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.

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“Yesterday’s” Comic> Sonic The Hedgehog #94

It looks like the retro comic break was timely. From issue #89-93 there is a gap in my collection. That must be the first time I got bored with the series, coming back when it started the new direction to see if it got any better.

I know this is an Archie comic, but did we need another teen school story?

Sonic The Hedgehog #94

Archie Comics Publications (April, 2001)

COLORIST: Frank Gagliardo

EDITOR: Justin “J.F.” Gabrie

Sonic: “New Order”

WRITER: Karl Bollers

PENCILER: Fry

INKER: Pam Eklund

LETTERER: Jeff Powell

Knuckles: “The Best Laid Plans”

WRITER/INKER: Ken Penders

PENCILER: Ron Lim

LETTERER: Vickie Williams

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BW’s Daily Video> The History Of Superhero Capes

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Star Wars: The Last Jedi> Eight Years Later

I need to use another filler video. It’s a long one and my time is short, so probably not going to say much. Plus Literature Devil already says so much in 2+ hours. Supposedly we’d someday reassess Star Wars: The Last Jedi and see it as a true masterpiece. That’s what defenders say. Defenders were wrong.

While the prequels, while still subpar, has been reassessed due to Lucas’ intent, the sequel trilogy came out as intended, or at least the individual movies were. While Disney’s Lucasfilm tossed out a lot of what George Lucas had suggested for the sequels, so did Rian Johnson toss out the direction J.J. Abrams had set up in favor of a movie that subverted everything, including the desires of the fanbase. Subverting expectations is fine and keeps things fresh, but when you subvert desires, you lose the fans and the story bombs.

It doesn’t help that The Last Jedi is basically The Empire Strikes Back in reverse. Where Empire starts on a snow planet, Last Jedi ends on a salt planet. Where the older movie shows heroes rising only to hit a huge brick wall as the middle part of a trilogy, the younger movie tries to end the trilogy early with everyone practically winning and the villains already defeated or looking so weak as to be ineffectual. Finn’s character arc (and I’m not part of the “he should be a Jedi” camp because his story arc doesn’t need it any more than Han or Lando did) was tossed out, Luke fails in a way contrary to his hero’s journey and redemption of his father, and unnecessary stuff added nothing to the drama while the big generals escape plan seemed to kill more resistance fighters than it saved.

Enough about me, though. Let’s hear what Literature Devil has to say.

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“Yesterday’s” Comic> Space Adventures #42

I’ve never seen someone so bored while flying a pretty girl through outer space.

Space Adventures vol 3 #42

Charlton Comics Group (October, 1961)

While not the last issue in this series, this is the last issue to feature Captain Atom before he got his own comic. While I’m slightly curious about Mercury Man from a later issue, DC didn’t grab him and I’ve pretty much never liked reading this series. So maybe some other day I’ll look into him for the curiosity, but I’m done reviewing this snoozefest of a comic. The fact that I got to skip an issue because Captain Atom wasn’t in it doesn’t hurt my feelings, either.

[Read along with me here]

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BW’s Daily Video> Iggy The Eagle Trailer

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Remember, kids, phones are not bad. It’s when you ignore the outside world in favor of them that the problems start.

Chapter By Chapter> Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Mirror Image chapter 46

Chapter by Chapter features me reading one chapter (or possibly multiple chapter for this one) of the selected book at the time and reviewing it as if I were reviewing an episode of a TV show or an issue of a comic. There will be spoilers if you haven’t read to the point I have, and if you’ve read further I ask that you don’t spoil anything further into the book. Think of it as read-along book club.

In our last chapter we checked in on Striker. Now we’re back to Russia, but not with Commie Op-Center. Instead we’re checking in with our infiltration team. So still Striker.

I’m all out of padding at this point. We’re around the last quarter of the book. I’m out of ways to discuss this story without spoilers. So let’s just get on with the review.

Tuesday, 2:06 PM, St. Petersburg

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