Crisis Crossover: Difference between revisions

* 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]].''

 

When a comic slaps a big, visible "Crisis Crossover" logo on the cover, but only has a token [[Shout-Out]] to the Big Event that only peripherally affects the plot of the issue in question, that's a "[[Red Skies Crossover]]". When a [[Crossover]] occurs that involves a couple of characters and their support, but doesn't necessarily affect the large universe, it's a [[Bat Family Crossover]]. When the various sets of characters do not interact with each other but still deal with an universal threat, it's a [[Cross Through]].

** 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>, which was never mentioned again afterwords.

** 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 (comics)|Legion of Super-Heroes]]'' spin-off title known mainly for having [[Lobo]] and Brainiac 2 on the roster.

* 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 anyone -- up to and including Superman. Very little changes, other than the {{spoiler|[[Heroic Sacrifice]] of Starman IV -- whose book had been canceled anyway (and it apparently [[Back From the Dead|didn't take]])}}. Eclipso himself got a series out of it for about two years, notable as one of the few mainstream comic series with a villain as its protagonist at the time.

* 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-Hero|Nineties Anti Heroes]]. Nothing really changed and these new heroes were eventually reduced to [[C-List Fodder|cannon fodder]] for [[Infinite Crisis]], or else ending up in [[Comic Book Limbo]]. The only notable result from this crossover being [[Garth Ennis]]' ''[[Hitman (Comic Book)|Hitman]]''.

* 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 on Infinite Earths]]'', ''Zero Hour'' ended up changing relatively little (aside from completely rebooting [[Legion of Super-Heroes (comics)|The Legion Of Super-Heroes]] and making [[Hawkman]]'s continuity [[Continuity Snarl|even more confusing]]) and a massive bus being dropped onto the Justice Society of America. And unlike ''[[Crisis on Infinite Earths]]'', ''Zero Hour'' was met with mixed reviews.

** 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|Brian and I arranged for them to [[Death Is Cheap|lie low in hell for a little while]], if only to keep some knuckleheaded creator from, oh, say, turning Heat Wave into a ''living pillar of fire''.}}

* 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-Star Superman]], where he played a major role in that series' final issues. This crossover is '''certainly''' part of the main DCU canon (Hourman One Million becomes a major player in JLA, JSA and his own book), but the fact Solaris gives us a "[[The End of the Beginning]]"/DistantFinale of ''[[All-Star Superman]]'' causes a minor continuity snarl.

* In 2000, in an effort to promote ''[[Young Justice (comics)|Young Justice]]'', DC produced "Sins of Youth," a special Crisis Crossover in which Young Justice, the JLA, the JSA, the Titans and as many others as the pencilers could cram into frame descended on the White House lawn for a rally, only to face the mother of all [[Thirteen Going On Thirty/Fountain Of Youth|Fountain Of Youth]] plots wherein nearly every character present was aged or de-aged. It only interrupted the monthly run of YJ and crossed over into Superboy, and was over within a month real-time, but the scale of the story and the villains' plot was worthy of this trope.

* ''[[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'' crossover -- in fact, it was a very low-key murder mystery far more concerned with buried secrets and the personal lives of heroes than with blowing stuff up -- but it did end up changing things, due to the nature of the secrets revealed rather than any cosmic shenanigans. It's also notable as it deretconed back into existence many [[Pre Crisis]] story lines from the Silver and Bronze ages, but at the same time made them [[Darker and Edgier]]. It turned B-list [[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]] Villain Dr. Light into a [[Memetic Molester|rapist]]; [[Retcon|revealing]] that his "bumbling" and "pathetic" status was the result of a magically induced lobotomy. The story was eventually revealed to be the first part of a trilogy to "explore the DC heroes" in which they were put up against "a very personal threat". Its repercussions were felt throughout [[The DCU]] (leading to mini-Crisis Crossovers such as ''[[Secret Six|Villains United]]'' and the ''Day of Judgement'' sequel ''[[Shadowpact|Day of Vengeance]]'') until they coalesced in:

* ''[[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" occurred -- some things were changed but by and large, continuity remained the same (except for the [[Legion of Super-Heroes (comics)|Legion of Super-Heroes]], which received its second complete reboot) -- and the multiverse, gone since the [[Pre Crisis]] days, returned. Served as the second act of the "Multiverse Trilogy" as the "rebuild of the Multiverse" and the second act of the "Exploration Trilogy" by "putting the greatest odds against the heroes". Was immediately followed by:

