Comic Book Crossover Madness

Crossover!

Is there any more exciting word in the English language to a comics fan?

Or one that fills them with so much dread and so many bad memories?

In honour of DC's Identity Crisis - (a self-contained mini-series that will spill over into a number of other books such as Teen Titans and Outsiders), the Batman family's upcoming War Games event (where for three months, no less than eight Bat-related books will be taking part in a numbered crossover (only the excellent Birds of Prey escapes, because it isn't under editorial control of the Bat-office), and even Marvel's non-crossover Avengers Disassemble (which runs from now until October in a number of Marvel's books - although its not a crossover, it's a number of thematically linked stories), I've decided to dedicate the next few week's column to some of the 'great' crossovers of yester-year.

It seems not so long ago that every single year brought at least one big crossover from each of the big two companies - and even some smaller ones from Image, when they used to play more prominently in the superhero sandbox (does anyone remember the train wrecks that were Extreme Prejudice and Extreme Sacrifice?)- and these can be traced back to the daddy of them all, Marvel's Secret Wars.

Contest of Champions by Marvel ComicsIn 1982 Marvel published its first mini-series, Contest of Champions.

For the first time, most of the company's heroes were together in one place.

It wasn't very good.

Not long after, DC had a successful toy line with the Super Friends, some bright spark at Marvel thought it might be a good idea to mix the two ideas together...

Secret Wars by Marvel Comics1984: Secret Wars!
Grade: B- (for sheer originality!)

Originally designed to sell a toy line (which wasn't particularly successful), Secret Wars was a self contained twelve issue mini starring a host of heroes and villains plucked from Earth by the cosmic entity the Beyonder and set to battle for survival on a patchwork world that he made. Written by Jim Shooter and illustrated by Al Milgrom, the plot was fairly straightforward and, to be honest, could have been told in half the amount of issues that it was...an early example of pacing for trades?

Contest of Champions by Marvel ComicsThe series contained clunky dialogue and exposition (particularly painful are the scenes in the first issue where the heroes and villains take turns to introduce themselves - "I, Crusher Creel, the Absorbing Man, wuz watching the show outside!"), heavy handed plotting (Colossus falling in love with an alien healer) and some outright ridiculous plot developments (like the Hulk lifting an entire mountain off the heroes) but it was above all else fun.

The mini kicked off in the same month as the heroes vanished from their regular titles, but while they all returned from the wars the next issue, it took a full year to learn how the various changes had occurred - and chages there were. The Secret Wars had quite a few implications for a number of heroes - the Thing left the Fantastic Four to stay on the Secret Wars planet in his own series, his place on the team taken by the She-Hulk; a new Spider-Woman, Julia Carpenter, was introduced who would later have a short career in Freedom Force before joining the Avengers West Coast and Force Works for several years; and, of course, Spider-Man acquired a new alien costume that eventually went on to be one of his greatest enemies - Venom. But perhaps the most lasting effect of all was the concept of crossovers themselves...

Crisis on Infinite Earths by DC Comics1985: Crisis on Infinite Earths!
Grade: A (for lasting effects!)

DC's answer to the Secret Wars series was a year long crossover of its own. Born of DC's desire to clean house, Crisis on Infinite Earths surpassed its rival series in every way. The Monitor gathered the heroes of multiple earths to fight the collapse of the universe in the series by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, but it wouldn't be enough - some worlds and characters died, while others were merged into one brand new DC Universe; the characters that DC had recently acquired from Charlton (such as Blue Beetle, Captain Atom and the Question) became part of the DCU proper, as did the Marvel family (Captain Marvel, Black Adam, etc), though the good Captain wouldn't debut in the new continuity until the next year.

Crisis on Infinite Earths by DC ComicsDC also killed off two of its lower selling (yet still popular) iconic heroes - the Flash and Supergirl - and although both have been replaced since then, their deaths still resonate today, Barry Allen's especially.

The twelve issue mini was foreshadowed in a number of titles for several months, as the mysterious Monitor acted as arms dealer to several organisations. Given that this was explained away (rather unconvincingly) as him testing the heroes, we can only surmise that not all the writers and editors at DC were in on the story for the series.

Crisis on Infinite Earths by DC ComicsThe series also had an impact on the crossover format, as it span off into a number of crossovers in individual titles, many of which just featured a red sky and had little impact on the storyline as a whole.

Subsequent to the Crisis, DC underwent a soft reboot of sorts, retooling characters' origins such as in Man of Steel, Batman: Year One and Wonder Woman. Without a doubt as standard setter, no crossover before or since has had as long lasting or wide ranging effects.

Secret Wars II by Marvel Comics1985: Secret Wars II!
Grade: C (for the jerry curl and white jumpsuit!)

But Marvel, of course, would not be outdone. Not long after the conclusion of the first Secret Wars, and while the Crisis was still ongoing at their Distinguished Competition, they launched a sequel to their own mini series; the nine issue Secret Wars II was born.

In the series, the Beyonder came to Earth and took human form (actually a duplicate of Captain America's body but with an oh-so-eighties jerry curl) to learn about humanity. Of course, with an inevitability that bordered on the inane, he proceeded to encounter virtually every character in the Marvel Universe, not only in the mini but also in over 30 official crossover issues (and one more if you count a cheeky Deadpool issue many years later).

