The Middle of the Venn Diagram: All of the IPs That Have Crossed Over With Both Marvel and DC

It's no secret that the last Marvel/DC crossover was JLA/Avengers (or Avengers/JLA) in 2004 and nothing since. Marvel/DC crossovers used to be an interesting phenomenon, events that happened at random moments when the two companies got along enough to get together in order to make something that would make them both a lot of money. And from Superman vs the Amazing Spider-Man to DC vs. Marvel to JLA/Avengers, they happened at an irregular, if steady pace, until they came to an end.

There are, however, secret crossovers. Characters that have appeared in one universe and then appeared in the other. Characters that didn't belong to either Marvel or DC (at the time) and therefore were able to slide between the two. Think of a Venn Diagram: one circle is Marvel, the other is DC, and in the middle? These franchises.

First, the rules:

• Rule 1: It has to be an IP that was separate from both Marvel and DC, even if it is currently owned by Marvel and/or DC and/or their parent companies.
• Rule 2: It has to be an actual crossover where they interact with characters from the Marvel or DC Universe. Therefore, just because Marvel published a Tarzan comic doesn't mean it counts, because it's completely independent from the rest of their universe.
• Rule 3: No "non-canonical" crossovers where the crossover is merely implied. It has to happen on-screen. Therefore, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the Marvel Universe don't count, nor does the Savage Dragon appearing in shadow.

So let's look at all the IP that was able to do this.

Conan the Barbarian

Do you feel lucky, punk?

Robert E. Howard's barechested barbarian hero was licensed to Marvel in 1970, twelve years before even the Arnold Schwarzenegger film came out. Howard's stories had been first published in the 1930s, but in the late '60s, Lancer Books rereleased the stories and novels in paperback resulting in a new appreciation for them and Marvel's assistant editor Roy Thomas to decide that it was a good idea to get the rights for a comic book adaptation. And he was right: Marvel's Conan the Barbarian comic was hugely popular and went on for 275 issues and 12 annuals, from 1970 to 1993. And in 2019, they managed to get the rights again and published new stories until 2022, when they lost the rights.

But what of crossovers with the actual Marvel universe? Well, first there were three issues of What If?:

• What If? #13, "What If Conan the Barbarian Walked the Earth Today?" where Conan is thrust foward into the present day, meets Peter Parker and MJ, and has a one night stand before going back to his own time.
• What If? #39, "What If Thor of Asgard Had Met Conan the Barbarian?" where Thor finds himself suddenly in the Hyborian Age, where he meets and fights with Conan before teaming up with him and then dying.
• What If? #43, "What If Conan the Barbarian Were Stranded in the 20th Century?" where Conan gets, well, stranded in the 20th century. He ends up becoming an Avenger.

But the actual first time Conan crosses over with the main Marvel continuity is Punisher Annual #2, where he appears in a "Saga of the Serpent Crown" backup. The first time he meets another Marvel superhero, however, is Fantastic Four #405 (October 1995) where Conan is brought forward in time by Zarrko the Tomorrow Man in order to fight Ant-Man. It's...underwhelming.

But when Marvel regained his rights in 2019, they were quick to place him again in the Marvel Universe, this time with a special appearance in an Avengers event: 

The witch and the barbarian.

During the events of Avengers No Road Home, the Scarlet Witch is blinded and thrown back in time to the Hyborian Age, where she meets Conan the Cimmerian and the two share some steamy sexual tension before fighting the book's main villain, Nyx, and going back to the present day. At the end of the book, Conan still hasn't returned to the past and finds himself stuck in the Savage Land.

This is the status quo for Conan until the first volume of Savage Avengers, written by Gerry Duggan with art by Mike Deodato Jr, where Conan finds himself teaming up with Wolverine and a bevy of guest characters in order to fight Kulan Gath, a villainous sorcerer first introduced in Conan's own comic book back in 1972. (Interestingly enough, the issue where Kulan Gath first appeared, #15, was also a crossover with another IP, Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melniboné.)

The volume of Savage Avengers lasted for 29 issues, one annual, and one tie-in (to the crossover Empyre) before relaunching in 2022. This volume of Savage Avengers, written by David Pepose with art by Carlos Magno, featured Conan and a team of other heroes becoming time lost as they are hunted by a Deathlok -- and at the end of the fifth issue, Conan is left behind in the Hyborian Age, where he first came from. Right when Marvel lost the rights again. Perhaps he will show up again if they ever regain them (or when he falls into the public domain).

But before Marvel regained the rights in 2019, Dark Horse Comics had the rights and they did one crossover with DC: 2017's Wonder Woman/Conan by Gail Simone and Aaron Lopresti.

"What is best in life, Diana?"

Wonder Woman/Conan is a six-issue mini-series about a time-lost and amnesiac Diana finding herself in Conan times, forced to become a gladiator and fight for her own survival and against a duo of death gods who want her to suffer.

