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You can do anything in comic books. Unlike other media, which require gigantic budgets, scheduling, and egos, in comic books, you can just draw something and there it is on the page. Nowhere is that more clear than in crossovers that happen in comics, when one set of characters meet another set of characters.
Because this is comics, great freedom means the opportunity to get weird, mixing and mashing characters that have no business hanging out with one another. Here are 25 times that crossovers went beyond the bounds of logic and good taste, resulting in stories that are bizarre even by comic book standards.
Superman and Don Rickles (1971)
Most comic book fans know the odd bit of trivia that Darkseid, the big bad of the DC Universe, made his first appearance in Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen. For a variety of reasons, DC put the legendary Jack Kirby onto the odd-ball Superman spinoff, and he used that comic as part of his introduction to the New Gods. What fans may not know is that infamous Vegas insult comedian Don Rickles gets the spotlight in two issues of those early stories.
While Superman is dealing with the new threat of Apokolips and making sense of the New Gods in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #139 and #141, Jimmy is hanging around Don Rickles and Don’s friendly superhero alter-ego, Goody Rickles. Offbeat as it sounds, it’s those kids of unexpected leaps that made the Jimmy Olsen book so fun, even as Kirby was creating entire universes.
Shang-Chi and Fu Manchu (1974)
Okay, this is a rough one. When writer Steve Englehart and artist Jim Starlin pitched a kung-fu series to Marvel, Editor-in-Chief Roy Thomas gave the green light with one provision: they had to use Dr. Fu Manchu, the evil genius from the pulp novels by English writer Sax Rohmer, for whom Marvel had the comics rights. Fu Manchu is the exemplar of “yellow peril” racism that infected pop culture throughout the 20th century, so when Englehart and Starlin debuted Shang-Chi as his son in 1974’s Special Marvel Edition #15, they already tainted the Master of Kung Fu. Fortunately, Shang-Chi has only grown in stature while Fu Manchu has faded away, to the point that Marvel reimagined the character as Zheng Zu when the company lost the adaptation license, making Shang-Chi’s father a more three-dimensional figure.
Original Marvel and DC (1976, 1981)
Marvel and DC have had a few major crossovers by this point, including the various team-up books the companies are currently publishing. In most cases, there are huge interdimensional explanations for how these superheroes come to meet one another. But not so in the original crossovers.
In 1976’s Superman vs the Amazing Spider-Man, written by Gerry Conway and penciled by Ross Andru, and 1981’s DC Special Series #27 featuring Batman and the Incredible Hulk, written by Len Wein and penciled by José Luis García-López, the characters just know one another. Peter Parker introduces himself as an admirer of Lois Lane, Lex Luthor and Doctor Octopus have long despised each other, and Bruce Banner apparently has a job at Wayne Enterprises.
In some ways, it’s nice how the stories skip the world-building to get straight to the good stuff, but it sure is jarring to modern readers.
Godzilla vs. SHIELD (1977)
At first glance, the idea of pitting the King of the Monsters against Earth’s Mightiest Heroes isn’t surprising at all, as Marvel is currently publishing a miniseries called Godzilla vs. Avengers, just a couple of years after DC put out Justice League vs Godzilla vs Kong. But the first meetup between Godzilla and Marvel heroes was far less of an event and more just a function of comic book storytelling. Back when Marvel had the Godzilla comic license, they wasted no time putting the kaiju into their mainstream universe. While that meant that the Avengers would eventually go toe-to-toe with him, the main protagonists were the Godzilla Squad, a SHIELD organization created by Nick Fury and led by his right-hand man, Dum Dum Dugan.
