Marvel and DC Present the Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans #1 was printed in 1982. It featured a story by Jim Shooter, Louise Jones, Len Wein and Chris Claremont - and art by Walter Simonson. In the story, the X-Men and the Teen Titans joined forces against Darkseid, Deathstroke the Terminator and Dark Phoenix. Teaming up the most popular teams from Marvel and DC was a resounding success. So successful, that a sequel was planned.
The second crossover was announced in the NEW TEEN TITANS #29 letter's page: " Yes, we hereby announce the next TEEN TITANS/X-MEN meeting, scheduled for Christmas 1983, this time produced by DC. drawn by George Perez and written by me, Marv Wolfman. If you're interested in making suggestions as to Who the villains should be. please hurry. We're going to begin working on the story any week now. And since we really liked Chris's. Walt's and Terry's work on number one, well. Our job is going to be even harder. We went to produce the best team-up yet."
The next mention of the team-up was in NEW TEEN TITANS #38 letter's page: "The second Titans/X-Men team-up will be published later this year if schedules are willing. George will be drawing it and Marv will write. It should be a goodie. One advanced bit of info is the villains: Brother Blood and The Hellfire Club. Interested now?" Yes, we were, Marv. But unfortunately, we'd never see the second team-up. It was eventually scrapped because of a fall-out between Marvel and DC concerning JLA/Avengers, which was also being planned at this time.
[from a Marv Wolfman Interview - Amazing Heroes #50, 1984]: "Wolfman has also been affected by the apparent death of the JLA/Avengers book, because he was slated as the writer for the follow-up Titans/X-Men comic. Wolfman says, "I'm sorry it happened. I'm not angry at anybody. I'm more sorry from a financial viewpoint that I am anything else, because the Titans/X-Men would have done phenomenally well. I would have loved to have pocketed the money. The only thing I'm really sorry about is that the companies didn't talk to each other properly. I don't know who's at fault, I don't get involved with politics. It doesn't really matter to me who's at fault. I'm sorry because I would have loved to do the Titans/X-Men. I had worked out a real good plot. The week before it all fell through, Chris Claremont came over and typed in the next year's worth of X-Men into my word processor so that I could work on it and know exactly how to fit it into continuity. We talked about a lot of stuff that would go into the book. Chris had given me some ideas; I had given him some ideas on the first one. I think it could have been a fun story.""
Today, Marv does recall a little of what was planned: "I hadn't worked out the story because I almost never do until it's necessary. If I'm plotting a series, I plot out in advance the characters movement but not the specifics of the plot. I would have actually plotted the story had we been given the go-ahead. All I worked out in advance was the villains and that it would be a darker story than the first crossover."
Well, JLA/Avengers eventually happened 20 years later. Can we have our Titans/X-Men as well?