Conan becomes her companion and love interest when he sees her and realizes that she looks remarkably like a girl that he fell in love with in his youth, but lost. It's a surprisingly poignant story that doesn't lose any of the action and violence inherent in the Conan stories and having six issues to explore Diana and Conan's dynamic and their adventures in these anceintn times really helps, especially as Gail Simone creates a sense of melancholy as Diana realizes that she must leave Conan behind to return to her own time period.

Yes, this does mean that Conan met and romanced both the Scarlet Witch and Wonder Woman. Some guys have all the luck, right?

(And despite Gail Simone also writing an acclaimed Red Sonja run, she was never able to do a Wonder Woman/Red Sonja crossover.)

Red Sonja

Kulan Gath forgot about redheads.

Okay, this is kind of cheating, because while Red Sonja is technically based on a Robert E. Howard character (Red Sonya), she's pretty much a completely new character that Roy Thomas created for the comics. However, since she was created for the Conan comics, the rights to her weren't held by Marvel, so when Marvel lost the Conan rights, they lost the Red Sonja rights, too.

Sonja, introduced in Conan the Barbaian #23, was quickly found to be quite popular and launched into her own series in Marvel Feature, which only seven issues, and then her own self-titled solo book, which last fifteen issues.

However, her first crossover with the Marvel Universe was in Marvel Team-Up #79, by superstar X-Men creative Chris Claremont and John Byrne, where the spirit of Red Sonja possesses Mary Jane Watson and she and Spider-Man fight Kulan Gath (remember him?).

She makes a brief cameo appearance in Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #11, where Strange is reading about the history of the Darkhold, and then doesn't really make any other crossovers until 2007, when Spider-Man/Red Sonja, a five-issue mini-series by Michael Avon Oeming and Mel Rubi, happens. It's about Spider-Man teaming up with Red Sonja, who has again taken over the body of Mary Jane Watson, to defeat Kulan Gath (wow, he shows up a lot).

If he had a PhD, he would be Dr Claw

A year before this crossover, though, Red Sonja had appeared in the DC Universe...in a really weird place. Unlike teaming up with Spider-Man in the modern day, Red Sonja instead teams up with Claw the Unconquered in the four-issue mini-series Red Sonja/Claw by John Layman and Andy Smith.

Now, I know what you are thinking: who the hell is Claw the Unconquered?

Back in the 1970s, when Marvel was having a big success with Conan the Barbarian, DC decided to try their own hand at Sword and Sorcery and published a number of books, including Sword of Sorcery, Claw the Unconquered, Stalker, and Hercules Unbound. In 1975, Claw the Unconquered by David Michelinie and Ernie Chan, was basically their answer to Conan: a warrior born to defeat an evil warlord, the warrior who bares the "Mark of the Claw," which turns one of his hands into a deformed claw. 

The book did not sell well and was canceled after 12 issues. He wouldn't have another book until 2007, when WildStorm published a six-issue mini-series and then a crossover between Claw and Red Sonja. Now, while Claw isn't technically from Earth (he's from an "alien dimension with seven worlds of light, seven worlds of darkness, and one in the balance"), his stories are firmly set in the DC universe since he also meets Wonder Woman during Gail Simone's Wonder Woman run.

Oh and DC's 1970s Sword and Sorcery efforts finally met pay dirt with The Warlord by Mike Grell, which was also set in another dimension.

Doc Savage

The Man of Bronze and Idol o' Millions 

Doc Savage is another pulp hero from the '30s that fits right in with both the Marvel and DC universes. Created by Street & Smith Publications, his adventures were published in Doc Savage Magazine and written by prolific writer Lester Dent under the name "Kenneth Robeson." A large number of these adventures were published and then, in the late 1960s, Bantam Books began re-releasing them as paperbacks, resulting in a resurgence of interesting.

Which is where Marvel comes in again. They licensed the character in 1972 for his own series. Unfortunately, it did not see the same success as Conan did and the series ended after eight issues. This didn't stop Marvel from crossing him over with Spider-Man in Giant-Size Spider-Man #3 and relauching his own book again in 1975, this time written by Doug Moench. (It lasted eight issues again.)

There's another crossover in 1976, Marvel Two-In-One #21, "Black Sun Lives!" by Bill Mantlo and Ron Wilson, in which the Fantastic Four end up meeting the Man in Bronze when a villain connects the two time periods.

First wave...then kiss your ass goodbye

And then, in 2009, DC decided to introduce a new imprint called First Wave: a pulp adventure style universe (called a "Pulpverse"), where the three main characters were the Batman, the Spirit, and Doc Savage. And the entire initiative was kicked off with Batman/Doc Savage Special, "Bronze Night," written by Brian Azzarello with art by Phil Noto.

