which he easily handles. And since that’s the hero bout which actually occurs in this title (and maybe also because this is our website), we’re going to go ahead and count it for Superman.
VERDICT: DC
ROUND THREE: Batman vs. The Incredible Hulk (1981)
The Hulk nearly breaks the Batman in their first Joker-manipulated battle, but Batman manages to neutralize his foe with some sleeping gas bombs. That doesn’t work the second time they meet, however, as Hulk clears the sleeping gas away with a mighty wave of his arms, leaving Batman with no choice but to retreat from battle. One for Batman, one for Hulk.
VERDICT: DRAW
ROUND FOUR: The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans (1982)
The only direct confrontation in this issue amongst the title teams is a battle between Starfire and Dark Phoenix, who handily absorbs Kory’s energy bolts and defeats her. Both the Titans and the X-Men band together against the Dark Phoenix and Darkseid alliance after that, but with first blood and all other scales balanced, the win here goes to Jean Grey.
VERDICT: MARVEL
ROUND FIVE: Batman/Punisher: Lake of Fire (1994)
The first time that Frank Castle crossed paths with Batman, it was one a lot more amenable to his methods—namely, Jean-Paul Valley, the much darker Dark Knight of Batman: Knightfall. The two nearly make it the entire issue without coming to blows, but it falls apart at the end. And like Batman himself squaring up with the Hulk, Frank ekes out a victory with a well-placed gas grenade.
VERDICT: MARVEL
ROUND SIX: Punisher/Batman: Deadly Knights (1994)
Bruce Wayne is back in the cowl for the second Punisher crossover and Frank isn’t quite ready for that. Protecting the life of a scumbag on the Punisher’s hit list, Batman easily handles Castle each time they cross paths through the issue, demonstrating that the real Batman stands a little outside the Punisher’s weight class.
VERDICT: DC
ROUND SEVEN: Darkseid vs. Galactus: The Hunger (1995)
Our only villainous title bout. When Galactus arrives to consume the power of the Fourth World, he appears to easily best Darkseid after resisting the Omega Sanction and bringing the God of Apokolips to his knees…only to discover he has been outmaneuvered and tricked into abandoning his conquest so that New Genesis might remain ripe for Darkseid’s own taking. Could Darkseid have taken Galactus down in direct combat? Maybe, maybe not. But ultimately, the day was his.
VERDICT: DC
ROUND EIGHT: Spider-Man and Batman (1995)
Batsy and Spidey never truly find themselves at odds in this one, falling into a natural partnership as they pursue the Joker and Carnage together. One gets the sense that in another life, the younger Peter Parker might have made a pretty decent Robin.
VERDICT: NO CONTEST
ROUND NINE: Green Lantern/Silver Surfer: Unholy Alliances (1996)
The “unholy alliances” in the title refer to two partnerships struck by two different Green Lanterns—the corrupted Hal Jordan, at this point Parallax, who misleads Silver Surfer into joining his side, and Kyle Rayner, the contemporary Green Lantern, who is similarly misled by the mad titan Thanos. As Parallax and Thanos do battle, so too do their duped champions, exchanging even blows in a cosmic face-off until Kyle, recognizing Parallax, awakens Silver Surfer to the deception they’ve both fallen victim to. The battle concludes prematurely as they join forces against their common foe, as so many superhero battles do.
VERDICT: DRAW
ROUND TEN: DC Versus Marvel (1996)
In DC Versus Marvel, the DC and Marvel Universes are presented as feuding brothers, pitching their greatest champions against each other until only one remains. The crossover event was determined by the outcome of eleven battles—six split evenly, determined by the script, and the last five by the comic readers of 1996 who cast their vote. Here’s how it went down:
First, the scripted battles. On DC’s side, Aquaman defeated Namor the Sub-Mariner, Tim Drake defeated Jubilee and Wally West defeated Quicksilver. On Marvel’s side, Thor defeated Billy Batson, Elektra defeated Catwoman and finally settling their previous bout, Silver Surfer defeated Kyle Rayner. The score stood three to three.
The remaining five bouts went to the readers. As expected, based along lines of popularity and iconography, Superman defeated the Hulk, Spider-Man defeated Superboy, Batman defeated Captain America and Wolverine defeated Lobo. That’s two more for Marvel, if you’re keeping track, and two more for DC.