Spider-Man on Saturday Night Live (1978)
Don Rickles isn’t the only comedian to hob-nob with the heroes. Media figures often show up in comics, with the Avengers chatting with David Letterman and Neal Conan from NPR reporting on the X-Men. Still, Spider-Man’s appearance onSaturday Night Live in Marvel Team-Up #74, written by Chris Claremont and penciled by Bob Hall. The story finds Peter Parker and Mary Jane attending a taping of SNL being hosted (naturally) by Stan Lee. However, things go awry when John Belushi gets a magic ring to go with the samurai character he would play, accidentally summoning supervillain the Silver Samurai. Garrett Morris doesn’t transform into Ant-Man to join the fight, but thankfully Peter dons his Spidey gear to save Belushi.
Team America/New Mutants (1983)
While Godzilla was big enough to carry his own book as soon as Marvel got the license, others needed a more gradual integration. Such was the case with Team America, a motorcycle riding team who shows up for some reason in the fifth issue of New Mutants. What began as a story about young adolescent students at Xavier’s School for the Gifted soon becomes about mutants who do motorcycle stunts and can meld together to become the Dark Rider. It’s a jarring turn, that only makes sense when we learn that Marvel had acquired the rights to a toy line called Team America, inspired by the Evel Knievel craze. Obviously, the craze has died out and Team America has mostly disappeared, except for the time they hung out with the New Mutants.
Marvel/Transformers/Doctor Who (1987)
Sometimes, Marvel brings the characters it licenses into its mainline universe. And other times, the company creates new characters within the licensed property, who stick around long after the license expires. The most interesting case of the latter involves the robotic bounty hunter (or, in his prefered nomenclature, “freelance peace-keeping agent”) called Death’s Head.
Death’s Head debuted in the Marvel UK comic Transformers #113, written by Simon Furman and penciled by Geoff Senior. A year after his first appearance, Death’s Head popped up in a story by Furman and Senoir did for Doctor Who Magazine #135, joining the Seventh Doctor in the TARDIS. Most of the time, however, Death’s Head hangs around the Marvel Universe, dealing with the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Deathlok, and most recently showing up in an issue of The Ultimates.
Barry Allen in the Marvel Universe (1990)
While the big, official Marvel/DC crossovers are few and far between, creators regularly let their favorites slip unofficially into other universes. One of the most compelling examples occured in the pages of the Marvel Comic book Quasar, written by Mark Gruenwald and illustrated by Mark Manley. Starting in Quasar #17, a blond man appears from a bolt of lightening. He can’t recall much about his past life, only that there was some sort of crisis and that his name was something like “Buried Alien.” Oh yeah, he also has super speed.
Buried Alien is Barry Allen, the Silver Age Flash who sacrificed himself fighting the Anti-Monitor a few years earlier in DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earths. Taking advantage of a loophole that Crisis writer Marv Wolfman built in to bring back the departed Flash, Gruenwald simply wrote that the multiversal event allowed Barry to rematerialize in another universe, continuing his superhero efforts under the code name FastForward.
Pinhead vs. Marshal Law (1993)
Okay, this one is for the deep cut fans, but trust me, it’s weird. Pinhead is, of course, the big bad of the Hellraiser movie franchise. The leader of the Cenobites, who come to visit those who solve the cursed puzzle known as the Lament Configuration, Pinhead became a horror icon—partially to the chagrin of author Clive Barker, who conceived of him as more of a complex amoral figure instead of the generic monster he became. Created by Pat Mills and Kevin O’Neill, Marshal Law is a bondage-wear-clad, gun toting government superhero hunter who starred in deconstructionist comics from the 1980s (think The Boys before The Boys).
Different as the two characters are, both Marshal Law and Hellraiser were being published by Marvel imprint Epic Comics, and sometimes that’s all you need for a crossover. The two-part Law in Hell doesn’t really offer much in terms of plot, and Pinhead can only class up the joint for a few pages before getting pulled into the testosterone-fueled fights that pass for most Marshal Law stories. But at least you get to see O’Neill draw some truly nightmarish takes on superheroes.
