Crossover of the Week

November 2000

SHEBA’S NECKLACE 

Maxim Gunn battles his old foe Wanda Liszt, who seeks to conquer Africa using Sheba’s necklace, the Great Snake. Sir Richard Trelawney knew Gunn’s maternal grandfather, James Rassendyll. Receiving a note about Wanda’s whereabouts signed only “T.,” Gunn orders more coffee, and thinks, “In what might have been the words of the immortal Holmes, it looked like being a three-pot problem.” A quotation from the rite Wanda intends to perform is given: “That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons, even death may die.” Gunn thinks of a lover of his named Frances, and later about a man he’d known in Los Angeles’ Chinatown named Kwai Chang Caine. Gunn is helped by the Zulu M’hlopekazi, who identifies himself as the great-grandson of Umslopogaas who fought with Macumazahn. 

Novel by Nicholas Boving, originally published as Maxim Gunn and Sheba’s Necklace in 2012; revised as Maxim Gunn: Sheba’s Necklace, Pro Se Productions, 2017. The Great Snake is from John Buchan’s Prester John. Boving’s The Sun Fortress established that Gunn was a descendant of Rudolf Rassendyll from Anthony Hope’s The Prisoner of Zenda and Rupert of Hentzau. The immortal Holmes needs no introduction at this point. “That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons even death may die” is a quotation from the Necronomicon appearing in H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Nameless City” and “The Call of Cthulhu.” Frances West is the protagonist of Boving’s Castle Dark, which has a prominent appearance by Gunn. Kwai Chang Caine II is from the television series Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. Umslopogaas is Allan Quatermain’s Zulu companion in H. Rider Haggard’s novels. “Macumazahn” was Quatermain’s nickname among the natives. At one point, Gunn thinks Oksana, High Priestess of the Temple of Am-mut, who uses a green flame to maintain her immortality, may have been the inspiration for Haggard’s character Ayesha. Since we know She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed is a real person in the CU, Gunn is mistaken, but Oksana’s green flame may be connected to Ayesha’s Fire of Life. 

This crossover writeup is one of hundreds included in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, to be published by Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Covers: The Curse of Quetzalcoatl

 

Are you a fan of the TV series Kung Fu?

Then you'll love the backup story running through these issues, in which the western hero the Phantom Rider encounters El Aguila, an ancestor of the modern Marvel hero of that name, with an allusion to Kwai Chang Caine along the way!

For more information, be sure to pick up a copy of my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3 when Meteor House publishes it! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover TV Episode: Rage

 

In this episode of the Kung Fu revival, Dennis Soong serves his fiancée Althea Shen a dinner that includes a vintage Belloq wine. In Raiders of the Lost Ark, René Belloq serves Marion Ravenwood wine from his family’s vineyards. The modern Kung Fu series is a re-imagining rather than a reboot of the original, set in the twenty-first century with completely original storylines, so there is no reason why its protagonist, Althea’s sister Nicky, could not exist in the same universe as Kwai Chang Caine.

This crossover is one of hundreds covered in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3! Much like the first two volumes, this one is an AUTHORIZED companion to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2 and will be published by Meteor House!

Crossover Covers: Maxim Gunn

Pro Se Press has collected Nicholas Boving's Maxim Gunn novels in two omnibus editions. In the first novel, Gunn is an agent of the British Intelligence group known as the Organization, but in the following novels he works independently of them. Given that Boving has contributed to the Tales of the Shadowmen series and other anthologies for Black Coat Press, it is not surprising that the series has a few crossovers. In the first novel, The Chaos Project, Gunn battles the evil Wanda Liszt, who is planning to conquer the world with the aid of Queen Sheba’s Necklace. Wanda’s father, Otto Liszt, had been cast in the mold of the great criminals, like Carl Peterson and Professor Moriarty. Queen Sheba's Necklace is from John Buchan's novel Prester John. Buchan’s Richard Hannay novels contain references to John Laputa and Captain Arcoll, both of whom appear in Prester John. Carl Peterson is Bulldog Drummond’s archenemy. Professor Moriarty needs no further introduction. Philip José Farmer identified Peterson as Professor Moriarty’s grandson. In the second novel, The Demon Plan, MI5 sends Harry Pearce to recruit Gunn, now retired from the Organization, for a mission. Pearce is from the TV series Spooks (aka MI-5 in the United States.) In the fifth book, The Sun Fortress, Gunn rescues the kidnapped Princess Alicia Flavia of Ruritania. Gunn, who is revealed to be a descendant of Rudolf Rassendyll, is also acquainted with a half-Chinese Shaolin priest in California. This is a reference to Kwai Chang Caine II from the television series Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, himself the grandson of the original Kwai Chang Caine from the Western series Kung Fu. In the sixth novel, The Leopard Legion, Gunn meets Alex Arcoll, the great-grandson of Captain Arcoll from Prester John, and his Shaolin monk friend is mentioned again.