That leaves one last vote, and what many consider the event’s greatest upset—a decisive battle between Storm of the X-Men and Wonder Woman. To every DC fan’s surprise, Ororo Munroe took the win. No greater illustration stands today of the totemic power of the X-Men lineup in the ‘90s than this triumph at the time over DC’s reigning queen of superhero comics. Would that vote go the same way today? There’s no way to tell. But in 1996, the numbers fell in Marvel’s direction.
VERDICT: MARVEL
Perhaps because after the drag-out death match of DC Versus Marvel, our publishers may have felt they had little left to prove, few of the crossovers which took place after this point feature any decisive victories among the title characters. But we’ll highlight a few of the more important encounters here.
ROUND ELEVEN: Batman & Captain America (1997)
While Batman and Cap meet as allies in this title, they’re unaware of each other’s civilian identities as Bruce Wayne and Steve Rogers—leading them into intense combat, until the two recognize each other’s moves and shake hands in recognition and mutual admiration.
VERDICT: DRAW
ROUND TWELVE: Daredevil and Batman (1997)
The Dark Knight doesn’t quite meet the Man Without Fear on as amicable terms as he did with the Star-Spangled Man, but the results are the same: a quick battle, a mutual sizing up, and a shared, if grudging, respect as they join forces against the real bad guys.
VERDICT: DRAW
ROUND THIRTEEN: Batman & Spider-Man (1997)
A pricklier Batman bristles a bit more in this encounter with Spider-Man than their last one and they end up in a bit of a dance before Spider-Man convinces Batman to put his concerns aside. The conflict ends before it ever really gets serious.
VERDICT: DRAW
ROUND FOURTEEN: Superman/Fantastic Four (1999)
Although Superman and Marvel’s first family meet as allies, that quickly changes when the Man of Steel is claimed by Galactus as his new herald. With determination, ingenuity and a little unexpected help from Cyborg Superman, the Fantastic Four once again find a way to achieve an impossible victory.
VERDICT: MARVEL
ROUND FIFTEEN: The Incredible Hulk vs. Superman (1999)
This issue, reimagining the first encounter between the Hulk and Superman, gives fans the book-length treatment of the battle they’ve been waiting for. The first half of this globe-spanning bout ends in a ring out, with Superman knocked into orbit as Rick Jones subdues the Hulk by calming him back down into Bruce Banner. Superman decisively wins their rematch—or, at least, appears to until the Hulk he’s defeated is revealed to have been a robot. It’s a close call, but we have to give the edge here to Hulk.
VERDICT: MARVEL
ROUND SIXTEEN: Batman/Daredevil: King of New York (2000)
Batman and his blind counterpart come to blows once more as this special begins, at cross-purposes in pursuit of a briefcase that Catwoman had stolen from the Kingpin. As they had three years before, the two eventually set aside their differences to mete out justice together.
VERDICT: DRAW
FINAL ROUND: JLA/Avengers (2003)
The last, most exciting and most ambitious crossover in the history of the Big Two was this magnum opus from Kurt Busiek and George Pérez. While some requisite misunderstandings arise between the heroes of both universes, the adventure is ultimately a joining of two great forces against the combined might of Krona and Galactus with grand importance to both worlds, and one which continues to define each of them in contrast to one another to this day. There were no winners or losers in this crossover, but rather an enlightenment to what makes DC and Marvel each special in their own right, while celebrating a shared legacy.
VERDICT: NO CONTEST
FINAL RESULTS:
Looking over these many bouts over nearly fifty years of competition and collaboration, we have no choice but to draw this conclusion: by a slim margin of five victories to four, Marvel stands as the overall winner in intercompany combat. If not for that darned Wonder Woman/Storm upset, we’d be singing a different tune today, but the Distinguished Competition accepts these results in magnanimity.
Now…who’s up for a rematch?
The DC Versus Marvel Omnibus is now available in bookstores, comic shops and online retailers.
Alex Jaffe is the author of our monthly "Ask the Question" column and writes about TV, movies, comics and superhero history for DC.com. Follow him on Bluesky at @AlexJaffe and find him in the DC Official Discord server as HubCityQuestion.
NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Alex Jaffe and do not necessarily reflect those of DC or Warner Bros. Discovery, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.
