Five DC/Marvel Crossovers I’d Like To See Now That They’re Getting Along Again

Thanks to publishers not getting along, DC Comics and Marvel Comics stopped doing crossovers. I think JLA/Avengers was the last one but I could be wrong. That’s why I’m surprised to hear they were going to get their characters together again, starting with a Batman and Deadpool story. Marvel is owned by Disney now, and you have to wonder how they agreed to this given their history. They tried to downplay the X-Men and Fantastic Four in their comics because 20th Century Fox had the movie rights and they didn’t want to promote a rival company’s “more important” media. They even went as far as attempting to replace the X-Men with the Inhumans, a move they reversed not because the readers hated it but because the movie bombed so badly they wanted you to forget Inhumans ever existed.

And yet, here they are working with Warner Brothers Discovery, owners of DC and also only interested in the “more important” media they can make with the IPs. While they’ve been willing to work with other publishers, coming back together seemed very unlikely. Well, surprise! If this does well, and by whose standards is debatable given the state of comics period at the moment, it could lead to more crossovers. Maybe they can convince Kurt Busiek to do a sequel to the Justice League and Avengers teaming up.

So while I don’t care for THIS crossover due to not caring about Deadpool, I was thinking about what crossovers I would like to see from DC and Marvel if this is lucrative enough to put their movie studio rivalry aside to make more good comics. Check my list and see what you would add.

Spider-Man and Batman

The first crossover between DC and Marvel were Superman and Spider-Man, and while a third meeting with those two would be nice nostalgia, the first team-up with the wall-crawler and the caped crusader is one of my favorite crossovers. It was a good comparison of Bruce and Peter’s history, showing they’re more alike that it seems, while the Joker and Carnage are different as night and day even though they both like a high body count. The sequel was okay, but more focused on the Kingpin being tricked into helping Ra’s Al Ghul bring down New York City with the promise of Vanessa using the Lazarus Pit to cure her cancer. I still enjoyed it but I really like seeing Batman and Spider-Man joining forces. Getting a third visit with these two would be great.

Superman and The Sentry

If Superman can bring a moment of humanity back to Doctor Manhattan (I haven’t read Doomsday Clock but I own it thanks to winning a contest so it’s only a matter of time, but this is what I’ve heard), then it should be no problem for him to reach the Sentry and help Bob expel the Void, possibly for good. That is Superman’s real power, helping others find their better selves. Superman might be able to help the Sentry physically fight the Void but it would be Clark spending time with Bob that would ultimately save the day, and I’d want to be there to see it happen. Not in person. That would be dangerous. I mean read the comic.

image source: Super-Team Family

Green Lantern & Nova Corps

This comes from Ross at Super-Team Family: The Lost Years, a great blog for team-ups you always wanted or didn’t know you wanted. This is the team-up I’d really like to see. Kyle Rayner and Richard Ryder are close enough in age that I think they’d work together the best. Both are members of their universe’s “space cops”, which would make any Green Lantern/Nova team-up interesting. We could see how the two Corps do things, maybe even a full team-up of both…that is, if both are still in operation. The Lanterns have been wiped out before while I’m not sure if the Nova Corps is back or not. Still, would be interesting.

image source: Super-Team Family

Justice League & Squadron Supreme

Another Ross creation. and another team-up I’m totally here for. Some versions of the Squadron are bad guys so that could satisfy seeing the League take on their evil counterparts since The Boys is an image comic. (Though I wouldn’t mind Superman taking down Homelander or even doing what I just had him do for the Sentry.) In others they’re good guys so that would make an interesting team-up. Maybe the two teams swap Earths for some reason (probably shenanigans with some of the cosmic entities) and have to get back while in a world both familiar yet different. There’s some potential either way as the Squadron was created to be Marvel doing a crossover in spirit while not getting sued. Ask Fawcett Comics how well that works.

DC/Marvel/Amalgam supercrossover

The last time we saw the Amalgam universe it was allowed to exist as it’s own part of the multiverse. I don’t know if the DC heroes even remember that time given all the reality reboots, but imaging heroes of all three universes teaming up against some megathreat. I wouldn’t break out the brothers from the original DC Vs Marvel but it would have to be something along those lines. Maybe the creation of Amalgam created a new sibling who isn’t happy with things like “existing” and wants to wipe out Amalgam so it can disappear. So the heroes of three universes come together to protect the Amalgam universe, even maybe tying its fate to DC and Marvel’s universe. We need a moment where the Amalgamated heroes fight battles with the two heroes (or three, in Doctor Strangefate’s case) that form them.

This would of course mean the return of Axel Asher, the Access between worlds, who can go anywhere in space and time between the two universes (and maybe more since we’re breaking out the Squadron Supreme) and is owned by both Marvel and DC. We never got to see how Fox Kids’ Spider-Man rescued Mary Jane, but seeing Axel find and reunite with his girlfriend (hopefully without some “Paul” type character that ruined comics Spidey and MJ reuniting, maybe give her powers so she can travel with Axel) would be nice. I also would have crossed Billy Batson and Carol Danvers for the obvious reason but after we’re done giggling, is there a real story there that would make it work beyond “they’re both Captain Marvel”?

Heck, why stop with DC, Marvel, Amalgam, and the Squadron Supremes’ universes? Have Axel show up in the Absolute and Ultimate universes, the Tangent and Adventures timelines, the New Universe and Milestone universe. I won’t exaggerate and say the possibilities are endless, but the list is long enough that it might as well be, tossing in the DC and Marvel acquisitions (Earth-S and the Ultraverse?), the various Warner and Disney owned IPs–Warner alone has plenty of places to play and seeing Darkwing Duck and Spider-Ham crossover is one of my dream comics, so why not toss in Atom Ant or Hong Kong Phooey or something? I really hope that this is the start of something good, but that means fans buying the Batman/Deadpool crossover, but that only happens if that comic is good. Please be good.