Crisis Crossover: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
▲[[File:Crisis_Crossover_Mini_Marvels_9032.jpg|frame| The ''[[Mini Marvels]]'' [[Lampshade Hanging|sum it]] [[Discussed Trope|up]].]]
A company-wide [[Massive Multiplayer Crossover]] which sweeps all the "mainstream" characters in a [[Fiction]] into a single storyline and, often, takes their own series along for the ride.
The original was ''[[Crisis
After this, it became more and more popular, with not just Marvel and DC but other
The advantage of a '''Crisis Crossover''' to a publisher is that people reading the main story will want to read the various crossovers, thus increasing sales. The disadvantage is that people who only want to read one of the titles that cross over may be turned off by having to buy all the tie-ins to understand it, thus decreasing sales. In practice, it can go either way, but there's a reason the technique was abandoned for awhile.
In comics, there are several subtypes:
* The classic is a single mini- or maxi-series, with other titles having a couple issues branded with the crossover's title. ''Crisis on Infinite Earths'' itself and ''Secret Wars II'' are of this type.
* A second kind is the all-annuals crossover. Many comic series have, in addition to their twelve monthly titles per year, a thirteenth plus-sized annual. An all-annuals crossover takes place entirely in one year's annuals (plus, perhaps, a special bookending issue or two). ''Armageddon 2001'' and ''Atlantis Attacks!'' are examples.
* [[Fifth Week Event
* Self-contained: A crossover that doesn't crossover. The heroes take a break from their own books to participate in a mini-series, then return to their own books. Examples: ''Secret Wars'' and ''Cosmic Odyssey.''
* The opposite is the crossover without a self-titled mini-series; the whole crossover takes place in extant books. Marvel used to do this a lot, as with ''Inferno'' and ''[[Acts Of Vengeance]].''
* The current format is a expansion of the first type: There will be a core series, one or more spinoff series, probably some one-shots, and crossover into regular titles. ''[[Blackest Night]],'' for example, had a core mini-series, seven multi-issue spinoffs, a slew of one-shots (nominally numbered as "new" issues of long-dead series), and heavy crossover into both ''[[Green Lantern]]'' titles, among others.
When a comic slaps a big, visible "Crisis Crossover" logo on the cover, but only has a token [[Shout
{{examples}}
=== [[DC Comics]] ===
* ''[[Crisis
* A year after ''[[Crisis
* There were three in 1988!
** In ''Cosmic Odyssey'' (ironically the only one that was self-contained), Darkseid, the [[New Gods]], and a group of super-heroes fight a giant shadow that Metron claims is the Anti-Life Equation's true form. Outside of [[Green Lantern|John Stewart]] (no, not ''[[The Daily Show|that]]'' one) acting like a rookie and causing an entire planet to explode due to his hubris, [[Canon
** In ''[[Millennium (Comic Book)|Millennium]]'', the robotic Manhunters try to stop the Guardians of the Universe from giving a group of really bad ethnic stereotypes virtual Godhood; it doesn't work out. By contractual obligation, at least one secondary character from most of DC's titles turned out to be [[The Mole|the Manhunters' moles]],<ref>(In ''[[Superman]]'', basically all of Smallville but the Kents.)</ref>
** In [[Invasion (Comic Book)|Invasion]]!, a whole mess of alien planets get together and try to take over Earth to keep all the superbeings we keep producing under control; yet again, it doesn't work out. This crossover also introduced the Metagene [[Meta Origin]] concept in the DCU, as well as led to the launching of [[West Coast Team|Justice League Europe]] and L.E.G.I.O.N., a 20th Century ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes (
* 1991's ''War of the Gods'' wasn't a bad idea in theory: All the different godly pantheons in [[The DCU]] (the [[New Gods]], plus the Olympians, the Asgardians, etc.) have at it and the various divinely-powered superheroes ([[Wonder Woman]], Captain Marvel, etc.) get caught up in it. Unfortunately, writer George Perez made the mistake of double-booking himself drawing Marvel's ''[[Infinity Gauntlet]]'' and writing/drawing ''War of the Gods'' at the same time, leading to ''War of the Gods'' suffering from bad writing.
* ''Armageddon 2001'': (Again in 1991!) One of DC's top super-heroes will become the uber-villain "Monarch"! Except the ending (it was [[Captain Atom]]) gets leaked, meaning [[Shocking Swerve|a third string character Hawk became Monarch instead]]. Monarch promptly disappeared until three years later, when he was retooled as Extant and became a flunky for A-List hero [[Green Lantern|Hal Jordan]], who went evil in the wake of ''[[The Death of Superman]]''.
