FACT #33

Amalgam Comics was a publishing imprint shared by DC Comics and Marvel Comics, in which the two comic book publishers merged their characters into new ones (e.g., DC Comics' the Batman and Marvel Comics' Wolverine became the Amalgam character the Dark Claw). These characters first appeared in a series of 12 comic books which were published in April 1996, between issues #3-4 of the DC vs. Marvel miniseries. A second set of 12 comic books followed one year later in June 1997.All 24 of these issues occurred between the aforementioned issues #3-4 of DC vs. Marvel.

The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005 designated the Amalgam Universe as Earth-9602. DC Comics has not yet identified the Amalgam Universe in its Multiverse.

The two comic book universes came together when the two physical incarnations of their respective universes (referred to as "the Brothers") became aware of each other after eons of slumber. To prevent the Brothers from destroying each other, characters from each universe battled to determine which universe would survive (a real world vote by readers of the series was conducted to determine the outcome of five of the in-comic match-ups, with three of them favoring the Marvel hero). Access, a character created for the event and co-owned by both Marvel and DC, served as a gatekeeper who became stuck while traveling between the two universes.

When the fighting concluded, neither universe was willing to go. To prevent total destruction, the Spectre and the Living Tribunal created an amalgamated universe, in which only Access and Dr. Strangefate knew the truth about the merge. The two characters fought against each other to reverse or preserve the change.

Access managed to separate the Brothers with the help of Amalgam's heroes; before the merge had taken place, he had planted 'shards' of the universe in the Batman and Captain America. Once he discovered the Dark Claw (the fusion of the Batman and Wolverine) and Super-Soldier (the fusion between Captain America and Superman), he used those shards to give the Spectre and the Living Tribunal the power to restore the universes. The Batman, Captain America and Access were thus able to make the Brothers realize that their conflict was pointless and the universes were separated once again.