I had read that Jim Shooter’s bid for Marvel Comics was actually the second highest bid when New World Productions sold the company. A businessman named Ron Perelman put in a higher bid, but that died with him in the automobile accident that claimed his life. How different would have Marvel been if Perelman had not died? Would we still have the superhero boom of the nineties in cinema?
That is a tricky question to answer, but it was obvious Perelman didn’t want to buy Marvel out of fondness for the characters or a particular desire to see the company succeed. For all of his personal faults, Shooter was a lifelong fan of the medium and a proponent of creator rights that offered incentives and royalties to creators who performed. Granted, that didn’t stop Rob Liefeld from jumping ship in ‘91. Todd MacFarlane and Jim Lee had mentioned that Liefeld had been attempting to convince a walkout of Marvel’s top artists to form their own company in protest of Shooter’s policies, but no one was interested. Thus Liefeld went to DC Comics where he worked on the New (Teen) Titans spinoff, Team Titans with main series writer, Marv Wolfman. A Perelman-owned Marvel could make it quite possible that Liefeld could have been successful in organizing his walkout under different circumstances.
Liefeld wouldn’t be the only one to jump as Shooter is a rather divisive figure in comics and there were many creators who loathed the man. John Byrne was probably the most infamous example as he drew a parody of Shooter’s Starbrand character in 1987’s Legends crossover. He opted to stay at DC when he caught wind that Shooter and his partners acquired Marvel. It would be safe to assume that the Claremont/Byrne reunion on Justice League would be butterflied away.
On the multimedia front, things could have been much different than they are today. Marvel’s partnership with James Cameron and Lightstorm Entertainment in 1992 set the stage for the superhero boom. For one, it forced then-DC president Jenette Khan to reconsider her plans for a Superman-centric television series and focus instead on planning his return to the silver screen in response to Marvel/Lightstorm’s Spider-Man and X-Men announcements. There were even rumours of Christopher Reeve donning the cape again to team up with Michael Keaton’s Batman, but alas it wasn’t to be (though Brendan Fraser as the Man of Steel in Superman ‘95 was a surprisingly nice consolation prize.)
Had Perelman survived, Marvel Entertainment would be a completely different animal as the man made his millions acquiring companies. In all likelihood, he probably would have bitten off more than he could chew by buying more companies and merging them with Marvel. One wrong move, for example, acquiring the wrong distributor could have been catastrophic. Worst case scenario, Marvel could have declared bankruptcy by the late 1990s had it grown too large and that is not accounting for all other butterflies. Thankfully, this is all big, “What if?”
-Excerpted from the thread “WI Jim Shooter never returned to Marvel Comics?” on counter-history.net, April 30, 2020
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And thus after spending the last few years contributing or ghosting pop culture threads, I have posted my own comic book themed TL.
So the PoD is Ron Perelman dying in a car crash in 1989?
Yes. I would have gone with "struck by a bolt of lightning" for how the comic book industry is still suffering because of his actions in the 90s, but thought that would be too flashy (no pun intended.) However, there will not be be any major butterflies until 1991 or the TL will begin that year.
Do you have a publishing schedule for this TL?
Honestly? Not really, I have other (non-alternate history) projects that have higher priority and a job. I only have a rough outline in my head as such. However, I will at least provide a substantial update at least once a week.
Will you cover non-superhero/comic book subjects?
If it catches my fancy, yes, but I want to focus on comic books and related media as much as I can.
Do you accept suggestions/submissions?
I do, but please PM me about it for approval.
“Contrary to popular rumour, I never hated Rob. Was I particularly fond of his art? No, but X-Force was one our top sellers at the time and he believed that he deserved more. I could look past that, but then Tom [DeFalco] called me to tell me that we had a problem. Rob was trying to organize a walkout of our top artists and I obviously couldn’t look the other way and dismissed him. I wish him well at DC, but he burned whatever bridges he had at Marvel when he pulled that stunt.” - Marvel Entertainment Group President Jim Shooter on Rob Liefeld’s dismissal, Wizard Magazine (June 1992)
Rob Liefeld’s attempts to organize a walkout with his fellow artists at Marvel Comics were a dismal failure. Neither Todd MacFarlane nor Jim Lee were interested due to the company’s generous incentives and royalties programs and Jim Shooter fired him before he could convince anyone else to join. Despite this, he was still an industry superstar and rival DC comics was eager to accept him.
He was able to reach an agreement with managing editor Dick Giordano to co-write and pencil the New Titans spin-off with main series writer, Marv Wolfman: Team Titans. [1] Liefeld built the team around the premise that American culture would treat superheroes as would actors and professional athletes where the characters would balance the pressure of their celebrity lives with fighting super-villains.
Founding Titan, Roy Harper AKA Arsenal , would form the nucleus of the team as its leader and, aside from a redesigned Harlequin [2], one of the few established characters on the team. Badrock was the team muscle; a behemoth of solid granite with the maturity of a teenager (because he was one prior to his transformation.) Die Hard was a cyborg version of Marvel’s Captain America created by S.T.A.R. Labs; Chapel was a government assassin who shared a history with Deathstroke while Combat and Photon, a Khund and a Tamaranean, rounded out the team.
Team Titans functioned more as a foil to the Justice League titles than the main New Titans as the US government sponsored this incarnation of the Titans and the League operated under a UN charter. The title was DC’s highest selling title of 1992, but Liefeld began falling behind schedule with issue #5 and left altogether after #8. His replacement would Joe Quesada, who would be the title’s main artist until cancellation with #24. Critical consensus on the title today is that character development and plot took a backseat to action-packed sequences, bizarre anatomy, and guns. Lots and LOTS of guns. However, that changed after Wolfman took charge of the title and attempted to build on the characters until 1995's Zero Hour event ingloriously erased the bulk of the team from continuity.
[1] Liefeld did indeed pitch a Teen Titans book to DC in 1991, but couldn't come to an agreement with Giordano according to him. He came to an agreement TTL, but Giordano held the upper hand in negotiations due to Liefeld's dismissal from Marvel.
