Marvel Comics Executive Editor Reveals Recent Lack Of Collabs With Other Publishers Due To The Fact That “Marvel Isn’t All That Interested In Doing A Lot Of Crossovers”
Though newer and younger readers may not remember, in the far, far off eras of ‘The 90s’ and ‘The 2000s’, Marvel Comics used to rather freely offer up their roster of iconic superheroes for various crossovers with other industry publishers.
From the original DC/Marvel crossover stories like Batman and Punisher: Lake of Fire or Darkseid vs. Galactus: The Hunger, to the Big Two’s fan-favorite Amalgam Universe, to Image’s Invincible popping up in the pages of Marvel Team-Up Vol. 3, in these bygone decades, a reader could pop into a given comic shop on almost any day and find a Marvel hero working alongside or fighting against other publishers’ respective creations.
Sadly, despite fan demand for such multiversal clashes – a Green Lantern/Nova Corps story is just sitting there ready for the taking – recent years have seen Marvel all but abandon these fan-service-heavy, other-publisher crossovers.
While the publisher has continued to occasionally publish such series involving IPs not owned by Marvel, such as Ultraman x Avengers, Aliens vs. Avengers, Preadator vs. Wolverine and Predator vs. Black Panther, these alien creations are owned (or in Ultraman’s case, licensed) by Disney, thus qualifying these books as ‘internal’ crossovers rather than ‘external’ ones.
And sadly for fans, it looks like this crossover drought is unlikely to end, as according to Marvel Comics Executive Editor Tom Breevort, the former House of Ideas has absolutely no interest in pursuing outside crossover opportunities.
Addressing fan questions, as he does with every entry on the website, via his Substack blog Man With A Hat, the Marvel Comics exec was asked by one Brandon Giles, “How does Marvel decide who to do crossovers with and who not to? I know a Marvel/DC crossover is a pretty complicated process these days (though I’ll never entirely give up hope) but clearly some other crossovers are fine, given the recent Avengers/Ultraman team up. Does Marvel typically approach the other company? Does it vary? Last and most important, has anyone ever seriously pitched DAREDEVIL/TMNT?”
In turn, Breevort, who also serves as the publisher’s Senior VP of Publishing and the group editor of its X-Men book line, bluntly explained, “At its most basic, Brandon, Marvel isn’t all that interested in doing a lot of crossovers.”
“DC for the last several years has seemed much more open to doing them,” he said, ostensibly referencing such recent publications as 2022’s Batman/Spawn Vol. 1, the upcoming Justice League/Sonic the Hedgehog series. “But whenever Marvel does participate in one, there tends to be some reason for this internally, some objective that making a crossover helps us to achieve.”
“But each circumstance is different, so I can’t tell you why we do each and every one, nor which instances came from Marvel reaching out to others and which ones were the result of others reaching out to us,” he concluded. “The real answer is All of the Above.”
All in all, in light of both Breevort’s admission and the recent news that the previously announced DC/Marvel Amalgam Comics omnibus has been delayed due to its initial print run featuring a massive error, those fans hoping for a future meeting between, say, Marvel’s Captain America and Ghost Machine’s Simon Pure (otherwise known as the immortal Redcoat), would do well to refrain from holding their breaths for any such announcements.
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