The Feast of Crossover
2003-12-28

Gentle people of the world: this time last year 2000 AD embarked upon a rather good Judge Dredd story called "Incubus", in which the noble Judge went up against some of the greatest movie baddies of all time. It was a kick-ass battle and one of the most memorable Dredd tales for years.

And what did we get this year? Talking turkeys. Ooooh. Be still my spleen.

The very first crossover I ever encountered was the legendary Superman / Spider-Man story, back in the mid-seventies. Though I was a mere sproutling at the time, I knew enough about comics to be aware that these two characters came from separate publishers; therefore, this was something rather special. There have been lots of DC / Marvel crossovers since, and both publishers have crossed their characters over into other fictional universes many times.

One of the most memorable is the meeting of the original Star Trek crew and the X-Men... Weird, but definitely worth reading.

I want more 2000 AD-related crossovers! The Batman / Dredd team-ups were great (and when are they going to be collected into a single volume? he speculated hintingly), and the Dredd / Lobo one was a lot of fun too. But I want more...!

However, I'm more of a Marvel fan than a DC fan, so I want to see Dredd teaming up with a few Marvel characters for a change. Imagine a Dredd / Punisher conflict - now, that would be entertaining! Or how about teaming up Dredd with Captain America? The ultimate lawman and the ultimate patriot: There's potential there for a really good scrap! What about Ghost Rider? Or Wolverine?

Or even Judge Dredd versus Spider-Man! Oooh! How cool would that be? And the villains could be the many-tentacled baddies Doctor Octopus and Captain Skank! Though maybe it's not such a good idea... In Mega-City One, Spidey'd only get about half a block before he ran out of web-fluid.

Wait! Why does it have to be Dredd? Why not other 2000 AD characters? Well, for commercial reasons it has to be Dredd because none of the others can claim anything even close to Dredd's recognition factor among the illiterati. But let's just say for the moment that such a thing didn't matter...

We'll leave aside the more obvious ones, such as M.A.C.H. 0 versus The Incredible Hulk (page after page of dim-witted brutes thumping the crap out of each other and going "Urr...?" a lot! What fun!), Chopper versus The Silver Surfer, Judge Fire versus the Human Torch, The Visible Man versus The Invisible Woman, Luke Kirby versus Dr. Strange (magic against magic in the battle to end all readership!). Of course, the ultimate Marvel / 2000 AD crossover would have to be Stan Lee versus Stan Lee. Pity the fight wouldn't last very long...

Johnny Alpha and Daredevil
One's blind, the other can see through walls! They could have the whole strip made up of just black panels and speech bubbles!

Inspector Raam versus Kraven the Hunter
For the religious fans, the lion shall not ever lie down with the lamb!

Sláine versus Conan and The Incredible Hulk
A three-way slug-fest! Everyone's favourite pretendy-Celtic warp-spasming warrior battling the two other characters on which he's not at all based in any way whatsoever!

M.A.C.H. 1 versus Deathlok
They both have computers in their heads, and they both talk out loud to them! Hilarity guaranteed! "Hey, computer!" "What?" "No, I mean my computer!" Plus there's the great clash when fans of two different computer systems meet: "Compu-puncture Hyper-power? Hah! That's just another name for Microsoft Windows, isn't it?" "Yeah, well if your system is so great, how come it only runs on one percent of the world's rampaging cyborgs?" Or if M.A.C.H. 1 isn't available - on account of being dead - then how about Deadlock versus Deathlok: They could fight over who has the cooler name!

Judge Joyce and Banshee
Begorrah! Tis de battle 'o de lazily-written Oirish stereotypes, so it is! Bejaysus, gobshite, Guinness, potatoes, at all at all. To be sure.

Skizz and The Silver Surfer
They're both stranded on Earth, trying to find a way home, except that one of them is really cool but doesn't have any ears, and the other one is a talking space-kangaroo!

Zenith versus Captain Britain
Oh yes! Mr Braddock could teach young Robert a thing or two about being a real British superhero!

Devlin Waugh versus Blade
The half-man, half-vampire crusader going up against the half-man, half-vampire, half-Biggles! Cue lots and lots of blood, creatures of the night and references to "Daywalking". And finally...

Iceman and Diceman
This probably wouldn't be a good team-up, but I'd buy it just for the title.