* 1992's ''Eclipso: The Darkness Within''. Over the summer, DC retconned a B-List villain from the '60s into a serious threat capable of possessing
* 1993's ''Bloodlines''. Whether you like this or not all depends on if you're a fan of the [[Dark Age]]. This was a [[Cross Through]] of all of DC's Annual series for 1993. A race of [[Alien|Xenomorph-like]] parasites invade and start killing people by draining their spinal fluid. A small percentage of people, however, gained superpowers by this, leading to the creation of a new bunch of [[Nineties Anti
* DC ended up pressing the reset button again ''[[Zero Hour]]: Crisis in Time'' in 1994. [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] Parallax (a.k.a. [[Green Lantern|Hal Jordan]]) plans to destroy the entire DC Universe and remake it [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong|in his image]]. Unlike ''[[Crisis
* 1995's ''Underworld Unleashed'' saw Mark Waid killing off 90% of the [[Flash]]'s rogue gallery who he felt were too silly even for his masturbatory [[Silver Age]] tastes (though this didn't last long and Waid was proven wrong in a BIG way later on) and introducing Neron, the ''de facto'' Satan of the DC Universe proper. It also saw a ton of DC villains [[Deal
** In the afterword to the collected edition, Waid claims that killing and resurrecting the Rogues was the plan all along in order to protect them from unnecessary [[Darker and Edgier]] revision:
{{quote|
* ''[[Final Night]]'' (Not to be confused with either ''[[Final Crisis]]'' or ''[[Blackest Night]]''), from 1996, is probably the most fondly-remembered crossover from the 1990s, most likely because the whole thing became one huge [[Author's Saving Throw]]/Last Hurrah for Hal Jordan (writer Karl Kessel agreed to write the story for DC on the condition that he could give Hal a mercy killing/[[Redemption Equals Death|heroic sacrifice death]]). An alien weapon called a [[Legion of Super-Heroes (
** Green Arrow's resurrection wasn't so much as off-panel as shoehorned in retroactively in-panel by [[Kevin Smith]] about three years later. [[Comic Book Time|Realtime]], of course.
* In ''Genesis'' (1997), John Byrne "kills off" Darkseid in a lame plot where the Source Wall breaks and everyone's powers start acting wonky. [[Villain Decay|Nobody cares]]. Moving on...
* ''[[DC One Million]]'' (1998) Another love or hate crossover: all DCU books stopped and became "<Title> #1,000,000" as the JLA and the rest of the DC Universe go into the future to fight Solaris the Sentient Sun, who wants to kill his creator Superman. As [[Grant Morrison]] stories go, you'll either love it or hate it. Solaris would later resurface, in slightly altered format, in the non-continuity series [[All
* 1999's ''Day of Judgment'' featured a then unknown [[Geoff Johns]] writing a story where the demons Neron and [[Etrigan]] steal the nigh-omnipotent powers of the Spectre. [[Hilarity Ensues]], and the ghost of Hal Jordan ends up becoming the new Spectre. Led to the creation of the Sentinels of Magic - a group of DC's mystic heroes who then appeared absolutely nowhere.
* In 2000, in an effort to promote ''[[Young Justice (
* 2001 was the year of ''[[Our Worlds
* ''Joker's Last Laugh'' was yet another crossover in 2001 (almost literally starting after ''Our Worlds At War'' had ended). This story had Joker infect all of the DC Universe's villains with chemicals turning them into Joker-lite mass murderers, after Joker is [[Induced Hypochondria|falsely told he has terminal cancer]]. Two notable scenes are when Joker [[Lampshade
* ''[[Identity Crisis]]'', in 2004, was the first book to use "Crisis" in its title since ''Zero Hour''. It was a crossover, but not necessarily a ''crisis''
* ''[[Infinite Crisis]]'', released in 2005-2006. Refugees from the original ''Crisis'', who had been watching the DCU since, had decided that the events of ''Identity Crisis'' and the things that followed were the last straw, and returned to the universe to "set things right". As their version of setting things right involved destroying reality and replacing it with a "better" one, the current inhabitants of the DCU were less than pleased with the plan. Fighting ensued, and in the end a "soft reset"
* ''[[
* ''[[Countdown to Final Crisis]]'' (2007-2008): Meant to act as a bridge between 52 and Final Crisis. It's remembered as "one of the worst comic storylines of all time" riddled with plotholes and bad art.
