Since the beginning, the comic book industry has thrived on weird and creative ideas, and none do better than the wackiest team-ups and crossovers. The best of these combine completely unrelated or seemingly mismatched universes, from Aliens to Avengers, forcing heroes to join characters who couldn’t be more different, and send them on equally weird adventures.
These stories can answer classic comic fan questions like who would win in a revenge match, which character is more powerful or whether some heroes would actually work better in another world. With creators turning in some excellent and funny scripts to make the team-ups great, the stories stand out as The weirdest comic book crossovers in history.
10
Black Hammer / Justice League
Jeff Lemire and Michael Walsh
in 2016, Black hammer Emerged as one of the best – and strangest – superhero franchises in indie comics, paying homage to the Golden Age, science fiction and adventure through a modern lens. The series tells the story of its titular team of old heroes, who are trapped in a small town. In their Justice League crossover, Lemire’s team switches places with the JLA. With DC’s First Team confined to the city and the Black Hammer team reliving the adventures of the JLA, heroes from both worlds seek answers.
Black Hammer / Justice League Stands out as a fantastic combination of Golden Age heroes, Silver Age adventure and mystery, as the characters’ pursuit of truth leads them to a classic Superman foe. The crossover is weird in the best way possible, with Lemire’s signature style of storytelling reimagining classic DC history while exploring how the League reacts to their captivity.
9
Batman vs. The Incredible Hulk (DC Special Series #27)
Len Wein, Jose Luiz Garcia Lopez and Dick Giordano
During the 1970s, DC and Marvel Comics began their crossovers in spectacular fashion, with Batman’s battle with the Hulk standing out as the funniest. The story follows the Caped Crusader as he is forced to fight Marvel’s Green Behemoth when he is manipulated by Joker into attacking him. After besting his rival in combat, Batman manages to bring Hulk back to reason, and the pair form an alliance between the Clown Prince of Crime and Shaper-of-Worlds.
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Batman’s battle with the Incredible Hulk is particularly funny considering his defeat of the Green Behemoth, a feat even some of Marvel’s toughest heroes fail to accomplish. Of all the heroes of 616 to have Bruce Wayne together with, choosing Hulk made for a strange and bold choice – and it completely paid off.
8
Planet of the Apes / Green Lantern
Robbie Thompson and Barnaby Bagenda
Since the 1970s, the Planet of the Apes franchise has been one of the best-written in comics, with Boom! Studios have released most of their latest stories. In 2018, the world of the apes clashed with the Green Lantern Corps, as the various factions of the emotional spectrum hunted for a universal ring, which gives the wearing power over the different energies. When Cornelius discovers the ring, he attracts the unwanted attention of fellow apes and Lantern Corps.
Planet of the Apes / Green Lantern is a great example of merging two unrelated properties into an epic adventure, and giving Cornelius the Universal Ring gave both worlds a challenge. The story blends two staples of ’60s science fiction and, despite their very different styles, actually makes for one of the best stories of either world.
7
Amalgam
Ty Templeton, Rick Burchett, Larry Hama, Jim Balent, Ray McCarthy, Ron Marz, Jose Luiz Garcia-Lopez, Kevin Nowlan, John Byrne, Terry Austin, Dan Chichester, Scott McDaniel, Gerard Jones, Mark Waid, Howard Porter, Dave Gibbons , Chuck Dixon, Cary Nord, Mark Pennington, John Ostrander, Gary Frank, Jeff Matsuda, Howard Mackie, Salvador Larroca, Al Milgrom, Rodolfo DiMaggio, Bill Sienkiewicz and more
After the various crossovers of Marvel and DC, they formed the Amalgam imprint, which merged the formulas of different characters. In each story, two characters from each publisher are blended into a new design, with examples including Batman and Wolverine creating Dark Claw and Doctors Strange and Fate creating Doctor Strangefate.
The Amalgam imprint is a triumph of creativity, with its best stories turning heroes and villains into surprisingly original versions of themselves. The appeal of the series is seeing how an all-star roster of creative teams would merge their respective worlds and formulas, delivering weird creations like Lobo the Duck. Despite the strangeness of the idea, many of these remakes actually work as their own stories, some even eclipsing their originals.
6
Star Trek / X-Men
Dan Abnett, Ian Edginton, Cary Nord, Scott Koblish, Scott Lobdell, Marc Silvestri, Billy Tan, David Finch and Anthony Winn
Marvel’s X-Men and Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek may not seem similar on the surface, but both franchises actually share many of the same themes. These include advancing social progress, resisting prejudice and, of course, defending the lives of the innocent from evil and oppression. The two teams met twice, with Marvel’s Mutants meeting both major generations of the Enterprise’s crew: Captain Kirk’s crew in the first story and Picard’s in the second.
