Don't think I knew about this one, must look out for it. I almost included one of the earlier Conan in the 20th century What Ifs but went with somehting else instead.

Swamp-Thing #32 (DC, 1985); “Pog” by Alan Moore and Shawn McManus

On the seventh day of Christmas Alan Moore brings to me...a tale most swampy.  

Before any comic books.  Before the Batman TV show.  My first love was Pogo.  There was a set of vinyl Pogo figures that were a Procter & Gamble soap premium and they were among my early baby toys.  



The first paperback book I purchased with my own money was a copy of The Impollutable Pogo. 

So needless to say Alan Moore and Shawn McManus teaming up Swamp Thing and the Pogo gang (or a reasonable facsimile of them) is definitely going to make my list.  On any given day this could be higher.  But since I can piggy-back on Edo's write up and I'm still recovering from trial prep it's a good time.  

I'll just say that both Moore and McManus perfectly evoke the feel of Walt Kelly's writing and art in a beautiful tale.  We have met the enemy.  And he is us.  

It doesn’t fit in my opinion. I might as well say Kronos vs The Grandmaster instead of JLA / Avengers.

6. Conan/Solomon Kane, "Death's Dark Riders"/"Death's Dark Tower", Savage Sword of Conan #219-220 (Marvel, 1994)



This was one of the first crossovers I thought of on reading this year's topic and, even more so than yesterday's entry, I felt I would be alone in having it on my list. I guess my taste in comics may not be so idiosyncratic as I sometimes think.

As I wrote about in some detail last year, I am Robert E. Howard fan, and my favourite of Howard's characters is the Puritan swordsman and adventurer Solomon Kane. A team-up between Kane and Howard's most famous creation is an intriguing idea, but one that had a lot of potential to go wrong. But, I am happy to say, it does not. To us a phrase I have used before in describing this story, it works much better than it has any right to.

What I am particularly happy with is that this is as much Kane's story as it is Conan's. Despite it being the barbarian's magazine, Kane is integral to the story and not just an add-on. And Roy Thomas nails Kane's personality. This is Howard's Kane, and everything that he does in this story has it antecedents in Howard's writing. Even his uneasy alliance with Conan turning into a friendship. On multiple occasions Kane found himself liking the company of boisterous warriors (John Silent springs to mind).

Colin McNeil's sparse art style lends itself to depicting the lean and gaunt Solomon Kane. Not so much the muscular Conan, however.



There was another Solomon Kane crossover I was considering but, on comparing the two, this is the superior story. I'll discuss the other possibility in the Near Misses thread.

So Solomon Kane done right (with added Conan) earns my #6 slot.

6. Brave and the Bold 92 (Oct -Nov 1970, DC Comics)
“Night Wears a Scarlet Shroud”
Bob Haney and Nick Cardy



This one qualifies simply because it appeared in The Brave and the Bold; none of the characters who team up with Batman as the “Bat-Squad” ever had appeared or ever would again,

NB: I did notice when rereading this that DC finally reached back to re-use the name Bat-Squad for another group of characters, thus scotching my theory that the Bat-Squad was the only DC creation of the (late) Silver Age not disinterred by the Retcon Squads.

Okay, as a longtime fan of B and B (You thought only MWGallaher was?), I was fascinated by how and why Batman’s co-stars were chosen. By this time in my burgeoning fanhood, I realized that there usually was some correlation between the co-star and the co-star’s new title, possible comeback or because sales must have increased on his or her previous appearance.

Thus the previous six issues had featured Deadman (second appearance); “The New” Wonder Woman (new direction); Wildcat (attempt at reigniting interest?); Phantom Stranger (plugging his new book); Adam Strange (plugging his minor reappearances in Strange Adventures?); and Black Canary (she was apparently becoming a star thanks to JLA and GL/GA).

So when #92 shows up on the stands and I saw the “Bat-Squad” as the co-stars, I was at a loss. When I mentioned this story a while back, MWG thought that perhaps Haney was trying to capitalize on the popularity of the "Mod Squad" TV show, which was in the midst of its five-year run. That’s as good a theory as I’ve ever had. And it would it be just like Bob “Behind-the-Curve” Haney to figure that the members should be British since the British Invasion was absolutely just starting to sweep through American culture in 1970.

(He said sarcastically.)

Any bewilderment I felt hardly deterred me from picking up another Cardy-drawn masterpiece. Ever since Neal Adams had disappeared after that second Deadman team-up, I’d suffered from severe withdrawal symptoms. Irv Novick on Wildcat was fine, and Mike Sekowsky on WW was just what you’d expect, but the sheer blandness of Andru and Esposito on two characters they couldn’t have been less suited for (Strange and the Stranger) made for some very slow going. But Cardy on Black Canary in #91 (a story previously praised, and rightfully, by Reptisaurus! on Day One) was an unexpected pleasure, and to see that he was still on the art chores for this new issue, well, Batman could have teamed with Pope Paul VI and I would’ve loved it.

The beautifully atmospheric Cardy cover sets the stereotypical London mood perfectly, and it never stops inside.

