Trek comic crossover wish list

[Greg Cox]

I was going to point out that ST's "Greek gods" were supposedly on Earth 5,000 years ago, which is about 2,500 years too early for the Greek gods... but then, Xena was pretty fast and loose with chronology itself, considering that Xena was portrayed as a contemporary of both Helen of Troy and Julius Caesar (and, indirectly through Hercules, of Vlad the Impaler as well!).

Really, what was cool about Hercules/Xena was that it basically admitted it was a work of fiction, and thus didn't even bother with any kind of credibility or consistency. It was not unlike the myths it was based on in its flexible approach to its own internal reality and chronology.

You knew that Xena had pretty much made actual history her bitch when a first-season episode had Gabrielle telling the poet Homer (yes, that Homer) the inspiring tale of Spartacus's rebellion against Rome . .. .

Come again?

Seriously, XENA's "fractured fairy tales" approach to history and mythology was half the fun . . ..

(I actually typed "half the faun" by mistake and was tempted not to fix it.)

 

[Christopher]

You knew that Xena had pretty much made actual history her bitch when a first-season episode had Gabrielle telling the poet Homer (yes, that Homer) the inspiring tale of Spartacus's rebellion against Rome . .. .

Not just history, but clip shows. Instead of the usual clip-show format that's just replaying stuff from past episodes, they built a clip show around stuff like old Italian Hercules movies and, yes, Spartacus. Which was hilarious. And it suggests that maybe they broke history in that particular way because it was easier for a Universal show to get the rights to Universal's Spartacus than, say, Warner Bros' Helen of Troy. Plus, they'd just done their version of Helen and the Trojan Horse literally one episode earlier...

 

[Greg Cox]

Not just history, but clip shows. Instead of the usual clip-show format that's just replaying stuff from past episodes, they built a clip show around stuff like old Italian Hercules movies and, yes, Spartacus. Which was hilarious. And it suggests that maybe they broke history in that particular way because it was easier for a Universal show to get the rights to Universal's Spartacus than, say, Warner Bros' Helen of Troy. Plus, they'd just done their version of Helen and the Trojan Horse literally one episode earlier...

As a rule, XENA did fun clip shows. They usually found a playful way to make them entertaining in their own right.

Remember "The Xena Scrolls"? Where they built a whole Indiana Jones pastiche around clips from previous episodes.

 

[Christopher]

I liked the Hercules clip shows where the cast members played caricatures of the show's own writers and staffers (Bruce Campbell as Rob Tapert, Ted Raimi as Alex Kurtzman, etc.), and which posited that the actual Hercules was pretending to be an actor named Kevin Sorbo who was playing Hercules. Well, I liked the first one; the second wasn't as good. Xena did various clip shows with comical present-day frames as well, like the ones about the modern reincarnations of Xena, Gabrielle, etc. or the one where they were cloned.

 

[Greg Cox]

As I recall, the reincarnation eps inspired an entire subgenre of XENA fanfic that placed Xena and Gabby in different roles throughout history. I think they called it "uber" fanfic.

 

[Extrocomp]

Sorry for resurrecting this old thread, but something just occurred to me. Why not have a crossover novel instead of a crossover comic? The Planet X novel was pretty good, so I don't know why Pocket Books never tried to take another shot at the crossover genre.

 

[Greg Cox]

Sorry for resurrecting this old thread, but something just occurred to me. Why not have a crossover novel instead of a crossover comic? The Planet X novel was pretty good, so I don't know why Pocket Books never tried to take another shot at the crossover genre.

As I recall, Planet X stems from a brief window of time when Star Trek rights and the X-Men rights were under the same roof, which made it possible without getting too many lawyers involved. I would think that it would be a major headache to deal with, legally, although I guess the comic-book people somehow manage to pull it off . . .. .

 

[Christopher]

I would think that it would be a major headache to deal with, legally, although I guess the comic-book people somehow manage to pull it off . . .. .

I get the impression that a lot of movie and TV people are more comfortable working with comics publishers than book publishers, for several reasons -- because comics are a visual medium somewhat like film, or because comic-book adaptations are such a big thing now, or because many comics publishers such as IDW are West Coast-based and have more direct interaction with Hollywood people. As is often the case, having connections makes things easier.

Also, it seems that there's a fairly long history in comics of two different companies collaborating on crossover publications. Marvel and DC have done a number of crossovers in various decades, plus we've had things in the '80s and '90s like DC and Dark Horse collaborating on Batman vs. Predator and the like, and DC and Malibu collaborated on a TNG/DS9 crossover when they separately held the respective rights to those series. And then there was the bizarreness of 1994's Archie Meets the Punisher. But I don't think we've seen a lot of crossovers between book publishers. Maybe it's just easier in an industry that has more of a history of doing it.

 

[Greg Cox]

Possibly they have a standard boilerplate contract they use for crossovers, which would simplify the process.

"Okay, standard crossover contract terms?"
"Works for me."
"Cool. I'll have Legal email it over to you."
"Caspar vs. Ghostbusters is go!"

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I don't even think anyone's publishing any of the Harvey characters these days.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Godzilla.

 

[Avro Arrow]

"Caspar vs. Ghostbusters is go!"

I'm... not feeling it.

 

[Khan 2.0]

TNG vs Ninja Turtles.

 

[JD]

We've gotten two Trek and cosmic DC crossovers, so why not a cosmic Marvel one with Star Trek/Guardians of the Galaxy or even just a general Star Trek/Marvel Universe one so they could throw in some of the other non-Guardians specific elements of the marvel universe. Who wouldn't want to see one of the Star Trek ships take on Galactus?

 

[Jinn]

Star Trek/Nova/Guardians of the Galaxy, written by Dan Abnett.
Also Star Trek/Rick and Morty

 

[ToddKent]

Regarding Star Trek/Star Wars:

I always thought they should do a 2 issue mini. The first issue would end with some space/time thing weakening the boundaries between universes which could lead to several one-shots of different ST/SW eras crossing over. For example:

[SPECIFIC IDEAS DELETED PER SUGGESTION]

The options are limitless. Then issue 2 of the mini clears everything up and everybody goes back where they belong.

 

[JD]

I know this will probably never happen, but just to be safe you should delete those specific ideas. Since we have authors on here, for legal reasons we are not supposed to post any specific story ideas.
Have we ever seen any of Trek crews confront a Lovecraft style ancient evil? It seems like kind of a no-brainer to me, so I'm assuming it must have happened somewhere along the line. If not, it really should.

 

[Idran]

I know this will probably never happen, but just to be safe you should delete those specific ideas. Since we have authors on here, for legal reasons we are not supposed to post any specific story ideas.

Yeah; essentially, if any of the authors here actually see any of your specific story ideas, @ToddKent, they then can never actually be used, because there's no way of proving that they were developed originally rather than stolen from you.

A generic idea like "a ST/SW crossover" is fine, and a spoiler tag with a story-idea warning in the description I think is enough here? Just basically a base-covering to make sure that authors here wouldn't accidentally come across them. But removing the specific ideas is probably safest.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Have we ever seen any of Trek crews confront a Lovecraft style ancient evil? It seems like kind of a no-brainer to me, so I'm assuming it must have happened somewhere along the line. If not, it really should.

Hmm... would Intellivore qualify?

 

[Stevil2001]

I think the threat in Barbara Hambly's Crossroad is kind of Lovecraftian, if I recall correctly.