Worlds collide in the Amalgam Age of Comics, as Bruce Wayne is transformed into an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. in an all-out war to destroy Hydra. Yes, you read that right: when the realities of Marvel and DC merged, the man who was once Batman traded his Batsuit... for a S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform.
When Lex Luthor, the Green Skull is supplanted as Supreme Hydra by his daughter Madame Cat, only the veteran Nick Fury and his protege Bruce Wayne, leader of the international espionage and law enforcement agency, S.H.I.E.L.D. can stop the Planetsmasher program that threatens to destroy the East Coast of the United States. Bruce Wayne, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., from Amalgam Comics, is an outlandish, yet entertaining, mash-up of the DC and Marvel heroes you never knew you wanted.
In 1996, Marvel Comics and DC teamed-up for landmark 4 issue miniseries, DC Versus Marvel Comics, pitting the two publishers mightiest heroes against each other in a comic-fan’s dream project. In the midst of the clash of the titans, DC and Marvel released a series of one-shots under the imprint, Amalgam Comics that merged the most popular characters from each comics universe into a new world of possibilities. In this bizarro-world, the Batman and Wolverine melded to become Dark Claw, a brutal vigilante who hones his craft in the Danger Cave, and DC’s Superman and Marvel Comics’ Captain America united, conceptually, as Clark Kent, Super-Soldier. The mix-up also brought villains like Doctor Doomsday, Deadeye, an amalgamation of DC’s Deadshot and Marvel’s Bullseye, and Hyena, a combination of Marvel’s Sabertooth and DC’s Joker, as well as the Doctor Strangefate, blending Charles Xavier and Doctor Strange with DC’s mysterious Doctor Fate for a character of otherworldly power — and crossover appeal!
In "Mission: Destroy Hydra!” from Punisher writer, Chuck Dixon and Eisner Award-winning artist, Cary Nord, Col. Bruce Wayne has launched an assault on Hydra Base Omega in an attempt to capture Lex Luthor, The Green Skull and crush the terrorist organization. Though Skull has been eliminated, the threat from his earth-shattering Terra Cannon, a nuclear-charged doomsday weapon, remains. Bruce Wayne: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., his sidekick Dick Grayson, aka Moonwing, and a strike team of operatives including Barbara Hardy, Black Bat, must stop Hydra before the weapon destroys the East Coast. Aided by a wheelchair-bound Tony Stark, Nick Fury and Sgt. Joe Rock, the heroes must contend with Hydra’s Baron Zero, imprisoned in a nitrogen stasis suit, cyborg Deathlok, once Jason Todd who wore the Moonwing suit, and the drug-addicted Nuke, the villain Bane hopped-up on Venom super-steroid.
Bruce Wayne, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. was part of an Amalgam Universe that was formed when the ceaseless war between two cosmic realities, metaphorically representing the publishing giants, Marvel and DC, was brought end by a fusing of the two — to create a new, alternate reality from the conflict. Marvel and DC assembled an array of artistic talent from their deep bullpens for the 2 twelve-issue runs, including Dave Gibbons (Watchmen), John Byrne (X-Men, Fantastic Four), Larry Hama (G.I. Joe), Mark Waid (The Flash), Ron Marz (Silver Surfer), José Luis García-López (Jonah Hex), Howard Porter (JLA), Bill Sienkiewicz (New Mutants), and Barbara Randall Kesel (from the Dungeons & Dragons series, Spelljammer). While the ambitous 24 issue project is out of print, it has been archived in four trade paperback collections, The Amalgam Age of Comics: The DC Comics Collection and The Marvel Comics Collection and Return to the Amalgam Age of Comics, with both a Marvel and DC Collection.