A pulp fiction inspired universe with versions of both the original pulp action heroes and versions of DC's own street-level superheroes? Sounds pretty damn awesome, right? Well, it last about year year, until 2011, and then came to an end. Doc Savage's own self-titled book lasted 18 issues, which was better than his previous Marvel comics at least. And the entire concept never really seemed to gel -- other than Batman and a version of Black Canary, it didn't seem like there were many other DC characters, which is weird especially considering all of the pulp-inspired heroes DC has.

Star Trek

"Captain's Log, Stardate 1996."

Okay, so Star Trek's history in comics is a long one, starting from 1967 when they were licensed to Gold Key Comics. However, for this crossover, let's skip all the way to 1995 when Marvel regained the rights to publish Star Trek comics (yes, regained the rights, they had already had them previously in the early '80s and lost them). They published Star Trek: The Early Years, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, a series notable for being written by Chris Cooper and featuring the first gay character in Star Trek comics.

But Marvel also published a series of one-shots, including two crossovers with the X-Men: Star Trek / X-Men, a story entitled "Star treX," where the X-Men and the Shi'ar have to team up with the crew of the Enterprise to stop an insane Proteus and Gary Mitchell. It's also the issue where Nurse Chapel says "Doctor McCoy?" and both Beast and Bones say "Yes?"

And then there's Star Trek: The Next Generation / X-Men: Second Contact (yes, that is the full title), which is a follow up to the events of the movie Star Trek: First Contact (yes, really) and has the TNG crew team up with the X-Men to fight Kang the Conquerer. This comic then had it's own sequel in the novel Planet X. (And yes, someone does comment that both Professor X and Captain Picard look alike.)

Look, time travel is complicated.

Then, in 2007, IDW Comics gained the rights to publish Star Trek comics and, eventually, decided to see if they could publish some crossovers. After some crossovers with other IDW comics, they published Star Trek / Legion of Super-Heroes in 2011. Written by Chris Roberson, with art by Jeffrey and Philip Moy, the book had the Original Series Enterprise crew meet and team up with the Legion of Super-Heroes from directly after the events of The Great Darkness Saga. (Yes, it's pre-crisis Legion of Super-Heroes, before their continuity got all messed up.)

Then, in 2015, there was Star Trek / Green Lantern: The Spectrum War, where the War of Light ends up breaking out in the Star Trek (2009) universe and several power rings find themselves in the hands of Star Trek characters, including those that really shouldn't have them. This is written by Mike Johnson, with art by Angel Hernández, and yes, since it's Star Trek (2009), all of the TOS characters look like the actors in that movie.

The same creative team returned a year later with Star Trek / Green Lantern: Stranger Worlds, another six-issue mini-series that featured the same status quo as the ending of the first, a merged Starfleet and GLC fighting both the enemies of both. Yes, it's kind of wild.

WildC.A.T.s

Let's kill some Nazis.

WildC.A.T.s was a book published by the Wildstorm Imprint of Image Comics starting in 1992. It was the brainchild of Jim Lee and Brandon Choi. The C.A.T. part of the name stood of "Covert Action Team," although quite how covert they were varied. Initially, they were a team of alien warriors and hybrids who fought other aliens (called Daemonites) that had crash landed on Earth thousands of years ago.

And in 1997, they crossed over with both Marvel and DC. At Marvel, they had four one-shots, all set during different time periods: WildC.A.T.s / X-Men: The Golden Age (by Scott Lobdell and Travis Charest), WildC.A.T.s / X-Men: The Silver Age (by Scott Lobdell, Neal Adams, and Jim Lee), WildC.A.T.s / X-Men: The Modern Age (by James Robinson, Paul Smith, and Adam Hughes), and WildC.A.T.s / X-Men: The Dark Age (by Warren Ellis and Tom Raney).

Basically, each issue stood alone and showed a different era where the X-Men (or a future member of the X-Men) met and teamed up with the WildC.A.T.s (or a future member of the WildC.A.T.s). Logan and Zealot team up to steal an artifact from some Nazis during World War II in The Golden Age, Jean Grey (during the original '60s X-Men run) teams up with Grifter in The Silver Age, the All-New, All-Different Team meet and fight with the WildC.A.T.s and the Hellfire Club in The Modern Age, and the surviving members of the X-Men and WildC.A.T.s try to prevent a post-apocalyptic future in The Dark Age.

Superman looks a little blue.

In September 1997, right in between The Modern Age and The Dark Age, came JLA / WildC.A.T.s written by Grant Morrison with art by Val Sameiks. Part of Morrison's groundbreaking run on JLA, the story begins with the Justice League fighting against Epoch, Lord of Time, before they find themselves thrust into the WildStorm Universe and forced to team up with a certain Covert Action Team in order to defeat Epoch before his tampering with time destroys both universes.

