Marvel has announced a Marvel vs Star Wars crossover event for the history books. Written by Kevin Smith, drawn by David Marquez, the project seems to be focused on product synergy and corporate branding. Marvel has a unique history with crossovers however, and with The Walt Disney Company owning the rights to star wars comics. Marvel and Dark Horse both publish the books making synergy a marketing tactic, but also a fun opportunity. Marvel’s crossovers have ranged from the strange and weird to the unique and plain fun. Let’s break down some of the weirdest crossovers the house of ideas has thought of.
BATMAN MEETS DEADPOOL
One of the most recent crossovers that people were excited for was Batman/Deadpool, Deadpool/Batman. The crossover drew heads when DC and Marvel announced a return to crossovers to draw more attention to comics. With a story central story written by Zeb Wells and additional stories written by major industry names like Kevin Smith, Kelly Thompson and more. Batman/Deadpool sold half a million copies of the first story Batman/Deadpool, though the second issue did a little worse. Still, DC comics and Marvel stand at the peak of crossovers, and they’ve done many more…
DC, MARVEL, AND AMALGAM COMICS
The “big two” of comics, Marvel and DC, share more DNA than most fans would like to think about. They’ve regularly crossed over with each other from DC vs Marvel | Marvel vs DC, to individual crossovers like Superman vs Spider-Man and Batman vs Deadpool. The situations range from heroes swapping to heroes experiencing the difference between their worlds in terms of everything from support to how people view those particular heroes.
Amalgam Comics is arguably the most unique crossovers that DC and Marvel have ever tackled. Marvel and DC merged their characters together to create new characters like Spider-Boy (Ben Reilly and Super Boy) , or The Dark Claw (Wolverine and Batman). Amalgam comics was billed as a real company, with both universes coming together represented by “The Brothers” – the two universes anthropomorphized. Characters came together to try to battle each brother to convince them that their universe was superior.
By the end, neither universe was willing to go so both brothers agreed to merge the two universes together. The Living Tribunal, Marvel’s in-house deus ex machina, seeded Captain America and Batman with the idea there are two different realities. Helping the two come together, the two of them convinced the brothers to separate again making Marvel’s Multiverse and DC Multiverse separate once again.
MARVEL AND GODZILLA
Marvel and Godzilla have entered the news again with everything from limited series to Marvel and Godzilla acting as an insert into the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing game. Marvel first published a Godzilla vs the Marvel Universe crossover in the 1970s. They treated Godzilla as an in-character and canon occurrence with the kaiju facing off against the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and Nick Fury.
Godzilla destroys the Marvel Universe in 2025 by Gerry Duggan, featured Godzilla as an unstoppable force of nature fundamentally altering the Marvel Universe. It featured Godzilla battling everyone from the avengers to the celestials. Godzilla has a long history with the House of Ideas, proving that while humans trying to control nature is a problem, nature is uncontrollable even to the bare bones of reality itself.
If fans want to live out their Godzilla dreams, keep an eye out for the Godzilla expansion coming out this November!
MARVEL AND IMAGE COMICS
Image comics was founded in 1992 as a venture for creator owned projects. Among it’s seven co-founders were Marvel Illustrators Todd McFarlane and Rob Liefield. Its books, leaning darker, created notable figures like Witchblade and Spawn – focusing more on the grim 1990s very mature aesthetic of comics making them different from the silver and golden age. With features like Wolverine vs Deathblow, Liefield’s two works X-Force and Youngblood crossing over and works like Wolverine vs Deathblow.
One of the most striking Marvel crossovers is represented by a character – Angela. The character debuted in Image comics. Angela is a hellspawn slayer, working as a bounty hunter on behalf of heaven in her Image Comics incarnation. The character became the subject of a dispute between Todd McFarlane and Neil Gaiman. Gaiman prevailed during the subsequent legal action and sold the rights to Angela to Marvel. Angela, the definition of a crossover made ink and paper, reappeared in Age of Ultron in 2013.
SPIDER-MAN MEETS INVINCIBLE
Spider-Man meets invincible in a single issue- Marvel Team-ups #14. Peter Parker meets Mark Sebastian Grayson. First appearing in Savage Dragon, Grayson’s popular. Invincible was adapted into an animated series with four seasons at current counting and 9 to 10 to completely cover the Kirkman source material. Grayson and Parker, Spider-Man and Invincible, is a fun and fascinating team up. Including them battling Doctor Octopus and discussing code names, it’s one of the more …expected crossovers. Things get stranger, and more fun after this.
STAR TREK AND THE X-MEN
In the course of investigating characters that Marvel is willing to cross over with, Star trek makes the most sense…and the least sense. Written in the 1990s, the X-Men follow the evil energy entity Proteus through dimensions. They end up in Star Trek: The Original series in 1996. In 1998, as a tie in with Star Trek: First Contact, the X-Men ended up in the universe of the film seconds after the ending of the movie. Geordi LaForge’s efforts to return them home are interrupted by them being drawn into a fight to protect another planet’s mutant population.
The X-Men’s tie-in with the Star Trek universe offered mutants a glimmer of hope. The idealized world of Roddenberry’s Trek presented a reality where the mutants could be accepted for their differences, unlike how they currently live in the modern timeline.
ARCHIE VERSUS THE PUNISHER
Inter-company crossovers were a hallmark of the 1990s, with one of the most unique being Archie Comics Archie Andrews meeting Marvel Comics’s the Punisher. The comic itself has an interesting history. Apparently at a San Diego Comic Con head Archie editor Victor Gorlick was considering crossover opportunities. They pitched Superman’s friend Jimmy Olsen and several other possibilities before writer Batton Lash suggested the Punisher as a joke. Gorelick pitched the idea to Marvel editor Tom DeFalco. Archie comics and Marvel comics published two separate issues with Archie publishing “Archie meets the Punisher” and Marvel publishing “The Punisher meets Archie.”
The book is a good Punisher story with shades of that 1960s/70s “teens investigate a drama.” Archie crosses paths with a drug dealer named “Red”. He ends up swapping places with Archie and going on an adventure that ends with every Archie character getting a moment to shine – along with the titular Frank and his partner Microchip.
Company crossover events were a staple of comic books in the 1990s. A silly and fun way for fans to appreciate the medium and its silliness. Between Marvel’s Star Wars announcement and fun events like Godzilla’s, there’s always a chance that we could see more. After all, it’s a real Amalgam of superheroes.
Do you want to see Amalgam return? Who would you like to see Marvel cross over with next? Share your thoughts with us in the comics below!
