COMICS HISTORY | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture

Apr07

The Brilliance of 1982’s X-MEN and NEW TEEN TITANS Crossover

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Apr 7, 2026

The Brilliance of 1982’s X-MEN and NEW TEEN TITANS Crossover

One of the all-time great crossovers… — UPDATED 4/7/26: With all the DC/Marvel crossovers going on, it’s the perfect time to reprint this one from March 3, 2024. Dig it! — Dan — Scott Tipton has been writing COMICS 101 since 2003 and the feature has had homes at various websites. Now, he brings it to 13th Dimension, where we expect it will have a lengthy stay as a recurring feature. (It also means that Scott has been officially promoted to columnist, moving up from his position as a “contributor-at-large.” These titles are highly coveted, you know, and the backroom backstabbing is as vicious as anything you’d see on Game of Thrones.) Anyway, with DC and Marvel’s recent announcement that they will be releasing two omnibi collecting most of the company’s crossovers, it was a perfect time for Scott to write about the seminal Marvel and DC Present the Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans — and relaunch COMICS 101. Not only that, our old buddy Anthony Durso of The Toyroom, has put together 13 GREAT DC/MARVEL CROSSOVERS WE’D LIKE TO SEE, even if there are no known plans to do any more of them (that we know of). Click here to check out that baby. (And click here to check out SUNDAY FUNNIES WITH KERRY CALLEN, which explains why Batman and Spider-Man don’t team up more often.) But back to Scott. Here goes: — By SCOTT TIPTON In light of the welcome news that Marvel and DC will be co-publishing a series of omnibus editions collecting their various and long-out-of-print crossover comics, let’s take a look back at what I still think is probably the single best of the inter-company crossover books, 1982’s Marvel and DC Present the Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans. Published as a single, 64-page issue, X-Men/Titans captured both teams at the height of their popularity, and with what most fans probably consider the definitive lineups for both teams, with Robin, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, Starfire, Raven, Changeling and Cyborg appearing in the Titans, and the X-Men represented by what for me will always be the classic team: Cyclops, Storm, Colossus, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde and Professor Xavier. The story, Apokolips…Now, was written by X-Men scribe Chris Claremont and drawn by Walt Simonson and Terry Austin, who did an excellent job of...

Apr06

GIL KANE’s HIS NAME IS… SAVAGE: The Most Powerful Adaptation of a Movie That Never Was

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Apr 6, 2026

GIL KANE’s HIS NAME IS… SAVAGE: The Most Powerful Adaptation of a Movie That Never Was

A 100th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION of the late, great comics creator… By PETER BOSCH Today is a special, celebratory day: the 100th anniversary of Gil Kane’s birth. Kane — born Eli Katz in Riga, Latvia, on April 6, 1926 — is a big-time 13th Dimension favorite and we are finally taking a look at one of his greatest works — His Name Is… Savage. In the 1960s, the spy obsession was everywhere, thanks to James Bond. Movies, TV and comic books, too. And, in return, movies, TV, and comic books got more violent. Blame it on Bond, if you will, but it had been building in other genres. Certainly, war and Western. Anyway, by 1968 we had already seen major comics talents applying themselves to the spy phenomenon: Jack Kirby and Jim Steranko on Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Wally Wood on Total War M.A.R.S. Patrol and T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. Steranko creating Spyman (but drawn by other hands). Plus, there were comic-book adaptations of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Get Smart, Danger Man/Secret Agent, Mission: Impossible, and Dr. No. But none were like Gil Kane’s magazine, His Name Is… Savage. Though Savage (no first name revealed) was designated a secret agent, nothing done in the single issue of his adventure was done in secret. Savage was a killing machine. You didn’t send him out clandestinely; what you did was — to quote an old expression — “you turned him loose.” The same might be said about Gil Kane. Kane had a career that was known for his incredible artwork no matter the genre: science-fiction, war, Western, adventure, or just plain old romance comics. And let’s never forget his dynamic superhero work (which included co-creating the Silver Age Green Lantern and the Atom). But he was dissatisfied. “When I first started Green Lantern and the Atom, they (DC) wouldn’t allow me to do more than one panel of action, of fighting action in a fight,” he told Gary Groth and Mike Catron in a 1981 interview (printed in Gil Kane’s Savage #1, March 1982, Fantagraphics). However, when he started doing material he had total control over, such as His Name Is… Savage (where he was creator, artist, co-writer, and co-publisher), “I just let loose, I indulged myself in every way.” And he did let himself loose of all restrictions. His Name Is… Savage...

Home » COMICS HISTORY