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

[Turtletrekker]

It all works out nicely, until Galactus decides that it is time to eat up Apokalips.

He tried that one time and found it was too dead to be worth eating or something and just left.

Yup. In the "The Hunger" crossover by John Byrne. IIRC, Byrne did a few Marvel/DC crossover books, including a WW2 era Batman and Captain America team-up.

I have recently come across all of my Marvel/DC team-up books and if I had a scanner I would be posting images. Maybe I'll try to just take pics of the pages with my camera phone...

 

[the G-man]

^The fanboy's point is noted.

Not that it should be a cuteness or gothness should be a deciding factor in which version of Death takes suzerainty over the other, but Starlin's Death isn't... unattractive when she's making the point of appearing to have flesh.

My point was less about what does or doesn't take precedent in an imaginary crossover and more about responding to the point you seemed to have made.

You had stated that perky Goth Death was only one aspect of Death. In response, I pointed out that her creator said she wasn't an aspect of Death but was, in fact, Death. Unless and until DC or Gaiman undoes that, that's the current status of the character, as sure as Superman is the survivor of the doomed planet Krypton, or Batman is an orphaned millionaire.

I suppose, yes, if DC and Marvel were to somehow merge they could, hypothetically, overrule Gaiman's interpretation of his own character. However, until that happens, I'm going to stick with the character as she is, as written by her creator, not as someone might like to see her.

 

[Christopher]

Looking at both the Marvel and DC Wikis, they both say that their respective female characters named Death are simply physical manifestations of a more inchoate entity. So in a combined universe, neither would be subordinate to the other; they'd just be different avatars of the same cosmic force. Or, if you prefer, the same character presenting herself differently to different beings/races/cultures.

 

[LaxScrutiny]

Well, just being silly for a moment...

I'm pretty sure Death is not a cute Goth girl. Did Death look that way in WWI? In ancient Greece? In Cro-Magnon times?

In theory, if in the 1990's, teenage girls were able to psychically connect with Death and mimic her appearance and start the Goth fashion craze, why didn't this happen centuries earlier?

Not to mention how strange Death would appear to an alien race of insectoid-octopii.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Well, just being silly for a moment...

I'm pretty sure Death is not a cute Goth girl. Did Death look that way in WWI? In ancient Greece? In Cro-Magnon times?

yes

 

[Christopher]

Like I said, both universes establish that Death can incarnate in many forms. They're all just metaphors, essentially.

 

[Nerys Myk]

We know, we're just having a bit of fun. If fact, the Martian Manhunter saw "Dream" differently than humans. I suspect the same is true for "Death".

 

[theenglish]

We know, we're just having a bit of fun. If fact, the Martian Manhunter saw "Dream" differently than humans. I suspect the same is true for "Death".

Right, in fact I would guess that both Marvel and DC have played so much with their own continuities that merging the two would not be much more of a stretch than many of the previous retcons.

 

[Christopher]

Right, in fact I would guess that both Marvel and DC have played so much with their own continuities that merging the two would not be much more of a stretch than many of the previous retcons.

In theory, sure. DC's absorbed other continuities/companies into its own, as with Charlton and Milestone (and Wildstorm, I think) -- not to mention separating out the Vertigo titles for a while and then folding them back in. Easy enough to do when you reboot the whole universe every decade or two anyway. Might be a bit more of a novelty for Marvel, although they have treated other continuities as part of their own universe before, such as GI Joe, Transformers, even Jack Kirby's weird 2001 sequel/spinoff comics. (And maybe even Star Trek; an early storyline in their post-TMP Trek comic alluded to a character from Marvel's Dracula comics.)

 

[theenglish]

Not to mention that Marvel introduced a character as powerful as (or more than) Superman as if he had been part of the universe since the sixties.

 

[Satyrquaze]

^The fanboy's point is noted.

Although I'm speaking not as a "fanboy," but as a casual observer who has only a passing familiarity with either character.

Fair enough, I have to admit only a passing familiarity with Gaiman's Death character. No offense meant by the 'fanboy' comment.

My point was less about what does or doesn't take precedent in an imaginary crossover and more about responding to the point you seemed to have made.

