Marvel vs DC · Cosmic
The Presence vs The One Above All
The creator of the DC multiverse meets the creator of the Marvel multiverse. There is no arena large enough, so they meet where every story begins.
Tale of the tape
| DC | Universe | Marvel |
|---|---|---|
| Cosmic | Tier | Cosmic |
| Supreme authority over everything in the DC multiverse | Strength | Supreme authority over everything in the Marvel multiverse |
| Almost never intervenes | Weakness | Rarely chooses to act directly |
| 0–0–1 | Record on Versus | 0–0–1 |
The Arena
There is a place before any story, before the first word, before the first panel is drawn. It is white and silent and has no edges. In that place, two beings met for the first time, and neither of them was surprised, because neither of them is ever surprised.
One of them had made a multiverse of capes and lanterns, of Krypton and Themyscira and Gotham. The other had made a multiverse of mutants and gods, of Asgard and Latveria and a small apartment in Queens. They looked at each other across the blank page, and the page waited to see what they would write.
“I have watched your stories,” said the One Above All, who that day looked like an old man with a pencil behind his ear. “And I yours,” said the Presence, who looked like nothing and everything at once. “Shall we see which is greater?”
Round One
The Presence wrote a universe into being, a vast and shining thing full of heroes, and set it spinning across the blank page. The One Above All wrote another beside it, just as vast, just as bright. Then each of them wrote a hero to defend their universe, and each hero was the greatest who had ever existed.
The heroes met in the middle of the page and fought, and neither could win, because each had been written to be the best. The Presence wrote a stronger hero. The One Above All wrote a stronger villain to test him. The page filled with stories, each one larger than the last, galaxies and gods and endless crises.
Neither of them ran out of ideas. Neither of them ever would.
The Turn
At last, the Presence decided to write the ending: a single word that would finish the contest. The One Above All decided the same thing, at the same instant. Both of them reached for the word, and both of them stopped, their hands an inch apart on the blank page.
They looked at each other, and something passed between them that no mortal could understand. The word they had been reaching for was the same word. It was the word every creator reaches for, and it was not “end”.
“You were going to write ‘continued’,” said the One Above All. “So were you,” said the Presence.
The Finish
They set down their pencils. On the page between them, the two multiverses kept spinning, full of heroes who would never know their creators had met. The fights would go on. The crises would come and go. The stories would never truly end, because neither creator wanted them to.
“There is no winner,” said the Presence. “There never could be,” said the One Above All. “A story that ends with one of us erased is not a story worth telling.” They shook hands, which is a thing neither of them had ever done before, and the blank page filled with light.
Somewhere, in two different multiverses, a reader turned the page, and a writer sat down at a desk, and two worlds full of heroes went on fighting, and loving, and trying to be better. Which, both creators agreed, was the whole point.
The verdict
It ends in a draw
The Presence and the One Above All are the supreme authors of their multiverses, and neither can defeat the other without ending their own creation, so the only honest result is a draw.
- Equal authorityEach is supreme within, and above, everything they made.
- The nature of creatorsNeither wants a story that ends in erasure.
- Infinite imaginationNeither will ever run out of ideas.
How the rematch could go differently: There is no rematch. Some contests are only meaningful because they cannot be won.
Who do you think wins?
Who would win in a fight between The Presence and The One Above All?
It is a draw. The Presence and the One Above All are the supreme authors of their multiverses, and neither can defeat the other without ending their own creation, so the only honest result is a draw.