* ''[[Final Crisis]]'' (2008): Picking up at the end of the year-long weekly series ''Countdown to Final Crisis'' and a mounting sense of crossover fatigue among fans, it faced an uphill battle, but the strength of its writer and artist ([[Grant Morrison]] and J. G. Jones) saw it through to sales success. The newly reincarnated Darkseid [[Rescued
** ''Final Crisis'' itself is a ''huge'' crossover dealing with multiple stories. In addition to the event proper, there was ''Final Crisis: Rogues' Revenge'' where the Flash's [[Rogues Gallery]] reject Libra's invitation to the new [[Legion of Doom|Secret Society]] and kill the murderous speedster Inertia just before the events of Final Crisis begins; ''Final Crisis: Revelations'' which takes place during Darkseid's siege of a controlled Earth as seen by the Spectre and the Question; and ''Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds'' (taking place after all the previously listed ) which has the titular [[Legion of Super-Heroes (
* 2009 brought us ''[[Blackest Night]]'', (following the events of the epic ''[[Sinestro Corps War]]'' storyline that [[Ensemble Darkhorse|proved to be infinitely more popular]] than the Countdown event that was happening at the same time.) the culmination of a prophecy first mentioned in an [[Alan Moore]] penned back-up strip in "Tales of the [[Green Lantern|Green Lantern Corps]]" back during the 80s. The best way to describe it is as [[Space Opera]] [[X Meets Y|meets]] [[Zombie Apocalypse]]. As dead super heroes, super villains, and their families and friends are brought back to life by Nekron, the various color corps from Geoff Johns' run on [[Green Lantern]] must put aside their differences and fight to protect all life in the universe. While being heavily [[Green Lantern]]-centric, it crosses over with the entire DCU. Most books had at least one issue involved with the event.
** The whole thing was initially conceived as a [[Bat Family Crossover]] in the [[Green Lantern]] books, along the lines of ''[[Sinestro Corps War]]''. As mentioned, the absolute success of SCW has lead DC to expand it into a full blown crossover. Even a few canceled books were temporary brought "back to life" for one shot issues just to add to this event. It now seems hard to imagine the relatively simple origins of this event given the hugeness it eventually grew to.
* ''[[Blackest Night]]'' was followed up with ''[[Brightest Day]]'', a year-long event dealing with the newly resurrected characters' attempts to rebuild their lives after being dead, and the quest for the newly created White Light Battery on Earth. In many ways it was more of a [[Cross Through]]; the books involved shared a feeling of making a fresh start but each one mostly followed their own story that was only tangentially connected to the main series.
* 2011's crossover is ''[[Flashpoint (
* Bringing the tradition into video games, ''[[
* ''Worlds Collide'' was a major DC Comics / [[Milestone Comics]] crossover, which had to be handled carefully, since the DC characters were comics in the Milestone universe. It was a scintillating series in that the differences between similar characters such as [[Superman]] and [[
* The year 2004 had a rather ''small scale'' but uniquely memorable crossover between Superman and... Wildstorm Comics, ''[[
=== [[Marvel Comics]] ===
* [[Contest of Champions]], the first crossover done as a [[Miniseries]].
* ''[[Secret Wars]]'' was rushed onto the stands a year before Crisis. Essentially twelve issues of good guys and bad guys beating each other up in various and creative ways in order to promote a toy line. Relatively little impact on the larger Marvel universe.
** To be fair, a few things did change following ''Secret Wars''. She-Hulk joined the [[Fantastic Four]], the stage was set for Magneto to lead the [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]] (reinforcing [[Not So Different]] between him and Charles) in ''[[Secret Wars II]]'', and [[Spider
* The sequel, ''[[Secret Wars II]]'', was less successful. The Beyonder, the omnipotent being behind ''Secret Wars'', took on human form and wandered around doing stuff, with the heroes making mostly-futile attempts to interfere with him and Mephisto trying to kill him. Generally considered a failure, partially due to its inescapable nature, with nearly every comic Marvel published at the time tying in somehow, and partly because the concept of the Beyonder trying to get used to being a human led to lots of [[Narm]]. A good example of what not to do.
* Also worth mentioning are 1988's ''Atlantis Attacks,'' which made its way through Marvel's summer annuals for that year to celebrate the [[Sub-Mariner]]'s 50th anniversary, as heroes fought off an Atlantean invasion; ''Fall of the Mutants,'' earlier that year, which was mostly confined to the X-Books; ''Evolutionary War,'' in 1989, again running through the Marvel summer annuals and featuring the High Evolutionary; and other X-Book X-Overs like ''X-Cutioner's Song'' and ''X-Tinction Agenda,'' each of which made significant, if not always lasting, changes to the X-Status-Quo.
