- Batman vs. Punisher: This concept (both times they did it) seemed like a natural fit. The second one- where Frank Castle teams up with the Bruce Wayne Batman- was a huge disappointment. It could have been a story about Batman's hatred of guns and his desire to take down both the bad guys and Punisher. To the story's credit it does at least touch on these things. However by the end, Batman accepts Punisher's presence as a necessary evil. Batman may border on being as much of a sociopath as the rest of the Arkham lot, but he has a code; no guns, no murder is justifiable and you don't let a murderer just walk away. Though in Death in the Family, he comes close on breaking the murder rule. I simply did not believe the "let's team up" aspect of the Punisher story for a minute and that was essential to how the rest of the story plays out.
- Spider-Man/Batman: This story, like the Spider-Man and Kitty Pryde story I mentioned in worst stories piece a few months back, wasn't completely horrible. It just failed to live up to its potential. Spider-Man and Batman both are at their best fighting slightly more powerful madmen and not aliens from other planets. Their methods are similar enough that you can see them working together but their style, mainly Spidey's wiseass demeanor would present problems. Instead of something basic we get some elaborate plan involving Joker and Carnage and then the end of Gotham as we know it. It was another Batman begrudgingly teaming up with someone which readers were getting enough of over in Nightwing, Justice League and Superman. It was also another Spider-Man teaming up with someone who might not want him there story. Which is what Spider-Man team ups with Punisher and/or Wolverine are for.
- Superman/Fantastic Four: I have written before on how bad this story was. What I did not know at the time was where John Byrne borrowed (with permission) his idea from: Usenet. Those of us in various rec.arts.comics. groups in the 90s know that most of the ideas tossed around by people who weren't higher end fanfic writers tended to blow cheese. This one was one of them. (Another was DC's Day of Judgement crossover which actually had a good series spin out of it and a couple of good tie ins so the idea wasn't completely bad.) So some of the blame for this crime against comics goes not to John Byrne but the fans because in the mighty Marvel fashion, they demanded it.
- Transformers #3: It is an 80s and 90s cliche that Spider-Man or Wolverine will appear in the third issue of any title in order to boost sales. While I can't be sure, it may have been this very issue of Transformers that started it. I just wished the writers and editors had stopped to think for just a moment to ponder whether or not crossovers made sense before they did them. Marvel had plenty of other titles that would have worked. The New Avengers meet The Transformers (which yes, did include Spider-Man) proved that characters like the Avengers are more suited to fighting giant robots. Or if they wanted to do something that simulated how kids actually played with their toys they could have done one that combined Hasbro's Transformers with Mattel's Rom Spaceknight.
- Team X/Team 7: I barely know anything about the Wildstorm Universe and Wolverine and Sabertooth are not amongst my favorite X-people. I really only have this issue because I got almost all the DC/Marvel crossovers in a big collection out of cheap boxes. Most of these crossovers give you at least a snippet about who these characters were. This issue didn't do that. It was just one group of guys stepping on the black-op of another group of guys on another group of guys. Then the first two group of guys attack each other instead of the group of guys they both came to whack independently of each other. At least that's what I think was going on. I'm not really sure. By the half way point, I didn't really care. Sometimes I wonder how this made it through Marvel's licensing department, but somehow Ghost Rider vs. Casper did not. (I'm not making that up.)
- X-Men/Star Trek: When I first heard about this comic I didn't buy it. I love the X-Men. I was literally raised on Star Trek from the womb. I assumed just from the cover that it was one of the worst comics imaginable. As these things happen, I was at a used bookstore at the beach itching for some comics to read at the beach house on a rainy day when I came across this bag of dog on their buy 10 get five free rack. I had 14 comics and the only other things they had that I didn't already own were issues of Youngblood so I was stuck with it. At first I was too scared to read it. When I got through everything else in the bag, I got to this one. I slowly strapped myself into the Clockwork Orange machine and started reading. It was everything that I feared it would be. It took two of my favorite stories: Star Trek's: "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and Chris Claremont's "Proteus" epic and did things that should be investigated by Elliot Stabler. I didn't think anything could possibly get any worse until...
- X-Men/Star Trek: The Next Generation: ... which actually merges, via the amalgam concept, the Star Trek and Marvel Universes. I guess we should have known it was Tasha Yar and not Rachel Summers who had prevented the murder of Robert Kelly. Or that Captain Picard and Charles Xavier have similar voices. (This was actually somewhat prophetic the Star Trek movie was before the X-Men movie.) The plot was almost like they crapped and puked in a blender, set it on puree and expected us to drink. To make matters worse, you don't even get the full story. No, they expected readers to go to their local book stores and buy the novel: Star Trek: The Next Generation/X-Men: Planet X. Don't get me wrong, I am a brave man. I can take pain. As a child some neighborhood kids shot me point blank in the ass with a B.B. gun. I am brave enough to have read not one, but two Star Trek meets X-Men comics. I am not however, stupid enough to waste seven bucks to do it. Though if the editorial staff gave me $17 (seven for the book and $10 for pain and suffering) I'd be tempted to read and review. And yes, you can hold me to that.
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