These crossovers weren't the first or the last time that Wildstorm would affect either universe. In 1996, Marvel handed over some of their top properties to WildStorm and Extreme Studios for Heroes Reborn, an attempted reboot that ended up reverting back to Marvel after a year. And then, in late 1998, Jim Lee sold Wildstorm to DC Comics, which continued the WildStorm Universe as a separate imprint until 2010. Wildstorm's characters were then incorporated into the main DC universe itself, including a 2023 WildC.A.T.s book, written by Matthew Rosenberg, with art by Stephen Segovia.

Gen¹³

A team up for the ages (sort of).

WildC.A.T.s wasn't the only Wildstorm property that crossed over with both Marvel and DC: so did Gen¹³, WildStorm's book about a group of superpowered teenage runaways and their mentor, John Lynch. And what better Marvel book to cross over with than Marvel's own former teenage superhero all about power and responsibility: Spider-Man.

Spider-Man / Gen¹³ came out in December of 1996 and it was written by Peter David, with art by Stuart Immonen. The story was about Peter Parker going to California to cover a concert and encountering Gen¹³ while fighting off a mercenary named Glider. And yes, encountering Gen¹³ makes Peter Parker feel old for the first time.

A year later, Gen¹³ got to crossover with a similarly named group of superpowered teenagers: Generation X. Theire first crossover was Gen ¹³ / Generation X, titled "Generation Gap" and written by Brandon Choi, with art by Arthur Adams. The Generation X kids go looking for a mutant teleporter detected by Cerebro and end up meeting the Gen¹³ kids and fighting off Emplate.

This was followed by Generation X / Gen¹³, titled "Harvest of Evil" and written by James Robinson with art by Salvador Larocca. It was about Generation X and Gen¹³ getting into an adventure dealing with the evil mad scientist Mr. Pretorious and his two Igor assistants, Nook and Cranny, as they Doctor Moreau some Human-Animal Hybrids.

In 2001, they had another crossover called Gen¹³ / Fantastic Four, written and penciled by Kevin Maguire. It's a wacky misadventure about Roxy's pet Queelock (and yes, he is a pastiche of Lockheed). 

No, no, Supergirl, not Power Girl.

A few years later, DC had acquired Wildstorm and decided to published their own crossover with Gen¹³: Superman / Gen¹³, a three-issue mini-series written by Adam Hughes with art by Lee Bermejo. The plot involves the Gen¹³ teens going to Metropolis on a field trip and Caitlin Fairchild getting involved in a fight between Superman and a supervillain, with the result being that she develops a case of amnesia and with only Superman's cape around (he gave it to her during the battle), she figures that she must be Supergirl.

If you think this concept is a bit thin for three issues, you aren't wrong, but there's fun Lee Bermejo artwork and the real Supergirl also shows up since, from her perspective, someone is impersonating her. 

After the WildStorm characters were incorporated into the DC universe in the New 52, Caitlin Fairchild has shown up in the New 52 Superboy series as a member of N.O.W.H.E.R.E. and in the new 2023 WildC.A.T.s series, while Sarah Rainmaker appeared in Gail Simone's The Movement series, and all of Gen¹³ make a cameo appearance in Supergirl vol 3 #66. 

If you think that's the last of the Wildstorm crossover, however, you ain't seen nothing yet:

Wildstorm (and Team 7)

You got your IO in my CIA!

Gen¹³ had superpowers (or were "Gen-Active") because they were the children of Team 7, a group of government special operatives that were exposed to the "Gen-Factor" which gave them, yep, superpowers.

And in 1996, they met Team X, the government special operatives that were a group of mainly mutants like Logan, Sabretooth, and John Wraith. Yes, it was IO vs CIA in a battle of the Teams.

Team X / Team 7 was a one-shot titled "All Sold Out" and it was written by Larry Hama, with art by Steve Epting. It was about Team 7 and Team X infiltrating the Numidian Army with the help of Omega Red, Mademoiselle Mirielle Duplessis (an operative of WildStorm's IO), and Leni Zauber (a German secret agent who is actually Mystique).

Oh, there's also a Backlash / Spider-Man two-issue mini-series written by Mark Ruffner, with art by Brett Booth, but that's starring Ben Reilly, so does it really count?

Team 7 would later be incorporated into the DC universe during the New 52. Which brings us to when the entire universe would collide with DC and Marvel.

Just really fucking good.

Waller vs. Wildstorm is a DC Black Label limited series written by Spencer Ackerman and Evan Narcisse, with art by Jesús Merino.

In the late 1980s, in the last days of the Cold War, a confluence of events results in Jackson King, Battalion of StormWatch, meeting with Lois Lane, up and coming reporter for the Daily Planet, in the war-torn island country of Gamorra. And it turns out that he has some secrets to tell about Checkmate and a mysterious Checkmate operative named Amanda Waller.

