What a Catholic commentator has to say about Marvel/DC history while discussing Voyage Comics' contributions to the medium

A writer at the Catholic World Report discusses Voyage Comics, the publisher specializing in religiously-themed stories, and along the way, has what to say about past Marvel/DC publications with allusions to leftist ideology. Some of which are admittedly quite interesting to ponder, including a certain aforementioned tale from 1986 that led to a disturbing form of editorial mandate the following decade or so:

Back in the late 80s and into the 90s, even as an unphilosophical teenager and avid consumer of comic books, I was well aware of flaws in the fantasy worlds of Marvel and DC.

I can, for instance, recall seeing through the thinly veiled propaganda of an “X-Men” graphic novel entitled God’s Country, the villain of which was a small-minded religious bigot who refused to tolerate super-powered mutants. One storyline of The Legion of Super-Heroes depicted a xenophobic dictator taking over the Earth, resulting in a terrible regime whereby hapless space aliens were persecuted.

Quite aside from the obvious virtue-signaling, I was also put off by the superficial and trite conflation of issues such as trans-humanism and extra-terrestrial life with the “gay rights” movement. Do slogans like Coexist! and Can’t we all get along? really represent the only response to the presence among us of alien beings endowed with godlike powers?

In any event, an issue of The Incredible Hulk would finally cut to the chase by featuring S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury bragging about his organization’s acceptance of homosexuals.

To be sure, even in the mainstream comic book industry, there have been exceptions that veer from the reservation of liberal ideology. I still have an old issue of Batman, wherein the hero tracks down an insane criminal who would solve the homelessness problem … by killing off all the homeless. Unfortunately, some of the most interesting comics that part ways with leftist ideology are excessively dark. For example, Frank Miller’s iconic The Dark Knight Returns is laced with gratuitous obscenity and over-the-top violence, making it impossible to recommend this otherwise fascinating account of an indomitable, haunted man resuming his obligation to protect his home city from chaos.

Interesting the guy does have a problem with Miller's resort to jarring violence in the story, though I hardly consider DKR a title worth the time, if only because of what it led to years later, though of course I realize it's not Miller and his story who're literally and/or solely to blame, but rather, any editors and publishers who came within even miles of forcing successive writers to adopt a path where Bruce Wayne would be portrayed as a nasty control freak, almost entirely lacking a sense of humor or any kind of happiness amid the darkness. That direction also led to the horrific mistreatment of Stephanie Brown/Spoiler, because if memory serves, there were storylines where it was implied superhero missions are unsuited for younger protagonists, and all this in a world that was otherwise meant to be surreal. IIRC, even in Geoff Johns' Teen Titans title, this shoddy path was alluded to at one point.

I think the columnist goofed with the title of the X-Men GN, which I believe is actually "God Loves, Man Kills", originally published around 1982, and was the 5th in the Marvel Graphic Novel series that lasted until about 1993, comprising at least 75 stories. And since that came up, one can only wonder if Chris Claremont would've written up a villain who was a Muslim adherent? IIRC, when Claremont later wrote an unsuccessful 2nd volume of Gen13 that came after September 11, 2001, he added a character who was a Muslim to the cast, indicating Claremont was an early example of a writer who went woke in comicdom. And where exactly in the Hulk was Nick Fury boasting about welcoming LGBT agents into S.H.I.E.L.D? Perhaps in the 1990s, when it was more likely such propaganda would turn up, and the late Peter David was known to be a supporter of such ideologies. It is a shame he had to make such a big deal about it, even if at the time, most writers like him originally did it more subtly, unlike the very disturbingly contrived and forced way it's been handled since. Although, lest we forget, the disgraced Gerard Jones was one shoddy writer of his sort from the times who did it, as mentioned, in a very contrived and forced manner, at the expense of a more talented writer (Roy Thomas)'s creation from Infinity Inc. And that was definitely wrong. For all we know, what Jones did may have precipitated the alarming trend among leftist writers of changing a heterosexual character to homosexual, and it eventually led to the damage even X-Men's cast underwent. And even before all that, there was a time when William Messner-Loebs changed the Pied Piper from the Flash to gay in 1990. Just because this was a reformed crook who underwent an alteration of personality, does that make it inherently acceptable? Of course not.

Happily, Voyage Comics avoids political correctness on the one hand and runaway sex and violence on the other, instead opting to celebrate heroes both more down-to-earth and more wholesome than what we typically find in Marvel and DC. Also, intriguingly, heroes are placed not in the immediate “now” but are situated within historical fiction; the “Lionette” and “Phantom Phoenix” titles are set in America in the period between the World Wars.