[2] Duela Dent, and not Harleen Quinzel/Harley Quinn who would later debut on Batman: The Animated Series.
“It certainly wasn’t something I expected would happen when Marvel learned about our unauthorized use of Spider-Man in our game. Jim [Shooter] calls my office to ask, ‘Hey Tom, would you be interested in making video games for us?’” -Tom Kalinske in a 2016 interview with Sega-16.
The inclusion of Spider-Man in Revenge of Shinobi for the Sega Genesis (or Mega Drive overseas) was reportedly supposed to be a placeholder until the character designer would later substitute with their own design. Word of this eventually reached Marvel’s legal department, and eventually the desk of Jim Shooter himself. While thoughts of legal action against Sega did cross his mind, Shooter saw the potential of the video game company as an ally. Upon a couple of playthroughs of the game, he asked for a meeting with Sega of America CEO, Tom Kalinske.
Marvel was no stranger to licensing its characters to other companies to produce video games on multiple platforms, but the results were often mediocre to outright dismal. Shooter’s research into Sega’s repertoire revealed the quality of their games. While Marvel would have certainly benefited from also licensing games on the Nintendo Entertainment System (and its successor, the Super Nintendo), Shooter that a partnership would better serve Marvel's interests in the long run and thus hammered out an five-year exclusivity deal with Sega to develop games using Marvel’s characters.
This deal also benefited Marvel as Kalinske approached Shooter for help developing the world behind their new killer app the Genesis: Sonic the Hedgehog. Shooter along with Bob Budiansky (who developed many characters for Hasbro’s Transformers) developed the game’s characters and backstory for American audiences. In turn, Sega licensed the blue blur to Marvel to publish under its revived Star Comics imprint. Sonic the Hedgehog #1 by Mike Gallagher and Dave Manak arrived in comic shops and drug store spinner racks in March 1991--three months before the game’s release on June 23, 1991.
However, video games were merely part of Marvel’s multi-pronged media strategy. The company would look next to the silver screen after the success of Tim Burton’s Batman in 1989.
“I felt that I did all I could do with Spider-Man in ‘92 and wanted to move on, but I was already on top of the mountain at Marvel, and didn’t want to go back to DC. There was a character I had been working on--you know, Spawn--so I pitched him to Tom [DeFalco] and Jim [Shooter.] Neither was keen on bringing him into the Marvel Universe, but Jim suggested that we publish it under the Epic imprint, which was flagging at the time. Marvel got another hit, and I had complete ownership of the character and all the freedom I could ask for.” - Todd McFarlane on Spawn’s 25th anniversary, 2017.
Todd McFarlane’s Spawn released in comic shops to great fanfare under Marvel’s Epic banner in March 1992. With the might of Marvel’s marketing department backing it, it sells in excess of two million copies, making it the highest selling comic since Jim Lee’s X-Men #1 the year before. Aside from a few minor changes, the premise of the title remains the same: mercenary Al Simmons’ employer betrays and kills him, thus he makes a deal with the demon Malebolgia to restore him to life. As with all deals with the devil, Simmons returns with a horrifically burned body, most of his memories lost, and his wife married to another man.
McFarlane owned the rights to his character while Epic only publishes the book. He would go on to start his own company, McFarlane Toys, after a failed partnership with Mattel to produce toys based on his comic. Spawn would later spin off into television with an adult-oriented animated series on HBO in 1997 and a feature film by New Line Cinema later that year, making Spawn a media empire in its own right.
Spawn’s success would both invigorate Epic Comics and begin what would be best described as a “studio system.” Other artists such as Marc Silvestri, Erik Larsen, and Jim Valentino would start up their own studios (Top Cow, Highbrow, and Shadowline) that would recruit new talent that Marvel would draw upon in later years. Even old guard creators such as Jim Starlin and Dave Cockrum would return to Epic with Dreadstar and The Futurians respectively, which would usher in what many fans call the “Epic Renaissance.”
Yet Spawn was not without controversy. A moral panic broke out after concerned parents and other groups protested the “demonic” content with public figures such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson publicly condemning the book. While the outcry never reached levels seen in the 1950s with book burnings and the implementation of the Comics Code Authority, some protesters picketed comic shops.
Jim Shooter would later remark in an interview with 60 Minutes that a significant portion of Marvel’s readership were--in fact--adults that have read the company’s titles since the sixties. In that same interview he mused that the Comic Code Authority was archaic and insufficient for the market realities of the day.
Marvel ultimately dropped the Comics Code Authority in 1993 and instead adopted a ratings system similar to Motion Picture Association of America’s. Other publishers followed suit and by 1995 the other publisher that submitted its titles to the CCA was Archie Comics.
Sonic the Hedgehog from Star Comics turned out to be one of Marvel’s surprise hits of 1991, though nowhere near X-Men #1’s sales. While strong for its first three issues, sales exploded after the release of the Genesis game in June. Bob Budiansky based his character descriptions partially off of the few translated notes from Sonic Team in Japan by making the titular hero a free spirit and wanderer. He would take inspiration from Incredible Hulk television show of the 1970s by writing that Sonic would, “go from village to village, righting the wrongs caused by Dr. Eggman.”[1]
As such, he had the series take place on South Island and kept most of the locations intact. Dr. Eggman would be described as an invader from “far away” who sought to remake South Island in his own twisted image: a polluted industrial wasteland--hence giving the series a strong environmentalist message.
To flesh out the story more, Budiansky repurposed Sonic’s animal friends in the game into characters in their own right. Ricky became Ricki Acorn, former princess of the Green Hill Kingdom and leader of a group of resistance fighters. Rocky Walrus was the team muscle and gentle giant. Picky Pig would be the cowardly, but kind-hearted inventor of the group; Pocky Rabbit as the resistance’s ace fighter who constantly tried (and failed) to upstage Sonic; and Pecky Penguin as the team’s aquatics expert. Ricki would attempt to sway Sonic into joining the Resistance during their encounters, only for Sonic to steadfastly refuse each time.