Team 7 makes a pretty big appearance as Checkmate's black ops mercenary team, with their usual members (including John Lynch) as well as Deathstroke the Terminator.

Go read it, it's awesome.

In not so awesome crossovers, however, this isn't the first time that Wildstorm Universe itself crossed over.

The Thing is looking strange today.

Remember in 1996, when Wildstorm and Extreme Studios were handed a bunch of Marvel characters to reboot for Heroes Reborn? Well, they decided that the last issue of each book -- the 13th issue -- would actually be a part of a big crossover...with all of Wildstorm.

Called "World War 3," the issues were Fantastic Four vol 2 #13, Avengers vol 2 #13, Iron Man vol 2 #13, and Captain America vol 2 #13, written by James Robinson (yes, he wrote all four issues), with art by Mike Wieringo, Michael Ryan, Larry Stroman, and Ron Lim. In involved the Avengers and the Fantastic Four teaming up with Stormwatch, WildC.A.T.s, and Wetworks in order to defeat the combined alliance of the Skrulls, the Daemonites, Doctor Doom, and Lord Defile.

Yes, really. And since this was the end of Heroes Reborn and they were dealing with alternate versions of the Wildstorm characters, a whole lot of characters die.

Moving on...

Fight fight fight fight fight

...to that other time characters from a superhero universe went to the Wildstorm universe. Yes, it's DreamWar.

Published in 2008, DC / Wildstorm: DreamWar was a six-issue mini-series written by Keith Giffen, with art by Lee Garbett.

Combining Stormwatch, WildC.A.T.s, Gen¹³, the Authority, and the characters from Gail Simone's Welcome to Tranquility with the DC universe causes a bit (or a lot) of confusion, as the characters from both universes are manipulated by the Dreamslayer who has taken over the Dreamtime and...look, it's an excuse to get them to fight each other. That's all it ever is: an excuse for them to fight each other.

You'd think a Justice League vs the Authority crossover would lead to something more interesting than "they fight" but nope. They fight. I mean, I guess it's fine if you want to watch Zealot cut off Batman's head in a shared dreamscape, but...wait, that does sound cool.

Wildstorm wasn't the only Image Studio that crossed over with both Marvel and DC. Yes, it's time for Top Cow.

Cyberforce

Floating head syndrom strikes again.

Cyberforce (or Cyber Force or CYBERFORCE, who knows) was the first book from Marc Silvestri's Top Cow Productions. And if WildC.A.T.s was a bit too similar to the X-Men, then Cyberforce was even more of an X-Men knockoff. 

In 2005, DC and Top Cow published JLA / Cyberforce, written by Joe Kelly, with art by Doug Mahnke. It was about Cyberforce and the Justice League teaming up to stop some cyber-zombies led by Ripclaw, a former member of Cyberforce who was now an evil cyber-zombie. (It later turned out that this was an evil clone of Ripclaw and the real Ripclaw was a-okay. Told you they were an X-Men knockoff.) It also involves something called "Godtech," which can revive the dead and is used to bring back Martian Manhunter after he dies. 

Rip and tear, rip and tear...

A few years later, in 2007, Marvel and Top Cow published Cyberforce / X-Men, written by Ron Marz with art by Pat Lee. In this story, Wolverine and Psylocke meet and team up with Ripclaw and Cyblade, the two characters in Cyberforce that are pretty explicitly based on Wolverine and Psylocke.

The plot involves Ripclaw and Cyblade in Japan fighting the Hand (of course) before being abducted by some Sentinels, while Betsy and Logan arrive in Japan in order to track down said Sentinels. It's a pretty thin excuse for a crossover, but you aren't here for the plot. You are here to see Wolverine and Psylocke team up with Ripclaw and Cyblade and fight some giant robots, which they do. And then Wolverine invites Ripclaw and Cyblade back to Xavier's mansion:

"The X-Men have a school. Think we got a couple extra bedrooms. Assumin' it wouldn't be overly confusing having two guys with claws and two ladies with energy blades. Interested?"

They turn him down, of course, and the duos depart as friends. 

It's called fusion because...something.

That wasn't the last time that the Marvel universe encountered Cyberforce, though: in 2009, the three-issue mini-series Fusion was published, which was a crossover between the Avengers, the Thunderbolts, Cyberforce, and Hunter-Killer, another Top Cow property.

Written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, with art by Tyler Kirkham, the mini-series takes place shortly after Civil War, with the main Avengers team being the Iron Man-led Mighty Avengers. When the Mighty Avengers try to capture and out-of-control (and unregistered) Ellis (the main character of Hunter-Killer), they get involved with both Cyberforce (because Ellis looks like Ripclaw for some reason) and Norman Osborn's Thunderbolts, who want to capture Ellis and Ripclaw for their own reasons.

