Clash of the Comics Titans

Oh, sure, he says, there was a time. Ask Levitz, a career DC man, about his regular poker games with some of the Marvel guys. And professional games. "Anytime anyone's doing great comics, you're playing, on some level, a game of 'Can you top this?' . . . You had a long period in comics history when there were few enough publishers that it was relatively easy to just say, 'I'll buy everything from the house I like,' and buy nothing but DC titles or another [brand]. But now there is just so much stuff, there's literally hundreds of titles and publishers. The field has never been more fertile. There's more creative work being done across this wide range of formats, audiences, styles.

"I'm not sure your thesis about being one or the other works," he says, clearly itching to be rid of this interview.

Stan Lee and his gang allegedly tried to buy DC in the '70s, but there was a dispute over which characters they could have. DC, the legend goes, wanted to keep Superman and Batman. The very idea -- Marvel buying DC? -- still conjures terrific "What if?" notions, debates and dilemmas for generations of comics readers, as well as writers and artists. The houses have, over time, engaged in "crossover" stories in which their superheroes encounter one another in some interdimensional neutral space.

"Do you remember when we had a book where Superman fights Spider-Man?" Lee inquires, like anyone who is male and American and alive in 1976 could forget.

"We used to make a lot out of the rivalry," Lee says, recalling the neck-and-neck days between the houses, when he created a "Not Brand Echh" series of humor comics that poked fun at DC. "But we weren't, really. Carmine Infantino" -- the former DC creative director and publisher -- "and I used to get together every couple of months or so for a drink at this bar, Friar Tuck's was it called? On Third Avenue. He'd bring some of his guys, I'd bring some of mine. There was this idea of this big feud."

Who won?

"Hunh?"

The fight, Stan, between Supes and Spidey. Do you remember who won?

"Well, naturally it had to be a draw," Lee says. "We had to make it so you could read it as either of them won, so that DC could claim they won and Marvel could claim we won."

Navigating the Universes

DC, back then: It's your kid brother, wacked out on Pop-Tarts, still in his underpants at 10 a.m., insisting on "Super Friends" over "Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space." Thinks he's Batman at night, thinks he's Aquaman in the tub. It's make-believe, make-believe, make-believe. A hot dog is not a death ray, now sit down and eat. And who used all of the red and orange crayons? And why is Robin always in here naked with my Barbies?

Marvel, back then: It's your big sister's boyfriend, already 18 and "kind of different, but nice," your mother observes, although he rides a motorcycle with no helmet. He draws an Incredible Hulk for you on a sheet of paper, and that's it, you're hooked, he's a god. From him you learn about Ghost Rider and Conan the Barbarian and Silver Surfer. He listens to Rush.

DC, back then: Shlockarific television! "Batman" in the '60s (Ka-pow! Wham!), "The New Adventures of Wonder Woman" in the '70s. The toys, the cartoons, the read-along storybook LPs.