Early issues included Flicky as Sonic’s wisecracking sidekick with the scripts largely humour and pun-driven (as was Mike Gallagher’s style), but the title stood a drastically different turn in its second year. Dan Slott, who had been writing backups, earned a promotion to main writer with issue #14 in May 1992. While the humour remained intact [2], the stories became plot driven with Sonic, the Resistance, and Eggman in a race for the Chaos Emeralds. A new dictate from Sega of America mandated the insertion of Miles “Tails” Prower as Sonic’s sidekick starting with #18 that September, thus Flicky disappeared from the book altogether.
It was with the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on the Genesis that revealed more details of Sonic’s world, which now took place on the planet Freedom. Dr. Eggman was among the humans that colonized the planet, but the colonists exiled him for his unethical robotics experiments. His motivations for attacking South Island were to gain a base so he could conquer the human colony in revenge--if only Sonic and the Resistance didn’t interfere.
Year Two of the comic would set the template for not only the rest of the series, but the animated series by Marvel Productions that would air Saturday mornings on Fox and its affiliates starting September 1992. It along with X-Men [3] would become massive hits for the network, which surged in popularity thanks to these programs. Sega’s Blue Blur started strong out the gate and would climb higher over the next few years.
[1] Budiansky kept the Japanese name, so the character was never called Robotnik ITTL.
[2] Sonic’s personality would draw many comparisons to Spider-Man from this point onward.
[3] Still produced by Saban Entertainment and unchanged from its OTL counterpart.
Sonic the Hedgehog Network: Fox Network Airdates: September 19, 1992 - February 10, 1996 Seasons: 4 Episodes: 104 + 2 Specials
CAST
Ian Ziering as Sonic the Hedgehog [1]
Dana Hill as Miles "Tails" Prower
Kath Soucie as Princess Ricki Acorn
Brad Garret as Rocky Walrus
Rob Paulsen as Picky Pig
Charlie Adler as Pocky Rabbit [2]
Cree Summer as Pecky Penguin
Keith David as Dr. Ivan Eggman
Jeff Bennett as Knuckles the Echidna [3]
[1] The producers wanted a celebrity for the role and thus chose Ziering because of work on 90210. He kept voicing the character long after the show ended, including the games from the Saturn onward.
[2] Apparently the casting director for the show didn't know that Adler voiced Buster Bunny on Tiny Toon Adventures, and the humour of this is not lost on him.
[3] Imagine Brooklyn from Gargoyles voice and you wouldn't be far off.
DC’s annual crossover Armageddon 2001 went without a hitch. The final issue revealed Captain Atom as the future tyrant, Monarch [1], which drove the hero mad and sent him down a villainous path. His fall precipitated the “Breakdowns” storyline that ended the Giffen/DeMatteis run on the Justice League America and Justice League Europe titles where the captain’s betrayal tore the teams apart. Of course, this was all part of the house cleaning for the DC’s next big announcement: the reunion of Chris Claremont with John Byrne on Justice League.
Claremont left the X-Men titles after an unprecedented sixteen year run following disagreements with collaborator Jim Lee. Archie Goodwin, former Marvel editor-in-chief who then worked at DC, convinced the former X-Men scribe to jump ship to the distinguished competition to work on its flagship title. While both Claremont and Byrne were reluctant to work together again after so long, Goodwin eventually convinced them to collaborate once more under his editorship.
DC heavily publicized the return of the Claremont/Byrne team, emphasizing their genre-defining work Uncanny X-Men with the “Dark Phoenix Saga” and “Days of Future Past” to excite the readership. However, their return was not without complications. Both Claremont and Byrne had insisted on the classic line-up for their title; Byrne himself stated that, “a Justice League without Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman [et. al] was an all-star team without any all-stars.”
The truth was that the editors of the solo titles were stingy with their characters. Denny O’Neil was quite adamant about keeping Batman street level and refused to allow Batman membership in the League. Most of DC’s editorial staff were eventually wrangled into agreeing. Mike Carlin and Dan Thorsland agreed to allow the use of Superman and Wonder Woman. Brian Augustyn signed off on the Flash though Green Lantern was slightly more complicated. Kevin Dooley refused to allow Hal Jordan to join because Green Lantern writer, Gerard Jones wanted the character to lead the rechristened Justice League International [2] title. However, they reached a compromise by giving John Stewart Hal’s place on the team.
The renamed Justice League title launched with issue #61 in February 1992 with its lineup consisting of Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern [John Stewart], Hawkman [Katar Hol], Hawkwoman [Shayera Thal], Blue Beetle, Black Canary, Zatanna, and later, Firestorm. While it had not been as groundbreaking as their previous work, Claremont and Byrne’s Justice League was a strong seller and revitalized a title that had been flagging.
[1] Monarch’s identity never leaked ITTL so the story (more or less) ends as it originally did.
[2] The line-up for Justice League International is thus: Aquaman, Green Lantern [Hal Jordan], Crimson Fox, Doctor Light [Kimiyo Hoshi], Power Girl, Elongated Man.
Malibu Comics was looking for its big break into the comics industry. Founded in 1986 by Tom Mason and Dave Olbrich had acquired several smaller companies such as Eternity Comics and Aircel Comics [1], but were still a small fish in a pond dominated by Marvel and DC. One of their later acquisitions would be the rights to the characters published by Gold Key Comics in the sixties: Solar: Man of the Atom, Magnus: Robot Fighter, Turok: Son of Stone, and among others--but needed the right talent to bring it to life.
The company’s financer, Scott Mitchell Rosenberg suggested Alan Moore whose seminal work on Eclipse’s Miracleman as well DC’s Swamp Thing and Watchmen made him an industry name. However, Moore had remained out of the mainstream since ending his relationship with DC, sticking to smaller publishers. Rosenberg enticed Moore with a favorable contract and near-unlimited creative freedom. While initially wary, Moore agreed and began work on what fans would dub the “Solarverse.”