Secret Wars II by Marvel ComicsSome of the crossovers chapters were risible; in Daredevil, the Beyonder hires Matt Murdock to take over the world legally and pays him by restoring his sight - Murdock ends up rejecting both the job and the gift of sight; or the Spider-Man two parter where the Beyonder turns an office building into solid gold, and Peter Parker throws away a solid gold notepad. Some crossovers, however, had a little more clout to them - such as the New Mutants issues where the Beyonder killed the fledgling team, only to reanimate them later; it left emotional scars on the youngsters that lasted for quite some time.

Ultimately, though, Secret Wars II did what it set out to do: it sold - although not as well as the first Secret Wars. The crossovers would continue, but Marvel were already rethinking how to present them...

Legends by DC Comics1986: Legends!
Grade: B+ (for the Suicide Squad and Justice League!)

DC enjoyed the Crisis so much, they commissioned a new mini-series. Like their rival's Secret Wars II, Legends was to crossover into a number of different books - over 20 tie ins - as the heroes were plagued by mankind's distrust of them. Written by John Ostrander and Len Wein and illustrated by John Byrne and Karl Kesel, Legends saw Darkseid manipulating events on Earth through G. Gordon Godfrey (actually Glorious Godfrey, one of his lieutenants). It even featured then-president Ronald Reagan as he ordered the heroes not to use their powers.

Legends by DC ComicsOf course, much of the anti-hero hatred was down to mind control so once the truth was revealed, everything was back to normal. While it was a bit of a cop-out in the end, Legends did launch Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel into the new DC Universe, so it can't be totally dismissed. It also launched a number of new series - Wally West took on Barry Allen's old title role in Flash, Amanda Waller formed the Suicide Squad, and an off-beat collection of heroes formed into the new - and often hilariously funny - Justice League under Maxwell Lord.

Yes, Legends did have some impact - enough to for them to try it again the next year...

Mutants Massacre by Marvel Comics1986: The Mutant Massacre!
Grade: A- (for the trauma!)

Marvel, meanwhile, had another idea - instead of having a mini series, 1986 saw the advent of the mutant crossover in the form of the Mutant Massacre. Running through Uncanny X-Men, New Mutants and X-Factor (then the only three x-books, if you can believe that!) and crossing over into Power Pack, Thor and Daredevil the relatively short storyline detailed the assault on the Morlocks - a community of misshapen mutants living under Manhattan - by the Marauders.

Mutants Massacre by Marvel ComicsThe Marauders were a team of mostly forgettable villains, except for one called Sabretooth. He had bounced around the Marvel Universe for a few years, previously showing up only in Iron Fist (and later in Power Man & Iron Fist) and Spectacular Spider-Man. This was his first appearance in the x-books. Even here, he may have just been a clone, as most of the other villains were eventually revealed to be, working for Mr Sinister. They were also, it was revealed years later, aided by Gambit - but this was a retrospective amendment to the story, which was made years Gambit at the time wasn't even a gleam in Chris Claremont's eye.

Again, there were consequences; a host of minor supporting characters were killed, Colossus, Shadowcat and Nightcrawler were injured and went to Muir Isle to recuperate, where they would eventually form Excalibur, and X-Factor's resident millionaire, Angel, took a hit when hi wings were so badly damaged that they had to be amputated, which lead to his suicide and subsequent revival by Apocalypse as Death, his winged horseman. More importantly, it paved the way for what was to become an annual event - the mutant crossover.

Millennium by DC Comics1987: Millennium!
Grade: D (for the sheer awfulness!)

DC thought they were onto something, but why spread it over six months if you could do it in two? Millennium was an eight issue weekly mini series, again with over 30 crossovers in the two months it ran, where the heroes of Earth were once again forced to face a huge threat; the Manhunters (a race of cosmic robots originally created as a police force by the Guardians) were going to kill eight humans who would ascend to the next level of evolution, and the heroes had to defend them. Millennium by DC ComicsTheir mission was complicated by the fact that almost every hero's life had been infiltrated by a Manhunter agent to some degree - for example, Superman's agent was Lana Lang, who had been brainwashed for years.

It was a mess. The series launched the eight new characters as the New Guardians, but the series was short lived. If they wanted to have any readers left, the next crossover would have to be pretty spectacular...

Fall of the Mutants by Marvel Comics1987: The Fall of the Mutants!
Grade: B (for the common themes!)

Not one to let a good idea die a natural death, Marvel had another mutant crossover.

This one was slightly different. Rather than tell one huge story, The Fall of the Mutants told three separate ones which shared common themes (namely that it was a bad time to be a mutant); in X-Factor the team battled Apocalypse as he launched an attack on New York; in New Mutants, the young heroes dealt with an attack on the island of the Fall of the Mutants by Marvel ComicsAni-men; and in Uncanny X-Men, everyone's favourite mutants died (don't worry, they got better!) in Dallas as they battled the age old Adversary- oh, and Wolverine managed to throw down with the Hulk on the way there. The various strands of the story crossed over into Captain America, Daredevil, Hulk, Power Pack and the Fantastic Four.

Fall of the Mutants by Marvel ComicsOnce more, there were ramifications - X-Factor went public as mutant superheroes, the New Mutants lost Cypher, one of their members, and the X-Men moved to Australia for a couple of years to act as a more covert strike team.

There would be more mutant merriment the next year, but Marvel also had plans for a new type of crossover...

That's all for now, but next time I'll be looking at perhaps the most fun crossover of all - DC's Invasion! - and I'll be taking a look at the homes of some of the weakest crossovers ever made - the dreaded Annual events!

'Til next time!

Rich Lovatt is a comic book enthusiast and writer. You can read his daily ramblings on his blog or read his column or Comic Book Reviews at http://www.paperbackreader.com