Fans may argue over which hero is the best, but it seems that Batman. The answer seemingly came in the form of the intercompany crossover imprint Amalgam Comics, which combined characters from each company to create a brand new superhero. While most characters were relegated to one fusion each, Batman's profile was so huge, he had to be amalgamated with two Marvel heroes.
The Amalgam Comics imprint spun out of DC vs. Marvel/Marvel vs. DC written by Ron Marz and Peter David with art by Dan Jurgens and Claudio Castellini. The event centered around personifications of Marvel and DC, also known as the Brothers, sending their inhabitants to fight one another to determine the superior universe. To put an end to the fighting, the Spectre and Living Tribunal fuse the two sides into a brand new Amalgam universe filled with merged superheroes.
While characters from one side were paired with a similar hero from the other, Batman was actually given two combinations instead of one. One was Bruce Wayne, agent of SHIELD, which was a mixture Batman's civilian identity with Nick Fury. The other was Dark Claw, a Wolverine that heavily borrowed Batman's aesthetic. Each character got their own self-titled one-shot under the imprint, with Dark Claw technically receiving a second in the form of Dark Claw Adventures, a comic modeled after the Batman: The Animated Series tie-in at the time. All in all, Batman inspired 3 out of the 24 titles published under the brief imprint, more than any other hero, DC or Marvel.
While the Amalgam imprint was always meant to be a temporary experiment in the name of fun, how much of an icon Batman is and that the only way to honor him properly was to split these two sides and examine them separately.
Batman's narrative is a blend of relatability and fantasy, which no doubt helped him achieve his beloved status. The crossover between Marvel and DC is a prime example of why Batman's complex nature makes him one of comic books' most inspiring heroes.