Its augural title Solar: Man of the Atom--launched in April 1992-- involved a physicist named Dr. Philip Solanski at the fictional Nevada Supercollider [2] whose experiments gave him virtually omnipotent power over matter and energy. Unfortunately those same experiments allowed extra-dimensional aliens to invade our universe. Solanski battles them as Doctor Solar, an identity inspired by the superheroes he read in youth, but their battle destroys the universe itself save for himself. Using his powers to create a new big bang to remake the universe, which not only now included Magnus and Turok, but heroes of his own making. Moore followed Solar up with his second project for Malibu: 1963.
1963 was a metafictional homage to Marvel from the sixties with Moore referring himself as “Affable Al” and his collaborators (Steve Bissette, John Totleben, Dave Gibbons, Rick Veitch) by nicknames similar to the Marvel Bullpen of old. From there Moore would create pastiches of Marvel character not limited to:
Issue #1: Mystery Incorporated (based on the Fantastic Four) featuring Crystal Man, Neon Queen, Kid Dynamon, and the Planet.
Issue #2: Sky Solo, Lady of L.A.S.E.R. (based on Nick Fury, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.)
Issue #3: Tales of the Uncanny, an anthology featuring USA, Ultimate Secret Agent (Captain America) and Manowar (Iron Man) [3].
Issue #4: Tales from Beyond another anthology featuring the Unbelievable N-Man (Hulk) and Doctor Spektor (a Gold Key refashioned to resemble Doctor Strange.)
Issue #5: Horus, Lord of Light. A pastiche of the Thor that uses Egyptian mythology as opposed to Norse.
Issue #6: The Protectors (The Avengers) featuring USA, Manowar, N-Man, and Horus as well as Sparrow Man (Ant-Man), and Sparrow Girl (The Wasp.)
1963 would end with an annual where they would travel forward through time to meet the contemporary heroes of the Solarverse (many of whom were future counterparts.) Sales on the initially wave of Solarverse titles were incredibly strong with 1963 #1 approaching Todd McFarlane Spawn in sales, thanks to aggressive marketing that included television commercials. Even non-Moore books such Prime were strong sellers and Malibu came within a hair’s width of overtaking DC Comics during some months of 1992/93.
Moore himself would eventually amicably part ways with Malibu, having given them a foundation to build on. Dave Olbrich did however have a capable stable of creators that included James Robinson, Mike Barr, Steve Englebert, and Steve Gerber (to name a few) to work on these titles while Moore collected the royalties. While Malibu’s fortunes had been looking upward from 1992 to 1993, its sales would see a noticeable decline in 1994. Not enough to shutter the company, but enough to catch the hungry eyes of Mike Eisner.
[1] The latter of whom published Men in Black.
[2] Inspired by the Superconducting Super Collider, which butterflies narrowly save ITTL.
[3] Closer to the Ultraverse’s Prototype than Valiant’s X-O Manowar.
Spider-Man vs. the Kingpin would be a strong seller for the Sega Genesis in 1991, but it wouldn’t be the only hit Sega/Marvel partnership produced that year. Both Jim Shooter and the man himself, Stan Lee, were adamant to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the Fantastic Four with something big. Admittedly, the team’s fortunes were on a slight decline with the popularity of Spider-Man and X-Men eclipsing them so they needed something big to grab the attention of both longtime fans and also bring in a new audience to the team that brought in the Marvel age.
Rumours persist that an anonymous Marvel staffer brought the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game to the Shooter’s attention who would then pitch the idea of a Fantastic Four beat-em-up to Sega Enterprises CEO, Hayao Nakayama. While Nakayama was skeptical of the project, he trusted Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske (who vouched for the project) enough to greenlight it. Under the directorship of Noriyoshi Ohba [1], Fantastic Four would begin the direct collaboration of both Sega branches and Marvel.
The arcade cabinet would be a four-player one similar to Konami’s TMNT cabinets using the System 32 arcade board. Jim Lee, along with Adam and Andy Kubert, would contribute character designs as well as production artwork. As with arcade games at the time, the game’s plot was a simplified one where the team’s nemesis, Doctor Doom allied himself with the Skrulls in a bid for world conquest. Even worse, it appears that former allies like Namor the Sub-Mariner and T’Challa the Black Panther have joined in on the plot.
The game starts on streets of New York City where the Four might repel the combined forces of Latveria, Atlantis, and the Skrulls. Mister Fantastic is the jack-of-all trades with average speed and strength with elastic reach. The Invisible Woman is a glass cannon with incredible speed and power, but incredibly frail without her force fields. The Human Torch is the ranged fighter who uses his fire as projectiles, and the Thing, while slow, is the strongest fighter and extremely durable due to his rocky skin.
(Eagle-eyed fans would be able to notice a familiar shadow swinging in the background of the first level, which would be the first of many cameos in the game.)
From there the Four would travel to Atlantis and Wakanda, where they would discover that both “Namor” and “Black Panther” were, in fact, Skrull imposters. Meanwhile, Doctor Doom would drop in to impede the team’s progress by sending them to the Mole Man’s subterranean kingdom, the Negative Zone, and Attlian where Maximus the Mad has overthrown the Inhuman royal family. It all culminates in a confrontation at Castle Doom where Doom briefly sends the team back to the pirate era [2], before facing them in combat.
However, they were merely fighting a Doombot (isn’t that always the way?) and the Four must board the Skrull mothership where they must fight both Doom (again) and the Super-Skrull. Once defeated, the Super-Skrull activates the ship’ self-destruct with both him and Doom escaping capture. While the Four couldn’t apprehend Doom, the world is safe once more.
Fantastic Four earned lavish praise from critics upon its release in October 1991 for its detailed graphics and sound, which included voice samples and the iconic “kirby crackle” effect. Stan Lee himself was heavily involved with the marketing, showing enthusiasm matching the game’s (much) younger audience at his appearance at 1992’s Consumer Electronics Show to promote the Genesis and Sega CD ports.
