page_title: Crossover (fiction)
section_title: Comics
hierarchical_section_title: Crossover (fiction) / Comics
caption_attribution_description: English: Action packed cover of Speed comics number 32, featuring Black Cat, Shock Gibson, Captain Freedom and the Young Defenders. Artwork by Alex Schomburg, May 1944. With the war in full swing, patriotically-themed comic books were an important source of propaganda.
context_page_description: A crossover is the placement of two or more otherwise discrete fictional characters, settings, or universes into the context of a single story. They can arise from legal agreements between the relevant copyright holders, unauthorized efforts by fans or common corporate ownership.
context_section_description: Crossovers of multiple characters, owned by one company or published by one publisher, have been used to set an established continuity, where characters can frequently meet within one setting. This is especially true of comic book publishers, as different characters in various Marvel, DC, or Valiant comic books frequently interact with one another since they live in a "shared universe". For example, in the Marvel Comics universe, Spider-Man has frequent dealings with another Marvel hero, Daredevil, just as in the DC Comics Universe, the Flash and Green Lantern often collaborate. In comic book terminology, these "guest star" roles are common enough that they are generally not considered crossovers; rather, this short-term collaboration to fight crime is called a team-up. A crossover in comic book terms only occurs when a story spans more than one title. This has led to "crossover events", in which major occurrences are shown as affecting most or all of the stories in the shared universe.
  The earliest such crossover event was Gardner Fox's Zatanna's Search, which took place in Hawkman #4 (October/November 1964), Detective Comics #336 (February 1965), The Atom #19 (June/July 1965), Green Lantern #42 (January 1966), Detective Comics #355 (September 1966), and Justice League of America #51 (February 1967). This story dealt with Zatanna attempting to reconnect with her father, Zatara, and seeking the aid of Hawkman, Batman, Robin, the Atom, Green Lantern, and the Elongated Man along the way.
  The first major crossover event was spearheaded by the Marvel Editor-in-Chief at the time, Jim Shooter. As a way to further toy sales he devised the Secret Wars crossover, which brought all the major Marvel heroes into a 12-issue miniseries to battle a common threat. After the threat was dealt with, they all returned to their regular titles. Secret Wars was hailed as both a critical and commercial success, largely because the events of the crossover had lasting effects on the characters (such as the introduction of Spider-Man's black suit which would later become the villain Venom). Jim Shooter later perfected his crossover technique at Valiant Comics with the Unity event. Unity brought all the Valiant characters together to defeat Mothergod, but was told within the existing Valiant Comics titles (and two bookend special issues). Readers were not obliged to buy all 18 chapters as the story was coherent when reading just one title, but far more layered when all were read. Like Secret Wars, the Unity crossover had lasting effects on the Valiant universe; most notably the introduction of Turok, the birth of Magnus, Robot Fighter and the death of a major Valiant hero.
  Dark Horse Comics's Aliens Versus Predator comic book franchise was a success that continued into many video games, two movies and even an Aliens Versus Predator Versus The Terminator comic.
  The comic crossovers from Raj Comics are very famous in India, in which the super heroes meet to fight a common enemy. Many of these crossovers have occurred between Nagraj and Super Commando Dhruva. In Kohram, all the heroes in Raj Universe meet to finish Haru, an extremely powerful enemy.
  Webcomics creators sometimes produce crossovers; one of the first was a two-week sequence between Christopher Baldwin's Bruno and Peter Zale's Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet in 1998.
  In 2013, Archie Comics released a 12-part crossover of Capcom character Mega Man and Sega character Sonic the Hedgehog called "Worlds Collide". Taking place in issues of the Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic Universe, and Mega Man comic series from Archie, the crossover involved Dr. Eggman and Dr. Wily forming an alliance to take over both their universes and destroy their respective nemeses. Sonic and Mega Man were briefly tricked into fighting each other, but later joined forces and teamed up with other heroes to battle the doctors' forces, which included virtually every Robot Master introduced in the Mega Man games. The popularity of this crossover and the books involved led to a second crossover in 2015 entitled "Worlds Unite",
caption: Comic book crossovers may be traced back to the Golden Age, where characters frequently teamed up on the cover (though far more rarely on the inside). Speed Comics number 32, Artwork by Alex Schomburg.
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