...A sick popular culture very much needs a Catholic presence, and one way to maintain such a presence is by imprinting artifacts of that popular culture with a Catholic vision. Certainly, our history and culture are replete with real-life heroism, protagonists, and images, which warrant our children’s attention more than do Spider-Man or Green Lantern.

On this, I would disagree just in how he implies Spidey and GL in and of themselves aren't worth our children's time. There was once a time they were relevant, and when most writers/editors didn't force extreme political beliefs into the stories under the confidence that, because these were corporate-owned, they could get away with it. But that began to collapse over time, with GL an early victim of PC post-1988, and Spidey the next victim years later in the early 2000s, when J. Michael Straczynski got his mitts on the writing assignment. I think back to that time and feel disgust at all the apologists who defended and justified JMS' writing, at least until the whole Sins Past debacle came around, and only then may they finally have conceded it wasn't worth the paper wasted to print it. Today, it's definitely aged poorly.

So it's great to have religious stories to tell from that specific perspective of what figures can be considered heroic. Even so, I don't think the columnist should be telling all this at the expense of the hard work figures like Stan Lee did in his time. That kind of bias never helps.

FCBD will see changes, based on new competing event with different publishers

Fox8 reports that this year's Free Comic Book Day held in the Piedmont Triad area (North Carolina) will also see another alternate event, previously mentioned here:

Historically, many of the major comic publishers, including giants Marvel and DC, have participated in the event together. This year, however, the event is splitting in two.

The breakup follows after Diamond Comic Distributors went bankrupt in 2025, leaving other companies to swoop in and pick up where Diamond left off.

The rights to the “Free Comic Book Day” brand were sold to Universal Distribution, which plans to bring Free Comic Book Day back on May 2. On the same day, Penguin Random House plans to launch a rival event called Comics Giveaway Day.

This means you’ll still get plenty of free comics, but this time they will be separated with some coming under the Free Comic Book Day branding and others arriving under the Comics Giveaway Day branding.

Free Comic Book Day will include publishers like DC, Image, Dynamite and Archie Comics.

Comics Giveaway Day will include publishers such as Marvel, Dark Horse, Boom! Studios and Tokyopop.

They certainly did split into 2 rival events, with 3-4 publishers each, if we go by what's listed. But what if any of their offerings amount to little more than "throwaway day"? Years ago when FCBD first launched, I obtained a few items that weren't worth the paper they were printed upon, artistically speaking. So why must we assume this year's double event will be any improvement? I have no idea why Marvel decided to shift to a competing event, unless they believe there's still plenty of mindless zombies out there who'll buy their books no matter what the quality, or lack thereof, but this really isn't anything to be excited about anymore. Interesting though that the company who must've bought some of Diamond's old assets is actually going to continue FCBD though. Because who knows if it'll turn a profit for them any more than it ever did for Diamond? For all we know, it probably won't.

Henry Brown's new GN, "Threat Quotient", which combines past inspirations with modern metaphors

A graphic novelist named Henry Brown's written on Hollywood in Toto about his new comic titled "Threat Quotient", and what his inspirations were for developing it. In the following paragraphs, he says:

In the midst of the Covidiocy lockdowns, that old comic book flame reignited. I still remembered most of the characters I conceived, and an idea for a sprawling superhero epic that I never began.

Over the years, when driving long distances or performing monotonous tasks, the old ideas bubbled up to the surface of my mind. In my daydreams I had revised scenes, plot elements and character concepts.

Not because I always believed I’d be able to use them, but because there’s a creative algorithm in the firmware of my brain I’ve never been able to turn off.

I got a fire lit under me in 2021 and first attempted to create a space opera comic. That’s a story unto itself I won’t unpack here. But despite how disgusted I was with the Big Two comic book companies and the disappointing cinematic adaptations of late, I still wanted to revisit the stories that had evolved through the years in my imagination.

Well if what he's saying is that he wanted to draw inspiration from them from a time when Marvel/DC still mattered, that's a great idea. And of course, it's a terrible shame it came to the situation where they went downhill into PC by the early 2000s, and what I think is particularly grating in hindsight is that people like Bill Jemas had to be the ones to save Marvel from bankruptcy. Some Marvel fans might agree it would've been far better if they'd folded than have to endure the humiliation Jemas and Joe Quesada put them through a quarter century ago, and similar points can be made about DC under Dan DiDio and Geoff Johns.

