Crossover Covers: The Lone Ranger/Green Hornet: Champions of Justice

 

In June 1938, Britt Reid becomes the Green Hornet and fights a new incarnation of the Cavendish gang with the aid of his great-uncle John, who comes out of retirement to don the mask of the Lone Ranger once more. John gets a ride from a cab driver, who is meant to be one of the shadowy vigilante’s agents. In a flashback, a Sergeant of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police appears; this is meant to be Sergeant Frank Preston from the radio series Challenge of Yukon. John and the Sergeant discover they are related through their mutual ancestors, the Waynes. In other words, the Lone Ranger, the Green Hornet, and Sergeant Preston are all related to Batman. In another flashback to 1896, John Reid gives a nine-year-old Franklin Delano Roosevelt one of his trademark silver bullets, an event first mentioned in the miniseries The Shadow/Green Hornet: Dark Nights, also written by Michael Uslan. The Ranger gets some help from a police officer named Kip. Officer Kip Burland will later become the masked crimefighter known as the Black Hood, whose exploits will be published by MLJ, later known as Archie Comics. Mourners at John Reid’s funeral include the shadowy pulp hero, Daddy Warbucks, a certain golden-eyed doctor, the Spirit, Mandrake the Magician, Jungle Jim, Flash Gordon, Bruce Wayne, and Clark Kent. In this story, Dan Reid, Jr. dies before his son Britt becomes the Green Hornet, whereas he was still alive in the original radio series. The Hornet is based in Chicago, but in the CU he operated in Detroit. The Shadow/Green Hornet has already been designated an AU. The Lone Ranger's death conflicts with Jim Harmon’s “Tom Mix and the Mystery of the Bodiless Horseman.”  Therefore, this series must be an AU.

This crossover is one of over a thousand covered in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from 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 of the Week

Winter 1936-Late Summer 1937 

THE DOMINO LADY’S SCANDAL 

The Domino Lady (Ellen Patrick) tries to clear the name of actor Emilio Romani, who has been falsely accused of statutory rape. Ellen met Romani at a party held by Neville Sinclair a week ago. Romani knows Alan Swann. During a trip to New York, Ellen met Theodore Marley Brooks, a lawyer who regularly tops the best dressed lists. While Ellen is no Monk Mayfair or Fergus MacMurdie, she is a skilled chemist. Romani’s alleged crime happened after he got back from a party thrown by Satan Devlin. Romani mentions the parties Valentino threw every Friday night at the Hyperion Hotel. Ellen learned how to palm a syringe from Mandrake, and how to crack a safe from Jimmie Gray, the heir to the Graylock Safe Company. During another one of her trips to New York, a fellow crimefighter taught Ellen a baritsu move that effectively turned her cape into a whip. The mastermind behind the plot against Romani, councilman and chess player John Sanford, taunts Ellen about her code against killing, saying, “I would already be dead if the Spider was standing before me.” A year later, Ellen catches up with Sanford in Palm City, where he is now calling himself James Fleming. 

Short story by Brad Mengel in Domino Lady Volume 3, Ron Fortier, ed., Airship 27 Productions, 2019. Neville Sinclair is from the film version of Dave Stevens’ The Rocketeer. Although the film is incompatible with the comic and its continuations published by IDW, which are in the Crossover Universe, Adam Lance Garcia’s The Green Lama: Unbound and Frank Schildiner’s “Blood of the Hummingbird” also establish Sinclair has a counterpart in the CU. Alan Swann is from the movie My Favorite Year. Brooks and Mayfair are two of the bronze man’s aides. MacMurdie is one of the members of the avenging hero’s crime-fighting organization. Jack “Satan” Devlin appeared in five stories by Ernest Manning in Saucy Movie Tales from July 1936-January 1937. The Hyperion Hotel is from the TV series Angel. Mandrake is the title character of Lee Falk’s comic strip Mandrake the Magician. Jimmie Gray, aka the Shadow (no relation to the American pulp hero), is an Australian comic book character created by Jeff Wilkinson. The fellow crimefighter is the vigilante of the shadows. Baritsu is from Doyle and Watson’s “The Adventure of the Empty House.” The crossover comic “The Conflagration Man” implied Sherlock Holmes had taught both the shadowy vigilante and Doc baritsu. The Spider needs no further introduction. John Sanford (aka James Fleming) is meant to be the grandfather of Peter Fleming, aka Chess, from the TV series The Cape, which is set in Palm City. 

This crossover writeup is one of over a thousand included in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from 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 Comic Strip: The Twins' Futures

 

Are you a fan of Lee Falk's classic comic strip The Phantom?

Then you may enjoy this storyline, which has appearances by not only Mandrake the Magician and company, but also Mary Worth!

For more information, be sure to read my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3 when it's 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: King

A sequel to the comic Kings Watch, which takes place in an AU, as I discussed in a previous post.

Crossover Cover: Flash Gordon: Zeitgeist

This ten issue miniseries is a reimagining of Flash Gordon’s first trip to Mongo. In this particular issue, the Phantom and Mandrake have a cameo. This story is irreconcilable with Alex Raymond's original tale, and therefore must be placed in an AU.

Crossover Covers: Kings Watch

The Phantom, Mandrake, Flash Gordon, Lothar, Karma, Dale Arden, and Dr. Hans Zarkov battle Ming the Merciless and the Cobra. The Phantom seen here is not a member of the Walker family, but rather had the identity passed to him by the last descendant of the original Phantom on his deathbed. Mandrake’s wife Narda has turned evil, becoming the Cobra’s henchwoman and lover. Flash Gordon and company are updated to modern times, and their first meeting here is under different circumstances than their first appearance in the comic strip. Therefore, this series must take place in an AU.

Crossover Covers: Godfall

The Phantom, upon finding a hidden trap door, remarks “Mandrake would be proud.” Despite the modern trappings of this story, it features the 20^th Phantom, who has married Diana Palmer by this time, and thus must take place not very long after 1945.

Crossover Cover: The Society of United Magicians

In this story, which takes place in 1936, the Shadow battles a group of corrupt magicians who are attempting to force Bess Houdini to contact the spirit of her late husband Harry, seeking secrets he has learned on the other side. A poster for Mandrake the Magician is seen in the Society’s headquarters. It is also revealed that Houdini is the one who taught the Shadow the art of escapology.