* In 1989 came the ''[[Inferno (Comic Book)|Inferno]]'' crossover, in which demons from Limbo staged an invasion of New York City. The storyline was mainly an X-Book storyline, as ''Inferno'' resolved longstanding plotlines involving Jean Grey's [[Cloning Blues|doppleganger]] Madelyne Pryor, the Madelyne/Cyclops/Jean Grey love triangle, and Illyana Rasputin's [[Apocalypse Maiden]], but the effects of the X-Over was felt in just about every Marvel book published at the time, leading to the introduction of a new Avengers roster, the Thing being restored to human form,<ref>this occurred post-Inferno, but was the result of the Human Torch going to his overpowered Nova Flame mode during Inferno and being unable to power down; when Ben was tossed into the machine being used to restore Johnny's normal state, Johnny emerged in full control of his flame, and Ben emerged a normal human</ref>
* Late 1989 and Early 1990 brought the Acts of Vengeance. Loki secretly organized a veritable army of supervillains in what was ultimately a poorly written plotline that suffered from a massive case of writer revolt. Most notable for the storylines that ignored the main plot, where: Spider-Man temporarily gets used to his new Captain Universe cosmic powers, the Fantastic Four testify before Congress against the proposed Super Power Registration Act, Psylockes becomes an asian slut, and Magneto takes down the Red Skull in a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]].
* During 1991-1993, Marvel ran what has since become known as "The Infinity Trilogy"; three X-Overs written by Jim Starlin, involving Thanos, Adam Warlock, Magus, and the Infinity Gems.
** The first installment, ''[[Infinity Gauntlet]]'', did the idea of a crossover right; only a few books were part of the crossover and almost all of them were books with a good reason to be part of the crossover, mainly those that dealt with things of a magical or cosmic bent ([[Doctor Strange]], [[Quasar (comics)|Quasar]], etc) that the main mini-series was about to begin with. There were only a few anomalies that didn't quite fit, like the Hulk or Cloak & Dagger. Unfortunately, the sequels [[Infinity War]] and [[Infinity Crusade]], roped-in practically every single other Marvel title whether it worked or not.
* 1992 saw the Avengers crossover ''Operation: Galactic Storm'', in which the team was drawn into an all-out war between the Kree and Shi'Ar galactic empires. It turns out the whole thing was engineered by the Kree Supreme Intelligence, who manipulated the Shi'Ar into detonating a [[Nuke'Em|nega bomb]] to spur the stalled Kree evolutionary process, [[Complete Monster|at the cost of billions of Kree lives]]. Led to a split in the Avengers' ranks when an Iron Man-led team killed the Supreme Intelligence in retaliation (though they only destroyed a shell), much to Captain America's dismay.
* The ''[[Age of Apocalypse]]'' crossover ran from 1995, halted the X-Men books for six months to tell the story of an [[Alternate Universe]] where Legion accidentally kills Professor X before he could found the X-Men, leading to an apocalyptic world where Apocalypse rules everything and Magneto formed the X-Men instead.
* ''The Crossing'' ran through the Avengers books in 1995 as well. The premise was that Iron Man had been under the mental influence of Kang the Conqueror for years, and had now turned against the Avengers outright; the only way the Avengers could defeat him was to pluck a younger Tony Stark, untouched by Kang, from an alternate timeline, and in the end, "evil" Tony was killed off. This turn of events was [[Dork Age|not well-received]], to say the least.
* There's also the ''[[Onslaught]]'' saga in 1996, which was famously [[Executive Meddling|hijacked by editorial]] to set up Avengers and Fantastic Four's continuities being rebooted from scratch outside the Marvel Universe via ''[[Heroes Reborn]]''. However, [[Dork Age|this reboot was short-lived]], and the subsequent ''Heroes Return'' storyline not only brought everybody back, but [[Reset Button|undid the damage done by]] ''[[Dork Age|The Crossing]]''. Thank you, [[Reality Warper|Franklin Richards]].
* 2001 brought ''Maximum Security'', in which a whole mess of alien planets get together to keep all the superbeings we keep producing under control; however, instead of completely borrowing DC's plot for ''Invasion!'', they simply designate Earth as a penal colony, drop off the scum of the universe to keep the superheroes busy, and have a ship in orbit keep everyone from leaving. The plot sickens when Ego the Living Planet begins assimilating Earth as his new body. Yet again, it doesn't work
* The later 2000s brought a whole series of crossovers, collectively tearing down and then rebuilding the superhero community:
** First the [[Bat Family Crossover]] ''Avengers Disassembled'', where [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]] start getting attacked on all sides out of nowhere. It's eventually revealed that the assault came from the Scarlet Witch, whose powers had grown to [[Reality Warper]] levels and driven her mad. She's stopped and placed in the care of her family (Magneto and Quicksilver), but the losses are so great that the Avengers disband (though a new team forms shortly afterward after a mass supervillain breakout).
** 2005 followed up with ''[[House of M]]'', in which Quicksilver manipulates Scarlet Witch to create "a perfect world", which gets over-ridden by Magneto's concept of a "perfect world" being one ruled by mutants. After much fighting, Scarlet Witch comes to the decision that mutantkind still would create a world of violence and hate, and she promptly depowers 90% of the mutant community. At a stroke, mutant-kind is reduced from a population of millions with strong political and economic support to less than 200 frightened heroes on the verge of extinction.