Needless to say that Fantastic Four was an unqualified success for both Sega and Marvel. The Genesis port was only behind Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the highest selling title of 1992, and the enhanced Sega CD version (that included cutscenes to flesh out the story) helped move units. Moreover, it helped push up the sales of the comic book, which had been slumping, and would climb higher after Jim Lee took over in 1993.
Sega would not be done as the success of Fantastic Four prompted them to greenlight their next collaborative project to challenge Street Fighter II’s arcade supremacy... Marvel Heroes: Contest of Champions. [3]
[1] Whose credits include Streets of Rage on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. This, however, delays the release of Streets of Rage 2 to 1993.
[2] A nod to Doom’s first appearance in Fantastic Four #5.
While Tim Burton’s Batman Returns was a roaring success for Warner Bros, there were some at the company that were not happy with this. Parental groups decried the film for its violence and sexual references and McDonalds shut down its Happy Meal promotion for the film. It also did not help that Marvel Entertainment Group and James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment announced a multi-picture deal in association with Carolco Pictures [1] on June 2, 1992--two weeks before the film’s release, which cast a small shadow on it.
Cameron confirmed that he would write and direct Spider-Man as the flagship title of a shared cinematic universe slated for a Summer 1994 release. The webslinger would not be alone as the announcement included X-Men for 1995 along with rumours of Captain America, Hulk, and Iron Man films on the way too. This spooked the executes at WB who, up until this time, had a stranglehold on the genre. Plans for a third Batman film and a Catwoman spin-off ended back on the shelf while the studio reconsidered its strategy. T2 and its massive success made Cameron a force to be reckoned with and WB would turn to one its most reliable hit makers who also had a history with DC Comics: Richard Donner.
Donner’s history with the Salkinds and the feuding behind the scenes of 1978’s Superman made him wary of returning to the property. However, his wife and partner, Laura Schuler Donner, was interested in producing a Wonder Woman feature film and convinced her husband to take the job. Thus Warner Bros. announced that work had begun on a new Superman film alongside Wonder Woman after the home release of Lethal Weapon 3 later that year. Unfortunately, one of the casualties of that announcement would be the Superman television series that DC Comics president Jenette Khan had championed. [2]
Indeed American cinema was standing on a precipice of a new boom. Fans were buzzing with rumours of Christopher Reeve’s return to the role and a potential team-up with Keaton’s Batman gaining traction. There were even wagers in comic shops and newsgroups over which X-Men not named “Wolverine” were going to make the cut. It was an exciting time to a nerd and to quote Stan Lee, “Stay tuned, True Believers.”
[1] This butterflies away Cutthroat Island, but will it save Carolco?
[2] And Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman bites the dust, which will start a domino effect for the comics which I will elaborate on in a coming update.
"Quarterman's spies have reported that DC Comics has been holding meetings with representatives from Capcom in California and Japan about a potential licensing agreement. Could that mean that the minds behind Mega Man and Street Fighter will be churning out games starring the Man of Steel, the Dark Knight, and the rest of the Justice League?" - Excerpt from Quarterman's column, Electronic Gaming Monthly #37, August 1992
After a decades-long courtship Superman would marry his love interest, Lois Lane with Superman (vol. 2) #75 in November 1992. While DC had published “Mr. & Mrs. Superman” stories during the seventies and into the eighties, these were the adventures of the Golden Age “Earth-Two” counterparts of the characters that were no longer canon after Crisis on Infinite Earths. DC President Jenette Khan had originally vetoed the idea as she wanted to save the idea for her never-realized television series, but green-lighted it after Warner Bros. changed its plans following the Marvel/LightStorm announcement. However, a great tragedy would occur before the celebration.
“Wedding of Steel” was the epilogue for what would be that year’s big crossover where an unstoppable alien juggernaut named Doomsday would rampage across the DC universe. It began in Green Lantern (vol. 3) #33 where Doomsday crashes into Coast City and begins slaughtering its inhabitants. He faces off against not only Hal Jordan, but also John Stewart and Guy Gardner in a desperate battle while the Corps evacuates the survivors. Doomsday defeats them and dozens of other Lanterns before moving on, but the city still stands and most of its population spared.
Doomsday would continue next month in The Flash (vol. 2) #71 where Doomsday arrives in Keystone City. The fastest man alive would desperately employ every speed trick he knew to slow the behemoth down, only to get both legs broken before both the Justice League and Justice League International intervene. The crossover consists of DC’s entire pantheon of heroes making a stand against the creature over the following months, only for them to fall until Doomsday arrives in Metropolis.
What would follow would be what many fans regard as one of the most brutal fights in the history of the medium where Superman and the remnants of the League fight Doomsday to standstill. Ultimately, it is a badly-injured Superman who stands alone against the creature--and betrays his own code to never kill and puts Doomsday down for good, but at a cost. Superman survives the battle, but falls into a coma and later learns that the battle burned his powers out when he emerges from it.
His experience with Doomsday taught him how even fragile his life is and thus continues on with the wedding--doubling his commitment to Lois. Superman announces his retirement to the world and appoints Booster Gold as his replacement in the League as well as Metropolis’s protector [1]. The story ends with Lois and Clark on their honeymoon; Clark playfully asks Lois if she still loves him as much now that he’s not Superman. She unbuttons his shirt to reveal his bare chest and leans towards him to whisper, “You will always be MY Superman.” before they kiss.
“Doomsday” would have reverberations that would echo throughout the DC Universe. For one, Hal Jordan and Guy Gardner would set aside their differences for the rebuilding of Coast City while John Stewart joins the Corps’ Honour Guard. Wally West’s encounter with Doomsday would leave him terribly shaken, especially when Barry Allen apparently returns from the dead at the end of The Flash (vol. 2) #73. However, the biggest change will be the expansion of the Superman mythos as several pretenders will appear out of the woodwork.
