Paul C saves another Amalgamonday by just coming up with an awesome New52 (or should that be New52.1?) Super-Soldier! Follow the link above to see all the fan reactions to the rebooted Amalgam Universe! I dare say, they may seem familiar.
Amalgamondays brings you the short tale of a Superman amalgamated with "the King" - no, not Jack Kirby, Elvis Presley! - a hero who has given up and left what he considers a youngster's game. And look at those amalgamated youngsters, children of the original Justice League:
Aquahawk! (dear Lord, Shiera ended up with Aquaman!)
Thanks to Dave Van Domelen, I can marry this week's mechanical Supermen theme with Amalgamondays! Thanks Dave! In his own words: "A cross between Optimus Prime and Superman. Mostly Prime's physical model (with mods to chest and boots) and Superman's colors (with a bit of Prime's in the chest). The hands are gray because they're the same color as Prime's faceplate, just as Superman's hands are bare."
After Blackest Reign and Brightest Age, came the Fearpoint event, in which our Amalgam characters were put through the ringer, in a distorted timeline in which heroes were mistrusted and hammer-bearing New Asgardians waged war over the world.
Why would Superman dress up as Super-Batman? Well, Amalgamonday fans, there's a very good reason!
Superman grew horns and needed a costume with horns built-in. Told you it was a good reason.
Amalgamondays present: "The Batman-Superman of Earth-X!" That title will be your only warning.
Days pass and Jimmy is more than happy to stay on this Earth, though he doesn't really have a choice. Then, Perry has a heart attack and his dying wish is for Jimmy to get a job with his nephew Clark Kent, custodian of the World' Fair in Metropolis (where Potter is the boss and Lucy Lane works the computers). Clark is perfectly human and as a hobby, writes short stories that feature superheroes he made up... including Superman!
Jimmy is inspired by another creation, Steel-Man, to give Clark his signal watch and reweave his suit'n'bowtie into that alternate identity and fight crime. Crime here seems to be the purview of an organization known as LUTHAR (League Using Terror, Havoc And Robbery; no relation) led by a guy who looks a lot like the Joker!
Things go well for Steel-Man. Lucy falls in love with him (though not with Jimmy, check). He's give the key to the city. Etc. Clark even uses the signal watch for trivial stuff just like he used to, such as making Steel-Man get a chunk of molten lava to that he can feel inspired to write a Lava-Man story. Things go well, that is, until LUTHAR use his only weakness against him - Tiptonite!
Yep, when Mount Tipton blew, some chunks wound up on Earth-X and became deadly poison to Jimmy. Clark saves him by moving those rocks, and soon, our Professor Potter shows up in a second travel machine to get Jimmy. But Jimmy doesn't WANT to leave! Potter tries to convince him, but Steel-Man is called away by the signal watch. It leads him to the Joker fiddling with some kind of machine. "Joker? Never heard of him."
Clark is the leader of LUTHAR! And the machine just transferred Jimmy's powers to Clark! With them, the evil Clark Kent becomes king of the world. But with Lucy's help, Jimmy figures out how to take away his powers with a simple gas (in Silver Age fashion, all it takes is Lucy imputing "factors" into a computer, off-screen). The now powerless Jimmy agrees to return to Earth-1, but gets his mack on with Lucy-X and lays some massive "ironies" on us:
Editors' notes - they were the original Wikipedia.
There was a time when Marvel and DC crossed-over so often, the characters all knew each other and didn't think to ask how they'd done so. In that golden age of bipartisanship, Dan Jurgens gave us a little something for Amalgamondays...
Another of PaulC's awesome Amalgams, it shows George Reeves as Super-Soldier, on a show we'll never see brought to us by Nestlogg's. Read the rest of the story HERE, and let Paul know how much you want to see Adam West as Dark Claw!
