Crossover of the Week

January 1936

THE REPLACEMENT 

Bruce Wayne is staying at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, which he thinks of as a missing link between Gotham and Metropolis. Bruce’s father Thomas told him that before they came together to start the hotel, the Waldorf and Astor families had invited him to their individual hotels several times. Bruce’s butler Alfred Pennyworth answers a phone call from “Miss Lane.” Bruce thinks this is Lois Lane, but Alfred says it was her eldest sister, Margo, who has connections to the Cobalt Club and Lamont Cranston. In the 1920s, Cranston was an advisor to General Cho Tsing, then studied under Marpa Tulku in Tibet, along with Shiwan Khan. Cranston’s other identities include Clifford Gage and Kent Allard. Officially, Bruce is in New York to launch WayneTech, a scientific subsidiary of his family’s business empire, which he seeks to expand. In doing so, he has met with Howard Stark and Nathaniel Richards, whose son Reed is also a potential genius. Alfred drives Bruce to a meeting at the Empire State Building, where they are greeted by a man who is one of the world’s top chemists, despite his apelike appearance. On the 86th floor, they meet an elegantly dressed Brigadier General, who tells Bruce his friend Harvey Dent shows promise to be an outstanding attorney, and a tall, extremely thin man who wears a monocle over a damaged eye. Bruce is ushered in to meet Clark and Kent, who know he was motivated by the tragedy of Park Lane, also known as Crime Alley. During his stay in England, Bruce spent some time with an old beekeeper in his cottage on the South Downs of Sussex. Clark asks Bruce to escort his cousin Patricia next time she’s in Gotham. Getting on the elevator, Bruce runs into Britt Reid, the publisher of the Daily Sentinel, and his valet Kato. Kent asks the latter if he spent any time in Tibet studying with the Sâr Dubnotal. 

Short story by Xavier Mauméjean in Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 16: Voir Dire, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2019; reprinted in French in Les Compagnons de l’Ombre (Tome 26), Jean-Marc Lofficier, ed., Rivière Blanche, 2020. Bruce Wayne will soon become Gotham City’s most famous vigilante, Batman. Bruce’s parents, Dr. Thomas Wayne and his wife Martha, were murdered by Joe Chill in Park Row (to use the correct name), later known as Crime Alley. Alfred Pennyworth is the Dark Knight’s butler. WayneTech is the research and development branch of Bruce’s company, Wayne Enterprises. Harvey Dent will later become Gotham’s District Attorney, until his face is scarred by an acid-wielding criminal, leading to him becoming the gangster known as Two-Face. Metropolis is Superman’s hometown. Lois Lane is the Man of Steel’s coworker at the Daily Star (later renamed the Daily Planet), and later his wife. Her sister is an agent of the shadow-cloaked vigilante. Philip José Farmer jokingly proposed the relationship between the two in Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life. The shadowy hero frequently impersonates a wealthy globetrotter, often seeking information at the Cobalt Club. The General is from the Shadow novels The Fate Joss and The Teeth of the Dragon. Tulku is from another entry in the series, Masters of Death. Khan battled the vigilante in that book and three others before it. Gage is another of the slouch-hatted crimefighter’s aliases. Howard Stark is the father of Tony Stark, better known as Marvel Comics’ armored hero Iron Man. Nathaniel Richards’ son, Reed, will later be known as Mr. Fantastic, the leader of the Marvel hero team known as the Fantastic Four. The 86th floor of the Empire State Building is the headquarters of the bronze man. The apelike chemist, the Brigadier General, and the thin man are three of his aides. The old beekeeper is Sherlock Holmes. Doc’s cousin is from Lester Dent’s pulp novels. Britt Reid is also known as the Green Hornet. Kato is Reid’s chauffeur and his partner in his war on crime. The Sâr Dubnotal is an occult investigator from the French pulps. Although this story is dated January 1938, Bruce Wayne’s debut as Batman has been placed in Early May 1936, since the first Batman story, “The Case of the Chemical Syndicate” was a swipe of the Shadow novel Partners of Peril, which Rick Lai placed in that period in his book Chronology of Shadows: A Timeline of the Shadow’s Exploits. Therefore, I am instead placing it in January 1936. 

