Yesterday Marvel announced that Kevin Smith will pen a crossover of Star Wars and Marvel characters, to be drawn by David Marquez. In a way this is the last bullet in the chamber….but it’s one that was always going to be fired, as CB Cebulski put it on the pr:
“It’s an idea we’ve wanted to explore since getting the Star Wars license back over a decade ago [in 2014], but we knew we’d have to wait with the patience of a Jedi to make it happen. The 50th anniversary of A New Hope has finally given us the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring these two universes together.”
As Christopher Chiu-Tabet noted in his report, comics crossovers are definitely a thing. As Tweeted by Tom Muller: RoboCop/Terminator, Superman/Aliens, Batman/Predator, Batman/Aliens, Avengers/Aliens, X-Men/Star Trek…to which I add Archie/Punisher, or more recently a slew of oddball crossovers at Dynamite, including Archie/Terminator, Red Sonja/Vampirella/Betty and Veronica, and so on and so forth. If your mind can encompass the thought, it can be manifested.
At least in comics format. Although there have been notable film successes – Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein, Spider-Man Far From Home – it’s harder to pull off in live action than on the page. In comics you can tell any crazy story – as Batton Lash, Stan Goldberg and John Buscema did in Archie Meets the Punisher – and the laughs will carry you through. And of course, comics practically invented the crossover
Still, Star Wars Meets Marvel is a bit of a stretch. Aren’t Jedi superheroes? Would someone from space really stand out in on earth 616? Can Dr. Doom team up with Darth Vader?
I’m a bit past the age where I picked up my disparate toys and went “pew pew pew!” so my enthusiasm is muted. At Toy Fair a few years ago, Hasbro, which puts out both Star Wars AND Marvel toys, displayed Mix-Mashers, which were Transformers, Star Wars and Marvel toys with interchangeable parts so you could put Dr. Doom’s head on Darth Vader’s body with Bumblebee’s arms. Pew pew pew!
When Marvel and DC announced their latest crossover last year, i noted this was often a sign of desperate times for comics publishers. And indeed, that was before the Absolute Phenomenon had unleashed a wave of new readers. Back when that crossover was hatched, periodical sales were flagging, so playing the ultimate card must have looked like a great idea – and it benefitted greatly from the surge of new readers.
Marvel/Star Wars isn’t a desperate move, but it’s also silly in an endearing way. Some people wondered if this was part of the “All New, All Different Wacker Marvel” but obviously it was in the works for a while. In fact, Rob Liefeld had been talking about it on his podcast for two years, and I’m told that other writers were in the running before Smith was chosen.
Smith is a pretty good choice for the task. He’s been going “pew pew pew!” for a long time, and he understands nerd culture in a way that few others do. For those who find him funny, he is quite funny, and that will be necessary for such an undertaking.
With D23 rolling out in a few days, this seems like the kind of news that might have been saved for that event. In the past Marvel Comics kind of got lost in the shuffle there amidst massive media announcements, so rolling it out early gives it some time to shine on its own. The current D23 schedule shows a Marvel Fanfare panel with Cebulski, Joe Kelly and Nick Lowe, focusing on Spider-Man, and Marvel: A Legacy of Stories pres. by M&M’S, which I’m guessing will include M&Ms giveaways. Candy good. More intriguingly, there ‘s a Marvel/Webtoon panel. But clearly the Marvel-flavored focus will be on the plans for the MCU – which DON’T include more Disney+ series, it seems.
Anyway, Marvel/Star Wars will answer some questions we never really needed answered, but hopefully it will have some fun along the way. One question that we do need answered though: which character will pee their pants?
