With the Batman/Deadpool and Spider-Man/Superman crossover issues, Marvel and DC, the titans of superhero comics, have ushered in a new age of cross-company team-ups. For a long time, it seemed as if the opportunity for fans to see heroes and villains from the two universes coming together had long since passed. Now, it seems like it may continue for years to come.

There was a time when Marvel and DC crossovers weren’t regular events, but sometimes they happened under the radar. Occasionally, artists would sneak a DC character into the background of a Marvel title or vice versa. Once, DC went so far as to suggest that Superman and the Fantastic Four shared a foe.

But in the 1960s, there was one secret crossover conceived by the teams behind Avengers and Justice League of America that forever changed the course of the Marvel universe, even if DC’s editors shut the whole thing down.

The Avengers And The Justice League Fought In 1969… Kind Of

It all started shortly after Deny O’Neil took over the writing duties on Justice League of America with #66. O’Neil and his friend, Avengers writer Roy Thomas, wanted to find a way to bring their dream, and the dream of many fans, into reality and have the two teams meet. Of course, legal issues would make it nearly impossible without months, if not years, of negotiating.

Not wanting to wait for Marvel and DC’s editorial and legal teams to work out a way to make it happen, Thomas and O’Neil concocted a plan to have the two biggest superhero teams in comics meet. Each book, in the same month, would feature an evil version of the other company’s team. And while it wouldn’t be official, it would, hopefully, be close enough to excite readers.

Roy Thomas and artist Sal Buscema went about creating and designing Squadron Sinister, with Hyperion standing in for Superman, NIghthawk taking Batman’s place, Doctor Spectrum acting as Green Lantern, and Whizzer running in place of Flash. Marvel editorial either didn’t notice or didn’t much care that this team was clearly a pastiche of DC’s heroes, and the story moved forward. The evil version of the Justice League is hinted at in Avengers #69 before being introduced in #70.

Sadly, Denny O’Neil and artist Dick Dillon weren’t as lucky. The plan was to have the knock-off version of the Avengers appear in Justice League of America #75, but Julie Schwartz, the editor of Justice League of America, figured out what O’Neil was up to and put an end to the planned storyline. Instead, the issue features the League battling evil versions of themselves.

Still, O’Neil and Dillon did sneak in one semi-reference to the Avengers by having the doppelganger Batman use a garbage can lid the same way Captain America uses his shield.

The Squadron Sinister Returned As Heroes

While DC crushed the secret crossover, Roy Thomas liked having the Avengers meet the League, so he decided to do it again a year later. In Avengers #85, with art by John Buscema, Thomas had the Avengers accidentally travel to another reality where they see Nighthawk from Squadron Sinister.

After fighting Nighthawk, the team learns that their one-time foe is actually a hero and a member of the Squadron Supreme. This team includes even more Justice League copies, including Lady Lark (Black Canary), Tom Thumb (Atom), and American Eagle (Hawkman). Together, the Avengers and the Squadron save what would become known as Earth-712.

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Squadron Supreme would continue to make guest appearances in Avengers before getting their own seminal miniseries by Mark Gruenwald and Bob Hall in 1985. The team would later be reimagined by J. Michael Straczynski and Gary Frank in Supreme Power before being officially made part of the Marvel 616 universe as a team made up of heroes from multiple destroyed alternate realities.

The Avengers Finally Make It To DC

While Denny O’Neil was never able to make it happen, writer Mike Friedrich and artist Dick Dillon were able to get a version of the Avengers into a Justice League story. Justice League of America #87 sees DC’s heroes come into conflict with the Champions of Angor: Blue Jay (Ant-Man), Jack B. Quick (Quicksilver), Silver Sorceress (Scarlet Witch), and Wandjina (Thor).

While the Squadron Supreme has thrived at Marvel, the Champions of Angor were not as lucky. The team didn’t make another appearance until after Crisis on Infinite Earths, and when they did, they were quickly destroyed. As revealed in 1987’s Justice League #2, Jack B. Quick, now called Captain Speed, died of radiation poisoning when nuclear war destroyed their planet.

The next issue would see Wandjina seemingly sacrifice himself to stop a nuclear power plant meltdown, only for it to be later revealed that he was alive, though horribly disfigured, and turned into a villain by Queen Bee. Captain Atom would end up being forced to kill Wandjina in battle.

Blue Jay and Silver Sorceress would go on to join the Justice League International, but Silver Sorceress would lose her life in a battle with the Extremists during the “Breakdowns” storyline. Blue Jay is the last living soul from the planet Angor.