You had stated that perky Goth Death was only one aspect of Death. In response, I pointed out that her creator said she wasn't an aspect of Death but was, in fact, Death. Unless and until DC or Gaiman undoes that, that's the current status of the character, as sure as Superman is the survivor of the doomed planet Krypton, or Batman is an orphaned millionaire.

I suppose, yes, if DC and Marvel were to somehow merge they could, hypothetically, overrule Gaiman's interpretation of his own character. However, until that happens, I'm going to stick with the character as she is, as written by her creator, not as someone might like to see her.

Your point that Gaiman's Death was the Death of the DC universe is all well and good, but it came across (to me at least) that you're were saying she would be on a higher eshelon than any other representation of Death should those universes be merged.

Perhaps that entity is the true Death in THAT universe, but if someone were to die before it became fashionable to be goth, I doubt they would meet that same cute girl that we recognize as Gaiman's Death. Hell, I wonder if when someone from Thanagar or Daxam is about to die if they see a cute goth girl. But, it's notable too, that Gaiman's Death showed up at one point in an issue of Hulk back in the 90s.

I stand by my belief that Gaiman's Death is simply an aspsect of death just as Starlin's is. Starlin's representation of Death is much more traditional and shes much more of an elemental force than Gaiman's creation, and would therefore be closer to the source. but as Christopher pointed out: they are both but physical manifestations of a more inchoate entity. Should Marvel and DC merge universes, which Death a character met would depend largely on the day of the week and who was writing.

 

[Admiral2]

Darkseid would have him in tossed in the fire pits.

But the battle would have left him drained enough for Thanos to move in and conquer the planet! MWAHHAHAHAHA!

 

[Turtletrekker]

Gaiman's version of Death appeared in Incredible Hulk 418, at the wedding of Rick Jones and Marlo Chandler. Peter David asked permission from Gaiman who approved, but PAD was ultimately given an odd condition about how she appears.

Read about it here (second legend down).

 

[Darkwing]

This has been an interesting thread, especilly since I've been toying with a merger idea for a roleplaying game. Although my idea was more about dropping the Rann-Thanagar war into 2012 Marvel-verse, without merging the geography and characters who weren't in the Rann system at the time...

 

[inflatabledalek]

I'd like to see Jarvis and Alfred go down the pub and have a massive piss up whilst moaning about their cranky millionaire playboy superhero bosses.

 

[Mike Farley]

Gaiman's version of Death appeared in Incredible Hulk 418, at the wedding of Rick Jones and Marlo Chandler. Peter David asked permission from Gaiman who approved, but PAD was ultimately given an odd condition about how she appears.

Read about it here (second legend down).

From the page reprinted:

"I better take off before that Thanos creep shows up."

 

[Christopher]

I'd like to see Jarvis and Alfred go down the pub and have a massive piss up whilst moaning about their cranky millionaire playboy superhero bosses.

Interesting thing: Originally, before Alfred was given the Pennyworth surname in the '70s, he was referred to once or twice in the '40s or '50s as Alfred Jarvis! Maybe in a merged universe, they could be half-brothers or something.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Darkseid would have him in tossed in the fire pits.

But the battle would have left him drained enough for Thanos to move in and conquer the planet! MWAHHAHAHAHA!

Nah, Darkseid has minions who do things like toss upstarts into fire pits. He doesn't dirty his hands with riff raff and knock offs.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

Darkseid would have him in tossed in the fire pits.

But the battle would have left him drained enough for Thanos to move in and conquer the planet! MWAHHAHAHAHA!

Nah, Darkseid has minions who do things like toss upstarts into fire pits. He doesn't dirty his hands with riff raff and knock offs.

Or he just kills them with his Omega Beams.

 

[Admiral2]

But the battle would have left him drained enough for Thanos to move in and conquer the planet! MWAHHAHAHAHA!

Nah, Darkseid has minions who do things like toss upstarts into fire pits. He doesn't dirty his hands with riff raff and knock offs.

Or he just kills them with his Omega Beams.

You guys keep talking about Thanos like he's a lightweight. He's the Darkseid of the Eternals.