That status quo now seems obvious, even intuitive. It not only offers in-story rationales for why DC and Marvel characters don't interact with one another constantly, but it's in keeping with both publishers' decades-old concepts of alternate universes, parallel dimensions and a multiverse to imagine that their two respective lines of comics were each set in their own universes.
DC traditionally cataloged alternate worlds with a letter or number system that was originated by writer Gardner Fox in his Silver Age Flash stories, beginning with Earth-Two and then expanding to Earth-Three, Earth-X, et cetera. Marvel had its own system, introduced to the public by Alan Moore in a 1983 Captain Britain comic, one that gave universes their own numerical designation, with the Marvel Universe being Earth-616.
For a comics reader, it was easy enough to think of the Justice League someday visiting Earth-616 in the same way they used to regularly visit Earth-2.
Obviously, none of the previous DC/Marvel crossovers acknowledged this premise, though, with each of the first eight just sort of assuming that DC and Marvel characters belonged in the same universe and could thus meet one another if they just visited one another's home cities. Even if that did raise a niggling question in the back of a certain kind of reader's mind (A question both Jim Shooter and Chris Claremont acknowledged in the scripts for the crossovers they had written, with first Spider-Man and then the Teen Titans' Cyborg noting how strange it is that they have never crossed paths with the other publisher's characters before).
That was almost certainly the way to go, too, particularly given most of the characters involved in those crossovers so far. I can't imagine that any of those comics would have benefited had their writers taken a few pages to acknowledge some concept of a multiverse and then figure out some way to get Spider-Man from Earth-616 to Batman's Earth-1 Gotham City or whatever.
The biggest DC/Marvel crossover of all time, 1996's four-issue DC Versus Marvel miniseries, was on its way though, and the very premise of that crossover revolved around the fact that the DC Universe and Marvel Universe were two separate realities.
It's not entirely clear to me now to what extent Green Lantern/Silver Surfer writer Ron Marz—one of the two writers of the upcoming DC Versus Marvel series—was laying the groundwork for that event comic when he penned this one, or to what extent a story in which the DC and Marvel Universes are separate realities just seemed obvious and natural to him in the story he was telling here.
Obviously, there was some degree of foreshadowing of the next year's big crossover in Green Lantern/Silver Surfer, though, as Marz devotes three panels on the last page of Unholy Alliances to a mysterious cardboard box on a New York City street which starts to emanate strange light—which would have meant nothing to that book's readers at the time, but, after having read DC Versus Marvel, it's clear bit of foreshadowing. The scene includes a line of portentous narration, of the sort readers would have been trained to know promised a sequel or continuation of some sort.
"Still," Green Lantern Kyle Rayner thinks to himself. "Just between us... ...I'm glad it's over."
(So obvious is the connection between Unholy Alliances and DC Versus Marvel that DC, who published this omnibus, included an ad for the still upcoming DC Versus Marvel: The Amalgam Age Omnibus, which contains DC Versus Marvel, directly after the last page of this Surfer/GL crossover.)
Given the cosmic nature of the various characters involved in Unholy Alliances, it seems an easy enough one to deal with the DC Universe-and-Marvel Universe-as-separate-dimensions concept; these are characters who regularly travel through time, space and other dimensions, ones who have been involved in battles to re-write their respective realities in the past (And quite recent past, for some of the DC characters featured herein).
One interesting aspect of Marz's exploration of the concept in this script, and its basis for DC Versus Marvel, is that the later story would establish a new character, jointly owned by both DC and Marvel, whose superpower was the ability to traverse between the two universes and thus provide an ongoing means for future crossovers.
However, while some future crossovers took advantage of that and acknowledged the Two Universes premise, others just ignored it completely and continued with the original idea of just having the publishers' characters already extant in the same universe. (Wikipedia's page on the DC Multiverse lists a "Crossover Earth" or an "Earth-7642" where the DC/Marvel comics take place, giving them their own universe separate from either the main DC Universe or Marvel Universe. That is, of course, another option for those who are concerned with such things, I guess.)
Marz's suitability for writing this particular project went far beyond the fact that he was going to be co-writing DC Versus Marvel, though. He was, at the time, the regular writer of DC's Green Lantern and Marvel's Silver Surfer, so the publishers could have hardly asked for a more ideal writer for the crossover.
The rest of the creative team consisted of pencil artist Darryl Banks, Marz's partner on Green Lantern (and Kyle Rayner's co-creator) and veteran inker Terry Austin.