Anyway, what inspired Mr. Brown to develop this GN was the Korvac Saga:

As a boy, my intention was mostly just to concoct a tremendous super-slugfest. I had the last issue of the Korvac Saga in my collection and was impressed by the heroism of Earth’s (Marvel’s) mightiest heroes standing together against world-destroying power with a forlorn hope of survival…but fighting anyway because they saw it as the right thing to do. [...]

My experience and observations of the world around me filled in those blanks. What could inspire actual heroes to fight such a battle? That’s easy: freedom.

It rhymes with the scenario we are facing in Current Year America. There are people near the reins of power who think good governance is:

• Sending agents to murder a pet squirrel or investigate a garage pull-down cord
• Arresting citizens for sharing memes or for praying near an abortion clinic
• Chargd for holding church service or walking their dog outdoors during a universal lockdown for a flu bug with a 99 percent survival rate

The enemy is too cowardly to overtly fight to deprive us of our individual rights—they would take our freedoms through deception, subterfuge, psychological manipulation, lawfare and fraud. They’ll try to avoid an actual fight until we’re helpless to resist.

Patrick Henry’s axiom, “Give me liberty or give me death,” is more relevant than ever.

What if there was a subculture that agreed with Henry, but could not be made helpless? Who would force their would-be masters to fight it out? That is a hill good men would be willing to die on.

I transposed the old story idea from my childhood world into the reality of 2021-ish, then tweaked that to accommodate the existence of superheroes and clear plenty of wiggle-room for creative license. The plot involves an international conspiracy to establish Orwellian control over the citizens of every country; a super-powered (“ultrahuman”) team to enforce compliance; and a resistance movement with a team of ultrahuman dissidents that comes together to oppose them.

Yes, that sounds interesting. Like a metaphor for modern issues with Islamism/Communism. We definitely need more stories like that now, and who knows if a tale like the Korvac Saga would be published today if the editors and publishers thought it even remotely resembled issues they now consider anathema for observation? That's why it's now up to independent creators to prove they have the courage to confront serious topics, in contrast to the modern mainstream publishers who've ruined everything. Good luck to Mr. Brown with his new GN project.

A hero of the 2nd world war whose story was told in comics form

YnetNews has some history of a Jewish-American WW2 hero, Theodore Bachenheimer, whose biography was told in a Golden Age title, Real Life Comics #25, a series that ran during 1941-52:

In the first battle in which Theodor Bachenheimer took part in Sicily, he was captured by German soldiers. Rather than surrender and confirm his identity as an American soldier, Bachenheimer used his native command of German and his appearance as tools for survival. His story was later commemorated in a comic book, now on display at the Museum of the Jewish Soldier in World War II.

Bachenheimer was born in 1923 in Germany to Jewish parents. He spoke German with a local accent, was raised in German culture and appeared to be a native. After the Nazis rose to power, his family fled to the United States. A few years later, he returned to Europe, this time in a U.S. Army uniform. He volunteered for the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division, an elite unit deployed to some of the toughest fronts in Europe.

Bachenheimer repeatedly infiltrated enemy territory, volunteered for guard duty alongside German soldiers, captured enemy troops for intelligence and interrogation, slipped into bases and gathered critical intelligence. His exploits spread among Allied troops, turning him into an almost mythic figure.

During Operation Market Garden, the largest airborne operation in the Netherlands, Bachenheimer and his unit encountered a German ambush and suffered heavy losses. He managed to escape the chaos on a bicycle, broke through German lines and was the first to reach the city of Nijmegen. There, in an unprecedented role for a 22-year-old private, he rallied hundreds of resistance fighters, coordinated intelligence activity and effectively became the field commander. Even after emerging as a key figure, he continued to carry out daring missions in enemy territory, repeatedly outwitting German forces.

In October 1944, he was captured by German soldiers and killed. A year after his death, by then already a legend, Bachenheimer was commemorated in an unusual way: the American comic book series Real Life Comics, which focused on war heroes, dedicated a special issue to him titled “The Soldier Who Became a General.” It was a rare cultural tribute to a young fighter who repeatedly defeated the enemy through ingenuity and daring.

Marking Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Museum of the Jewish Soldier in World War II named for President Chaim Herzog is presenting Bachenheimer’s extraordinary story. The American comic book featuring his story is also on display.