If you were here last week, you saw what happened when Madman and Superman got their molecules scrambled going through an interdimensional anomaly. Or at least, you saw HALF of what happened. On the flip side of that coin, Superman found himself near Snap City with Madman's zombie body and much reduced powers. He soon got in touch with Madman's supporting cast and together, they found a way to walk back to the DC Universe. Once there, the scrambled heroes used the combined scientific wizardry of Doctor Flem and Professor Hamilton to reverse the scramble , allowing them to complete their crossover normally and defeat the mischievous evil of two worlds.
Is there still juice in the Amalgamonday concept? There sure is! Consider the Mike Alred-penned mini-series that made friends of Superman and Madman. In the first issue, both characters find themselves at the same orbital coordinates, which makes them cross over to the other's universe. EXCEPT! They get scrambled like Tuvix and come out each with some of the other's features. Madman finds his way to Metropolis and discovers he has Superman's body and many of his powers. Jumping over tall buildings, telescopic vision, great strength and being able to (painfully) take bullets without them piercing his skin. Still, the best part of the experience?
Poor, sweet, naive Madman. You can't help but love him.
While you enjoy this Amalgam of Star Trek and Firefly, allow me to confess one of my repulsively geeky habits. This kind of amalgamation is something I do all the time as a mental exercise. Any show or franchise that has an ensemble cast, I eventually and inevitably put that cast on a Federation starship (usually TNG era) named after the corresponding show. It really doesn't have to be science-fiction. Captain Bartlet of the USS Republic? Check. Captain Phelps of the USS Impossible. Likewise. Captain Jack Harkness of the USS Torchwood (everyone's potentially a redshirt!). Captain Buffy Summers, youngest Captain in Starfleet, of the USS Sunnydale. Captain Donaghy of the USS Rockefeller (NCC-30). They've all existed in my head space.
Do you know how hard it is to find a Superman that's suitable for both Amalgamondays AND Victoria Day? Well, the fine team at the SBG (that's me and a cat at present... and not to point fingers, but the cat didn't do much) has managed it! With probably the strangest item you'll ever find in Reign. The book's synopsis cribbed from the Internet goes like this:
Amalgamondays wouldn't have lasted this long if not for fans of the Amalgam concept. Look at this cool armor, complete with iron toupee.
"Following the tragic death of Super-Soldier at the hands of Doctor Doomsday two scientists named Simon and Harlan Westfield formed Project Cadmus-Mech with the sole aim of recreating the Super-Soldier..."
From Karl Savage's Incredible League of America (you gotta check out the whole team via the link above). With artists doing quality Amalgamations like this, I don't need to pray for more Amalgam comics to keep Amalgamondays going!
Being the fourth and final part of Jor-El's post-Crisis modeling of alternate rocket destinations for his baby Kal-El...
Amalgam Comics merged Carnage with Bizarro, but what about VENOM? Well, never fear, PaulC is here with all the answers and his amazing Amalgamation talents. Venom is of course merged with Superboy-Prime, for twice the evil twinage!
I may be cheating a bit here, because Spider-Man 2099 is actually amalgamated with Mon-El (Miguel O'Hara becomes Mig-El), but a Spider-Boy by any other name...
In 1996, it may have seemed appropriate to amalgamate Superboy and Spider-Man, seeing as both were clones of each company's biggest star. Both started out as teen heroes, and were quick with the banter. It certainly made for some of the most entertaining Amalgam comics (in both waves). Running around Cadmus as the awesome Arach-Kid, Spider-Boy was, in his every day life, Daily Bugle photographer Pete Ross, often partnered up with ace reporter Tana Moon. When Mary Jane Watson - Insect Queen shows up at the end of the issue, you really want there to be a whole series of these things.
In 2003, Kurt Busiek and George Perez did a better version of DC vs. Marvel, and in fact a better Crisis than any since (or possibly including) the first. JLA/Avengers is what a big crossover event should be like, and the fact that it's a cross-company crossover makes it all the more magical. It doesn't end in Amalgamation, but the Marvel and DC universes do co-exist at a dimensional intersection for a while (incredibly, Busiek makes this an awkward one-night stand between Eternity and Kismet), and Captain America lends Superman his shield. And then for a single page, Supes wields Thor's hammer and brings in the Power with a capital P.