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The Amalgam Age of Comics
Return to the Amalgam Age of Comics: The Marvel Comics Collection
From Amalgam Comics -- a joint publishing venture of DC and Marvel Comics -- this graphic album merges the world's best-known super-heroes and villains, turning them into all-new characters. For example, Marvel's X-Force and DC's Doom Patrol are combined to become the "X-Patrol."
Challengers of the Fantastic #1, The Exciting X-Patrol #1, Iron Lantern #1, The Magnetic Men featuring Magneto #1, Spider-Boy Team-Up #1, and Thorion of the New Asgods #1 -- written by Karl Kesel, Barbara Kesel, Kurt Busiek, Tom Peyer, Roger Stern, and Keith Giffen; and illustrated by Tom Grummett, Bryan Hitch, Paul Smith, Barry Kitson, Jose Ladronn, and John Romita Jr.; with a cover by Rodolfo DaMaggio and Karl Story.
Challengers of the Fantastic #1, The Exciting X-Patrol #1, Iron Lantern #1, The Magnetic Men featuring Magneto #1, Spider-Boy Team-Up #1, and Thorion of the New Asgods #1 -- written by Karl Kesel, Barbara Kesel, Kurt Busiek, Tom Peyer, Roger Stern, and Keith Giffen; and illustrated by Tom Grummett, Bryan Hitch, Paul Smith, Barry Kitson, Jose Ladronn, and John Romita Jr.; with a cover by Rodolfo DaMaggio and Karl Story.
160 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1997
About the author
Kurt Busiek
1,851 books625 followersKurt Busiek is an American comic book writer notable for his work on the Marvels limited series, his own title Astro City, and his four-year run on Avengers.
Busiek did not read comics as a youngster, as his parents disapproved of them. He began to read them regularly around the age of 14, when he picked up a copy of Daredevil #120. This was the first part of a continuity-heavy four-part story arc; Busiek was drawn to the copious history and cross-connections with other series. Throughout high school and college, he and future writer Scott McCloud practiced making comics. During this time, Busiek also had many letters published in comic book letter columns, and originated the theory that the Phoenix was a separate being who had impersonated Jean Grey, and that therefore Grey had not died—a premise which made its way from freelancer to freelancer, and which was eventually used in the comics.
During the last semester of his senior year, Busiek submitted some sample scripts to editor Dick Giordano at DC Comics. None of them sold, but they did get him invitations to pitch other material to DC editors, which led to his first professional work, a back-up story in Green Lantern #162 (Mar. 1983).
Busiek has worked on a number of different titles in his career, including Arrowsmith, The Avengers, Icon, Iron Man, The Liberty Project, Ninjak, The Power Company, Red Tornado, Shockrockets, Superman: Secret Identity, Thunderbolts, Untold Tales of Spider-Man, JLA, and the award-winning Marvels and the Homage Comics title Kurt Busiek's Astro City.
In 1997, Busiek began a stint as writer of Avengers alongside artist George Pérez. Pérez departed from the series in 2000, but Busiek continued as writer for two more years, collaborating with artists Alan Davis, Kieron Dwyer and others. Busiek's tenure culminated with the "Kang Dynasty" storyline. In 2003, Busiek re-teamed with Perez to create the JLA/Avengers limited series.
In 2003, Busiek began a new Conan series for Dark Horse Comics, which he wrote for four years.
In December 2005 Busiek signed a two-year exclusive contract with DC Comics. During DC's Infinite Crisis event, he teamed with Geoff Johns on a "One Year Later" eight-part story arc (called Up, Up and Away) that encompassed both Superman titles. In addition, he began writing the DC title Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis from issues 40-49. Busiek was the writer of Superman for two years, before followed by James Robinson starting from Superman #677. Busiek wrote a 52-issue weekly DC miniseries called Trinity, starring Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. Each issue (except for issue #1) featured a 12-page main story by Busiek, with art by Mark Bagley, and a ten-page backup story co-written by Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, with art from various artists, including Tom Derenick, Mike Norton and Scott McDaniel.
