My Greatest Crossovers Ever

a.k.a--My take on that "most ambitious crossover event in history" meme that was on Twitter today.

So... I was on Twitter today, and several of my friends were playing around with this Meme.

The joke is that you write:
Marvel: 'Infinity War is the most ambitious crossover event in history'
Me:
...and then after the "me" you post an example of an even more ambitious crossover.

Example

Marvel: 'Infinity War is the most ambitious crossover event in history'
Me: pic.twitter.com/hYcuXRWH6l

— J'onn J'onzz (@MustyKonyByke) March 19, 2018

So, I thought, "I'm a huge nerd.  I can totally play this game."

There is, however, a bit of an art to this game.  The most obvious examples are the least fun.

For example, one of the biggest crossover events in comic book history is: Crisis on Infinite Earths.  But that's just too obvious.  It's the first thing any comic book nerd thinks of when they think of the word "crossover".  

The point of the game (in my opinion) is to remind people of neat little cross over events that they didn't know about, or had forgotten.  

So, let me submit some of my own ideas for consideration.

1. Peter Pan crossover with Treasure Island

Fun fact.  J.M. Barrie was a huge fan of Treasure Island, and worked in several references to Treasure Island in his novelization of Peter Pan.

Captain Flint is referenced a couple of times by name in Peter Pan, as well as Flint's ship, The Walrus.  One of Captain Hook's pirates is described as having sailed on The Walrus under Captain Flint in the old days.
From the Peter Pan Wiki:

In Peter and Wendy Flint is mentioned in two places. The first mention is in a passage introducing Captain Hook's pirate crew: "Here is Bill Jukes, every inch of him tattooed, the same Bill Jukes who got six dozen on the WALRUS from Flint before he would drop the bag of moidores." The second mention is as Hook is attempting to intimidate the Darling children and the Lost Boys, but is heckled by his inner demons: "'I am the only man whom Barbecue feared,' he urged, 'and Flint feared Barbecue.' 'Barbecue, Flint—what house?' came the cutting retort."

Long John Silver is also mentioned in Peter Pan, under his nickname Barbecue.  (Barbecue was one of Silver's nicknames in the original Treasure Island, because he worked as the ship's cook.)
From the Wiki:

In Peter and Wendy, part of Captain Hook's fierce reputation is Barrie's claim that "He is the only man of whom Barbecue was afraid." This is further amplified by the fact that even Captain Flint feared Barbecue. Barbecue taught Hook a sword-fighting maneuver at Rio. However, Peter Pan thinks that he slayed Barbecue, with the same sword he takes into battle with Hook.

2. The Argonauts
Classical mythology was the original "shared universe".  And dare I say it, it was even more complex and more inter-connected than the Marvel Universe.  It's often hard to tell where one story ends and another story begins.  And heroes from one story routinely popped up in other stories.
You could perhaps make the case that the Trojan War was the greatest crossover story of all time.  After all, Odysseus and Aeneas, both of whom starred in their own epic poems, first encountered each other at Troy.  And actually while The Odyssey and The Aeneid  are the most famous, if you go through the Greek plays and legends, most of the heroes at Troy got spun off into their own stories.
But that's the thing.  The Trojan War stories came first, and then the stories of the heroes returning home were later spin-offs.  (At least, that's the impression one gets.)
With the story of The Argonauts, however, you have the impression of an epic team-up that drew from a bunch of pre-existing heroes and then put them all on one great crossover event.
And what a crossover event it was: Hercules, Theseus, Castor and Pollux, Orpheus, Nestor, and more! Plus a lot of famous fathers-- the fathers of Achilles, Odysseus, and Ajax were all Argonauts as well.
Runner up--The Calydonian Boar Hunt, which also contained many of the same heroes in one big epic crossover adventure--See complete list at Wikipedia HERE.

3. Hercules saves Theseus from Hades
Okay, so as I mentioned above, there are SO many crossover events from classical mythology that I can't possibly list them all.
But this one particular meeting probably deserves its own entry.  Hercules and Theseus.  The hero from Sparta meets the hero from Athens.  The stupid strong one meets the cunning crafty one.  This definitely merits a place on anybody's list.

4. Arsene Lupin versus Sherlock Holmes
A few caveats.  As I said in my original review, I didn't quite care for Maurice Leblanc's depiction of Sherlock Holmes.   Nevertheless, this story is kind of a classic now--or at least a pulp classic.  So it merits a mention.

5. John Lennon crossover with Bob Dylan



6. Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
Okay, so arguably this is getting into the "too obvious" category that I just said I was going to stay away from.  But I really love this movie, so I'm going to put it on here.  (I put this on my list of top-ten best movies of all time.)



7. Anno Dracula by Kim Newman
Granted, there are a lot of these "take all the public domain characters from the 19th Century, and put them all in one big crossover story" novels floating around. And this is another one that's probably a bit too obvious to merit mentioning. But... since I read this book and enjoyed it, I'm going to  put it in this list.

...I'm worried I'm going to think of more great crossovers as soon as I hit "post".  So I reserve the right to come back here and edit this later if I get any more ideas.
In the meantime... let me know in the comments what I missed.