It turns out that an alien has, in fact, possessed Ellis (noooo, not Ellis) and Osborn wants to capture and study the alien and it's biotech. Also, Osborn is old friends with Morningstar, one of the villains from Hunter-Killer, which of course he is. Look, if you weren't reading Hunter-Killer, then this book is probably pretty confusing.

Witchblade

That'll cause some chafing.

If you haven't heard of Witchblade, it's about a cop, Sara Pezzini, who finds a mystical artifact called the Witchblade which can do a bunch of things, one of which is create a costume made of metal that looks both uncomfortable to wear and barely there. Like Cyberforce, it was from Marc Silvestri's Top Cow, but unlike Cyberforce, it actually proved pretty popular, enough to merit a live-action TV show at least.

And in 1997, a crossover called "Devil's Reign" was released, which was a crossover between many Top Cow properties, so here goes:

• Devil's Reign ½: Silver Surfer / Witchblade #½
• Weapon Zero / Silver Surfer #1
• Cyblade / Ghost Rider #1
• Ghost Rider / Ballistic #1
• Ballistic / Wolverine #1
• Wolverine / Witchblade #1
• Witchblade / Elektra #1
• Elektra / Cyblade #1
• Silver Surfer / Weapon Zero #1

Sigh. Since Weapon Zero and Ballistic don't crossover with DC (and we've already discussed Cyblade), let's just talk about the Wolverine / Witchblade and Witchblade / Elektra crossover: they involve Logan and Elektra going to the Top Cow universe via Zoe Culloden of Landau, Luckman, and Lake in order to stop Mephisto from marrying Sara Pezzini and thereby gaining the Witchblade.

Yes, really. Oh and, like, JLA/Avengers, it's all still canon apparently.

This isn't the last time someone from the Marvel universe will want to marry Sara, by the way. So let's talk about another Witchblade / Wolverine.

The wedding of the century.

Released in 2004, Witchblade / Wolverine is another one-shot crossover, this time written by the man himself, Chris Claremont, with art by Eric Basaldua. And yes, it begins with Logan and Sara getting married in Vegas. Sure, they don't actually remember who they are at the time, but this event isn't reversed at the end of the issue and, in fact, they actually fall in love with each other. Which, if you think about it, actually makes sense for these characters, but is also batshit insane.

A few years later in 2007, another one-shot crossover was released: Witchblade / The Punisher, written by Ron Marz, with art by Adriana Melo. This time, while escorting a criminal who is turning state's evidence, Sara and her partner encounter the one and only Frank Castle, who is determined to kill said criminal, because, hey, he's Frank Castle, that's what he does.

Seven years before that, however, Witchblade made an appearance in the DC universe with (again) another one-shot crossover: JLA / Witchblade.

No, no, it's loving submission.

JLA / Witchblade, written by Len Kaminksi, with art by Mark Pajarillo, is one of those crossovers where the creators just pretend like everyone is already living in the same universe, so there's no need to be transported from the DC to the Top Cow universe or vice versa.

In this case, Sara Pezzini comes to Gotham to visit her "best friend" Barbara Gordon. And, for some reason, this causes the Witchblade to switch from Sara to Barbara. And then from Barbara to Huntress and Wonder Woman. Because, sure, it can do that, I guess? Oh and Kenneth Irons (Sara's own personal nemesis who is obsessed with the Witchblade) teams up with Lex Luthor (who is Lex Luthor) in order to steal the Witchblade away from Sara and eventually the JLA.

Fun fact: an ancient Atlantean text apparently calls the Witchblade the most powerful weapon in the universe, which pisses off Green Lantern, because, hey, crossovers aren't supposed to be canon, dammit!

The Darkness

And yet he never met Venom.

The Darkness is technically a spin-off of Witchblade. It's about Jackie Estacado, a Mafioso who turns out to be part of a cursed bloodline where he inherits something called "the Darkness" at his 21st birthday, but also it will kill him at the moment he conceives a son.

What can the Darkness do? What can't it do. Look, I don't know, it controls demons and darkness or something. I never played the game. But in May 2004, Marvel and Top Cow published The Darkness / Incredible Hulk, written by Paul Jenkins, with art by Dale Keown. Jackie meets Bruce Banner in the subway and together, they stop some Chechyan terrorists from hijacking a train. Also, for some reason, the Hulk kills a lot of people. Like, a lot. 

Then, in August 2006, there was The Darkness / Wolverine, written by Frank Tieri, with art by Tyler Kirkham. So you know how it seems like Wolverine met everyone during World War II? Captain America and Black Widow and Magneto and even Zealot from WildC.A.T.s? Well, it turns out that he also met Jackie's grandfather, who also had the Darkness. And since Jackie's grandfather was working for the Nazis at the time, Logan tried to kill him a lot. And in the present day, Jackie ends up in his crosshairs, too, when they run into each other.

