Will New Crossovers Keep It Fresh?
By Dan Brown Incoming! A new batch of DC/Marvel collaborations begins landing in comic stores this month. As old comic fans like me well know, crossovers are an age-old marketing tradition. The question is: Can the combined talent of comicdom’s two industry leaders make them feel fresh and exciting in 2025? The collabs, one published by each company, were announced in February. L.A. Mood’s Matt Finch alerted me they were in the pipeline because he knew I would remember the ones from the 1970s and onward. Those stories take place out of regular continuity. That allows the legal wall between DC and Marvel to be torn down, the result being Superman can team up with Spider-Man, the New Teen Titans with the X-Men, Batman with the Hulk, and so on. Crossovers were once rare, momentous events. When I cast my mind back to the 1970s, I still remember being stunned at the sight of the Man of Steel and Spidey squaring off on the cover of the same comic. Although I was just a dumb kid, I understood this was something special that didn’t happen every month. That’s probably why I grabbed every crossover – typically printed in a larger format – that came my way. Since these special issues sold so well, they quickly evolved into a cottage industry within the larger comics business, and as more independent publishers popped up, those new players tried to grab a piece of the action. Batman has co-starred with Judge Dredd. Archie met the Predator once. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have taken on Flaming Carrot. Flash-forward to this year, and Godzilla seems to be omnipresent in comics, breathing fire and stomping skyscrapers in every publisher’s imaginative universe. Crossovers represent an extension of the idea of continuity: If every Marvel superhero exists in the same metaverse together, why can’t they exist alongside DC’s stable of stars as well, at least temporarily? The first of the new books will see Deadpool face off against the Dark Knight, with backup stories combining Daredevil and Wonder Woman, and Krypto and Jeff the Land Shark, in the same volume. Along those lines, this summer I found an old Wizard magazine from 1994 in a second-hand bookstore. Among the then-current industry news was a brief touting an upcoming Batman/Punisher outing. That’s how ubiquitous they became. It was from those earlier crossovers that I was first introduced to such characters as the Jack Kirby-created baddie Darkseid. (Lord knows I love Walter Simonson’s art, but how did George Perez not get the assignment when the Titans met the X-Men in 1982?) So that particular volume was instrumental in introducing each company’s fans to the other’s lineup of characters. Crossovers became a way of cross-pollinating different fandoms. Those who loved both of this summer’s big-screen superhero outings – Superman and The Fantastic Four: First Steps – may be surprised to learn that Supes was, like the Silver Surfer, once a herald of Marvel planet-eater Galactus. Yep, it happened in 1999’s Superman/Fantastic Four: The Infinite Destruction, one of the best dual efforts from back in the day. Speaking of the movies, if it’s really true that audiences are finally tiring of superhero stories, how long will it be before one of the big brains in Hollywood suggests using the same strategy on the silver screen that has worked in comics? Isn’t that the logical next step – putting unlikely heroes beside each other to sell movie tickets? I’m betting it’s only a matter of time. If the Alien and the Predator can slug it out, why not put DC heroes and Marvel’s finest beside one another in a motion picture? Indeed, how long until a single mega-company – think Disney – assembles all the characters it owns from different media in the same movie adventure? Admit it: You love the idea of Luke Skywalker partnering with Tony Stark to fight the combined villainy of Darth Vader and Doctor Doom! Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 33 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly graphic-novel group.
Superman Goes to the Dogs
By Dan Brown I’m not a huge Superman fan, but I am a sucker for a cute dog. That’s why I love the Superman trailer that blew up over the holidays. Debuting Dec. 19, the clip is a promo for James Gunn’s upcoming movie about the man of steel, which is scheduled to land in theatres this summer. It got a lot of attention for a certain canine co-star. Krypto, who is Superman’s dog friend, shows up in the trailer, dragging a wounded Supes across a snowy landscape after being summoned to rescue his best friend.“Krypto, home. Take me home,” the injured hero wheezes. The trailer was a big deal because the white-furred mutt did not appear in the various Superman motion pictures starring Henry Cavill, Brandon Routh, and Christopher Reeve. Meanwhile, in DC Comics, the pooch from deep space made his debut back in 1955. Just like his master, he wears a red cape and flies in the comics. Perhaps the trailer is an attempt to reach dog parents like myself (I have two pups at home) to broaden the Superman fanbase ahead of the film’s release. Or maybe it’s just another quirky James Gunn touch – he’s the filmmaker who made a name for himself with Marvel’s Guardians of Galaxy trilogy. Truth be told, I haven’t read a whole lot of Krypto stories – many “serious” fans write the powerful pet off as a silly part of the Kal-El mythos. But I do have one Krypto-connected graphic novel to recommend.Check out Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? It collects a two-part adventure that was first published back in 1986. Krypto appears in it. I don’t want to give too much of the plot away, but I’ll explain how this story came to be. It’s an unusual story because it brings actual change to the DC Universe. That could happen because DC was wrapping up Superman continuity so that it could be restarted after the DC universe was rebooted in the series Crisis on Infinite Earths. The Superman everyone had known since the character was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in 1938 was coming to an end. Writer Alan Moore and longtime Superman artist Curt Swan had a unique opportunity. They could kill characters, for instance, and they would stay dead. The premise: All of Superman’s major villains unite to corner him in the Fortress of Solitude. (I'm wondering if the snowscape featured in the Superman trailer means we will get to see the same fortress in the new movie.) Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? is the last Superman story, as well as the last Krypto story. I will say no more, other than to reveal it made me cry when I read it the first time because the one big Krypto scene packs an emotional punch. And despite the pencils by Curt Swan, who was also the first artist to draw Krypto, it’s a bit of a dark tale. So congratulations, DC Studios, I wasn’t in the market for a new Superman movie – his origin story has been told too many times on the silver screen – but with Krypto aboard, I might actually watch the thing. If any diehard fans have their own recommendations based on their favourite Krypto stories, I’d love to hear them in the comment box below! Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 32 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly graphic-novel group.