[1] Likely because Booster Gold is Dan Jurgens’s creation.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 released to great acclaim on November 24, 1992 after months of hype on the Sega Genesis, Game Gear, and Master System. While the game is visually the same in terms of sprites and assets to its OTL counter, some levels that were removed from the game during its development made it in to the game while others were altered or disappeared from the game altogether. Gone are Aquatic Ruin, Hill Top, Mystic Cave, Oil Ocean, Sky Chase, and Wing Fortress. In their place are Frosty Peak, Red Wood, Dust Hill, Hidden Palace, and Cyber City with the Death Egg becoming a full-fledged zone albeit a single-act one.
Frosty Peak is both a fire/ice-themed Zone with ice physics on the exterior while rising lava and earthquakes menace Sonic and Tails inside the caves. The level itself is a blending of OTL Hill Top and the unused Winter Zone designed by Brenda Ross and the bass of the level is the Egg Plow, a scrolling boss where the player must run forward, dodging missiles from Engman, and curling into a ball to damage him when he raises the plow.
Red Wood is a completed version of Wood Zone from the OTL beta filled with conveyor belts and saws. The boss, the Egg Logger, uses both to keep the player on their toes.
Dust Hill is the desert zone seen only in mockups OTL with quicksand and other traps, including the treaded alligator badnik. The boss is similar to the one used in OTL's Oil Ocean, except Engman submerges himself in quicksand rather than oil.
Hidden Palace is the same one from the beta that Christian Whitehead restored in the OTL iOS part, including the bandits. It replaces Mystic Cave and uses that zone's boss.
Cyber City continues from Metropolis as a single-act zone (albeit a long one) that Eggman launches the Death Egg from. However, the player will need to get past Mecha Sonic to board it.
The level order is thus: Emerald Hill > Chemical Plant > Casino Night [1] > Red Wood > Frosty Peak > Hidden Palace > Dust Hill > Metropolis > Cyber City > Death Egg.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 would become that year's "must have" game on the Sega Genesis and one of the systems highest selling games. However, a stolen beta of the game that included "lost" Zones would be later dumped as a ROM that would circulate in the late 90s, which would spur fan speculation.
Batman: The Animated Series by Warner Bros. Animation debuted on the Fox Kids on September 5, 1992 to great acclaim for its darker tone, the film noir aesthetic, and producer Bruce Timm's character designs. Villains such as Mr. Freeze received a new on life after the Emmy-winning episode, "Heart of Ice" by Paul Dini and some B:TAS characters like Harley Quinn and the Gray Ghost would make the jump to comic books by mid-decade. Perhaps its biggest impact would be the episode, "If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich?" would serve as the inspiration for the third Batman film, Batman: The Dynamic Duo.
Meanwhile, X-Men debuted later that year as a special preview on October 31, 1992 despite airing in an unfinished form. Much like Batman: The Animated Series, it had a darker tone and explored issues like prejudice. While never receiving the same acknowledgements B:TAS did, it was still very popular and often competed with Sonic the Hedgehog as Fox Kids highest-rated show. It would also enjoy a longer run than the Blue Blur, ending its seven season run in 1999 and crossing over with Fox's Spider-Man in 1995 as well as UPN's Fantastic Four in 1996. James Cameron would also acknowledge its influence when writing the "series bible" for Marvel's nascent cinematic universe solidifying it as a touchstone for popular culture.
Fantastic Four was an unqualified success for both Marvel and Sega that they immediately began work on their next title. Fighting games such as Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, and their many imitators were massively popular (and controversial in the case of Mortal Kombat) that Sega wanted a slice of that pie. Rather than build a story from the ground up, Sega made use of their licensing agreement with Marvel to roughly adapt the 1982 mini-series: Contest of Champions. Much like FF, Sega would develop Contest of Champions on the Sega System 32 hardware and feature sixteen fighters, which made it one of Sega's most ambitious attempts to date. The story follows its comic counterpart with the universal elder, Grandmaster, challenges Death to a game for the life of fellow elder, the Collector. The two choose their champions and begin a tournament that takes place across the Marvel universe.
This came with a ceveat: Sega could not use any X-Men characters due to the Genesis game being in development at the same time. However, Sega saw this as an opportunity to showcase some of the more obscure characters in Marvel's stable. Depending on which character you chose, you would face either the Grandmaster or Death's Champions with either serving as the final boss of the game.
Grandmaster's Champions
Death's Champions
Captain America
Ghost Rider
Thor (Erik Masterson)
Namorita
Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau)
Quicksilver
Black Panther
Daredevil
Iron Man
Vision
Scarlet Witch
Spider-Man
Hawkeye
She-Hulk
Nova
Black Knight
The game used such locales such as the Kree Throneworld (with the Supreme Intelligence is the background), Avengers Mansion, and even the Daily Bugle rooftop. However, what made the game standout from its contemporaries was the implantation of a "Super Combo" system where players build up their "super bars" to execute devastating Super Combos on their opponents. [1]
Marvel Super Heroes: Contest of Champions his arcades December 1992 and became an instant hit. It drew some criticism for its lack of balance with Thor and Quicksilver gaining notoriety as the most broken characters in the game, but otherwise a fun game with a great variety of characters to play as (more than either SF2 or MK). However, rumors began swirling that it was possible to unlock Stan "The Man" Lee himself as a fighter. The origins of the rumor traces its beginning to Electronic Gaming Monthly's April 1993 issue and a April Fools joke where they claimed that the (co-)creator of Marvel would challenge the player if they play through the game without taking a single hit--an impossible and fruitless task that frustrated players to no end.
However, Sega would implement Stan Lee as an unlockable fighter for the Sega CD port and even recorded voice samples. The method of unlocking Stan was far more forgiving than the EGM prank: simply max out your super combo meter and unleash a super combo on Grandmaster/Death for the finishing blow and Stan will appear to challenge you to a duel. Beware though, he is even more broken than Thor and Quicksilver, but defeating him reveals a secret code that allows you to play as Stan. Indeed, it was this code as well as Sonic CD as that Christmas season's killer app that contributed to the Sega CD's significant higher sales that year (the Genesis version of the game lacked the code.)