Batman’s in England because Bruce Wayne’s investing in a movie based on the Scarlet Strangler (an obvious Ripper send-up) and he’s checking in on things. Bruce meets three folks on the fringe of the film: Margo Cantrell (“a script-girl”); Mick Murdock, a groovy rocker who plays appropriate mood music off-stage for the actors (“ I’m Mick Murdock…’Ave guitar, will wander”); and Major Dabney, a Scotland Yard man serving as technical adviser to director Basil Coventry, and Terry-Thomas near-lookalike.

The pea-soup fog (Would it be any other kind?), the haunting guitar music, and some apparent method acting gone too far leads to a spooky mystery. It seems the Strangler has returned after 60+ years and is up to his murderous old tricks. All of this is perfectly suited to Cardy’s talents. Every page is lit mainly by reflected light, from a match lighting a pipe, a window surrounded by darkness, a bit of moonlight here and a shaft of light from an open door there. Only a very few panels show an interior or any kind of bright light. Cardy proves how great art can elevate an average story, something he did many times, let’s face it.



Batman and the Squad set out without any Bat-arrogance or Bat-moodiness to work together to solve the mystery encountering ghostly carriages and a victim of the original Strangler forcing them to wonder if somehow they are slipping back and forth between 1906 and 1970. The Bat-Squad all perform brilliantly -- to Batman’s absolute delight; Bob Haney even throws in a tip-top Batman escape from an undetonated Nazi bomb. There’s a plethora of “Blimeys,” “bad shows,” “old boys,”and Bat-Chaps” from Major Dabney and scads of other typically excruciating Haney-talk, but it is all easily overlooked and forgiven by the Cardy art and the unexpectedly great camaraderie amongst Batman and his Squad.

Looking at the story now, it looks as if it might have been intended to capture the spirit of the new horror and mystery books that were getting so popular. (The next issue of B and B featured Batman in the House of Mystery.) I love that in the last couple of panels, Batman and the Squad are like old friends, and everyone’s pitching for a reunion. I thought they were setting us up for further fun, but alas, the Bat-Squad never reappeared. I enjoyed my time with them, though and wish I hadn’t had to say, “Cheerio!”

#6: Daredevil and Ka-Zar (Daredevil #12-14, 1965-66, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, John Romita, Frankie Ray (Giacoia):

DD is one of the most quintessentially urban heroes, and Ka-Zar one of the least. But if anyone can bring them together, it would be Jack Kirby, who drew (and presumably plotted) an improbable tale in which Matt Murdock’s cruise ship is attacked by a villain who goes from Blackbeard to Captain Nemo to Doctor Doom to costumed crime boss all in the space of three insane issues. It doesn’t make a lick of sense, but the images are coming so fast, the reader has trouble slowing down to say, “Wait, how did…” All this, and Ka-Zar’s origin story too!

6. Spider-Man and the Black Cat - The Evil That Men Do (mini-series) (Marvel, 2002)




I know that this Kevin Smith penned mini-series is one that can divide opinion sharply within Spider-Man fandom, not least because of its cliff-hanger, bait-and-switch rape scene involving the Black Cat...only to reveal later on in the series that Felicia Hardy was indeed raped during her college years. To be honest, I'm really not the biggest fan of Smith as a writer, a director, or even as a person, and I'll happily concede that this mini-series' handling of Felicia's trauma is clumsily done and a classic case of a male writer thinking that rape gives female characters depth. I mean, why else would Felicia become the Black Cat unless it was because she was raped? Sheesh...!

However, despite all that, I've gotta say that I really enjoy this mini-series a lot. I liked it as it was coming out -- although we had a three-year delay between issues #3 and #4 -- and I've enjoyed it just as much on re-reads. One of the most interesting things about The Evil That Men Do is how the tone of the piece changes from fun to gritty to very dark over the course of the six issues, as the narrative focus takes in crime, debilitating drug use, murder, rape, and incestual child molestation.

The thing is though, far from being the unrelentingly depressing saga that it might sound like, there are plenty of moments where this mini-series reads as a rather brilliant and hugely entertaining superhero story. One that delights in showing us just how much fun it must be to be a superhero in New York City. Smith's dialogue is extremely good, whether he's writing Spidey wise-cracking as he pummels criminals, having Black Cat and Spidey snipe at each other about whose fault it was that their relationship broke down, or penning some the story's quieter and darker moments. Certainly, even as a big fan of the comics that showed us Peter Parker and Felicia Hardy's romance back in the early '80s, it's hard to think of a time when a writer has made their relationship seem so believable and three-dimensional. Smith makes me care more for Peter and Felicia as a couple than the likes of Roger Stern or Bill Mantlo ever did.

At its heart, The Evil That Men Do is a story about abuse, empowerment, and responsibility (well, it is a Spider-Man story, after all), but it's also a roller-coaster ride of action sequences and genuinely funny dialogue. That, along with the gorgeous artwork of Terry and Rachel Dodson, means that this team-up just had to make it into my Top 12, in spite of its faults.