Somewhere out in deep space, The Silver Surfer comes across a caped figure standing atop a destroyed planet as corpses float about him. When the Surfer confronts the stranger, we see that it is Hank Henshaw, the Cyborg Superman of "Reign of the Supermen," now in his red and black look. He introduces himself simply as "Cyborg," and the pair immediately fight, letterer Chris Eliopoulos providing a big "BRAKKADOOM!" that dwarfs the battling figures in the panel where they clash.
Meanwhile, on Earth, the style of narration boxes shifts to let us know we are now hearing freelance artist Kyle Rayner's thoughts as he works at his drafting table on a logo design, only to be forced to change into Green Lantern when Marvel character Terrax appears to pick a fight with him, mentioning his desire to conquer "This universe."
Both fights are broken up when new players appear.
In space, it's Parallax, the identity Hal Jordan took after going mad during the Marz-written "Emerald Twilight," here rather fresh off his plot to destroy and remake the DC Universe in the pages of the previous year's Zero Hour. And on earth, it's Thanos, wearing his classic costume and sitting on a flying chair. The two newcomers rather quickly dispatch of the secondary bad guys.
Marz will jump back and forth between the two settings regularly, building a neatly organized parallel narrative. After some conversation, it's made clear that Cyborg and Parallax have come to the Silver Surfer's reality (the latter chasing the former), and that Thanos (and Terrax) had similarly come to Green Lantern's reality, through a rift between the dimensions.
Parallax convinces the Silver Surfer to lend him part of his power cosmic, giving him the might he needs to complete his mission of restoring the destroyed Coast City, although he starts by restoring to life the dead planet and its inhabitants from the first page.
And Thanos convinces Kyle that he has constructed a super-weapon to stop Hal Jordan, who he claims threatens both universes. In order to operate the weapon, though, he needs Kyle to journey with him to the center of the universe, put his arm in an elaborate machine, and use his ring to channel the "almost limitless ambient energies of Oa", which Kyle had recently destroyed during a fight with Hal. It was Oa's destruction that apparently created the rift between the two universes in the first place. (Thanos being Thanos, however, he really just wants to use all that energy to destroy existence, a plot he reveals to Kyle just as soon as he gets what he wants from him.)
And so that's where the subtitle comes from, as both heroes rather naively decide to ally themselves with cosmic supervillains from the opposite universe, each of the title characters being rather easily talked into taking part in their schemes.
And the Surfer is also pretty easily manipulated into fighting Kyle, but I guess seeing him standing side-by-side with Thanos is enough to convince the Surfer that Kyle's a bad guy.
This leads to a pretty awesome double-page splash, in which Banks and Austin draw the two heroes posed in opposition to one another, in a poster-quality image.
Thanos tells Parallax that he's harnessed all that energy "in order to destroy everything that exists." Hal, eyes glowing with the power cosmic, responds, "And I finally have enough power to recreate it. Our goals, it would seem, are at odds."
And so they fight too, so spectacularly that it catches the Surfer's attention and he and Kyle are able to put aside their differences and intervene, ultimately putting all of the vast energies that have gone to Thanos and Parallax back where they belong and sealing the rift.
"Perhaps we'll meet again," The Surfer says over his shoulder as he heads towards the closing rift, while Kyle responds, "Meet again? Oh yeah, like that's really gonna happen." Another nod to the upcoming DC Versus Marvel on Marz's part?
Now, if you're wondering who would win in a fight between Green Lantern Kyle Rayner and the Silver Surfer, well, the four panels devoted to their fight following that double-page splash here are pretty inconclusive, but,—spoiler alert!—they would be forced into combat with one another in the pages of DC Versus Marvel, and the Surfer would be victorious. Theirs was one of the fights that was determined by writers Marz and Peter David and not by fan vote, as the more high-profile matchups were.
So yes, Kyle Rayner would end up meeting the Surfer again rather soon after the events of their crossover.
So too will we, as it turns out that the Surfer is one of the stars of the very next DC/Marvel collaboration.
Next: 1996's Silver Surfer/Superman #1...not DC Versus Marvel, which was technically the next DC/Marvel crossover, preceding Silver Surfer/Superman. As it's collected in a different omnibus, the DC Versus Marvel: The Amalgam Age Omnibus, we'll get to that after we finish reviewing all of the contents of the DC Versus Marvel Omnibus and start in on the second omnibus.