** ''[[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]]'', in 2006. The deaths of the New Warriors and the city of Stamford, Connecticut at the hands of Nitro leads to a backlash against all heroes and a political push to get heroes to register their secret identities with the US Government, via the Superhuman Registration Act. Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic decide to back the new law and lead the charge to do so, while Captain America leads the anti-registration side of the super-hero community, as he sees the whole Registration Act as a bad idea. Needless to say, it all ends in horror as Captain America is defeated, denounced as unpatriotic, and assassinated, and Iron Man being handed full-control over SHIELD.
** This is followed by ''[[World War Hulk]]'', the follow-up to the ''[[
** ''[[Secret Invasion]]'', 2008: After the ninja assassin Elektra is killed ([[Death Is Cheap|again]]), the Avengers discover that it's actually an alien impostor ''pretending'' to be Elektra. Both characters and fans quickly started wondering who ''else'' could be a fake, fueled by [[Word of God]] explaining that the infiltration went back for years. On top of all the problems from the last few
*** Humorously, [[Warren Ellis]], the author of ''[[Nextwave]]'', predicted online almost a year before the Elektra/Skrull reveal that everything that had gone wrong in ''Civil War'' was the fault of "Anal Skrulls!", which has become a [[Memetic Mutation|catch phrase of sorts]] in certain 'net communities. He also joked that ''Nextwave'' was the only canonical book Marvel published, with all the other titles featuring the aforementioned anal Skrulls.
** This led to a pseudo-example called ''[[Dark Reign (
** And finally in 2010, we have ''[[
* The big crossover of 2011 was ''[[Fear Itself (Comic Book)|Fear Itself]]''. While the world is in a state of underlying fear and paranoia (from events both in-universe and in the real world), the Red Skull (II, aka Sin, daughter of the original) frees a Norse god that scares even Odin called the Serpent. The Serpent then summons hammers that turn selected superhumans into his followers "the Worthy", causing the powder keg of fear to explode among the people.
** Also, in 2011 has a smaller example in the form of ''[[Spider
* 2012 brings us ''[[Avengers vs
* Outside of the grand arc stretching back to 2004 (''that'' sounds familiar), Marvel also releasing
** The first one came in 2006 during the ''Civil War'', titled ''[[Annihilation]]''. Annihilation featured Annihilus, ruler of the Negative Zone, making a grand and destructive invasion into the regular universe that left a great deal of heroes dead, utterly destroyed the Nova Corps, dealt a harsh blow to the Kree Empire, and utterly shattered the Skrull Empire, going so far as to destroy the Skrull homeworld. It took the power of Galactus himself, in an all-consuming rage, to end the threat.
** ''Annihilation'' got a sequel in 2007 titled ''Annihilation: Conquest'', in which Ultron, leading a vast army of robot warriors, is taking advantage of the weakened and confused state of the Kree Empire to attempt to conquer it. He doesn't succeed, but he makes a very good try of it and drives the Kree further into isolation and general impotence.
** While not directly related, this is now being followed in 2009 by ''[[War of Kings]]''. Part-way spun out from ''Secret Invasion'', one of the people replaced by a Skrull was Black Bolt, leader of the Inhumans. In response, the Inhumans decide they can't live in hiding any more, so their giant city on the moon blasts off for outer space, and after picking off several leftover Skrulls they conquer the remains of the Kree Empire, who created them in the first place. This sets up a war between the Kree Empire and the Shi'ar Empire, itself now under the heel of the psychopathic [[X
** 2010 now has ''[[The Thanos Imperative]]''. A superweapon detonated at the end of the war has opened a rift in space known as the Fault. On the other side is a parallel universe that has been taken over by [[Eldritch Abomination
* In the same vein, the ''[[Marvel Ultimate Alliance]]'' video game has the heroes banding together to stop villains under Dr. Doom and Loki from pulling off a [[Xanatos Gambit]] {{spoiler|that would allow Doom to steal the power of a god from Odin}}. The sequel is an adaptation of the ''Secret War'' and ''Civil War'', minus the second half of Civil War as the game diverges at the end of the third issue of that storyline for a different, original ending.
* [[Ultimate Marvel]] had one with ''[[Ultimatum]]'', meant to be the last title in the Ultimate Universe before it got relaunched as Ultimate Comics in 2009. The plot involves Magneto plotting revenge on the Ultimates for the murder of the Scarlet Witch, [[Kill'Em All|killing absolutely everybody in the process]].