Archie Meets the Punisher (1994)
As we’ll discuss more later, Archie Comics has long since bucked its wholesome Eisenhower-era origins to tell some audacious stories, but that hadn’t happened yet in 1994. So more than a few eyebrows were raised when Archie and Marvel teamed up to send Frank Castle a.k.a. the Punisher to Riverdale. Those eyebrows were raised even further when readers realized that writer Batton Lash and artists Stan Goldberg and John Buscema managed to tell a story that felt true to both Punisher and Archie. The criminal “Red,” who looks just like Archie Andrews, is exactly the type of hood that the Punisher would hunt and the mix-up gags that occur when Betty, Veronica, and Jughead mixup Red for their old pal would fit alongside any Archie’s Double Digest you’d find in the supermarket.
Mars Attacks Image (1996)
In the mid-1990s, card company Topps made a play for the comic book market by launching its own series. In addition to getting the great Jack Kirby, but they also turned their most well-known property Mars Attacks! into a series. To generate buzz, the company joined with Image Comics, for a story about the skull-faced martians invading that company’s superhero universe.
Most of the crossovers on this list are head scratchers, but Mars Attacks Image goes beyond the weird and becomes just plain mean. Writer Keith Giffen indulges in a level of nastiness he usually reserves for Karate Kid of the Legion of Superheroes, penning four issues of the martians slaughtering the one-note extreme heroes of the Image Universe. Instead of his trademark humor, Giffen writes a sanctimonious scene in which a patriotic hero dies protecting the Declaration of Independence and a gut-churning C-plot in which the aliens sexually assault a captured heroine. Unlike most on this list, Mars Attacks Image is a curio best ignored.
Star Trek/X-Men (1996-1998)
Given her mandate to seek out new life and new civilizations, it makes some sense that the USS Enterprise would make its way to the Marvel Universe. But it’s strange that it happened three times, and that the only heroes the Starfleet crewmen encountered were the X-Men. Over the course of two comics— Star Trek/X-Men by Scott Lobdell and a variety of artists and Star Trek/X-Men: 2nd Contact by Dan Abnett, Ian Edginton, and Cary Nord—and the novel Planet X by Michael Jan Friedman, Marvel’s Mighty Mutants board the USS Enterprise, first under command of James T. Kirk and then under Jean-Luc Picard’s command.
No one would count the three stories among their favorite tales of Starfleet of the mutants, but they’re full of fun moments, such as seeing Dr. Henry McCoy pal around with Dr. Leonard McCoy and Storm see a resemblance between Professor X and Picard, a few years before Patrick Stewart portrayed Xavier on screen.
Amalgam Comics (1996, 1997)
If the first official Marvel/DC crossover is strange in its mundanity, the second goes in the total opposite direction. When the two universes collided in the mid-’90s, they created a new universe, one consisting of mash-ups between characters from the two worlds: Superman and Captain America combine to create Super Soldier, Batman and Wolverine are Dark Claw, and Superboy and Spider-Man become Spider-Boy. Sometimes, the combinations were sweaty (Speed Demon mixes the Flash, Ghost Rider, and the Demon Etrigan), but they were often inspired, as with the Hal Jordan/Tony Stark combination Iron Lantern.
Sonic the Hedgehog Meets Spawn (1998)
Ask any Sonic the Hedgehog fan and they’ll tell you about how weird things got when Ken Penders was writing Sonic the Hedgehog for Archie Comics, but the strangest moment might be in Sonic Super Special #7, written by Penders and drawn by Jim Valentino, in which Sonic and his pals met Spawn, the Savage Dragon, Shadowhawk, and other characters from the Image Universe.
While Image has become a respected publisher of intellectual, creator-owned comics, the company was still in its infancy in the 1990s, and mostly traded in obnoxiously edgy knockoffs of Marvel and DC heroes. No, Shadowhawk doesn’t break the backs of any racists in Mobius and Savage Dragon doesn’t punch through Doctor Robotnik, Sonic and Knuckles do briefly encounter the Hell-born warrior Spawn in a dark alley.