Needless to say that a sequel to Contest of Champions would be forthcoming, but the bigger surprise would be Capcom's announcement later that year.
[1] Over a full year before Super Street Fighter IITurbo does OTL.
After nearly four years of pencilling X-Men, Jim Lee was willing to move on to other projects. Though unlike his fellow artists he decided against his own creator projects at the moment and wanted to see if he could revive the fortunes of Fantastic Four when editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco offered him the assignment. With the artist locked into place he decided to look to the distinguished competition for talent. DC Comics had benefitted from the "British Invasion" of the 1980s that saw the rise of talents such as Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and Grant Morrison that redefined the medium and DeFalco wanted to tap into that talent. Moore was uninterested in returning to Marvel, Gaiman was busy with Sandman and his own projects, but Morrison had finished acclaimed runs on Animal Man and Doom Patrol as thus offered FF to him. Morrison accepted and the the first issue of the Lee/Morrison run began with Fantastic Four #375 in April 1993.
Morrison immediately made a splash by having the Four team up with the Silver Surfer and Galactus to save the 616 universe from a being even the Devourer of Worlds feared: Abraxas. Other story arcs included the team saving Atlantis from a Lovecraftian dweller of the depths, invaders from heaven, and even a crossover with the X-Men when Magneto's Acolytes kidnap Franklin Richards to unlock his reality-warping powers for their mutant supremacist goals [1]. While Lee brought fans over from X-Men, it was Morrison's fantastical--if not, slightly surreal--plots that pushed the book over the top. Combined with the higher profile from the successful arcade game (to say nothing of movie rumors), Fantastic Four shot up the sales charts to just behind X-Men and Spider-Man, frequently outselling the second tier X titles.
Lee would stay on the book for eighteen issues while Morrison would leave with Fantastic Four #407 [2] to return to DC. However, the two left the title in much better shape than when they took over by bringing in a new generation of fans to Marvel's First Family.
[1] This crossover replaces "Fatal Attractions," so Wolverine keeps his Adamantium. Also, don't piss off Susan Richards. She singlehandedly beats Magneto into a coma with her force fields and nearly brings down his asteroid base after he seriously injures the Human Torch and threatens to kill him.
[2] Kurt Busiek of Untold Tales of Spider-Man fame would succeed Morrison for a successful run in its own right.
After a brief two-month hiatus from publication, the Superman titles returned in January 1993, but the question was who was going to star in them if the titular character was retired? Writers Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway, Louise Simonson, and others would have either new characters or use an established character. As such, all the books would receive titles for what fans unofficially called “The Year Without Superman.”
Superman: The Man of Steel simply became The Man of Steel, which featured John Henry Irons as an engineer who built a Iron Man-esque suit upon learning that his former employer was illegally selling arms. Most of his adventures were street level, took place in Suicide Slum where those arms shipments would fall in the hands of rival gangs. Thus the newly-christened Steel teamed up with other Metropolis vigilantes Gangbuster and the Guardian to stop an all-out gangwar.
Action Comics retained its title and focused on the now-depowered Clark Kent’s career as an investigative reporter. His first assignment? Investigate an imposter Superman who has appeared in Metropolis to seal alien tech from ST.A.R. Labs and uncover his true identity. However, the truth would shake Clark to his core and leave him to question his decision to retire.
Adventures of Superman changed to Adventures of Superboy where a teenager claiming to be Superman appears in Metropolis. However, Lois and Clark would discover that he is an escaped experiment subject from Cadmus who was designed to be Superman’s successor [1]. This “Superboy” differs from Superman in that he is more egotistical and self-obsessed--revelling in fame and publicity-- but his appearance hints at a larger conspiracy at Cadmus.
Booster Gold takes on Superman’s numbering and focuses on Booster who struggles with working in Superman’s shadow as Metropolis’ designated protector. Everything changes when yet another “Superman” reappears. However, Booster grows suspicious when he sees that this Superman tries to worm his way into the wary Justice League and thus teams up with Blue Beetle, investigate the imposter and uncover an even more sinister plot.
All of the storylines converge in the “Apokolips Now” event between the Superman and Justice League titles as well minor crossovers with New Titans, Green Lantern, and Hawkman. Booster and Beetle reveal to the Justice League that the “Superman” who presented himself to the world was in fact Hank Henshaw, who used Superman’s rocket and the genetic material inside to fashion a cyborg body.
Even worse, Henshaw was in league with Darkseid to sully Superman’s name and prepare Earth for an Apokoliptian invasion, and it begins with the Battle of Metropolis. Meanwhile, Clark Kent journeys to the Arctic where he discovers a “fortress” where he confronts the false Superman that he was following was the Eradicator. The Eradicator had been building a machine from the Kryptonian and other alien tech that would restore his powers.
Clark is hesitant as he knows Metropolis and Earth have many champions, but the Eradicator reveals Darkseid’s invasion. The combined forces of the Justice League, Justice League International, the Titans, and all of Earth’s superheroes aren’t enough. So in a scene eerily similar to the theatrical Superman II, Clark enters the chamber and regains his powers at the cost of the Eradicator’s life.
Superman returns to engage Darkseid in single combat, but is unable to defeat him without assistance from the forces of New Genesis. While their combined forces drive off Apokolips’s force, Metropolis lay in ruins with the iconic top of the Daily Planet lying broken on the streets. Henshaw’s actions also damaged Superman’s reputation in the eyes of many of the city’s citizens and officials on all levels who blame the Man of Steel for Darkseid’s invasion--some even labeling him a traitor.
Superman remains undaunted and determined to regain the public trust. He is now more powerful than ever and has gained many new allies, however, what he wasn’t prepared for was Lois’s announcement: she is pregnant.
"The Year Without Superman" and the climatic "Apokolips Now" storylines where a tremendous success for DC Comics, though not on the level Marvel's X-Men, but enough to threaten Batman's supremacy. Both Steel and Superboy would receive spinoffs of their own later that year and the Man of Steel's star would rise higher when DC/Warner Bros. revealed the director for the upcoming 1995 film: Steven Spielberg.
