Back in the '80s, Marvel and DC got on well enough to do these kinds of crossover one-shots. I don't know where this one ranks compared to, Batman/Hulk drawn by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, or either of the Spider-Man/Superman books, but it's the only one I've got. And hell, we got Walt Simonson drawing this thing, that's no small potatoes.
Darkseid sets about bringing back the Dark Phoenix as part of a plan to turn Earth into a second Apokolips, as a way to give him a leg up in his war against New Genesis. His plan involves gathering psychic resonances of the Phoenix, from different people and places she knew. Which drags the X-Men in. The Titans get involved because Raven has a premonition, and when Beat Boy tries to re-create what she saw, Starfire recognizes Phoenix and freaks out. Which sets the Titans after the X-Men since Phoenix was one of them, but only gets them caught by the Parademons who think they're the X-Men.
If it feels like the Titans are somewhat secondary to this, Claremont throws in Deathstroke as a hired gun for Darkseid to get some sort of Titans connection in there (although I do like the notion the Tamaraneans were one of the species aware of the Phoenix wiping out an entire star system). So we get some brief - and I mean like two panels at a time - skirmishes between Deathstroke and Wolverine. Nowadays that would get it's own 6-issue mini-series, at minimum.
At this time, though, fans had to settle for each character getting the drop on the other once, and each being able to avoid the other's attack, once. Deathstroke does beat the X-Men (with the help of some Parademons), but in the last big fight, gets KO'ed by Cyclops of all people. Not even by one of Cyclops' bank shot optic blat tricks. Just zaps him while Deathstroke's busy trying to hit Wolverine.
Among all the normal emoting and fighting you'd expect from something Chris Claremont wrote, he does give Simonson plenty of opportunities to go big. Lots of big splashes of characters standing before the Source Wall, or giant angry birds of fire.
Claremont's Darkseid has some of the over-the-top aspect of Darkseid, but he probably gets too involved in the actual fighting. Watching Cyborg, Wonder Girl and Colossus try to wrestle Darkseid to the ground just seems off somehow. Even with Simonson's art, Darkseid seems lesser when he's grappling with superheroes than when he's scheming and gesturing dramatically. But we're decades past the point of writers turning him into something to be punched.
To be fair, Darkseid's ultimately defeated because the thing he resurrected is a being of evil and malevolence that realizes it used to be so much more, and turns its darkness on the one responsible. And Simonson draws it as Dark Phoenix, having tried to merge with Cyclops to save herself, only to be overwhelmed by his emotions, firing herself at Darkseid through Cyke's optic blasts.
Claremont does follow the notion only children are able to perceive Darkseid for what he truly is, although I'm not sure if he and Simonson interpret it the way Kirby intended. Shadowcat's the only X-Man who wakes up when their memories are being tapped, and Simonson draws what she sees as this close-up of Darkseid's face, shadowed and outlined by a grin and red eyes. And Kitty freaks and phases right through the floor trying to get away. So that part was pretty effective.
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