[SJSAMPLE]

WTF?
Right after Marvel started the Beyonder saga (1986 ?), DC came out with "Crisis On Infinite Earths" as a piss-poor copy.

DC.
The house with two heroes and a legion of clones ;)

[Shade2]

True. And Civil War is quite different in content from Infinite Crisis other than both being big crossover events. House of M was quite different.

Clearly, DC's "All Star" line is a rip-off of Marvel's "Ultimate" line.

[escapefromboston]

Beyonder was lame and is totally forgotten about (can you even buy a TPB of the Beyonder saga??) that being said back in the 80s DC was in the pits and Marvel was kicking their butt.

Marvel the house of whiney mutants.

:)

[Optimus Prime]

Amazing how some people can blather on as if they're experts, when they in fact don't know squat about what they're talking about.

Yes, Crisis on Infinite Earths came out eight months after Secret Wars. However, it wasn't Secret Wars that led to it coming out. After all, it was announced at a comics convention in 1981! FOUR YEARS before Secret Wars even had a single issue published. It just took so long because Marv Wolfman, the writer, had to take a lot of time researching DC's long history before he wiped the slate clean. On top of which, 1985 was DC's 50th Anniversary, so they decided to wait til then. So unless DC was planning on ripping off Secret Wars four years before anyone even heard of it, it's safe to say you don't know what you're talking about

Secret Wars, on the other hand, WAS created in response to DC. DC licensed a line of super-hero toys which became a huge success, so some other toy company went to Marvel to license their characters. In addition, they wanted an editorial reason to tie the characters together, and Marvel came up with Secret Wars. So in the end, Secret Wars was just a great big advertising gimmick for an upcoming toyline. A toyline which, incidentally, bombed.