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Star Trek / X-Men is a great exploration of the universes’ shared themes, focusing on two franchises that have long represented forward-thinking progressive values ​​and questions of ethics and morality. While the crossover makes for a great comic, on paper it sounds weird — and something about Wolverine interacting with Data and Picard is downright weird for fans of either franchise. The sequel comic stands out as the best, when the two teams form an alliance between their most dangerous enemies: the Borg and the Sentinels.
5
Eminem / Punisher
Fred Van Lente and Salvador Larroca
Eminem has been an outspoken comic book fan since the beginning of his career as a rapper, almost guaranteeing his collaboration with a publisher – as so many celebrities have. It came full circle Eminem / PunisherWhat follows is a team-up between one of the greatest rappers of all time and Marvel’s hard-boiled vigilante. The story follows the unlikely alliance when Frank Castle rescues Slim Shady from Barracuda, who has been hired by the Parents Music Council to kill the musician.
Story aside, the comic’s fixation with giving Eminem a photo-realistic figure, compared to a more comic book feel to other characters can create an odd contrast on some pages. The story ends with Castle leaving Eminem adrift on ice, with the rapper ending the story by telling Frank to let the PMC know “Tell them Shady sent you!” Of all the celebrity collaborations in comics, it’s no stranger than Marvel’s greatest killer saving a real-world rapper from an assassin sent by a parenting group.
4
The Oz-Wonderland War
E. Nelson Bridwell, Joey Cavalieri and Carol Lay
The Oz-Wonderland War Unites two beloved worlds of children’s literature with DC’s Zoo Crew, bringing together Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland and L. Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz. The story focuses on Captain Carrot and his friends as they are guided by the Cheshire Cat into Wonderland, where they learn of an evil villain, the Nome King, who has imprisoned the heroes of Oz. Like MacGuffins, these characters are hidden around the two worlds in elaborate disguises, with the Zoo Crew charged with finding them.
The Oz-Wonderland War went down as something of a missed opportunity in comics, taking two thoughtful stories and reducing them to the level of Saturday-morning cartoons. That said, it excels in delivering a kid-friendly adventure story, one sure to excite younger fans of either story. The somewhat psychedelic descent into two of the weirdest universes of fiction is actually completely on-point for both.
3
My Little Pony / Transformers
James Asmus, Ian Flynn, Tony Fleecs and Jack Lawrence
The comic book industry has a long history of honoring classic toy-based properties, often combining similar franchises such as Transformers And GI Joe. Perhaps the most unexpected of these is My Little Pony / TransformersWhat follows after the cybernetic machines enter the fanny world after Queen Chrysalis accidentally breaks with a space bridge. With the evil Decepticons trying to establish dominance, Optimus and his friends join forces with the good-natured ponies.
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The crossover between Transformers and My Little Pony represents something of a clash of cultures, bringing together what are considered the top boys’ and girls’ toys of the 80s. Not only did the series capitalize on the pony franchise’s unexpected surge in popularity during the 2010s, it also succeeded in threading the needle between two almost completely opposite universes.
2
Archie vs. Predator
Alex Decampi and Fernando Ruiz
Archie vs. Predator Follows Archie and the gang on vacation in Costa Rica. While there, Betty and Veronica inadvertently trigger the attention of a predator. After slashing his way through other bystanders, the Yautja pursues Archie and friends back to Riverdale. With the help of the military, the gang gets caught in an attempt to bait their enemy, with Jughead used as bait. However, when the alien hunter overpowers his would-be captors, he begins killing the Riverdale gang – all fueled by a crush on Betty.
Archie vs. Predator is one of the best cases of two completely mismatched franchises actually working in a crossover, despite all common sense suggesting otherwise. With a strange ending, the series suspends all disbelief for fans of each universe, giving readers the strangest story of its decade.
1
Superman meets the Quick Bunny
Mike Carlin, Carmine Infantino and Dick Giordano
Comic book crossovers as a means of advertising is nothing new in comics, and few stories are as great an example of this as the Man of Steel crossover with the Quick Bunny. Designed to improve Nesquik’s brand awareness, while capitalizing on young readers’ love for cereal mascots, the story is one of Superman’s strangest to date.
Superman’s team-up with the Quick Bunny doesn’t have much in the way of story to it, instead serving up a sickly-sweet advertisement to kids by giving Nestle the Man of Tomorrow stamp of approval. While sure to entertain some of the comics’ youngest readers, the standout feature for longtime DC fans and collectors is its status as one of the strangest team-ups in comic book history.