Asaf Efrati, deputy director of information and education at the museum, said: “Holocaust Remembrance Day is an opportunity to highlight, alongside the story of the victims, the story of the Jewish fighters. Bachenheimer’s story, marked by daring and ingenuity, shows how he turned his command of the language and his German identity into an operational tool that allowed him to penetrate enemy territory, outwit the Germans and save lives. His character illustrates the contribution of Jewish soldiers to the defeat of Nazi Germany.”

Here's one important story whose original back issue is preserved in the correct place - a museum, though of course, this is something involving a serious subject matter. But it's also another topic that brings to mind the speculator market - if there's any collectors who own back issues of this, and they're keeping it stored out of the public's sight, and not even reading its history themselves, seriously, that's wrong. I'm glad the Museum of the Jewish Soldier in WW2 is letting visitors know about this specific comic's existence by putting a copy of it on public display. It's important history everybody should know about, and shouldn't be concealed in some cynical speculator's vault.

The history of black masculinities in comicdom

Union News Daily covered a recent conference that was held at Vauxhall Library about black masculinity in comics history. And along the way, perhaps unsurprisingly, some problematic parts come up:

Black superheroes began showing up in comic strips and comic books as early as the mid-1930s. However, in mainstream comic publishing the depictions of Black people were inaccurate.

Recently, at Vauxhall Library, the community gathered to watch the film “White Scripts and Black Supermen: Black Masculinities in American Comic Books” (2012), directed by Jonathan Gayles. The 54-minute documentary examined 40 years of changing representations of Black masculinity in American comic books, focusing on characters from the late 1960s to the late 1970s. The movie featured scholars, artists and cultural critics analyzing how Black superheroes have been burdened by stereotypes and how these images shifted to reflect changing times. [...]

Black Panther made his Marvel debut in 1966 and Gayles said he saw himself reflected as a hero. “Everyone in the comic book was Black,” he said in the film.

John Stewart was DC’s first Black superhero, introduced in the 1970s.

Dr. William H. Foster III is a renowned comic book historian, scholar and collector. He’s recognized as a leading authority on the portrayal of African Americans and minorities in American comic books and comic strips. In the film he said, “John Stewart came in with heavy attitude. He caused the death of a planet. He dated aliens. He was the first Black superhero who stepped out of a small town and into the universe.”

Stop right there for a moment. Unmentioned is that the Cosmic Odyssey miniseries is where John led to the slaughter of a planet, and they don't find that the least bit repellent he'd have such a setup forced upon him? The omission of any critical or objective view of that monstrosity of a tale is head-shaking. As for aliens, yes, he certainly dated one such lady, Katma Tui, but I don't think it can be said he dated busloads, and as mentioned before, Katma was executed in the repulsive Green Lantern entries in Action Comics Weekly.

Oh, and if they're talking about BP's debut in Fantastic Four 52, not everyone in the issue was black. There was also the FF team themselves, who were white, unless you count the Thing being orange per Ben Grimm's transformation from the cosmic radiation that was part of the premise for the team coming to be in 1961. And what about Ulysses Klaw, the evil scientist who changed himself into a living sound creature, though that was left for a later issue? This is a very awkward article, proving again why many mainstream newspapers are unreliable on history.

Luke Cage, Hero for Hire, was a Marvel superhero in 1972. He wore a yellow disco shirt, a metal headband and a chain around his waist. He goes to jail for crimes he didn’t commit and a racist guard tries to kill him. Luke was supposed to be urban, but came across as corny. His sayings didn’t reflect real Black language.

Tyroc was a minor DC Comics character in 1976 and showed how diversity was handled badly. He was a character 1,000 years in the future, where Black people were escaped slaves living on an island.

Regarding Luke, it could be argued his dialogue, including exclamations like "sweet Christmas", was meant to be surreal, and in a sci-fi setting, that's par for the course. Regarding Tyroc's residence, I think the premise in the mid-1970s was that the black inhabitants of the island of Marzal were descendants of 18th century slaves who'd revolted upon a ship and then reached the island, where they lived as isolationists. So it's not accurate to say the inhabitants of Marzal several centuries later were slaves, though there's a valid arguemnt to make that Tyroc's introduction was sadly very questionable, yet that was no excuse for artist Mike Grell insulting the character by drawing him a costume that looked almost like a bustier.

A key takeaway from the film is that white heroes such as Spider-Man were portrayed as normal and relatable. Black heroes were hyper-masculine and spectacularly different, therefore hindering identification for Black readers.

Depending how you see this, if the masculinity of black men was respected at the time, wasn't that a good thing? But, if what they're concerned about is whether the black protagonists have flaws, moral or otherwise, applied to their character, then what about Cyborg from New Teen Titans, in example? Why doesn't he come up? Even the Falcon could serve as a good example.