* ''[[52]]'': Basically the final act of the storyline of [[Identity Crisis]] and [[Infinite Crisis]] (story-wise). Innovative for it's use of real time continuity, tossing [[Comic Book Time]] out the window in favor of the ''[[24]]'' approach, published weekly, from May 2006 to May 2007, each issue represents a week of time in-universe, covering the "missing year" of the DCU, as after [[Infinite Crisis]], all books were jumped forward "One year later". Writen by a "dream team" of four writers ([[Geoff Johns]], [[Greg Rucka]], [[Mark Waid]], and [[Grant Morrison]] each of whom contributed something to each issue.) it also followed the lives of minor characters of the DCU while the "Big Three" Batman, Superman, and Wonderwoman took the year off for various reasons, Widely considered to be one of the greatest story lines of the [[Modern Age]]. It also introduced the Modern Batwoman, and Renee Montoya as [[The Question]].

* ''[[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 From the Scrappy Heap|accomplishes his goal of ruling the human race]] as he unleashes the Anti-Life Equation on Earth, plunging Earth into a black hole that threatens to destroy the Multiverse. The heroes save all of existence, but at the high cost of several high profile casualties (including [[Martian Manhunter]] and [[Batman]]) and lots of dead civilians who died while Darkseid reigned. Served as the final acts of the "Multiverse Trilogy" ("the [[Title Drop|Final Crisis of the Multiverse]]") and the "Exploration Trilogy" ("the day that evil won").

** 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.

* 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.

* 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.

* 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 out -- but the Kree are given a new [[Voluntary Shapeshifting]] gimmick... until the next [[Cosmic Retcon]].

* The later 2000s brought a whole series of crossovers, collectively tearing down and then rebuilding the superhero community:

** This is followed by ''[[World War Hulk]]'', the follow-up to the ''[[Incredible Hulk]]'' storyline ''[[Planet Hulk]]'' where, days before ''Civil War'' happened, Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic shoot Hulk into outer space (because, frankly, the conflict was gonna have enough problems ''without'' having to deal with the Hulk). He ends up on a hellish gladiator planet, which soon explodes due to the ship Hulk was sent on blowing up. Needless to say, Hulk is pissed and fans get five issues of Hulk delivering karmic beatdowns towards Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, and just about anyone else who gets in his way.

** ''[[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 [[Crisis Crossover|Crisis Crossovers]] (Captain America dead, the Avengers fractured and preoccupied with fighting each other rather than actual threats, and the X-Men have had their power drastically reduced), throw in the [[Paranoia Fuel|paranoia]] of double agents and it sure would be trouble if the aliens decided to invade now that every force that could be expected to stand up to them has been crippled... Ultimately, while Earth wins, Iron Man is still blamed for FUBARing the superhuman response, S.H.I.E.L.D. is dissolved, and control of the rest is handed over to the media darling who killed the Skrull queen; the leader of the [[Boxed Crook]] team the [[Thunderbolts]]: Norman Osborn. That's right, the [[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Green Goblin]] is head of the government's superheroes. Yikes.

*** 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 (comics)|Dark Reign]]'', which details Osborns tenure as the leader of the [[Darker and Edgier]] SHIELD called HAMMER, during which time he sets up and leads his own [[Evil Counterpart]] to ''[[The Avengers]]'' (as well as the [[X-Men]] and a couple of others), dressing up psychotic supervillains to disguise themselves as the heroes, whilst pursuing an agressive domestic and foreign policy and consolidating his power by allying with major players like Loki Namor, Emma Frost and [[Doctor Doom]] ([[My Friends and Zoidberg|and the Hood]]), whilst once again starting to descend back into Goblin-related madness. [[Word of God]] is this was not an "event" like the previous examples but it did lead to many mini-crossovers as pretty much every Earth-bound hero found themselves in conflict with the maniac plus it ticks most of the boxes anyway (save that its longer), and its worth mentioning because the conclusion to it was...

* 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-Man|Spider Island]]'' which will see everyone in New York receive spider powers. While this would normally be a [[Bat Family Crossover]] or just a regular storyline in ''Amazing [[Spider-Man]]'', a multitude of tie in mini series and one shots focusing on everyone from the Avengers to the Kung Fu heroes as well as tie in issues running in the monthly titles of both ''Venom'' and ''[[The Incredible Hercules]]''.

