10 Weird Comic Book Crossovers - Warped Factor - Words in the Key of Geek.

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10 Weird Comic Book Crossovers

Geek Dave looks at some of the strangest comic book crossovers and team-ups that made it to the newsstand.


Ah, the comic book crossover. A meeting of two different entities that really shouldn't be sharing the same universe. I can't tell you how I excited I was when The Uncanny X-Men met The New Teen Titans in 1982. Marvel and DC in one comic book was totally mind-blowing to me then. It made sense though, the two hottest comic book teams sharing the pages together in one amazing adventure. Even the recent Doctor Who/Star Trek crossover was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Two franchises that could in theory work alongside each other, did work alongside each other very well. I couldn't wait until the next issue was released.

But some of these team-ups really shouldn't have made it past the planning stages. Just what were the creators of these comics thinking when they came up with these ideas? (money, they were thinking about making money)...


The Avengers on Late Night With David Letterman!
Before his recent retirement he no doubt interviewed the cast of the recent Avengers movies, likely more than once, but back in 1984 David Letterman helped them save the Earth by hitting Fabian Stankowicz with a large doorknob! Marvel clearly had a thing for late night network television because...


Spider-Man and the Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Players!
Yep, that's your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man and the 1978 cast of Saturday Night Live, including Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi and Bill Murray. When the Silver Samurai launched an attack on 30 Rock, Spidey teamed up with the SNL crew, who even posed as Avengers, to thwart the menace. Stan Lee then got to host that week's episode.


Archie Meets The Punisher
Just let that title flow over you for a minute.
It was all a case of mistaken identity when the Punisher tracked a dealer all the way to Riverdale and, you guessed it, he looked exactly like Archie. I always thought there was something quite shifty about him.


Eminem / The Punisher
At least this one was actually advertised as a promotional tie-in for Eminem's 2009 album Relapse. No mistaken identity this time, rather Eminem got mixed up in one of the Punisher's violent altercations. The pair became 'gun buddies', shooting their way to victory.


Star Trek / X-Men
Illogical Captain. This 1996 mess of a crossover had one stand out moment when Spock defeated Wolverine with a Vulcan Nerve Pinch. You might be thinking that they missed a trick, what with Patrick Stewart linking both franchises, but; A) It was released four years prior to the X-Men movie, and B) No they didn't...


Star Trek: The Next Generation / X-Men
After the events of First Contact the Enterprise-E began its journey through time, returning home from the 21st Century. Somehow it was shoved sideways into the Marvel Universe. Don't you just hate it when that happens? The image on the cover of a gormless looking Data amongst the X-Man is kinda how I was left feeling.

I have to finish off this collection with four samples from the ultimate King of Crossovers - Superman. He's been teaming up with literally everything you can think of in his long running comic book career, many of them were PSA tie-ins which I can forgive, but these examples below are some of the very best/worst of the rest (delete as applicable)...


Superman Vs. Muhammad Ali
We all knew it would happen one day. The fate of the Earth rests upon a boxing match!
Two of "the Greatest" come together for, what is actually, a really fun comic book. First published in 1978, but re-released in hardback in 2010, it's worth tracking this one down because it is completely bizarre and ridiculous but somehow it works. And as strange as the concept is, it is in no way the weirdest crossover that Superman has appeared in...


Superman and Batman Versus Aliens and Predator
Too many cooks, and all that. This 2007 two-part comic book contains a ridiculous segment when Superman suddenly realises he's inside a volcano and his powers don't work properly. I know he's the Man of Steel, but surely being inside an active volcano for half a dozen+ frames of comic book must be a difficult thing not to at least notice? And yet it's still not the strangest Superman crossover...


Superman and the Masters of the Universe
Remember that time when Skeletor put a magic spell on Superman and had him attack He-Man? No? Well then you clearly haven't read this 1982 DC Comics Presents issue. The Man of Steel accidentally fell into a time vortex and ended up in Eternia. Seriously.
He doesn't notice he's inside an active volcano and stumbles around into time vortex's, what the hell is wrong with Superman?
But wait, there's more...


Superman meets the Quik Bunny
Look, I like milkshake as much as the next guy, but really?
Superman has an 'adventure' with Quicky, the Nesquik Bunny. But the most worrying thing about this comic book is that it isn't one of the crazy 1950s or 60s team-ups, but one from 1987! That's two years after the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths, the twelve issue series that supposedly cleaned up the DC Universe, and got rid of the stupidity like 'Quicky'. Even more worrying is that according to DC "The events from this issue likely take place outside of mainstream DC Universe continuity" - only likely?

I honestly think that this is Superman's weirdest (non PSA) team-up, and the strangest crossover ever, unless of course you know better?

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