** In 2011, [[Ultimate Marvel]] had ''[[Tonight Someone Dies|The Death of Spider-Man]]'' where, well, [[Exactly What It Says
▲== Other [[Comic Books]] ==
* Of bizarre note is the [[JLA-Avengers]] crossover that happened around 2004ish. Although these cross-company crossovers usually end up either being non-canon or forgotten, this one actually led to some small changes: the universe of the Crime Syndicate of Amerika (an evil JLA) was rebooted as a result of the defeat of Krona (who had, destroyed that entire universe in the prologue). This led to vague (and therefore non-copyright breaking) references to the events of the crossover the next time that the JLA met the CSA. Some people also say that the events of ''House of M'' may also have stemmed from the events of ''JLA/Avengers'' as well, since the Scarlet Witch started to lose her sense of reality and judgment after tapping into the chaotic (read: evil) chaos magic of the DCU. This is just [[Fanon]], but it's too cool a possibility not to mention.
** Marvel has officially accepted JLA/Avengers as canon, since references to it are made in the Marvel Universe Handbooks, without actually naming the DC characters, of course.
** The actual crossover itself was recently integrated fully (as in, no denying it anymore) into DC continuity with the release of ''Trinity'' #7, with the Avengers being referred to as the "Others"; you can even see what seems to be a silhouette of [[Captain America (comics)]] in one panel (though it's just as believable to think that was the [[Flash]] - it's left rather vague).
** And we're also forgetting Krona's fate at the end of the crossover, which stuck around for a while.
* And as long as we're being complete, there was the [[Amalgam Universe]] story, in which both the Marvel and the DC multiverses face
** The Amalgam Universe had its own crisis crossover: [[Secret Wars|Secret]] [[Crisis
* Subversion: New England Comics ran a ''Crisis on Finite [[The Tick (animation)|Tick]] Crossovers'', which featured all 3 titles in the [[The Tick (animation)|Tickverse]]. The editors explained that having only 3 comics severely limited the number of money-making crossovers they could do.
* Parodied in ''[[Top Ten]]'', where a character has an Ultra-Mouse infestation in his mother's apartment. So, he hires the EX-VERMINATOR, who releases Atom Cats to deal with them, but with so many super-powered creatures in such a confined space, it turned into a "Whole Secret Crisis-War Crossover Thing" which eventually [[Cosmic Retcon|rewrote the time line]] so the Ultra-Mouse infestation never happened, and nobody even remembers
* Though ''[[Astro City]]'' is the only series in its continuity and thus incapable of crossovers, they still managed to play with this one. In "The Nearness of You", a man becomes increasingly obsessed about a woman who keeps appearing in his dreams. It turns out it's because a minor villain caused a [[Temporal Paradox]] that threatened the universe and required all of the heroes to stop
** Also appears in the ending of the "Confession" arc, which is basically a Crisis Crossover as seen from the sidelines.
* [[Valiant Comics]] had the "Unity" Crossover early in its history, in which the 41st century heros and the 20th century heros had to join come together to face a woman with the power to destroy all history.
** They also did a crossover with [[Image Comics]] called ''[[Death Mate]]''.
* ''When Bongos Collide'' was a crossover of Bongo Comics, which publish comics based on ''[[The Simpsons]]''. It included ''Itchy & Scratchy'' #3, ''The Simpsons'' #5, and ''Bartman'' #3. It can be read in ''Bartman: The Best of the Best'' collection. Also, there were two series of ''Simpsons/[[Futurama]]'' crossover
* In 2008, the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] got in on the act with ''Vector'', which told a single story starting in ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'', then moving in chronological order through Dark Horse's four ''[[Star Wars]]'' titles, before ending in a [[Wham! Episode]] in ''[[Star Wars Legacy]]''. And it was really good, too.
** ''Legacy'' also crossed the prequel era with Tatooine's Sand People and the NJO era.
* The now-defunct [[Eclipse Comics]] got into the act with ''Total Eclipse'', written by Marv Wolfman. The story involved a villain named Zzed[sic], who was born many millenia ago during an event called the Total Eclipse (all the planets and moons of the Solar System aligned with thousands of planets, moons and stars across the galaxy). As a result, he has been [[Who Wants to Live Forever?|cursed with immortality]], and seeks only his own death, which he can only achieve by destroying all creation. [[Omnicidal Maniac|He has no problem with that at first.]] Unique in being the only
* Dozerfleet Comics' [[Ultimate Universe|Comprehensive Gerosha]] timeline references the "Abolition" timeframe; where it's made clear that [[Ciem Webcomic Series|Ciem]] shares a universe with [[Emotion Eater|Extirpon]], Navyrope, Pilltar, and the [[Nathaniel Hawthorne|Gray Champion]]. Doubles as a [[Super Registration Act]] plot.
* The long awaited [[War Of The Independents]] mini-series brings together creator-own characters as diverse as [[Gumby]], [[The Tick (animation)]], [[Scud the Disposable Assassin]], [[Cerebus]], [[Shi]], [[Bone]] and [[Hack
* Image has (finally) jumped on board the bandwagon. This troper is unclear about the first one, though it was most likely Invincible War, though it's not a perfect example. While MOST of Image's characters were somehow involved, and it did have some sort of impact on the world at large, the whole thing was contained in one issue of Invincible, so Your Mileage May Vary.