And if masculinity's important, then were black women ever portrayed as hyper-feminine? I've looked over various comics from the Golden Age till the turn of the century, and I noticed that in the Golden Age, there were at least a few examples where black women were depicted as short-haired tomboys, and as a result, made to look far less hot than the white women were, if at all. By the late 1960s early 1970s, this was beginning to change, although some portrayals of black women at the time only gave them round Afro-hairstyles that were anything but long, and Misty Knight and 2nd Captain Marvel Monica Rambeau were at least 2 examples during the Bronze Age. Storm in X-Men was one black woman who did have a longer mane of hair, even if it was colored white by contrast. To be sure, since then there have been some black women whose hairstyles were longer, illustrated as both curly and straight. But a real absurdity would have to be Brian Bendis' creation of Riri Williams, who was portrayed with the round Afro-hairstyle long past the time it was common, though much worse is that she was not created as her own agency; she was created as part of the social justice pandering of the past decade, and almost put to use for replacing Tony Stark as Iron Man, as if it weren't bad enough Kieron Gillen forcibly retconned Tony's background. Some of the SJW-pandering creations of the past 2 decades have been forgotten at this point, although the Muslim Ms. Marvel, perhaps unshockingly, is still being foisted on the MCU, no matter how awful the political structure of her creation makes it, but some sadly still remains, and DC/Marvel have been climbing some high trees while keeping them around.

The articles does say there are indie creators who've come up with their own creations, and that's good, but the point that really needs to be made is that, based on the collapse of coherency and morality in Marvel/DC, that's why we all have to stop relying almost entirely upon them to deliver entertainment value, and the time's come to focus on creator-owned stories instead. But till this day, nobody in the press seems to want to write an op-ed making such a point, nor why, if Marvel/DC are to be considered worth reading again someday, they can't continue under a conglomerate ownership.

Disney's theme parks restore a welcome greeting

Breitbart reports Disney's theme parks are quietly and thankfully restoring a greeting that shouldn't be even the least bit controversial:

Disney Parks has reportedly brought back “ladies and gentlemen” to its park greeting — in a major cultural reversal after years of censoring any mention of sex in an attempt to appease the woke gender-inclusive mob.

The theme park appears to have begun quietly restoring its previous language to announcements, making for one of the most symbolically significant reversals Disney has made in years, according to a report by the entertainment and Disney-focused news site That Park Place.

“It was very nice to hear that ‘Ladies and Gentlemen’ has returned to the Magic Kingdom Express Monorail recently!” one Disney fan exclaimed in a Tuesday X post, sharing video footage of the new language.

Very fortunate, and hopefully indicates more businesses will return to making use of a classic and entirely polite introduction/greeting that shouldn't be even the least bit controversial. If the employees wearing cartoon costumes like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck actually spoke, rather than stick more with the pantomime act they've used for many years, maybe they too could add some smiles to the patrons' faces by using the greeting themselves as well. Let's also hope they restore Minnie Mouse's more feminine-style outfits after the unappealing pantsuit design they concocted a few years ago.

What would be the reason manga might be losing younger readers in Japan?

According to Automaton, a researcher in Japan suggests manga is losing younger audiences because they prefer digital but allegedly can't afford it:

The Japanese manga and comic book market size reached a record high of about 700 billion yen (roughly $4.4 billion USD) in the 2020s. But while this may give the impression that manga are being read more than ever in the past couple of years, Japanese author, print journalist and publishing industry researcher Ichishi Iida suggests otherwise. In a column for President Online, Iida compiled numerous recent research reports supporting his theory that the manga industry is seeing a big decline in readership, specifically children and teens.

Traditionally, serialized manga in Japan was largely popularized through magazines and anthologies, such as The Weekly Shonen Jump. Up until 2004, the manga market was significantly larger for manga magazines than for standalone books, Iida suggests. According to data by the Japan School Library Association, at the peak of magazines’ popularity during the 80s, middle and junior high schoolers would read about 10 magazines per month. Fast forward to 2025, that number dropped to just 1. Additionally, the proportion of those who don’t read magazines at all has reached 77.7%.

Iida cautions that, with there being few long-term surveys that provide insight into manga readership over the years, it might be difficult to determine how these trends apply to the readership of standalone manga publications. However, when it comes to manga magazines, school surveys over the years confirm the trend that readership is decreasing among children. Iida points out that, for example, while Corocoro Comics still had a strong following among elementary school boys in both 1996 and 2019, the same couldn’t be said for Shonen Jump among middle and high schoolers, with readership plummeting to roughly one tenth of what it used to be (research data provided by an undisclosed school).

