The Valeyard

I’m a big fan of Intercompany crossovers. I love ‘em! I have two long boxes filled with crossover books (mainly from the 90s). There’s been a semi-resurgence in the past year. Definitely more titles than in recent memory with a new mini-series coming out every other month - Batman ’66/Green Hornet (DC/Dynamite), Grendel vs The Shadow (Dark Horse/Dynamite), Django/Zorro (DC/Dynamite), Attack on Titan/Avengers (Kodansha/Marvel), Star Trek/Planet of the Apes (IDW/Boom) and Conan/Red Sonja (Dark Horse/Dynamite). Plus the upcoming Archie v. Predator (Dark Horse/Archie).

The first one I ever read was the original Superman vs Spider-Man tabloid from 1976. I was like 6 or 7 and was at a friend’s birthday party (at Farrell’s). He got the book as a present and let me read it while everyone else was goofing around. My mind was absolutely blown! Even back then, I knew there was a distinct line in the sand between DC and Marvel. I couldn’t wrap my mind around their two biggest characters meeting, fighting then working together.



It took me forever to find a copy of my own - I didn’t discover comic stores until 1978 or 79 (All my books before then were picked up either at liquor stores or the grocery store). By the time the second team-up hit (Superman and Spider-Man), I was a crossover junky. I wanted more! But I had to wait years until that started happening.

The 90s were FILLED with crossovers. Like a 3 or 4 every week at one point. Some were great. Some were shitty. But even the worse ones I loved because of the crossover factor.

The 2000s wound the dial back but there were still some decent ones coming out then.


Some of my favorites (not going to list them all):

The original 4 DC/Marvel books hit me right in the nostalgia. I love the hell out of them equally. Superman Vs. Spider-Man, Superman and Spider-Man, Batman Vs. The Hulk and X-Men and the New Teen Titans.



I was in Junior High when this book came out and every single fanboy I knew had it. It was a major event at the time. I remember some kids going on and on about the Deathstroke/Wolverine encounter.


The first Batman/Grendel by Matt Wagner is a perfect blending of both characters working against one another. Both get equal "screen time" and neither character is dimished in favor of the other.




Spawn/Batman by McFarlane and Miller. The Image release. Not the DC one. The DC one sucked ass. This one was the real thing.




Deathmate (Image/Valiant). The original “universe spanning” crossover. Yeah, I know. I know. But even though it’s all over the place and uneven, it’s fun and filled with everything that worked (and didn’t work) in the 90s. I even got the preview versions that came in Advance Comics and Previews.




Superman/Aliens. Back when everything at DC was in-continuity. This one counted and introduced the Post-Crisis Kara from Argo City (who was never seen again).




DC vs. Marvel/Amalgam Comics. Yeah. I lost my shit over this one too. Especially the Amalgam stuff - Bruce Wayne: Agent of SHIELD, Iron Lantern, Spider-Boy. It all worked out better than it should of. The Access mini-series were fun too. Especially the one where he bounced through each company's timeline.




Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness. It’s like peanut butter and chocolate!




JLA/Avengers. Who could not love this one? Twenty years in the making and it paid off. Well worth the wait.




I could go on and on and on and on. What are your favorites? Or do you think crossovers reek of gimmick and hate 'em? If so, them's fightin' words!


Sorry for the long post/rant. I was bored at work.

fujishig

They are a gimmick, obviously, and they're usually standalone stories that really have no consequence outside of the crossover itself.

One notable exception was the WildC.A.T.S/Aliens crossover, written by Ellis and drawn by Sprouse/Nowlan. I won't give away spoilers but it basically set up the next run of Stormwatch by Ellis, which eventually led to the Authority. Unfortunately, because of the crossover, they really never went back and reprinted this crucial issue in any trades, at least not that I know of. And that's why you don't do much of significance when there's a crossover (also see: Chapel's role in Spawn's origin).

Larsen also used the Mars Attacks crossover as a plot point in Savage Dragon.

X-Men/Teen Titans was a classic if only because of the insane popularity both of those series had at the time.

And Perez on anything is a treat, especially when you let him loose with a ton of characters, let alone his dream job of JLA/Avengers.

You would've thought the Invincible crossover with Spider-man would work well considering Kirkman was writing the team-up and Corey Walker was drawing it, but for some reason Marvel-Kirkman was never as good as Image-Kirkman IMHO.

Archie has some odd crossovers, but this new Predators/Archie one seems really odd...

majorjoe23

The Aliens crossover was reprinted in one of the Stormwatch trades, but later reprintings didn't have it.

The Valeyard

DC let some of the crossovers carry over into their continuity. For a little while at least. The Krona Egg from JLA/Avengers carried into a JLA story arc a little while after the crossover. The Superman/Aliens mini was also mentioned during the Triangle Era.

I know this one doesn't really count but John Byrne's Batman/Captain America is set in his Superman & Batman: Generations universe. Joker mentions being in a Soviet prison camp after the War.