** There is also [[Exactly What It Says
* Zenescope is currently in the middle of it's first ever
* Boom! Comics was losing the license to the [[Disney Afternoon]] comics, so they went out with a bang. As such, ''[[Darkwing Duck (
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==▼
▲== [[Anime]] ==
* The ''[[Pretty Cure]]'' [[Magical Girl]] metaseries have their own Crisis Crossover movie series labeled "Pretty Cure All Stars", featuring heroines from all series released until then.
* The 2nd part of the ''[[Time Bokan]]'' OVA in 1993 involves the Dorombo Gang from ''[[
* ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'' features characters, [[Spin Offspring]], [[Expy
* The ''Majokko Club Yoningumi A-kūkan kara no Alien X'' OVA is a crossover between [[Studio Pierrot]]'s most successful [[Magical Girl]] series. [[Creamy Mami]], [[Magical Star Magical Emi|Magical Emi]], [[Magical Idol Pastel Yumi|Pastel Yumi]], and [[Persia the Magic Fairy|Persia]] all teamed up to fight alien forces on the moon.
* ''[[Digimon Xros Wars:
▲== Film ==
* [[Seltzer and Friedberg|Disaster Movie]] can be seen as this, with various movies crossing over as the end of the world occurs.
** Can also be applied to ''[[Scary Movie]]'' and it's sequels.
** It seems that
* [[The Avengers (
== [[Literature]] ==
* A [[Jane Austen]] version happens in ''[[Death Comes to Pemberley]]''. Wickham's situation ends up briefly binding ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]'' with ''[[Persuasion]]'' and ''[[Emma
* ''[[Star Trek: Destiny]]'': An epic (and we do mean epic) trilogy of novels of the [[Star Trek Expanded Universe]], bringing together characters from ''[[Star Trek:
* The [[Thursday Next]] series can be seen as a variant of this in later volumes, with literary characters such as Miss Havisham and the Cheshire Cat playing roles in the salvation of all written literature. It runs closer to a [[Kingdom Hearts]]-style crossover than a comic-style crossover, though.
* The [[Grand Finale]] of ''[[
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
▲== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* ''[[CSI]]'' has been known to cross storylines and characters between its various incarnations, as has the ''[[Law and Order]]'' series. This most commonly takes place during sweeps.
** There was in fact a ''Law & Order'' massive crossover in the works, involving a terrorist plot to attack NYC and several teams of detectives from different squads all working the case together. The idea got shelved after 9/11.
* ''[[
* The 'Proof of Life' crossover between [[The Bill]] and SOKO Leipzig.
* Ten years of ''[[Kamen Rider]]'''s Heisei era (and much later on, the franchise's 38 years up to that point) were [[Milestone Celebration|celebrated]] in ''[[Kamen Rider Decade]]'', where Decade (obviously the tenth) must travel across the ''Kamen Rider'' multiverse to save it from total destruction.
* The shows ''[[Las Vegas]]'' and ''[[Crossing Jordan]]'' would have charaters cross over at least once every season while both shows were on the air.
* ''[[Super Sentai]]''. In the seasonal crossovers (themselves non-canon to the seperate series, which are all set in their own universes), the series from ''[[Bakuryu Sentai Abaranger]]'' to ''[[Engine Sentai Go-onger]]'' are nominally connected by mentions of the Dino House where one character from series A met a character from series B.
** Anniversary series ''[[
** ''[[Kamen Rider
== [[Oral Tradition]], [[Folklore]], Myths and Legends ==
* [[Older Than Feudalism]]: The [[Greek Mythology]] knows at least two major crossover events: the Argonautica (the story of Jason, the Argonauts, and the Golden Fleece) and the Calydonian Boar Hunt a few years later. Large arc-based events like the Theban Wars and the Trojan War may also count.
* The earliest stratum of [[King Arthur|Arthurian legend]] drew folk heroes and gods from lots of disparate Celtic myths and legends to form [[Badass Army|King Arthur's court]].
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''
* ''[[The Abyssal Plague]]'', an upcoming series of ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' [[Tie-in Novel|Tie In Novels]] which starts out in the ''[[Points of Light]]'' setting but will involve other ''D&D'' worlds too, of which ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' has already been confirmed.▼
** The 2nd Edition epic module ''Vecna Lives'' takes place over three different campaign settings, ''[[Greyhawk]]'', ''[[Ravenloft]]'', and ''[[Planescape]]''.