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 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 Covers: Star Trek/Green Lantern: Stranger Worlds

 

A sequel to the earlier miniseries Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War, in which the Green Lantern Corps of a possible future for the DC Universe found themselves transported to the divergent universe seen in J. J. Abrams’ Star Trek films. In this story, Sinestro of GL’s universe tries to stop the Guardians of the Universe from forming the Corps in Kirk and company’s universe as well. At the end of the story, Hal Jordan is interested in discovering whether this universe has a planet with a red sun, a reference to Superman’s homeworld of Krypton. 

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: Toys in the Attic

 

The first appearance of the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths version of Superman’s foe the Toyman. The Man of Steel is told about the villain by two unnamed British intelligence agents who are clearly John Steed and Emma Peel. In general, it is preferable to keep the few superheroes in the CU in their original publication era. This, combined with the fact that the end of the story ties in with a companywide crossover event called Millennium, makes this comic an AU. 

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: Toys in the Attic

 

The first appearance of the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths version of Superman’s foe the Toyman. The Man of Steel is told about the villain by two unnamed British intelligence agents who are clearly John Steed and Emma Peel. In general, it is preferable to keep the few superheroes in the CU in their original publication era. This, combined with the fact that the end of the story ties in with a companywide crossover event called Millennium, makes this comic an AU. 

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

Crossover Cover: A Dream of Flying

IDW Publishing did two volumes of The Rocketeer Adventures, an anthology comic featuring new stories of Dave Stevens' character by a diverse range of writers and artists. The first issue of the second volume contains the story "A Dream of Flying" by Stan Sakai. Flying through a rural area, the Rocketeer is attacked by a young man with red hair wielding a shotgun. After Cliff falls through the roof of a barn, the redhead demands his rocket pack, saying he’ll disassemble it to see how it works and build a better one. Cliff’s enemy is attacked from behind by a young boy with a spit curl in his black hair, and Cliff delivers a knockout blow to the would-be thief. The boy says of the thief, "Pa always said that Lex is a bad apple." He expresses excitement at Cliff’s ability to fly, and says he has always dreamed of doing so himself, but it’s impossible. Cliff takes off into the air with the ecstatic boy in his arms, then brings him back to the ground and flies off into the distance. The boy’s parents arrive home from shopping to find him with a sheet tied around his neck, proclaiming he flew. When his mother comments on the boy’s imagination, his father says, "Now, Martha, a bit of imagination is good for a boy his age.” The boy plays happily, saying “Up, up, and away!" as his dog follows him. The boy is clearly a young Clark Kent, and this takes place before he discovers his superpowers. However, the CU version of Clark was already a grown man and active as Superman by the time Cliff Secord became the Rocketeer, thus placing this story in an AU.

Crossover Cover: A (Super) Friend in Need

Scooby and the gang help the Super Friends and Supergirl deal with a seeming haunting at the Hall of Justice, which turns out to actually be the work of the Legion of Doom. Since superhero teams are generally not included in the CU, this must be an AU.

Crossover Cover: Truth, Justice, and Scooby Snacks

When Caesar’s ghost appears in the Daily Planet’s offices, Superman calls in Mystery, Inc. to help him find out the truth behind the haunting. It turns out to be the work of the Prankster, who transforms Superman into a monstrous form with Red Kryptonite. With the help of Superman’s dog Krypto, as well as Scooby and Shaggy inadvertently drinking the serums that once gave Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen superpowers, the gang saves the day. Velma alludes in passing to the events of an earlier story, “A (Super) Friend in Need”; however, given that the Super Friends, as a superhero team, do not fit into the CU, this should be disregarded. Lois seems unaware that Clark Kent is Superman, even though CU continuity holds that she and Clark have been married for over two decades by this point. Lois must be merely keeping up appearances in front of her coworkers and Scooby and the gang in order to keep Clark’s dual identity a secret.