Marvel/Guiding Light (2006)
As much as some fans are loathe to admit it, superhero comics are soap operas. So it’s kind of surprising that superheroes and soap operas only officially crossed over once. On the long-running series Guiding Light, Harley Cooper (Beth Ehlers) briefly gained superpowers after being electrocuted. Putting on a costume, Harley fight evil doers for a little while as the Guiding Light, before losing her abilities. In 2006, however, the Guiding Light returned, this time in the pages of a Marvel Comic by writer Jim McCann and art collective Udon Studios. Here, the Guiding Light helps Spidey and the Avengers battle Venom, Doc Ock, and other baddies. The team-up is short-lived, and all involved go back to their own separate, but equally ridiculous, adventures.
Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash (2007)
Of all the crossovers on this list, this is the most disappointing. The idea of seeing Bruce Campbell’s Ashley J. Williams do battle with Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees is so compelling that New Line Cinema tried to get Campbell and Sam Raimi to bring it to the screen. So a comic book version should be a pretty good substitute, right?
Well, maybe, if it had a different creative team. Published by DC’s Wildstorm imprint and Dynamite Entertainment, written by James Kuhoric, and penciled by Jason Craig, Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash takes the treatment that Jeff Katz wrote for a movie and amps up the nastiness. The basic concept is solid, with Freddy stuck inside Jason’s mind after Freddy vs. Jason and seeking out the Necronomicon to get more power.
But Kuhoric and Craig make every male character an arrogant jerk and every woman a preening sexpot, turning the whole thing from a ridiculous romp to a skeevy mess. Somehow, the 2009 sequel Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors is even worse, turning a team-up between all the survivors of the Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street series into an utter drag.
Eminem/The Punisher (2009)
In the second page of Eminem/The Punisher, the rapper walks out into the Detroit streets just in time for Frank Castle to gun down his entire entourage. On the third page, Eminem tries to escape in a vehicle only for the Punisher to produce a rocket launcher and blow the thing up.
In short, Eminem/The Punisher knows that it’s ridiculous and has a good time with it. Set during the time of the acclaimed and incredibly nasty adults-only series Punisher Max, but not part of that book’s official continuity, Enimem/The Punisher sends Frank to Detroit to hunt down a criminal in Marshall Mather’s group. The rapper makes things worse by temporarily aligning with violent criminal Baracuda before joining the side of the angels, such as they are, with Punisher. Made by pros Fred Van Lente and Salvador Larroca, Eminem/The Punisher is big dumb fun in the best way.
Ash Saves Obama (2009)
While Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash may have disappointed, Army of Darkness: Ash Saves Obama does exactly what it promises. Writer Elliott Serrano and artist Ariel Padilla wisely keep things simply, holding to a pretty basic plot about the Necronomicon being sold at a Detroit comic book convention… the same convention that the newly-elected 44th president of the United States happens to be visiting… the same convention where Ash is delivering goods from S-Mart. A kid reads from the Book of the Dead, people start becoming Deadites, and its up to Ash to save POTUS. There aren’t many surprises in Ash Saves Obama, and the feel-good vibes of that era certainly don’t hit as hard today as they did in 2009, but at least the series is straightforward fun.
Star Trek/Transformers/Ghostbusters/GI Joe (2011)
If that headline makes the mind boggle, thinking about how Scotty could soup up Rodimus Prime or how much fun Peter Venkman could have mocking Destro, let me stop you right there. Yes, publsher IDW had the rights to make comic books about Star Trek, GI Joe, the Transformers, and the Ghostbusters. But they did not have the rights to have the characters officially meet one another.
So, IDW found a workaround. In addition to a comic called Infestation, written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning and penciled by David Messina, in which super zombies invade the multiverse, IDW released a series of tie ins for each property. Thus, the Ghostbusters fight zombies in one book and the Enterprise deals with the zombies in another, all facing the same threat while never actually meeting one another. The trick worked so well that Infestation was popular enough to spawn a sequel, which brought the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Dungeons & Dragons into the mix.
