The 10 Most Bizarre Comic Book Crossovers

Comic books have long featured crossovers with real-life celebrities, commercial mascots, and entirely unrelated comic characters as a way to drum up publicity and appeal to new audiences. Sometimes it works, sometimes it's just plain weird.

Last year, for instance, Mayor Michael Bloomberg appeared in the free Daily News insert Amazing Spider-Man: You're Hired! and taught Spider-Man's recently fired alter-ego Peter Parker and readers how to use the city's Workforce1 system to get a job. Sure, it was informational and helpful, but it was also odd, especially when it led to crossover publicity photos like this.

With Marvel re-releasing the issue for sale with additional Spider-Girl and Spider-Man/Power Man stories this week, we honor the often head-scratching world of mash-ups with the 10 Most Bizarre Comic Book Crossovers of All Time!

What happens when the world’s greatest superhero teams up with the world’s greatest movie star? They produce an awful comic book. In what might be one of the first examples of a comic/movie cross promotion, this issue teamed Superman up with the legendary actor Orson Welles while he was filming Black Magic.

The issue itself is pretty bizarre because, after only a few pages of exposition, Supes and Welles randomly wind up on Mars fighting off a horde of aliens that models its society on Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.

This is one of those issues that either has you reaching for the Tylenol or a revolver.

Oh, and don’t worry, DC Comics isn’t done yet.

Complete with Vulcan ears, optic blasts, and spaceships, the Star Trek/X-Men crossover is perhaps the nerdiest comic ever produced. Sadly, the only reason it even got released was just to capitalize off the popularity of these two franchises and make some quick cash.

The book did have a plot of sorts but it was filled with needlessly complicated alternate dimensional traveling and alien politics, so to save some time we’ll just come out and say it: This book sucked. This was during a time when Marvel would slap an “X” on anything and hope it sold.



This atrocity is hard to come by nowadays, but if you’re really interested in finding it then we suggest you check your local landfill.

It’s not always Marvel or DC Comics providing the world with atrocious crossovers! This time, Dark Horse Comics is the culprit. Piggybacking off of the moderate success of a series of commercials featuring Godzilla and Charles Barkley playing basketball against each other, Dark Horse decided to adapt the premise into comic book form.

The result is one of the most ludicrous stories ever to be printed in a comic. But what’s even more bizarre is the fact that Barkley was actually portrayed as being the same height as Godzilla.

While we won’t deny that 'Zilla had some moves, we also won’t deny that this book caused headaches, nausea, and birth defects.

Flagrantly flying in the face of good taste, DC Comics thought it would be a fantastic idea to team up Superman with one of the titans of the chocolate syrup industry, the Quik Bunny. Together they faced off against the Weather Wizard and good storytelling.

The whole issue was one tasteless advertisement for Quik, and with so much subliminal advertising in the book it’s amazing that people didn’t get seizures from reading it.

Even for a free promotional giveaway, this book was a pretty big rip-off. We want our money back.

The Outsiders were a group of misfit heroes put together by Batman basically just to spite the Justice League, which had grown tired of the Caped Crusader’s bad attitude. Eventually the group moved away from Batman and started to fight crime on its own. The Outsiders actually became one of DC’s most consistently entertaining books and was highly regarded by fans and critics.

Then they met John Walsh and things ceased to make sense.

In an attempt to find some missing children, the team went to Walsh for assistance. With his help, the Outsiders found the missing kids and Walsh went back to film more episodes of America’s Most Wanted that 17 people watch on a weekly basis. The case of the readers gone missing after this issue remains unsolved.

Lois Lane is kind of a floozy. She claimed to
always be in love with the Man of Steel, but right when popular crooner Pat
Boone began to make eyes at her, she fell head over heels in love. The two even
attempted to record a song together. This is when Superman’s latent douchey
personality surfaced.

Obsessed with making sure the song never got recorded, Superman used every

super power in his arsenal in order to sabotage the duet and make the two of

them miserable. Apparently that’s how the Man of Steel treats the people he

cares about.

Instead of playing this sick game of sabotage, Supes should have just ripped

Pat Boone in half like a phone book.

During “Assistant Editor’s Month,” Marvel apparently stopped caring about the content of its books for a brief time and let any vagabond fresh off the streets try their hand at editing comics.

The result is an issue of the Avengers where the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes meet late night talk show host David Letterman. Sure, Letterman is kind of funny, but there is really no need to have him show up in a comic.

And unfortunately for comic fans, Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor don’t even show up in the issue. So what you’re left with is the B-list Avengers yucking it up with Letterman.

In what may be one of the most universe bending comics of all time, Marvel Team-Up #74 pits Spider-Man and the cast of Saturday Night Live against the Silver Samurai and his cadre of goons.

While in real life, the often coked-out cast of SNL spent most of their time nursing hangovers and sleeping around, legendary writer Chris Claremont portrayed them as fearless heroes looking to save the day. Perhaps the strangest thing about this issue is the fact that this battle transpired during the taping of an episode of SNL that was being hosted by Stan Lee.

That’s right, it is revealed that in the fictional Marvel Universe, Stan Lee also runs Marvel Comics. So in both real life and the comic book world, Stan Lee writes comics about superheroes. David Lynch could not have crafted a more surreal tale.

The Punisher is the Marvel Universe’s biggest sociopath. Archie is Riverdale’s most loveable teenager. When they get together it’s nothing but machine guns and milkshakes.

Trying to track down a drug dealer that looks suspiciously similar to Riverdale’s most famous red head, the Punisher mistakenly puts Archie in his crosshairs. The contrast between the Punisher’s violent way of thinking clashes hilariously with Archie’s good natured attitude and makes this crossover the most unique in comic book history.

While the Punisher is portrayed exactly the same as he is in the Marvel Universe, there is very little violence in this issue, so it’s a little disappointing not to see Archie’s grey matter splattered all over the front seat of his jalopy.

Poor Superman. It seems like whenever DC finds itself in need of some cheap publicity they always turn to the Man of Steel for help. So when DC decided to feature the world’s most famous athlete, Muhammad Ali, in a comic it was only natural to have him box Superman.

With the legendary creative team of Denny O’Neil doing the writing and Neal Adams on art, this book isn’t as abhorrent as some of the other crossovers listed but it’s probably the most bizarre. Between intergalactic boxing matches and an impending alien invasion of Earth, this book was a commercial success despite the ridiculous plot.

While scenes featuring Muhammad Ali boxing an alien warrior in order to save Earth are downright strange, it’s the fact that he discovers Superman’s secret identity so quickly that makes this just out-and-out odd. It took Lois Lane decades to find out that Clark Kent without his glasses on is actually Superman; meanwhile it only took Ali 72 pages.