Let's say Marvel and DC were to merge universes.

Like I said: Settle the Avengers/JLA thing once and for all.

One battle royale. Winning team gets to be the super group for the new uni. Losing team disbands and joins the winners.

I'm rooting for the Avengers. I hope someday to hear Black Canary cry out "Avengers Assemble!" (Probably hear it in all the alternate universes...)

 

If the Avengers win and Black Canary has to knuckle under to them, the team had better check her loyalties before letting her cry out anything.

 

Do Marvel speedsters gain access to the speed force?

 

Makkari, Northstar, and Aurora, maybe. The others are really pretty slow by comparison. Including Quicksilver.

 

I'm guessing that a Batman/Howard The Duck team up would not be a high priority for many here.

 

Only if Howard were served for Thanksgiving dinner at Wayne Manor.

 

Why wouldn't they?

 

Ask the guys who gave us the JLA/Avengers graphic novel. In it, when Quicksilver is in the DC 'verse he tries to access the speed force and fails miserably. Meanwhile, the Flash loses his powers in the Marvel 'verse. There's apparently rules and junk. The merger might change them, but maybe it won't.

 

Why would there have to be one team? It's not like either universe only had one team in it. And over the years many heroes in both universes have been members of several teams. I would imagine in a shared universe there would eventually be some "cross-pollenation". DC has a long history of merging other companies' heroes with their own, going as far back as All-Star Comics/the JSA which featured characters from DC and All-American. Later they blended in characters from Quality, Fawcett and Charlton, finally merging them into a single Universe in Crisis On Infinite Earths. Afterwards the Justice League featured characters from all five Universes/Companies. In a merged universe, seeing X-men or Avengers as JLA members or JLAers or Titans in the Avengers is a natural progression.

Seeing Captain America with the JSA would be my dream team.

 

And I'm not saying "just one team" now. I never said anything about JLE, JSA, All-Star Squadron, Defenders, Champions, West Coast whatever. This isn't about just picking one superteam. This is about settling an age old question between two specific superteams. Who wins? Avengers or JLA? The prize is bragging rights as the premiere superteam in the new verse. The others are all also-rans anyway and not in this discussion.

 

That's just silly. "Bragging rights"? Sheesh. I see no reason why both teams can't co-exist as sometime allies with a friendly rivalry.

 

The thing is, that typically the JLA grossly overpowers the Avengers on most days. When the JLA is composed primarily of the A listers there is no way that the Avengers can compete.

What I could see happening team wise is that the merged universe would in someway match the new 52 status quo with the JL supplanting the Avengers as the A list premier team that saves the world and the Avengers becoming the preferred team of the government/UN thus replacing either the JLI or Stormwatch (or the upcoming New JLA). I such a situation I would promote Thor and the Hulk to the JL and possibly demoting Cyborg.


I still don't understand why people think that Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark would be hostile to each other? It seems to me that both would be casting a wary eye on Lexcorp. Luthor's Lexcorp is larger than Wayne Enterprises and thus probably Larger than any incarnation of Stark Industries. I could see Stark teaming up with Queen Industries, Wayne Enterprises and Kord against Lexcorp. What I could also see is an underground war between Lexcorp and Oscorp. Both are the largest companies in ther respective universes and run by brilliant scientist supervillians who have at some point been President of the United States.

 

Didn't Oscorp take a hit after the whole Siege storyline?

 

True, of course. But as I said, I think there'd be a different "ecological niche" for each team, as it were. If you have a loose affiliation of top-tier (and some lower-tier) heroes who are brought together to deal with global-scale threats, it stands to reason that that would be one team containing all the top-level people at once. Both the JL and the Avengers are broad enough and permeable enough that I think they'd end up being the same team if the universes coexisted. Unless, as I said, they specialized in dealing with different levels and types of threat, or different regions of the world.

Oh, that's a neat idea. How about Spider-Man on the Titans?

What Avengers are you talking about? Okay, the movie team only has two full-fledged superbeings, Thor and Hulk, while Iron Man's armor makes him one of the heavy hitters. But the animated series roster (sticking to what I'm familiar with) includes other powerful characters. Ms./Captain Marvel is quite powerful, with a power set largely analogous to Superman's. Giant-Man is quite powerful. The Vision could give the Martian Manhunter a run for his money. Black Panther's superscience is formidable. And in the comics you've got other characters like Wolverine, who's indestructible, and Scarlet Witch, who can alter reality itself.

That could work.

I'm only thinking they might start out that way as business competitors until they recognize they're on the same side as heroes. Then they'd be allies. Whether they got along personally would be another matter, though.

Osborn was president? I remember him being in charge of Homeland Security or something, but I don't remember that.

 

Osborn was head of HAMMER, the organization that replaced SHIELD briefly.

 

Which isn't the President as far as I know.

 

I'd see Nick Fury as Amanda Waller's early Mentor. Perhaps SHIELD replaces Checkmate and all those other DC secret government groups? Freedom Force and the Suicide Squad are pretty much the same thing.

 

Try telling that to a city with more than one team in a pro sport. I defy you to tell a Mets fan that getting bragging rights over the Yankees would be silly.

Look, I'm talking about an item on my merger wish list. You want all the teams to sit around a fire and sing Cumbaya? Fine.

I prefer Marvel over DC. I like the Avengers more than the Justice League. If the Big Squeeze happens and suddenly the universes collide I want my favorite superteam to be the top dog team. If that comes only after a "friendly" ass-kicking of the other superteam, so much the better, because seeing the battle would be FUN!

Yes, that's the conventional wisdom, but in real life small, light forces find ways to defeat large, powerful ones constantly, and in an objective universe the JLA's power advantage wouldn't be any guarantee of victory. It's always been my contention that the ultimate outcome of a battle between the two groups would depend entirely on who's in charge at the time.

But either way, I want to see the battle fought.

 

^Dr. Duid was an awesome leader of the Avengers and would have led the team to victory easily...ok maybe not. With the exception of the Detroit years(and even then the Martian Manhunter was calling the shots) leadership of the JL has always been pretty solid. Perhaps the Great Lakes Avengers vs Justice League Antarctica would be more entertaining.

 

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