The Dark Knight and the Dark...Ness.

In 1999, Jackie met the Dark Knight in The Darkness / Batman, written by Jeph Loeb and Scott Lobdell, with art by Marc Silvestri, Clarence Lansang, and David Finch. Jackie begins the crossover deciding to expand his territory into Gotham, even though that sounds like the worst idea ever, and comes into conflict with Batman. 

In 2005, however, they finally branched out and instead of doing another one-shot crossover, they did a two issue crossover (wow) called The Darkness / Superman, written by Ron Marz, with art by Tyler Kirkham.

The premise of the mini is that Jackie wants to expand his territory (again) into Metropolis and so ends up starting a mob war, one in which is, of course, interrupted by Superman. (Jackie seems to be a very dumb criminal.) Because this story would be very short if it was just Superman vs the Darkness, Metallo (the Man with the Kryptonite Heart!) also shows up as a hired gun and weakens Superman.

Archie and the Gang

The war never ends, Frank.

One of those few batshit insane crossovers that you think is fake, but it's actually real. Archie and the Gang are a group of wholesome teenagers who live in Riverdale and hang out at Pop's and drink malts and have chaste love triangles and so on. And the Punisher is, well, the Punisher.

And yet, in June of 1994, a joke between Archie Comics' editor Victor Gorelick and Marvel's Editor-in-Chief Tom DeFalco resulted in The Punisher Meets Archie (or Archie Meets the Punisher), a one-shot crossover where, well, Archie and the gang meets Frank Castle, the Punisher.

Look, does the plot matter? Frank is after a criminal named Melvin Jay who also goes by "Red Fever," since he has red hair and, oh, he also looks exactly like a certain Archie Andrews, so when this criminal ends up in Riverdale, so does the Punisher and a series of mistaken identities and shenanigans ensue. And only does Archie meet the Punisher, then Archie teams up with the Punisher.

So what's next for Archie and the gang? Well, how about meeting with a couple of supervillains?

His milkshake brings all the villains to the yard.

Harley and Ivy Meet Betty and Veronica is a six-issue mini-series written by Marc Andreyko and Paul Dini, with art by Laura Braga. The plot involves Harley and Ivy going to Riverdale to stop Hiram Lodge from draining a nearby swamp and turning it into a university. But when Harley and Ivy start causing trouble at a costume party and try to kidnap Veronica (of course), Zatanna and Sabrina Spellman (yes) cast a spell to stop them and end up causing a bodyswap instead.

Yes, it took until the year this was published, in the year 2017, for a intercompany crossover to finally do a bodyswap. Harley and Ivy find themselves in the body of Betty and Veronica and vice versa. (And if you are thinking "Hey, wait, Harley and Ivy are girlfriends -- does this mean" I'm gonna stop you right there, because Betty and Veronica are already shipped together a ton anyway.)

In any case, the book was a success, meaning that another crossover was all set to go: Archie Meets Batman '66.

Nah nah nah nah nah nah

Batman '66 is a comic book continuation of the 1966 Batman TV show with Adam West and Burt Ward, written by Jeff Parker, with a variety of artists and covers by Mike Allred. It is exactly as silly and fun as it sounds.

It also managed to do a ton of crossovers with various other properties, including Batman '66 Meets Wonder Woman '77, Batman '66 Meets the Man from U.N.C.L.E, Batman '66 Meets Steed and Peel, Batman '66 Meets the Legion of Super Heroes, and, of course, Archie Meets Batman '66.

Written by Jeff Parker and Michael Moreci, with art by Dan Parent, J. Bone, Kelly Fitzpatrick, and Jack Morelli, the plot is, uh, Archie meets Batman '66. Okay, look, it's not really more than that. The characters from the '60s Batman show meet the characters from Archie Comics and everyone gets into a giant battle when they try to stop the supervillains from taking over Riverdale.

Look, just reading the name of the book should get you to know whether or not you will enjoy it.

Fortnite

Yes, the popular game. Yes, it's so popular that both Marvel and DC have crossed over with it recently.

The fantastic five.

In August 2020, there was the one shot Fornite X Marvel - Nexus War: Thor, which then led into the five issue mini-series Fortnite X Marvel: Zero War in 2022.

Written by Christos Gage and Donald Mustard, with art by Donald Mustard, the crossover involves Wolverine, Logan, and Shuri transported to the Fortnite Island, which is (in universe) an island that is embroiled in an endless war. In order to stop the war, they team up with some of the Seven (just go with it) to try and find a shard of the Zero Point called the, uh, Zero Shard.

