For those wondering why I never addressed Lex Luthor as the Green Skull... that's because he's never actually called that in the book. I just read through it all again and while it's certainly possible I missed something, I saw no actual dialogue where he goes by that name. It's why I was uncertain if he was meant as a mashup with the Red Skull, either. The only time it happens is during the fake Letters Page where someone refers to him as "ol' green-skull himself," which could just be a nickname rather than an official name. I don't doubt that behind the scenes he's probably called Green Skull, but in the story he's never called that.
If the idea really was that he was supposed to be a mash-up of Lex Luthor and Red Skull, then the artist messed up badly cause his head doesn't look like a skull. Quite frankly, he looks more like a human version of Brainiac than he does either Lex Luthor or Red Skull.
You know, the idea of low-level kryptonite radiation permeating the atmosphere and weakening Superman while he's on Earth is actually an interesting one. It helps solve the issue of "why do we need any other superheroes when the man who can lift infinity is here" in Earth-based stories if he's strong, but not at his strongEST, but still allows Superman to participate in the cosmic storylines without issue.
Concerning the whole "Baby Kal-El is dead" thing, one story potential for a future Amalgam story could involve the reveal that Kal-El did NOT die, but has been kept in storage by the US army all this time, like on Flashpoint Earth, just kept in cryo-storage.
Olsen being cryptic about the hydra hideouts location actually makes sense because he wanted to give Clark the information without revealing Clark is super soldier
I'd love if they continued this and had a What If + Elseworlds style thing called "What Else" as in "If this one thing changed *What Else* would change?"
Actually that does kinda make sense. I joked that Barbie got merged with Harley Quinn because they've both been portrayed on the big screen by Margot Robbie.
I think Barbie merged with Star Trek feels more fitting since that was a series DC got the license to like Marvel did for Barbie. Imagine how pink that ship would be.
I think this comic would've been greatly improved by taking place right after Super Soldier was unfrozen. Have him react and come to terms with a changed world instead of skipping that and going straight to the status quo. As he is now he feels rather passive. Also make Luthor president and have him being a deformed Hydra leader be a twist.
Part of the backstory of the Amalgam Universe is that Super-Soldier had been a member of the JLA, and because of the JL-X book, you can't really have him getting defrosted just now. I think that's why, anyway. And as for Lex, this was before he became president. Plus the Luthor/Red Skull mash-up is like half the fun of merging Superman and Cap together. Although one thing that should've been done differently is that Luthor definitely shouldn't be a sickly old man in a smoking jacket. Once Kryptonite got introduced into the mix, Waid and Gibbons could've given him super powers. At least have Luthor pilot the giant robot for pete's sake!
@@romdan7136 Superboy and Spider-Man; he's a clone of Peter Parker. There's King Lizard, Bizarrnage, Queen Bee(who is Mary Jane) and Doc Ock is an ally this time. I grabbed it a long while back because I thought the cover looked cool.
Amalgam Comics always seems like a fever dream to me but i'm so glad we got it because we got to experience great matchups we never thought we could see
Seeing this made me smile. I loved the Amalgam Comics idea and the idea of smashing together DC and Marvel characters and teams to make something new. Some fusions like Dark Claw and Challengers Of The Fantastic make more sense than others but it's all in good fun and I regret that The Big Two don't do this stuff anymore.
"Well I never assumed it'd be a twink but still," might just be one of the funniest jokes to ever appear on this show. It's such a clash with whats going on that it works perfectly and catches you so off guard I love it!
Yeah, that was funny. Also reminds me of how one podcaster jokes that Loefeld couldn’t ever write a straight character because they were always drawn to cater to guys.
I think the reasoning for Cap and Bats being 'obvious' opponents is that they're both technically non-powered heroes as well as the most physically perfect human specimens and greatest hand-to-hand combatants of their respective universes. They were thinking entirely about the fight, nothing else.
@@GweiTheLeafChild That's the merge, not the fight. I'd have preferred an OFFICIAL Batman vs. Black Panther (scale AND personality should have both been considered for a fight) and Cap's fight should have been with Nightwing.
That was the main storyline point, those two universal giants realizing the leaders of their groups (Justice League and Avengers) are people without any superpowers but I don't have a decade old comic review RU-vid channel so I don't know
Pretty sure they told Batman there wouldn't be any Hummus at a party he went to one time and then since that day he's been seeking revenge on Captain American for not bringing any Hummus to the party
This was a comic I had for YEARS! I read it back and forth to death, and heck I somehow was gifted a second issue! I used to be confused as to why it was like this, before I actually read up on it haha. I still have a copy I think, along with a few other stories, like Assassins, and DarkClaw (signed by the author too!)
This was one of the best events that ever happened. It gave the fans what they wanted and a few things they never knew they wanted. Like Lobo the Duck. That one was wild.
