Maybe? It's hard to say, things were so different then. I think if we had gotten some kind of send off for the DCU, it would've been a complete wipe, just the end of all things. And Marvel would have picked up and introduced the characters with a completely fresh start.
Man, the Avengers roster would've be a hell of a thing to see.
"We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another, as if we were one single tribe."
~ Black Panther.
I dont' think it would have needed to be anything so drastic. I think it would have been handled like they did in Superman Vs Spider-man of the 80's or Spider-man Batman or Batman/Daredevil or even Punisher/Batman crossovers where these characters are treated as if they ALWAYS shared the same the world. It's actually pretty easy when you just consider that Batman is in Gotham and Superman is in Metropolis and everyone else is in Manhattan... New York doesn't play a HUGE role in DCstories... so keeping them separate and just 'never teaming up' is as easy as why Thor and Daredevil are never around each other. (well... maybe 2-3 times in 70 years... but still)
I wonder if any creators back then put ideas together in case the DC purchase happened?
I could see Marvel bringing the DC heroes in as if they had been active for a while and just off-panel, or doing hard re-starts and introducing them all as rookies.....perhaps it would've been a bit of both, depending on the character in question?
What I wonder is if Marvel would have kept everything from each characters' mythology, or found places to fold it into established MU stuff. Like maybe Superman would have been Kree instead of Kryptonian, or Barry Allen might've been a mutant who's powers were triggered by the lightning strike?
"We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another, as if we were one single tribe."
~ Black Panther.
Logically I don't think there would have been much crazy or creative altering. Flash getting his speed from lightning and chemical bath... isn't that different from Electro getting zapped working on a high wire and gainign electric powers. If anything I do think Flash would have disappeared into obscurity. They have Quicksilver they don't need Flash. They may have kept Kid Flash if they ran with the NTT... but Flash would have been out. Which is pretty much what they did with COIE anyway. But the only value in getting these characters is to get the fan bases and all the their money too. Similar to the way DC wants the Fawcett Shazam money to follow the charcters.
If Marvel owned DC, I don't think JUST DC books would have hit the chopping blocks. They would still sell maybe 20-25 books a month, and it'd be combination of whichever ones had the highest fan bases. You'd have Spider-man, X-men, Avengers, Captain America, hulk, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Teen Titans, etc. while the C-list Marvel things would be canceled to make room.
That's my assumption too, Marvel would have dropped their own D-list titles to make room for DC's A-list. I'm glad this never happened, but what we could have gotten from such a merger back then is fun to think about.
Back in the 80's, was Quicksilver actually popular? Because I struggle to imagine him being a bigger deal than Flash. Of course, Quicksilver is also pretty much just a team character while Flash carried his own solo, so perhaps Marvel wouldn't have felt the need to cull one over the other. Plenty of characters with the same powerset, after all.
"We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another, as if we were one single tribe."
~ Black Panther.
Moon Knight would have been Marvel's first casualty, followed closely by Ms. Marvel and DC's Dr. Fate.. The interesting toss ups: Ant-Man/Atom, Green Arrow/Hawkeye.
Wonder Woman. Green Lantern. Flash. I think all these would have slipped in pretty smoothly.
I've never considered Quicksilver to actually popular. However, Flash's own popularity wasn't doing so hot. They were into that whole Trial of the Flash and then killing him off time frame. If they had to choose between the two of them... I think they PROBABLY would have gone with the 'known quantity' and the shared history with Magneto, Scarlet Witch and the Avengers. It's just 'cleaner'. Besides the fact that for the LONGEST time Quicksilver just wasn't that fast... 200mph was his stat for a long time while Flash is racing Superman between other planets. It's tough to make your own kids seem special when the new guy is an olympic all star. I have a feeling that the more 'realistic and grounded' a character was, the better their chances of integration... and Flash was WAY out there.
Heh, they could have replaced Barry with Quicksilver.
That would have given them the best of both worlds, in a way. Flash was the bigger IP, so Marvel gets to keep selling his likeness on t-shirts, but the guy under the mask that the stories are about is Maximoff. I'm guessing ideas about replacing Barry might've been in someone's head by then, he wasn't replaced that much later. It'd be kinda funny if Barry was destined to be replaced no matter what.
"We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another, as if we were one single tribe."
~ Black Panther.
I just don't see Marvel handling DC properties as well alongside their own IP's. It just wouldn't mix well and it would've been too much to manage to be able to make every franchise work and survive as well as they did with each other.
http://jimshooter.com/2011/10/superm...rnes-plo.html/
Marvel werent going to buy DC but license the characters for the comics.