A crossover event has been a staple in the world of comic books for many years, for better or worse. They have allowed creators to explore grand new plots and interactions that shed light on characters in ways that haven't been seen before.
What has remained the "wild card" in this industry however is the intercompany and property crossover events. A recent example of this would be the many titles from publisher IDW, who released multiple stories that cross between different franchises. Whether it be opposing genres or similar characters coming together to fight the forces of evil, these events have kept surprising readers over many years.
Spawn/Batman (1994)
This one-shot comic, written by Frank Miller with art by Todd McFarlane, drops in on the Dark Knight as he battles against a gang with high-powered weaponry. After he is attacked by a robot containing a severed head, he decides to head into New York City in search of the mysterious weapons dealer.
It is there he runs afoul Spawn who is searching for the very same people. The result of the McFarlane and Miller team-up is a gritty comic book, one that fits perfectly in both their respective legacies.
Superman/The Amazing Spider-Man (1976)
Created by Gerry Conway and Ross Andru, this was the second project both Marvel and DC had worked on together. Superman and Spider-Man come together in this issue to stop Lex Luthor and Doctor Octopus as they begin their plans for world domination.
Due to the success of this issue, there was a sequel printed in 1981 where Superman and the wall-crawler team up to fight against Parasite and the leader of Latveria, Doctor Doom.
Batman/Hellboy/Starman (1999)
Consisting only of two issues, this miniseries follows Batman and popular Dark Horse Comics hero, Hellboy. Together they team up to find the kidnapped Starman, and are even later joined by Starman's son, Jack Knight.
From a script written by James Robinson, Mike Mignola contributes his unique art style to this devilish tale of rescue. Being the creator of Hellboy, Mignola was no stranger to drawing the supernatural hero. But the artist and writer also had previous experience with Batman prior to this crossover. Mignola famously did the artwork for the popular 1989 graphic novel, Batman: Gotham by Gaslight.
The Uncanny X-Men and the Teen Titans (1982)
Written by the famous X-Men writer Chris Claremont, this crossover one-shot was penciled by famed Beta Ray Bill creator, Walt Simonson. The X-Men and Teen Titans are brought together because of the powerful Darkseid who is hellbent on breaking through the multiverse divider, the Source Wall. In doing so, Darkseid attempts to recreate the Dark Phoenix to assist him with his evil plans.
Though the issue was praised, especially for Simonson's artwork, there was unfortunately no sequel produced.
Deathmate (1993)
Deathmate was a six-part crossover series from Valiant and Image Comics. The series was about two characters from opposing universes, Solar of Valiant and Void of Image, becoming lovers and ultimately disturbed their own respective timelines. This in turn creates a world that blended the two universes together. And almost every character from each universe was unaware of the incident, except for Prophet and Geoff McHenry.
The series was organized and titled by color instead of numbering so to allow the issues to be read in any order, except for the titled prologue and epilogue issues. The series was not as popular with fans, with one major problem being its issues with meeting deadlines.
Batman/The Maxx: Arkham Dreams (2018)
In this bizarre Batman tale, a doctor in Arkham Asylum begins to experiment on Sam Kieth's Image Comic hero, The Maxx. The result is that Gotham and Maxx's world, the Outback, begin to merge into one. Batman must join forces with the strange purple patient to then save their reality.
Sam Kieth does the art and co-writes the series with John Layman. The first issue was published in 2018 by IDW, but because of delays the story did not finish until 2020.
Archie vs. Predator (2015)
Throughout the long history of Archie Comics, the Riverdale group has had some great adventures and met some interesting people. From the Ramones to the Punisher, the kids seem to have met them all. But one of the more bizarre stories was Archie vs. Predator.
The story involves the Predator following the friends back to Riverdale after they first attract its attention during a spring break trip. What follows is a violent and strange four issue series that leaves fans thrown from one extreme to another. And readers loved it. This horror-comedy series was so popular in fact that it spawned a sequel series in 2019.
DC Universe Vs. Master of the Universe (2013)
In a strange six-issue miniseries, this crossover details the story of Skeletor as he mysteriously escapes his defeat by entering into the Earth realm where he then plans to steal all its magic. When He-Man and the Masters of the Universe pursue him, they come into conflict with the heroes of the DC Universe.
The series was written by Keith Giffen with art by Dexter Soy and features all the fan favorites from Superman, to Wonder Woman, to Man-At-Arms.
Devil's Reign (1997)
A crossover between Marvel and the Image Comics imprint, Top Cow Comics, the story followed the hell lord Mephisto as he devised a plan to cross into the Top Cow Universe to steal souls and return to the Marvel Universe as an unstoppable force.
Consisting of eight chapters and spanning twelve issues, each book in the series joined a character from each universe together. Examples of this were Ghost Rider and Ballistic from chapter three, and Weapon Zero and Silver Surfer from chapter one.
DC Vs. Marvel (1996)
Created in 1996, this epic crossover event between the "big two" in the industry brought fans many battles that were once confined to the imagination of fans. This four-part series written by Ron Marx and Peter David told the story of two supreme beings, one from each publisher's universe, that pitted characters against one another to decide which universe should be wiped out.
This would ultimately lead to the DC and Marvel-owned publishing brand, Amalgam Comics. Only a few titles were published under this banner unfortunately with each issue containing a mashup of characters from either publisher. An example would be the Batman and Wolverine creation, Dark Claw.