Posted in: Batman, Comics, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Spider-Man, Superman, X-Men | Tagged: Spider-Man/Superman, Superman/Spider-Man, tom brevoort

Tom Brevoort On How "Horse Trading" Works On Marvel/DC Crossovers

Tom Brevoort on how "Horse Trading" works on Marvel/DC Comics crossovers, ahead of the release of the Superman/Spider-Man comics

Digging further into his Word Balloon podcast interview, Marvel Executive Editor and SVP Tom Brevoort talked about the ins and outs of Marvel/DC crossover, both the current ones and those from decades ago, with John Siuntres, beginning with the current Editors in Chief of each respective publisher. "Typically, the way these are done is people get on the phone. So CB Cebulski and Marie Javins go, 'Okay, you know, who do you want to use? Who do we want to use?' Okay, we're fine with that, or you take that guy, and we'll take this guy."

He described the character allocation as a kind of friendly "horse trading," with editors advocating for their creators' preferences while respecting basic ground rules. For Deadpool/Batman, written by Zeb Wells with art by Greg Capullo on the Marvel side, and Grant Morrison with Dan Mora on Batman/Deadpool on the DC side, the companies agreed early on to avoid overlapping major ideas. "We very specifically said no Superman Spider-Man stuff because we know we're going to do that in a year. So, let's leave all the Superman and Spider-Man and family ideas for when we're doing those books… We want to we want to use the Joker. Okay, that's fine, we won't use the Joker, we'll use Cassandra Nova."

A key guiding principle for the recent crossovers, he said, was giving opportunities to creators who had never worked on an inter-company project before. "We were mostly trying to go to people who hadn't done any of these before. Anybody who'd been around and hadn't had a chance, hadn't had a bite at the apple of doing a crossover, would get a chance at it. We're trying not to repeat pairings. And obviously, Superman Spider-Man is the exception to that because that's the anniversary."

Despite Marvel and DC's fierce competition in the marketplace, Brevoort emphasised the collegial atmosphere at the editorial level. "Honestly, for all that our organisations are rivals in the marketplace and so forth, and you know they're godless heathens, apart from that, they're really perfectly nice people over there, and they kind of do the same thing that we do, it's honestly pretty easy to negotiate these things out. And so far, everybody on these latest crossovers has really been operating with it with a good spirit of cooperation."

He credited the tone to leadership at the top: "That comes down to CB and Marie, setting a tone and setting out the ground rules for the organisations that they're in charge of to go, right, we're going to find ways to get along and we'll give you one of the things you want and you'll give us one of the things we want, and vice versa and we'll put out some fun books and get a lot of excitement in the marketplace and get fans coming back in excited to buy comics. And maybe they'll buy some other comics while they're there."

Brevoort acknowledged the added complexity of coordinating twice as many people but stressed that the shared language and training among editors make it manageable. "But it's not actually that much more complicated because it's all the same kinds of people with the same kind of training and background."

Superman/Spider-Man from DC Comics is out at the end of March, All-New All-Spectacular Spider-Man/Superman is out from Marvel in April. What comes next, we can only speculate…

• SUPERMAN / SPIDER-MAN #1
  Writer(s): MARK WAID, TOM KING, MATT FRACTION, SEAN MURPHY, GAIL SIMONE, CHRISTOPHER PRIEST
  Artist(s): JORGE JIMENEZ, JIM LEE, STEVE LIEBER, SEAN MURPHY, BELEN ORTEGA, DANIEL SAMPERE, and NICOLA SCOTT
  • When journalists Clark Kent and Peter Parker find themselves chasing the same story, the conspiracy they uncover could change the world—especially if Brainiac and Doctor Octopus have anything to say about it. (And we bet they do!) Good thing our intrepid newshounds are secretly Superman and the amazing Spider-Man. To bring this clash of reporters‑turned‑heroes to life, Mark Waid and Jorge Jiménez join forces to headline DC's Superman/Spider-Man #1 with an unforgettable lead story.
  • And don't miss these bonus stories in DC's Superman/Spider-Man #1, all featuring DC and Marvel characters: Tom King and Jim Lee tell a tale of Lois Lane and Mary Jane Watson, Matt Fraction and Steve Lieber revisit Superman's pal Jimmy Olsen…and Carnage, Sean Murphy takes us to the future with Superboy (Legion) and Spider-Man 2099, Gail Simone teams up with Belén Ortega for a look at what happens when Power Girl meets Punisher, Christopher Priest and Daniel Sampere show us a time when Superboy Prime (who reads all the comics!) decided to visit Spider-Man right after he got the black suit, and Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott take us on an exciting race between the Daily Planet and the Daily Bugle.
  • Plus, we finally get to answer the age-old question of who would win in a fair fight: Pa Kent or Uncle Ben! (Just kidding, those guys are too nice to fight each other, but Jeff Lemire and Rafa Sandoval will take us deep into the past to see the two men bond in the face of adversity.) $7.99 3/25/26
• ALL-NEW ALL-SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN/SUPERMAN #1
  (W) BRAD MELTZER, GEOFF JOHNS, DAN SLOTT, LOUISE SIMONSON, BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS,
  JASON AARON, JOE KELLY & MORE! (A) PEPE LARRAZ, GARY FRANK, MARCOS MARTIN, TODD NAUCK, SARA PICHELLI, RUSSELL DAUTERMAN, HUMBERTO RAMOS & MORE!
  THWIP, THWIP AND AWAY!
  • Fifty years ago, DC's Man of Steel met Marvel's friendly neighborhood wall-crawler, and the world of comics has never been the same! In celebration of that historic milestone, thrill to ALL-NEW tales of SPIDER-MAN and SUPERMAN and their friends and foes!
  • Brad Meltzer and Pepe Larraz pit Spider-Man and Superman against LEX LUTHOR and NORMAN OSBORN as their greatest villains exploit some of their greatest weaknesses!
  • In the shadow-laden 1930s, SPIDER-MAN NOIR encounters the original Golden Age SUPERMAN as told by Slott/Martin!
  • A crisis ensues as Johns/Frank bring the Super- and Spider-families against each together at the summons of MYSTERIO…but is their true foe an ally out of control?!
  • SYMBIOTE hordes invade METROPOLIS as a new War of the Realms ignites in Aaron/Dauterman's epic.
  • Co-creator of STEEL Louise Simonson hammers out the tale of John Henry Irons' clash with the HOBGOBLIN, as drawn by Todd Nauck!
  • Kelly/Ramos take us on a campus crossover between GWEN STACY and LANA LANG!
  • MILES MORALES (SPIDER-MAN) teams with Superman, as Bendis and Pichelli re-team!
  All this, and more than a few super-surprises you'll be talking about for the next Fifty years!
  72 PGS./ONE-SHOT/Rated T+ …$7.99

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