I feel like Super-Soldier is one of the more solid Amalgam titles, taking the best of both franchises and amalgamating them into a very enjoyable comic. Mark Waid at the time was writing a ground-breaking run on Captain America, only to be latewr fired due to Heroes Reborn. As for the Captain America vs. Batman pairing in Marvel vs. DC, the idea as far as I understand it is that both Cap and Batman represent peak human acheivement, Cap due to the super-soldier serum and Batman due to his years of training. Personally, I prefer their interaction in JLA/Avengers better: Cap and Bruce size each other up, and decide to team up to solve the current crisis rather than fight as Krona and the Grandmaster want.
@@leorblumenthal5239 That must have been great. "Hey, remember how we fired you and did a reboot? Not only were we so wrong we could have permanently damaged the company but we have no choice but to beg for your help."
In Amalgam it wasn't just the heroes who got fused. Villans got fusions to. So when I first saw the thumbnail title card I thought the fused villains were gonna be Brainiac and Red Skull. (because of the green skin) I found the Lex Luthur, Red Skull fusion okay. But I wish they had made his skin red to make the Red Skull connection more clear. And found some way to fuse the names. Like Lex Skull, or Red Luthur, or something.
I will say, it feels... so bizarre hearing Linkara reference recent things like the rebranding of Twitter to X, and even (arguably) niche things like Monument Mythos of all things. And I absolutely love it.
Eh... At the time, that still would have been Ted Kord, and I don't think it would really fit. Superboy both shares Spidey's morality and his status as a clone (since this Spider-Man was Ben Reilly). The better one for Blue Beetle would really be Iron Man.
I loved the Amalgam comics. I loved how they created a backstory where Super Soldier had been published for decades prior to his appearance here. it was just awesome!
Yeah, an the usual letters section continued it by talking about how Amalgam Comics has always been around for over 50 years of publication. I wish Marvel and DC would collab and do stuff like this again.
I mean... technically Lewis could review Spider-Geddon since it's more focused on Miles, Gwen, and Superior Spider-Man than Peter. And the Spider-Gwen/Silk/Ultimate Miles stuff has potential. Ironically, the post-OMD, post-Spider-Verse era gave us a lot of Spider-character he CAN analyze.
@@notsosmartguy6254 It’s alright, though Into the Spider-Verse clearly told that story better. Honestly i find it amusing how people were initially hostile to Miles introduction, but now he’s one of three things Marvel fans still remember about the Ultimate universe.
Of all the Amalgam fusions, Superman and Captain America is the most obvious yet best of all of them. Certainly better than the Dark Claw fusion of Batman and Wolverine. If Amalgam were to happen again SupesXCap I feel would be brought back, but Batman would be crossed with Iron Man and Wonder Woman would be crossed with Captain Marvel.
Nah, Carol would be combined with Supergirl; no idea what her codename would be (Ms. Super? Marvelgirl?). The new Big 3 of Amalgam would be Super-Soldier, the Dark Knight, and Thunder Woman!
I actually have the iron lantern comic. Those two were my favorites of each compay at the time, and i just had to have that comic. Didn't really enjoy the comic itself, but hey, its a one off "what if?", Cant expect perfection.
6:10 Given that the story says they didn't expect him to be _that_ powerful, I'm taking it as "we lucked out with it being Clark this time, we aren't risking giving this power to another guy because it's guaranteed to backfire if we keep making dudes who can singlehandedly overthrow America".
I really like Amalgam universe and personally in my opinion nothing would make me happier but to see the Amalgam universe yes make a comeback but make a new Amalgam universe with the new characters and old characters we have now but combined into one, for example have my boy Jonathan Samuel Kent superboy as his little 10 year old self combined with Spider-girl mayday parker and they become super spider while Damian Wayne robin gets combined with Laura all new wolverine they become Weapon R and they form the super kids and kick ass and save the day, as for there fathers i would keep them as Super soldier and dark claw because that would make a tons of sense for there kids being there father's but that's just my opinion.
also, for those who do not know: there also multiple canonical fusion combos for heroes that appeared during the entire amalgam story-line. Superman for example has 3 possible fusions: - Super-Solider (Supes + Captain America) (duh) - Thor-El, Thunder-God of Krypton (Electric Blue Superman + Thor) - Unnamed, but called by some "Super-X" (Superman + Bishop from the X-men. yes, seriously)
Super soldiers costume actually looks pretty cool but as for his shield I think I would the guys who created this comic should have kept captain America's original Shield and put Superman's logo on his chest.
amalgum was fun, they dont return to the well enough. Though we did have the recent event smashing marvel characters together like Green skull and such
And Super Robots answers this age old question of who would win in a fight... By having the sentient Mazinger ZERO cross the line, asking the same questions Dr. Hell did back in Mazinger Z: INFINITY. And it's GLORIOUS with energies being drawn from all over whose sihlouettes take the form of various mecha anime, onomonopiea their respective theme songs as they materialize, just enough to put ZERO out of commission (encapsulating the spirit of the video game, Super Robot Wars!).
Neat, off topic but I'm wondering if you intend to talk about Image Comics' 1963 series any time soon, seeing as its about to see a completion this year.