Attack on Titan/Avengers (2014)
As Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, the Avengers are tasked with handling gigantic threats. And they don’t get any more gigantic than the Titans from the manga and anime Attack on Titan. As a one-shot bonus story written by Hajime Isayama and C.B. Cebulski (not Akira Yoshida, thankfully) and illustrated by Gerardo Sandoval, Attack on Avengers doesn’t waste time with explaining how the Titans got to New York, nor does it replicate any of the source material’s themes. It’s just a few pages of Marvel heroes punching giant monsters with exposed muscles, which is good enough for most people.
Archie vs. Predator (2015)
If you were disappointed that Archie Meets the Punisher didn’t involve the squeaky clean Riverdale kids getting torn to shreds, then you’re gonna love Archie vs. Predator. Because that’s exactly what happens in this crossover, written by Alex de Campi and illustrated by Fernando Ruiz. When a Yautja overhears Betty and Veronica fighting over who Archie loves best, he interprets the squabble as a challenge and begins ripping spines out of the teens. It may not be completely respectful to the Archie property, but Archie vs. Predator is a gory blast that makes way more sense than it has any right to be.
Batman Meets the Avengers (2016-2017)
“What’s the big deal about an a crossover between Batman and the Avengers?” you might ask. “Marvel and DC characters meet all the time these days.” True as that may be, we’re not talking about Marvel and DC. We’re talking about the other Avengers, the ones known in the U.K. Specifically, this series brings Batman and Robin together with Mr. Steed and Emma Peel, as portrayed by Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg. Furthermore, it wasn’t the usual brooding Dark Knight that we know today, but rather the Adam West Batman, joined by the Burt Young Robin.
Batman ’66 Meets Steed and Mrs. Peel, written by Ian Edginton and illustrated by Matthew Smith is a transatlantic clash of kitsch, but that doesn’t mean it laughs at its subjects. The series plays like an episode of the heroes’ respective shows, satisfying fans in the U.S. and in the U.K.
Green Lantern/Planet of the Apes (2017)
Here’s an indisputable rule of comics: anyone who doesn’t like super-simians can’t like DC Comics. Because of that rule, it kind of makes perfect sense that the characters from Planet of the Apes would get Green Lantern power rings. The really impressive thing about Planet of the Apes/Green Lantern, however, is how writers Justin Jordan and Robbie Thompson, working with artist Barnaby Bagenda, combine the two mythos. In this reality, the Green Lantern’s immortal bosses have created a time loop to protect and study the effect of an Earth that the humans have, as Charlton Heston’s character Taylor famously puts it, blown up. The investigation leads to the discovery of power rings, leading to Cornelius and Zira working with the Green Lanterns to stop Sinestro and Dr. Zaius.
Batman/Elmer Fudd (2017)
In 2017, DC published a series of one-shots teaming up the Looney Tunes (owned by parent company Warner Bros.) and various heroes. Most are pleasant if inconsequential, but the Batman/Elmer Fudd Special by Tom King and Lee Weeks is sublime. King and Weeks reimagine the Looney Tunes as humans straight from hard-boiled detective fiction, gathered at Porky’s bar. To save his life from Elmer, Bugs “the Bunny” sets the hunter on the trail of Bruce Wayne, which gets the attention of the Batman. Obviously, King takes some liberties with the source material (he always does), but the results are one of a kind and worth it.
Colonel Sanders/Green Lantern (2017)
Most of the time, we don’t hold comic book characters responsible for whatever horrible things they have to do in promotional stories that their parent companies put together. Otherwise, we’d still be mad at Superman for shaking hands with Jared from Subway. But the Green Lantern Hal Jordan already has such a poor reputation that teaming up with the Colonel to defend the secret of eleven herbs and spices can only improve things. Of course, it helps that KFC: Across the Universe #1 is made by pros Tony Bedard and Tom Derenick, which somehow makes the story of greedy Orange Lantern stealing the secret recipe work as a believable Green Lantern tale, not just a commercial.
The post The Weirdest Comic Book Crossovers of All Time appeared first on Den of Geek.