The Valeyard

Just remembered - The Marvel Zombies vs Army of Darkness crossover also tied into the origins of the Zombie-verse. The Marvel Zombies: Dead Days takes place during the crossover.

rw2516

Maybe it's been done, I dunno. Green Lantern and Marvel Cosmic (Thanos, Surfer, Skrulls, etc.). Always thought it would be cool.

Nick Danger

I remember Wolverine getting up in Batman's face, but I don't remember where I saw it.

ytrez

That X-Men-Teen Titans had some great Simonson art. I loved it back in the day.

The X-Men-WildCATS books, while I don't remember the stories, had some pretty spectacular art.

The other standout Marvel/Image cross over for me was Wolverine-Deathblow. I think it was 2 issues of really nice artwork.

Spiderbite

I recently read the first two DC/Marvel crossover compilation books and found every story to be extremely lacking and dull. I wanted to love them but I found the only ones I kinda liked were the really old ones and that was due to sheet nostalgia. And even with the nostalgia factor, those stories are tough reads.

fujishig

There was a Galactus/Darkseid crossover done by Byrne (called the Hunger) which I enjoyed precisely because it was a cosmic crossover.

majorjoe23

There was also a Green Lantern/Silver Surfer crossover issue.

PhantomStranger

I always liked these type of crossovers. It was fun to see iconic characters meet from separate universes, especially counterparts like the Flash and Quicksilver.

What I also liked about them is how light they tended to be, you knew going in they weren't going to permanently affect either character.

If you look closely, you can spot me in that Avengers / Justice League poster.

davidh777

I remember the crossover issues as a kid, especially Superman/Spider-Man, but I don't remember actually buying them. I think the stories struck me as kind of underwhelming other than the novelty.

I definitely remember the X-Men/Teen Titans crossover but don't know if I own it. As I remember it, the Titans were a replacement for the Legion of Super-Heroes because they were hotter, which annoyed me as a Legion fan. But I liked both teams and would totally read that today.

Not long ago I got the Spider-Man/Red Sonja crossover, which was OK. I still haven't read the Star Trek/Legion one.

The Valeyard

Yep. It had Thanos and Parallax in it. It was another crossover that DC kept part of it's continuity (back then). Not only did it continue Hal Jordan's quest to capture the Cyborg-Superman (who destroyed Coast City), it was also the prelude to DC vs Marvel. The crossovers between the two companies were pretty regular by that point and this was the last one before the big crossover.

Trevor

Great thread. I always like them too, although most are still in my 'to read' boxes and piles.

Since they are usually self contained stories, and I'm always behind in my series, they just always seemed like the easy choices to read 'later'.

Maybe I'll read them all in May for our Make Your Own Challenge.

Inhumans99

Dark Horse just solicited Archie Vs Predator 1, of course, it is on my pull list. The Archie Vs Punisher comic was a fun read.

Timber

A nothing crossover except for the fact the The Authority spun off out of it.



And as I was a Homage Studio's mark this was a wet dream as far as art goes. I have no recollection of the actual story though.

Spiderbite

Archie Meets KISS (or whatever it was called) was horrible. I was super pissed that I blind bought it.

Trevor

Someday want to read all of The Authority and Planetary in order. But then didn't Wildcats get mixed in with them? That might be too much to track down.

Solid Snake

The X freaks/Titans crossover was actually a good read. At least for me, the art stayed w/ me... granted the guy is a legend.

Timber

Damn you...just reminded me that I never finished Planetary and that was an outstanding series.

Inhumans99

It was missing that special sauce that kept it from being a surprisingly bland storyline. Archie also crossed over with the Glee universe,which I seem to remember was slightly better than the Archie Meets KISS storyline.

fujishig

For the Authority, you can basically just track down the Ellis issues of Stormwatch to start... most if not all of the Authority is introduced in Stormwatch.

Planetary is pretty much entirely standalone, though it helps to have an interest in different genres.

brayzie

The Spawn/Batman had nice art but was a pretty mediocre story. I think this was the first appearance of Frank Miller's All-Star Batman. I assumed at the time that he viewed his Spawn work as just a paycheck, but after reading some of his later work maybe Miller was actually trying. The DC version was funny to me at the time because I couldn't fathom why they put such a horrible artist on that book, who had a style the opposite of the Image style. Later on I realized two things: Klaus Jansen is a great artist, and that DC was maybe hoping that people associated Jansen with Frank Miller so strongly that they would buy the book just because of that. Or maybe they hoped that Jansen's work would confuse people into thinking Frank Miller illustrated their version.

Grendel/Batman was awesome as was the sequel. The first one though has some amazing artwork and panel composition. I think Grendel's Batman adventures are canon in Matt Wagner's Grendel universe.

I also liked Batman/Judge Dredd. Great art by Simon Bisely and it introduced me to Judge Death.

robin2099

I always enjoyed reading inter company crossovers. I started reading in the 90's before the classic ones like Superman/Spiderman and Batman/Hulk came out. But I started with Batman/Predator and was instantly hooked. Even when I quit reading comics I would still buy a crossover if I knew one was coming. I'm looking forward to Predator/Archie as well since I never got to read Archie/Punisher.