5. Superman vs. Muhammad Ali
In 1978, DC Comics partnered with perhaps the greatest boxer of all time, Muhammad Ali, to have him fight Krypton’s favorite son. Both Superman ad Ali weren’t strangers to fighting those outside their normal ranks — both had fought pro wrestlers in their time, and Superman had even faced off with everyone from Bob Hope to JFK. But this star-studded graphic novel by Neal Adams takes the cake. If that wasn’t enough, there’s bonus appearances by other celebrities ranging from John Lennon to Christopher Reeve, Andy Warhol and even Kurt Vonnegut.
4. Eminem / The Punisher
This bizarre crossover has to be seen to be believed — and can still be found relatively cheaply in back issue bins. Done with full permission and cooperation from Marshall Mathers himself, this 2009 one-shot by Fred Van Lente and Salvador Larroca sees a group called the Parents Music Council putting a hit out on Eminem and the Punisher trying to stop it. Eminem isn’t a helpless musician though, packing heat and even shooting the Punisher on numerous occasions.
3. Superman Meets The Quik Bunny
Superman is the Kevin Bacon of comics — he’s starred with everyone. But this one tops it all in terms of absurdity. The two heroes save the day by one of them drinking a ginormous amount of chocolate milk. Guess who?
2. Star Trek / X-Men
“To boldly go where no one has gone before.” But who knew it came to the X-Men? In 1996 Scott Lobdell and a gang of artists including Marc Silvestri and David Finch drew an epic meeting between James T. Kirk and the Enterprise crew with the X-Men, all thanks to a dimensional rift and the Shi’ar. It proved so popular that Marvel did a sequel with the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast and Marvel’s mutants, prefiguring Patrick Stewart’s involvement in the X-Men films by several years.
1. The Punisher Meets Archie
The Punisher always gets his man — even if he has to go to Riverdale to do it. In 1994 Marvel and Archie Comics partnered together to create this bizarrely magnetic one-off story that has the Punisher going to Riverdale to hunt a drug dealer named “Red,” who happens to look just like Archie Andrews. The book is done by a great team of Batton Lash writing and a joint effort on art by John Buscema and Stan Goldberg.
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I think Marvel win the battle of the weird crossovers, but it was close!
Not that there was a weird crossovers battle, but if there was and I was the referee, I would award the victory to Marvel.
I love all of these things so very much. Wonderful list, Chris.
Also keep an eye out for Captain Carrot’s miniseries titled The Oz-Wonderland War which crossed over the Alice in Wonderland characters, the Wizard of Oz characters, and the Captain Carrot characters. If you stumble across the four-issue miniseries Superman & Bugs Bunny check that one out too. It’s the entire Looney Tunes cast crossing over with the JLA. Fun stuff.
I’m just imagining Neal Adams’ reaction to having to include all those historical figures.
We joke about Superman meeting everyone, what about Punisher? Dude met Archie, literally his polar opposite in the comic world. Pretty impressive, now we need is Him and 50 Cent fighting Burricuda.
And why isn’t Bugs Bunny and Superman on here? Yeah that Quik Bunny thing is more bizarre, but Bugs has him beat in Star Power. Plus who doesn’t love Bugs playing the goofy one over the streight laced Big Blue Boy Scout?
I don’t know why, but I used to LOVE Superman meets the Quik Bunny when I was a kid! I had that issue and remember reading it way too many times.
I would love to be able to read that Punisher/Eminem crossover. I can’t imagine it’s anything but sold out, though. (Much like the Darkness/Batman crossover!) I am lucky enough to won the Punisher/Archie issue, though. Love it.
I have fond memory of the Star Trek/X-Men
I’m pretty sure the Star Trek/X-Men crossover were conceived when someone noticed that both franchises have a character named “Dr. McCoy”.
I will be highly disappointed if that gag is not somewhere in that series. Someone calls out Dr. McCoy, and both characters answer at the same time.
I need to start looking into commissions.
@Firevine that exact gag is in the comic
@JVF It’s so super corny, but I love it. Big fan of Star Trek, and Beast is my favorite X-Man
Batman and Superman vs. Alien and Predator has to be one of my favorites just because of the awkward bulkiness of the title.
I have a fond memory of reading a Teen Titans/X-Men crossover that my dad bought me. It’s not particularly good, but it was my first exposure to inter-company crossovers.
Another one that’s not half-bad is the Batman/Predator by Gibbons and Kubert. My cousin let me borrow it when I was 12… It’s sitting in front of me right now… I TOTALLY plan on returning it… totally…
p.s. If I was Supes, I would have smacked Batman for photo-bombing my cover with his big-ass ears.
I read the two Punisher ones. The Eminem one was self-serving (obviously) and quite terrible, but the Archie one was odd enough to be endearing and just plain fun.
I realize this was the “craziest” crossovers list, but this made me remember the Savage Dragon/TMNT crossovers from way way back. Those were awesome!
Wasn’t there an Image Comics/Sonic the Hedgehog/X-Files crossover back in the day? That confused the hell out of my young Sonic reading self.