It wasn’t brought up in the video, but for those of you who couldn’t tell, Amalgam!Lex Luthor was combined with Red Skull, Captain America’s archnemesis, but is green instead of red as a result of injecting Kryptonite into himself. He even calls himself the “Green Skull”. Ultra-Metallo is actually a combination of Metallo, the Superman villain, and (much less known) the Sleepers, robots created by Red Skull himself to serve Hydra; which I find a bit odd because I thought the “Ultra” in Ultra-Metallo came from Marvel’s Ultron, and it was a combination of Metallo and Ultron. But, no, it’s a cross between Metallo and the Sleepers.
*The following is the opinion of a Salty SEAGULL named EARL who just shows up in my posts whenever he feels like it!* [EARL the Salty SEAGULL:] 2:09 - "So Amalgam Comics is basically what happens when DC & Marvel Comics universes decide to perform the Fusion Dance! Just imagine what would happen if the MCU & DCEU tried to do the same (though given Disney & the DCEU's track record of mishandling their IPs as of late, I imagine they'd get distracted resulting in a Failed Fusion)!" 12:25 - "Wait if Radiation is a BEAR, then that means its BEAR CLAWS are RADIOACTIVE! THAT CAN'T BE GOOD! Seriously, a MAULING is bad enough but add Radiation poison on top of it just screams OVERKILL & if said BEAR does $hit in the woods it could turn entire forests into Chernobyls! Still now I want to see Super-Soldier fight the menace that is BEAR RADIATION!" 16:51 - "Ah, so its Batman & Wolverine's Amalgamation next week! Though that poses some interesting questions: What Wolverine antagonist merged with ONE-FACE & does DARK CLAW hate ROCK 'N ROLL or is it Bruce Wayne Agent of Shield who hates ROCK 'N ROLL or do they both hate it equally & does Wolverine have a HATED MUSIC GENRE!"
One thing I remember feeling disappointed about with this comic when it came out was Lex Luthor. Sure, he had Hydra as his evil team, but aside from that he didn't really seem to have any traits of Red Skull. Between being green and having injected himself with radiation, he felt more like he'd drawn from the Leader.
This is one of my favorite comic runs. When I first saw it, had no idea it was part of a DC vs marvel thing, I just though it was one of those rip off comics that somehow managed to dodge legal issues. Never got the cap/supes one, so looking forward to this.
4:14 Using some of the JL animated series theme song. Nice. 8:11 I understood that reference. 13:50 Is the robot announcing Luthor's plans over loudspeakers, or can only Super-Soldier hear it Man, Amalgam Comics was a weird time. I hope you go over Bruce Wayne, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. this month!
Marvel vs DC was my first real comic as a kid, and it really got me interested in these characters. Though I have seen more interesting fan-made amgalm ideas.
Didn't these Amalgam books have letters pages written as if these characters have been around forever and "fans" were talking about past stories and events? Or was that a fever dream I had back when I bought the trade in the 90's?
I don't know but when Marvel did the set of Marvel comics as comics published in the Marvel universe they did follow that conceit. Also other imagined fill in comics like Avengers issue 1.5 and so on. Also for example the Captain America book was written by Rick Jones with art by Steve Rogers.
If ultra metallo's true goal was the blow up the white house, why did green skull make it sneak up and attack super soldier and not just sneak off to the white house?
While I totally accept Captain America being mashed up with Superman, mashing Batman with Wolverine and Iron Man with Green Lantern is weird; wouldn't Batman/Iron Man and Green Lantern/Nova make more sense?
WOO HOO; I've been Looking forward to Amalgam Comics; I Love All that potential you can create by Fusing Marvel Characters with DC Characters!!! So Far; we got Earth-3 Homelander[aka Super-Soldier; the GOOD Fusion between Captain America & Superman] & Green Skull[Lex Luthor fused with Red Skull] I CAN HARDLY WAIT TO SEE WHAT YOU THINK OF The Rest of Amalgam Comics. . . Is this a One-time Event Month; or will this be ongoing for future years like with Ringu/The Ring for Ashock the Fourth Wall?!!
Back in early 1997, I actually had a copy of Marvel vs. DC #3 where it ended with the Marvel and DC universe combining to make the Amalgam Universe, and I was excited to see fusions of Batman & Wolverine, Superman & Captain America, Spider-Man & Superboy, Storm & Wonder Woman, and others. I red some of the Amalgam comics along the way, as well as getting the complete Marvel vs. DC storyline on trade paperback when I was in college. 1:41- Or it could be because both Bats and Cap are skilled fighters and strategists. Just sayin'. 8:27- "Let's see if you bleed green."
It's pretty obvious, but still seem weird Linkara didn't mention that this Lex is basically Green Skull. I wish he made him more skull-like, but oh well...
Nowadays, Cap and Sups’ Fusion name should be “Captain Krypton” (also I can see Red Skull fused with General Zod than Luthor, since firstly I don’t think Lex would go far teaming up with a Nazi to destroy Superman, I mean even The Joker hates Nazi of all people)
You know what might’ve been a good compromise in fusing Steve and Clark’s profession? Make him a political cartoonist for the paper. Steve is an artist, even took up socializing in an art class recently in the comics, so having him still working at the Planet but utilizing his artistic talents would’ve been a nice way of combining the two.
