CROSSOVER MADNESS

I've now reviewed the three Famous Studios cartoons that led to the ascension of Herman the Mouse to his small degree of stardom. None of these are crossovers, but because they give Herman stature, he's a star when he's teamed up with his most famous adversary. He gets teamed up (in the sense of repeating enemies) with a cat who bears some resemblance to Katnip in 1947's NAUGHTY BUT MICE. Proto-Katnip made two more appearances before being given his official form, and the re-use of his template suggests enough identity for me to label his presence in NAUGHTY a "proto-crossover," since he does take on a starring role alongside Herman for several cartoons thereafter. However, though none of the partnerships of the mouse and the cat following NAUGHTY are any sort of crossovers, because Katnip hadn't established enough solo stature. This stands in contrast to my argument that all Daffy Duck/Porky Pig teamups are crossovers, because both members of the team had stature when they first teamed up.

Herman also made a couple of cameo appearances, notably in the 1946 banned POPEYE short THE ISLAND FLING.

CROSSOVER MADNESS

The Grant Morrison run on ACTION COMICS, reviewed here, contains various crossovers of heroes and villains with the main hero, but the oddest revival is that of super-obscure Super-villain Ferlin Nyxly.

MONSTER MASHUPS #104

DC's hoary BOB HOPE tried to appeal to monster-loving kids by injecting famous fiends into the stories. Not sure if it started in #95. but this issue also shows a faculty of fiends meeting a goofy teen named "Super-Hip." This dopey character, who could change into any form, was created by writer Arnold Drake, who one year later would become the scripter on DC's first version of PLASTIC MAN. Not sure if the monsters helped, but the HOPE title managed to soldier on until 1968.

 

CROSSOVER MADNESS

 And the award for the worst-drawn "retcon crossover" goes to whatever Quality Comics editor took a plain old teen humor tale from JONESY #5 (1954)...

...and turned it into a WOOZY story in PLASTIC MAN #62 (1956), with what must be comics' most badly done replacement of one cartoon head with another.

I don't know the original for this retcon, but the one-page feature BIG TOP had appeared since the early 1940s in Quality Comics. So it's very likely that there was some earlier original in which some regularly seen character, rather than Woozy, unleashed chaos.

CROSSOVER MADNESS

 My verdict on JETSONS MEET THE FLINTSTONES...

"may qualify as one of the most underwhelming crossovers in pop culture."

CROSSOVER MADNESS

 

In the prosaically titled story "The Spider Widow and the Raven" in FEATURE COMICS #60 (September 1942) the Spider Widow, who'd made her solo debut in FEATURE #57, began a series of informal team-ups with another hero, The Raven. The running joke was that they just kept tripping over one another by accident, rather than intentionally teaming up, like most partner-teams.

Frank Borth, who drew both this strip and PHANTOM LADY in POLICE COMICS, then experimented for three months crossing over the features. First, The Raven pops up in POLICE COMICS #20, as he and Phantom Lady work together.

Then, in FEATURE COMICS #69, The Raven decides to team up with Phantom Lady to continue investigating the crime-scheme begun (as he himself says) in POLICE COMICS. For the sake of the joke, Borth conveniently forgets that up until this point, Raven and Spider Widow DON'T know one another's secret identities, but they act as if they've known each other for some time  . Spider Widow and Phantom Lady immediately rub each other the wrong way-- probably because Phantom Lady really does have a yen for the Widow's sort-of boyfriend. Thus it's not much of a team-up, and the high point might be Raven "quoting" the slogan of the Blackhawks.

In POLICE COMICS 21, the crooks being pursued by the trio have noticed the contentiousness between the two heroines, and they write a couple of letters, making each heroine think that the other one has challenged her to a sword-duel. Despite the fact that the letters mentioned the heroines only by their hero-names, Phantom Lady comes in costume but Spider Widow leaves behind her trademark witch-mask. Nevertheless, the watching hoods somehow figure out the mundane identities of both crimefighters. Usually this means that the crooks are doomed to get killed before they reveal all, but at the end of the story the malcontents are simply taken to jail.

FEATURE COMICS #70 implies the consequences of this omission. for more crooks, probably allies of those imprisoned, track Spider Widow down to her home and abduct her, with the unnecessary excuse that they're going to take her to their other captive, The Raven. The Widow manages to let Phantom Lady listen in on the conversation, so the latter heroine goes to aid her buddies. Strangely, even though it's the Spider Widow's feature, she never assumes her costume or uses her spiders, and Phantom Lady gets the best action.

Then POLICE COMICS 22 contributes a chapter that does involve the ongoing crimes involving Phantom Lady's father, so technically this is part of the narrative, even though Raven and Spider Widow make no more than a cameo.

Then for FEATURE #71 we're back to a full-fledged team-up, with a splash showing a memorable double-drubbing of one beast by both beauties. The main story has Raven planning to lock up the quarrelsome ladies in  a room so they'll resolve their differences, but the plot backfires, so that the Widow has to save both Raven and Phantom Lady from a watery demise.

That sixth adventure is the last installment, but for whatever internal reasons, the next two adventures for Spider Widow and Phantom Lady were their last appearances at Quality Comics, although the company Fox bought the rights to Phantom Lady and continued her adventures with a greater emphasis on salacious visuals.