User blog comment:ElectricMayhem/Long Live The Amalgam Universe!/@comment-61022-20111009150622

Amalgam was an interesting concept. I liked how when it came out they made the titles seem like they had been going on for years, right down to phony letter pages from fake fans.

The whole thing really happened at a time when Marvel and DC were flagging in sales, and noted that comic book cross-overs were making some decent coin and decided to do the whole Marvel Versus DC/DC Versus Marvel thing.

Amalgam was great aftermath from it.. Even though some of the stories kind of stank.

I think the main reason Amalgam has fallen on the wayside into the realm of forgotten comic book gimmicks is the rights issues to continue any future work, and the fact that Marvel and DC (since they got JLA/Avengers out of the way) have been in direct competition with each other for sales, it doesn't appear that they are going to be friendly with each other anytime soon. Which is a shame.

Another interesting thing to pick up, might be "Stan Lee Imagines..." It was done by DC Comics when Stan Lee's exclusive contract to Marvel ran out, the first thing he did was write a bunch of stories where he took the concepts of DC's biggest heroes and wrote the characters as if he created them.

I've heard good and bad things about that series so its a matter of taste really.