Crossover Cover: Return from Oblivion!

 

The immortal monster hunter Ulysses Bloodstone was born in Vanaheim near the end of the Hyborian Age. Iron Man appears, as do agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Ulysses Bloodstone is already in the CU through his daughter Elsa’s encounter with the Living Mummy, Frankenstein’s Monster, and Dracula. Vanaheim is from Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories. Iron Man and the spy organization S.H.I.E.L.D. have already been established as having counterparts in the CU.

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 Cover: Bloody Wedding

 

Sara Pezzini and Logan are stripped of their memories (and Sara of the Witchblade) and are married. Once they remember their pasts, they must find the one responsible. Logan calls his fellow X-Man Sage at the Xavier Institute. Although a version of Wolverine exists in the Crossover Universe, the X-Men as a group are not compatible with the CU, so this is an alternate universe story.

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 Cover: Improbable as It May Seem - The Impossible Man is Back in Town!

 

The Thing (Ben Grimm) has regained his powers and rocklike form, having previously lost both and used an exoskeleton created by Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards) to replicate them. Ben says to Reed, “I tore outta your precious exoskeleton like Doc Savage rippin’ a t-shirt!” A year after this adventure, Ben and his teammate Johnny Storm (the Human Torch) will have a cross-time exploit with Doc and two of his aides.

This crossover is one of hundreds covered in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, which will 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 Cover: Revenant Season

 

Blade, Frank Drake, and Hannibal King, now occult investigators, battle Hydra’s Department of Occult Armaments. In D.O.A.’s headquarters, an announcement is made over the P.A.: “Attention religious artifacts division–observe safety guidelines when opening Arks of the Covenant! Don’t look into the light–” Blade, Drake, and King first appeared in the Marvel series Tomb of Dracula. The reference to the Ark of the Covenant and not looking into the light is an allusion to Raiders of the Lost Ark. Given its many appearances in the CU, the Ark, like the Maltese Falcon, seems to change hands often.

This crossover is one of hundreds covered in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, which will 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 Covers: Rawhide Kid: The Sensational Seven

 

Are you a fan of Marvel Comics' western heroes?

Then you'll love this miniseries, in which the Rawhide Kid teams up with not only three historical gunslingers, but also fellow Marvel cowboys Kid Colt, the Two-Gun Kid, and Red Wolf, with a couple references to the Lone Ranger and Tonto along the way!

For more details, check out my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, to be published by Meteor House! Much like its predecessors, this volume is an AUTHORIZED companion to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Covers: Before the Fantastic Four: Reed Richards

 

One of Reed Richards and his girlfriend Alyssa Moy’s globetrotting exploits involves an encounter with the Giant Rat of Sumatra. Reed Richards will go on to lead the Fantastic Four as Mr. Fantastic. The Giant Rat of Sumatra is from Doyle and Watson’s Sherlock Holmes story “The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire.” This story takes place after Reed’s army service. According to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s original run on Fantastic Four, Reed served in World War II, so this likely takes place in the 1950s, which is supported by a police officer asking if Reed is a communist sympathizer. Of course, the Marvel Universe has a “sliding timescale,” where the Fantastic Four’s spaceflight is always about 14 years before whatever the current year is, but in the CU, that’s not the case, and it happened in the early '60s.

This crossover is just one among the hundreds covered in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, in development 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 Cover: Children of the Beast

Hey, like the Hellraiser film series?

Then you'll love the reference to it in this story of Marvel Comics' Werewolf by Night!

Find out all the details in Crossovers Expanded Vols. 1 and 2, my AUTHORIZED expansions of Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Vols. 1 and 2, due out from Meteor House in 2016!

Crossover Covers: Night of the Living Deadpool

A zombie apocalypse occurs, leaving the mercenary Deadpool the last remaining superhuman. In the second chapter, Deadpool and the group of survivors he’s leading spend about eight weeks traveling and seeking shelter, visiting Ash Williams’ cabin (from The Evil Dead), Hershel Greene’s farm and the West Georgia Correctional Facility (The Walking Dead), the Monroeville Mall (Dawn of the Dead), the Pacific Playland Amusement Park (Zombieland), and the Winchester Pub (Shaun of the Dead). Obviously, this one is an AU.

Crossover Cover: The Crown Jewel Caper

In one of the stories in this anthology comic, the Black Cat steals an alleged treasure map leading to the Crown Jewels of France for antiquarian Hervé Marat, who calls the Kingpin to tell him the Cat is about to fall into a police trap. However, the female thief manages to escape the gendarmes. Inspector Gorlier is nevertheless glad they have recovered the fake map they planted, since it can be used as evidence, and they have outwitted the Cat. One of the gendarmes serving under Gorlier, Henri Poirot, is pleased to have an entertaining story to tell his great-uncle. Henri’s great-uncle is, of course, Hercule Poirot. Julian Symons has placed Hercule’s birth in 1864, which would make him 125-years-old at the time of this story; however, Rick Lai’s essay “Partners in Crime: Fu Manchu and Carl Peterson” (Rick Lai’s Secret Histories: Criminal Masterminds, Altus Press, 2009) provides a possible explanation for the Belgian sleuth’s longevity. Both the Black Cat and the Kingpin have independent links bringing them into the CU.

Crossover Cover: Nextwave is Love

H.A.T.E. director Dirk Anger orders the release of “the Neo-Hyde Gutspawn…Human scum empowered by the cloned chemically-mutated cells found in the stomach walls of the corpse of Henry Jekyll himself!” Nextwave is a team composed of mostly pre-existing Marvel superheroes, and therefore this series cannot take place in the CU.

Crossover Cover: The Death of Buffy

Spike drops in on Rupert Giles to borrow a shear of Cytorrak, which he needs to finish off an acid demon he’s knocked out behind the Sunnydale Municipal Building. Despite the different spellings, this is clearly a reference to Cyttorak, a god from the Marvel Comics Universe, best known for creating the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak, the power source for the X-Men’s foe the Juggernaut. Although the X-Men’s adventures do not fit into CU continuity, the Crimson Gem was mentioned in Kim Newman’s story “The Adventure of the Six Maledictions,” and therefore we have independent verification that Cyttorak has a CU counterpart. This storyline takes place between Seasons 5 and 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Crossover Cover: Return of the King

The Nightbreed battle the monstrous Rawhead Rex. The Nightbreed are already in the CU through an encounter with Pinhead from the Hellraiser movies. This crossover brings in the title character of Clive Barker's story "Rawhead Rex."