*** The upcoming<ref>May 2024</ref> ''Vecna: Eve of Ruin'' takes the Lich God's plans even further, the story incorporating ''[[Greyhawk]]'', ''[[Ravenloft]]'', ''[[Planescape]]'', ''[[Spelljammer]]'', ''[[Eberron]]'', ''[[Dragonlance]]'', and (given that the [[Dismantled MacGuffin|Rod of Seven Parts]] plays a major role in the story) one more yet to be revealed.
▲** ''[[The Abyssal Plague]]'',
** The D&D settings [[Planescape]] and [[Spelljammer]] are made of this trope, explicitly designed to allow travel and storylines across D&D's other universes. While it was implied for years that all D&D games belonged to the same multiverse, these were two official company lines that supported it.
* The ''[[
* [[Rifts]] is this to the Palladium systems of games.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[
** The original plan for the overarching storyline was apparently to tie the entire series into the [[After the End]] settings of of games like ''[[
* The Subspace Emissary story mode in ''[[Super Smash Bros
* ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy]]'' has the evil god Chaos revive villains from ''[[
* ''[[Gundam vs. Series|Gundam Vs. Gundam NEXT]]'' has the [[G Gundam|Devil Gundam]] come to life and take over arcade games representing the entire ''[[Gundam]]'' franchise from [[Mobile Suit Gundam|the original series]] through ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'', forcing the characters to team up to deal with the threat.
* This is arguably how ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' works, except it's ''also'' a Crisis Crossover between entirely separate companies. A more conventional Crisis Crossover would be the case if [[
* ''[[.hack|.hack//Link]]'' is going this way, as characters from both of the "revisions" of The World are in it. (Tokkio's first two party members are Tsukasa from SIGN and Haseo from G.U., for example.)
* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' is a sort of variant: while the main plots always menace the Disney multiverse, they are all left to the main casts as characters from individual worlds ''usually'' don't interact (this is due to Square's contract with Disney stipulating that crossovers between different Disney universes be limited; this was worked into the story with [[Donald Duck]] telling Sora to [[Alien Non-Interference Clause|not meddle with worlds' affairs]].) Meanwhile, the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' characters serve only as side stories and cameos.
* The ''[[Nicktoons Unite!]]'' series serve as this for [[Nickelodeon]], with [[
* As for Nick's rival [[Cartoon Network]], they have the MMORPG ''[[Fusion Fall]]'', though its art style makes it clear it is an [[Alternate Universe]].
* Similiary to the ''Kamen Rider Decade'' example above, ASCII Media Works celebrated the 15th anniversary of their Dengeki Bunko imprint of [[Light Novels]] with the [[Nintendo DS]] RPG ''Dengeki Gakuen RPG: Cross of Venus'', where an evil organization is attempting to derail the storylines of eight of their series and so your [[Hello, Insert Name Here|not-so-nameless]] protagonist and [[Shakugan no Shana|Shana]] must form a rag-tag group with their worlds' heroines to save their printed existences.
* Inverted in ''[[
* The most recent games in the ''[[
** The original ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[
* ''[[Mushroom Kingdom Fusion]]'' takes over a dozen video game mastcots and puts them all into a single game.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* In late 2008, ''[[Irregular Webcomic]]'' had most of its separate "themes" converge when [[Meanwhile in
** It appears another one is in the works, with several characters being transported to the 1940s, and the recurring [[Arc Word]] "Greatness is often linked with insanity."
* ''[[Least I Could Do]]'' parodied this with the storyline "Ultimate Final Civil War Invasion Crisis Thing", where the gaming webcomics (including ''[[Penny Arcade (Webcomic)|Penny Arcade]]'' and ''[[Ctrl
* When Emily and Tesrin of ''[[All Over the House]]'' [http://www.alloverthehouse.net/2009/12/04/unscheduled-stop/ crash-landed]{{Dead link}} in ''[[The Life of Nob T. Mouse]]'', it kick-started a crossover that changed both comics permanently.
* ''[[
== [[Web Original]] ==
* ''[[Deviantart Secret Wars]]''
* ''[[Kickassia]]''
▲** [[That Guy With the Glasses|The 1-Year Anniversary Brawl.]]
** Don't forget ''[[Suburban Knights]]''.
** And now they're working on a fourth one!
* These have become the ''main'' storyline in [[The Randomverse]], as is to be expected in a meta series for both Marvel and DC. Having Deadpool around means that inter-series continuity is now lampshaded.
* Several in ''[[Marvels RPG]]''.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[Turtles Forever]]'': It deals with the [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003
* Hannah-Barbera once did this, combining ''Birdman'', ''The Galaxy Trio'', ''Moby Dick'', ''Space Ghost'', ''Mightor'', and ''The Herculoids'', among others. Sometimes, Boomerang would show the whole thing.
* The Phoenix Saga of the ''[[X-Men (
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[[Category:Crossover Index]]
[[Category:Crisis Crossover]]
[[Category:Alliterative Trope
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