Using data from multiple different surveys, including the 1985 and 1995 data by Japan School Library Association and 2023 data by Benesse Educational Research & Development Institute and Tokyo University, Iida concludes that manga readership among children and teenagers is declining both with physical publications and in digital form. Note that due to the difference in survey methods and sample populations, these results are only for reference, as the author explains.

Something not clear in the article is the following query - what if the plummeting birthrate in Japan plays a part in the decline of readership among any age group? Doesn't that concern anyone? If there's not enough new births, there won't be enough of an audience for manga, on or offline. So why don't they worry about how to produce new organic readerships?

Interestingly, the article does say physical manga's still more popular among children than digital, so until the birthrate problem can hopefully be solved, maybe that's a good sign, since it's better for people not to spend too much time on the phone and tablet. Sometimes, reading a printed book and comic can be the best option available.

What Tom Brevoort says about the JLA/Avengers crossover

Popverse relays what the galling Marvel editor told a podcast interview about the making of the JLA/Avengers crossover, and how fans reacted to Superman besting Thor:

Marvel's longest-serving editor, Tom Brevoort, has a pretty thick skin when it comes to fan outrage. Having overseen decades of big narrative swings come out of the House of Ideas, he'd have to. And yet, there's still one moment of reader blowback that stands out to him, even decades after the choice in question went down. The reason?

Fans asked for it before it happened.

Brevoort was talking about his witness to unpopular decisions at Marvel (which comes with, we should note, absolute libraries worth of popular ones) on the Word Balloon Comics Podcast with host John Siuntres.

"I still hear from people that are angry about Superman [vs.] Thor," Brevoort told him.

Specifically, Brevoort is referring to the confrontation between the Man of Steel and God of Thunder that happened in 2003's JLA/Avengers #3. Krypton's favorite son ended up soundly defeating Asgard's, much to the dismay of Thor fans everywhere, but while people were grumpy about it after it happened, they were foaming at the mouth for it beforehand.

"The funny part for me," the current X-Men editor explained, "Is when we announced the project, Kurt [Busiek, writer] set up a dedicated email address that was like, 'If people have suggestions for what they want to see, email them there. We'll read through stuff and we'll look and see if there's anything.' One of the things that came in by the pound was fans on both sides of the equation saying, 'We want real fights with a real winner and a real loser. No mealy-mouthing about it.'"

I think a better complaint the audience could've raised is whether this represented one of the biggest problems with Brevoort's resume since the early 2000s - heroes clashing with each other instead of uniting against villains. Well okay, I realize that some of the leading villains in the story were Giganto, Fin Fang Foom and Krona, who IIRC, originally appeared in the Silver Age in Green Lantern. Of course, there's other problems with the story too, like retaining the mandate that put Kyle Rayner in the GL role, and Hal Jordan in the Spectre role?!? Based on that, this is why the tale doesn't age well.

That said, if we look at this story as a legitimate match between superheroes and their powers, skills and strategies, why does it matter so much whether Thor or Superman wins a duel against either? That's not what should count as a triumph. What matters far more if if there's a story where two or more superheroes from different universes and publishers can win a battle against formidable villains from either/both universes. But most importantly of all, what matters is the story merit. I think it's been unhealthy for mainstream comicdom in the long run to concoct these crossovers for the sake of pitting heroes vs each other. Why, this kind of event may have been what later led to 2007's Civil War, where fans reportedly told the MSM they were rooting for say, either Captain America or Iron Man, but no word was ever given as to the entertainment value of the overall story (and there wasn't). What's the use of these events if they're built on turning fandom against itself? That's what these crossovers feel like now, and it probably never occurred to anyone before.

All that told, something that needs to be made clear about Brevoort is that he's shameless, considering he's been party to many of the most unpopular decisions at Marvel, including erasure of the Spider-marriage, not to mention "narrative swings". And they have the gall to sugarcoat even that. If all a crossover tale like JLA vs. Avengers can do is present a divisive premise that has the effect of encouraging fans to choose a side as though one hero's less valuable than the other, that's what makes these kind of crossovers tasteless. Which was the case when it came to Avengers vs X-Men. In a time where there was more quality, it would've been far better if there'd been a team-up rather than a versus match, even if it was the villains who were pulling the strings. Now, both publishers have collapsed.