[1] Superboy’s origins are slightly different ITTL. He is a metahuman “chimera” whose genome contains genes from several other superheroes and villains recombined to resemble a Kryptonians full powerset--and then some.
Aquaman
Green Lantern (Hal Jordan)
Flash (Barry Allen)
Black Canary (Dinah Lance)
Atom (Ray Palmer)
Starman (Will Payton)
Captain Comet
Brainwave Jr.
Doctor Light (Arthur Light)
Killer Frost (Louise Lincoln)
Marvel Universe - Includes the company’s mainstream superhero titles, X-Men and Spider-Man being the top performers. Fantastic Four has shot up in the sales charts thanks to Jim Lee and Grant Morrison, which has turned Shooter’s attention to the Avengers-related titles. While Contest of Champions was a success, it did not translate into a significant increase in sales as it did for Fantastic Four. After the success of DC’s “Year Without a Superman,” he ordered an event of similar magnitude for the Avengers that would shape the status quo for years to come.
Marvel 2099 - Launched in late 1992 with Spider-Man 2099 and expanded in the following months with Punisher 2099, Doom 2099, and Iron Man 2099 [1]. Sales have been robust enough to the addition of 2099 Unlimited (an anthology title introducing 2099 versions of popular characters) and X-Men 2099.
Marvel Edge - Marvel transferred titles with a horror or “mature” focus to this imprint, which functions as the company’s answer to Vertigo. Such titles include Hellstorm, Morbius, Ghost Rider and The Punisher that now include more violence and suggestive material than what is allowed under the regular Marvel Universe. All of these titles are sold only through the direct market and contain a “For Mature Readers” warning on the cover.
Epic Comics - The launch of Todd McFarlane’s Spawn revitalized Marvel’s creator-owned arm, which to Marc Silvestri’s Cyberforce and Codename: Strykeforce as well as Erik Larsen’s Savage Dragon and Jim Valentino’s Shadowhawk. There is some loose continuity and crossover between the four studios, but largely stay separate. Silvestri would be the most notable for recruiting talent that would work on future Marvel titles.
Star Comics - Marvel’s imprint for licensed properties (with the exceptions of G.I. Joe and Transformers: Generation 2) with Sonic the Hedgehog as the flagship title. Other titles include Barbie, Ren and Stimpy, and even a revival of the Spectacular Spider-Ham.
Though Marvel declined to hire sixteen-year-old Joe Maduereira when he applied for an internship, the high school student found work at their Distinguished Competition due to his persistence in 1990. Working under editor Jonathan Peterson he eventually gained his first assignment by filling in for New Titans regular artist Tom Grummett on New Titans #80. Though is art initially took inspiration from Arthur Adams, he soon incorporated elements of Japanese manga into his style,
This became apparent with his first regular assignment Legionnaires, which chronicled the adventures of the youthful clones of the Legion of Super-Heroes from the main title. Fans took well to his kinetic style, which led to the spinoff outselling the main title. Unfortunately, his run on the title would only last one arc as he would soon move on to what would be his most contentious assignment yet: Emerald Twilight.
After the failure to launch the Paramount Television Service in the seventies, Paramount was aiming to try again and become the fifth major network after the success of the Fox Network. Working with Chris-Craft Industries, the two companies prepared for a January 1993 launch of the United Paramount Network, but what they needed was a flagship show to carry it. Star Trek: The Next Generation had been popular in syndication--in part due to the installed fan base--thus it fell to reason that a new Star Trek series should be it along with a reboot of Mission Impossible [1].
Producer Rick Berman reached out to someone outside the franchise to pitch a series: one J. Michael Straczynski. Straczynski had been developing his own series with the premise of a space station where various species would conduct diplomacy and trade. Such a concept went against the exploration ethos of Star Trek, but Berman was intrigued enough to green light it. Straczynski’s proposal that the program should be structured into an overarching story with a definitive end to prevent the show from going over budget. An idea that pleased the network executives, but would also later cause friction behind the scenes.
Deep Space Nine tied into plot threads from The Next Generation, particularly the Cardassian withdrawal from Bajor. The planet’s provisional government asked the Federation to assist them in administering a former Cardassian station Terok Nor, which the Federation rechristened Deep Space 9. Producers wanted Michelle Forbes to reprise the role of Ro Laren as a series regular, but she declined due to her not wanting to commit to a television series (though the character would play a recurring role in later seasons.) Hence Straczynski created Major Kira Nerys (played by Claudia Christian) as CO of DS9 because he wanted a woman in a commanding role with Commander Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) as XO/adviser.
Rounding out the cast were Colm Meany, reprising the role of Chief Miles O’ Brien from TNG, Alexander Siddig (Dr. Julian Bashir), Rene Auberjonois (Odo), Terri Hatcher (Jadzia Dax), Armin Shimerman (Quark), and Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko) with an expansive cast of supporting characters.
Plot threads throughout the first season included the discovery of a stable wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant and the Maquis, which threatened to reignite the war with the Cardassians. Sisko himself would find himself torn between the pacificistic ideals of the Federation or a remilitarization of the organization due to his experience at Wolf 359. Meanwhile, Kira found herself drawn into political intrigue on Bajor with factionalism threatening to topple the provisional government. Then there was the political intrigue between the Alpha Quadrant powers and the rise of a new threat from the Gamma Quadrant: the Shadows.
Deep Space Nine debuted on January 10, 1993 to positive reviews and stellar ratings--easily becoming the fledgling UPN’s highest rated program. However, DS9 would also be a victim of its own success because the spotlight shone on it would lead to struggles between Straczynski and network executives.
DC Comics would publish the comic book adaptation of the series with Straczynki himself writing the first six issues. This would ultimately lead to him taking the reins of Legion of Super-Heroes in 1999 and the theatrical debut of the company’s most prominent sci-fi properties in the late 2000s.
[1] What will this mean for the OTL films? Stay tuned.