** 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|Eldritch Abominations]] (called the "Cancerverse", after how the monsters spread and corrupt). The heroes will have to join forces with Thanos, who had [[Death Seeker|been granted the death he wished]] in ''Annihilation'' and was resurrected against his will in order to fight a universe where life has won over death.

* 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.

** In 2011, [[Ultimate Marvel]] had ''[[Tonight Someone Dies|The Death of Spider-Man]]'' where, well, [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Spider-Man died]]. It's running through ''[[Ultimate Spider-Man]]'' and ''[[The Ultimates|Avengers vs. New Ultimates]]'', but is something of an odd case as thus far the series have only intersected once (Spidey got injured in an Avengers/Ultimates fight) and have since remained separate. Nonetheless, it'll prompt a second linewide relaunch.

 

== 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.

** And we're also forgetting Krona's fate at the end of the crossover, which stuck around for a while.

** The Amalgam Universe had its own crisis crossover: [[Secret Wars|Secret]] [[Crisis on Infinite Earths|Crisis]] of the [[Infinity Gauntlet|Infinity]] [[Zero Hour|Hour]].

* 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 it -- and the woman is his wife who [[Ret-Gone|ceased to exist]] in the repaired timestream. Yes, the [[Crisis Crossover]] is relegated to a ''background reference.''

** Also appears in the ending of the "Confession" arc, which is basically a Crisis Crossover as seen from the sidelines.

* 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 [[Crisis Crossover]] to feature appearances by Miracle Man, [[Airboy]], Ms. Tree and Beanish of ''Tales of the Beanworld''.

* 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.

* 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 on the Tin|''Image United'']] a series which brings together not only Image's iconic characters, but also their creators to personally draw them in each appearance.

== Film ==

* [[Seltzer and Friedberg|Disaster Movie]] can be seen as this, with various movies crossing over as the end of the world occurs.

* [[The Avengers (film)|The Avengers]] movie in 2012 is a crisis crossover for all [[Marvel Cinematic Universe|Marvel Studios movies]] starting with 2008's [[Iron Man (film)|Iron Man]]. However, this was the plan from the very start, as it was first set up in [[The Stinger]] of [[Iron Man (film)|Iron Man]] and just building with each new film released in the next three years.

 

 

== Literature ==

* ''[[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 Next Generation|The Next Generation]]'', ''Titan'', ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise|Enterprise]]'', ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Deep Space Nine]]'' and ''[[Star Trek: Voyager|Voyager]]'' to tell the story of the apocalyptic final war between the Federation and the Borg.

* 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 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 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.

* [[Rifts]] is this to the Palladium systems of games.

 

* ''[[The King of Fighters]]'' series of fighting games is a Crisis Crossover for [[SNK]] Playmore, featuring characters from ''[[Art of Fighting]]'', ''[[Fatal Fury]]'', ''[[Ikari Warriors]]'' and ''[[Psycho Soldier]]'', as well as creating several characters exclusive to the series (Iori Yagami, Kyo Kusanagi, and [[SNK Boss]] Rugal Bernstein being the most notable).

** The original plan for the overarching storyline was apparently to tie the entire series into the [[After the End]] settings of of games like ''[[Psycho Soldier]]'', ''[[Fatal Fury|Garou: Mark of the Wolves]]'', and ''[[Fuun Series|Savage Reign]]'', but once the stories of the original characters began overshadowing those of the [[Canon Immigrant|canon immigrants]], most of that was retconned.

* ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy]]'' has the evil god Chaos revive villains from ''[[Final Fantasy I]]'' through ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'' in an attempt to sieze the Crystals and change history. Chaos' opposite number, the goddess Cosmos, calls on the heroes from the same games to unite and save the universe.

* ''[[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.

* 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 ''[[Poker Night At the Inventory]]'', where Strong Bad, Max, The Heavy, and Tycho (from ''[[Homestar Runner]]'', ''[[The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police|Sam and Max Freelance Police]]'', ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'', and ''[[Penny Arcade (Webcomic)|Penny Arcade]]'' respectively) team up to [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|play poker]].

** The original ''[[Marvel vs. Capcom Clash of the Superheroes]]'' reused the plot of the ''Onslaught'' saga and adding in Capcom characters.

** ''[[Marvel vs. Capcom 2]]'' has a more straightforward plot where Ruby Heart was gathering characters from both companies to deal with [[Omnicidal Maniac|Abyss]].