Busiek's work has won him numerous awards in the comics industry, including the Harvey Award for Best Writer in 1998 and the Eisner Award for Best Writer in 1999. In 1994, with Marvels, he won Best Finite Series/Limited Series Eisner Award and the Best Continuing or Limited Series Harvey Award; as well as the Harvey Award for Best Single Issue or Story (for Marvels #4) in 1995. In 1996, with Astro City, Busiek won both the Eisner and Harvey awards for Best New Series. He won the Best Single Issue/Single Story Eisner three years in a row from 1996–1998, as well as in 2004. Busiek won the Best Continuing Series Eisner Award in 1997–1998, as well as the Best Serialized Story award in 1998. In addition, Astro City was awarded the 1996 Best Single Issue or Story Harvey Award, and the 1998 Harvey Award for Best Continuing or Limited Series.
Busiek was given the 1998 and 1999 Comics Buyer's Guide Awards for Favorite Writer, with additional nominations in 1997 and every year from 2000 to 2004. He has also received numerous Squiddy Awards, having been selected as favorite writer four years in a row from 1995 to 1998,
Busiek did not read comics as a youngster, as his parents disapproved of them. He began to read them regularly around the age of 14, when he picked up a copy of Daredevil #120. This was the first part of a continuity-heavy four-part story arc; Busiek was drawn to the copious history and cross-connections with other series. Throughout high school and college, he and future writer Scott McCloud practiced making comics. During this time, Busiek also had many letters published in comic book letter columns, and originated the theory that the Phoenix was a separate being who had impersonated Jean Grey, and that therefore Grey had not died—a premise which made its way from freelancer to freelancer, and which was eventually used in the comics.
During the last semester of his senior year, Busiek submitted some sample scripts to editor Dick Giordano at DC Comics. None of them sold, but they did get him invitations to pitch other material to DC editors, which led to his first professional work, a back-up story in Green Lantern #162 (Mar. 1983).
Busiek has worked on a number of different titles in his career, including Arrowsmith, The Avengers, Icon, Iron Man, The Liberty Project, Ninjak, The Power Company, Red Tornado, Shockrockets, Superman: Secret Identity, Thunderbolts, Untold Tales of Spider-Man, JLA, and the award-winning Marvels and the Homage Comics title Kurt Busiek's Astro City.
In 1997, Busiek began a stint as writer of Avengers alongside artist George Pérez. Pérez departed from the series in 2000, but Busiek continued as writer for two more years, collaborating with artists Alan Davis, Kieron Dwyer and others. Busiek's tenure culminated with the "Kang Dynasty" storyline. In 2003, Busiek re-teamed with Perez to create the JLA/Avengers limited series.
In 2003, Busiek began a new Conan series for Dark Horse Comics, which he wrote for four years.
In December 2005 Busiek signed a two-year exclusive contract with DC Comics. During DC's Infinite Crisis event, he teamed with Geoff Johns on a "One Year Later" eight-part story arc (called Up, Up and Away) that encompassed both Superman titles. In addition, he began writing the DC title Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis from issues 40-49. Busiek was the writer of Superman for two years, before followed by James Robinson starting from Superman #677. Busiek wrote a 52-issue weekly DC miniseries called Trinity, starring Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. Each issue (except for issue #1) featured a 12-page main story by Busiek, with art by Mark Bagley, and a ten-page backup story co-written by Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, with art from various artists, including Tom Derenick, Mike Norton and Scott McDaniel.
Busiek's work has won him numerous awards in the comics industry, including the Harvey Award for Best Writer in 1998 and the Eisner Award for Best Writer in 1999. In 1994, with Marvels, he won Best Finite Series/Limited Series Eisner Award and the Best Continuing or Limited Series Harvey Award; as well as the Harvey Award for Best Single Issue or Story (for Marvels #4) in 1995. In 1996, with Astro City, Busiek won both the Eisner and Harvey awards for Best New Series. He won the Best Single Issue/Single Story Eisner three years in a row from 1996–1998, as well as in 2004. Busiek won the Best Continuing Series Eisner Award in 1997–1998, as well as the Best Serialized Story award in 1998. In addition, Astro City was awarded the 1996 Best Single Issue or Story Harvey Award, and the 1998 Harvey Award for Best Continuing or Limited Series.
Busiek was given the 1998 and 1999 Comics Buyer's Guide Awards for Favorite Writer, with additional nominations in 1997 and every year from 2000 to 2004. He has also received numerous Squiddy Awards, having been selected as favorite writer four years in a row from 1995 to 1998,
Ratings & Reviews
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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