Crossover of the Week

Winter 1967

A THING OF BEAUTY

            Sanford Biggs accepts a contract to kill the Green Hornet and Kato, and steals the Black Beauty for his museum, housed aboard his cargo carrier, the Bigg Dipper. The items in Biggs’ museum include a glowing green meteorite; the remains of a crashed experimental airplane that had been shot down over Switzerland in 1939; the mask, hat, and pistols of a famous lawman in the old west; and a bat-shaped metal throwing weapon. The Hornet recognizes the lawman’s equipment. In the aftermath of the Hornet’s battle with Biggs, everything in the museum is tagged, labeled, and accounted for, except for one empty case. The Hornet (aka Britt Reid) tells his ally, D.A. Frank Scanlon, that the case contained an heirloom stolen from his family many years ago, which belonged to his grandfather.

            Short story by Bobby Nash in The Green Hornet Casefiles, Joe Gentile and Win Scott Eckert, eds., Moonstone Books, 2011. The glowing green meteorite is a piece of kryptonite, one of the few substances that can kill Superman. The experimental airplane belonged to the Canadian pulp hero Lance Star; its destruction at the hands of Star’s foe Baron Otto Von Blood is depicted in Nash’s upcoming novel Lance Star: Sky Ranger – Cold Snap. The lawman of the old west is John Reid, aka the Lone Ranger. The Green Hornet radio series revealed that Britt Reid was the Lone Ranger’s great-nephew. NOW Comics’ Green Hornet comic established in turn that the Green Hornet from the 1960s television series was Britt Reid II, the original Hornet’s nephew. Therefore, Britt Reid II is actually John Reid’s great-grandnephew, not his grandson. The bat-shaped metal throwing weapon is one of Batman’s batarangs.

Crossover Cover: More Blood

This authorized anthology of new Destroyer stories written by fans of the series, co-edited by Warren Murphy's son, has two stories with crossovers. One is Brad Mengel's "The Roads Not Taken." A cop turned soldier in Vietnam named Remo is greeted by a sentry named Michael Long, also a cop in civilian life. Remo’s platoon mates have nicknamed him the Destroyer, just as others in the group have been dubbed the Exterminator, Hannibal, and Sergeant Mercy. Remo considers becoming a soldier of fortune when his tour of duty ends, "like that Rainey fellow people [keep] talking about." Remo can see himself like James Bond, traveling the world to protect America. A visiting soldier tells a group of listeners about how he cleared a fellow soldier of the allegation of a massacre at Hoi Binh. This soldier, named Bolan, also tells them a story he heard from a guy named Spenser in Korea. Michael Long (later known as Michael Knight) is from the TV series Knight Rider. The Exterminator is John Eastland from the movies The Exterminator and Exterminator 2. Hannibal is John "Hannibal" Smith from the TV show The A-Team. Sergeant Mercy was the wartime nickname of Mack Bolan, aka the Executioner, the vigilante created by Don Pendleton. Bolan cleared the name of Niles Barrabas in "Incident at Hoi Binh," included in Executioner #63: The New War Book. Barrabas is the protagonist of another series, The Soldiers of Barrabas by Jack Hild. Jim Rainey is the hero of Peter McCurtin’s Soldier of Fortune series. James Bond needs no explanation. Spenser is Robert B. Parker’s future private investigator. In R.J. Carter's "Fool's Paradise," Remo Williams and Chiun team up with a masked vigilante to end the threat of the sentient computer chip Friend, which has been corrupted by the caped crusader’s archenemy, a psychotic clown. Mark Howard, assistant director of CURE, tells Remo, "Thanks to the run of unique characters that regularly pass through this city, your street clothes and your blurred-out features have the newscasters crediting some faceless vigilante, with the'‘man in the kimono' as his partner and sensei. Richard Salamander, Rick Dragon, something like that.' There is apparently some bad blood between Chiun and this latter individual. The vigilante says that more than one of the defense mechanisms in his cave headquarters were designed to contend with an out-of-control extraterrestrial, should the need ever arise. Although the masked vigilante is not referred to by name, the story makes it abundantly clear that he is the Batman. Per CU continuity, this would be the as-yet unidentified fourth Batman, whose predecessors were Bruce Wayne Sr., Dick Grayson, and Bruce Wayne Jr. His archenemy is the Joker. The faceless vigilante is another DC Comics hero, the Question (although he was originally published by Charlton Comics), while his sensei is martial arts master Richard Dragon. The extraterrestrial against whose losing control Batman is taking precautions is Superman.