Oh, and a bunch of other characters were transported to the Fortnite Island, too, in order to fight. If you were reading a Marvel Comic in 2020 and suddenly the character you were reading disappeared in a flash of blinding light and then reappeared a few minutes later with torn and ripped clothing and a generally bad demeanor, that's what happened.

No, I'm not kidding.

Look, this isn't even the weirdest thing
that happened to him this week.

As with all things, when it came to DC's crossover, it was with Batman. Batman / Fortnight: Zero Point was a six-issue crossover from 2021.

Written by Christos Gage and Donald Mustard (hey wait, I remember those names), with art by Reilly Brown, the plot of the book is that a crack in the sky above Gotham pulls in Batman and drops him on the Fortnite Island without any memories of who he is or where he came from.

Trapped on the Island with a dwindling memory, but with the help of Catwoman, Batman struggles to fight against all of the, uh, other players, I guess? Look, I don't play Fortnite. Reading about the "Zero Point" and all the other stuff is gobbeldygook and wait the third issue has Batman fighting Snake Eyes of G.I. Joe wait.

...Does this count as an official crossover between Batman and G.I. Joe? Because, technically, Quick Kick of G.I. Joe was trained by Shang Chi, which means we have another one for the middle of the Venn Diagram and oh no I'm part of the problem.

(Yes, technically this happened in a pre-G.I. Joe comic called Action Force, but they are the same characters.)

Predator

When you don't moisterize.

DC has crossed over with Predators so often, I'm just going to list them all right here:

• Batman versus the Predator #1-3 (1991)
• Batman versus the Predator II: Bloodmatch #1-4 (1994)
• Batman versus the Predator III: Blood Ties #1-4 (1997)
• Superman vs Predator #1-3 (2000)
• JLA versus Predator #1 (2001)
• Superman and Batman versus Aliens and Predator #1-2 (2007)

Yes, that last one has Xenomorphs in it, too. And you might be wondering: am I going to cover the Alien franchise as well? Well, the answer is: NO! Even though Marvel has published an Aliens comic, there haven't been any appearances by Marvel Universe characters! Remember the rules!

In any case, these comics involve Batman and/or Superman and/or the Justice League of America fighting and/or teaming up with one or several members of the Yautja (that would be the actual race of the Predators).

If these are the kinds of comics you like, then you will like these comics. 

Which brings us to a crossover that has yet to happen. Just announced a few months ago, written by Ben Percy, with a host of artists:

Oh hell yeah.

Predator vs Wolverine is set to come out in September 20, 2023.

Godzilla

Objectively awesome.

This is an interesting one: much like ROM Spaceknight and The Micronauts, Godzilla: King of the Monsters was a licensed comic that was still firmly set in the Marvel Universe when it was published from 1977 to 1979.

Writer Doug Moench forgoes adapting the movie and instead has the giant atomic lizard awaken in the waters of Alaska and go on a cross-country rampage, where he is followed and fought by the "Godzilla Squad" of SHIELD: "Dum Dum" Dugan, Gabe Jones, Jimmy Woo, and Godzilla expert Yuriko Takiguchi, his assistant Tamara Hashioka and his grandson Robert Takiguchi.

And in the final issues, as Godzilla finally reaches New York, he encounters and fights against the Avengers themselves.

And even though since losing the rights to Godzilla, nobody in the Marvel Universe can mention these events, they still happened. Godzilla even makes an appearance (in a different, mutated form) in Iron Man and West Coast Avengers. And then there's this:

From the Summers Protocol: "Delaying Kaiju"

So now that Godzilla has been established as existing in the Marvel Universe, how will he show up in the DC Universe?

Oh fuck yeah.

Justice League vs Godzilla vs Kong is a seven-issue mini-series written by Brian Buccellato, with art by Christian Duce and is set to come out October 17, 2023.

So you can read about Wolverine fighting a Predator and, the next month, the Justice League fighting Godzilla and King Kong. What a world.

Honorable Mentions

In 2007, Marvel published New Avengers / Transformers, a four-issue mini-series by Stuart Moore and Tyler Kirkham. However, the JLA / Transformers comic that Phil Jimenez was in the middle of working on was killed by the New 52 reboot. Yes, we almost got award-winning artist Phil Jimenez doing a JLA/Transformers book. Yet another reason to hate the New 52.

In Marvel Team-Up (vol 3) #14, written by Robert Kirkman, with art by Cory Walker, Spider-Man teams up with Kirkman's own Mark Grayson, Invincible, who is traveling between universes. In Invincible #33, we see more of him traveling through universes and we get a cameo from Batman (although not a proper crossover so doesn't count for this list).

Look, I'm still amazed we can connect G.I. Joe to Marvel via Quick Kick and Shang-Chi and DC via Batman / Fortnite and Batman fighting Snake Eyes. Tell everyone. Sure, they might think you're crazy, but who is the real crazy one?