Great Question which came in during Teddy’s Treasure Chest Tuesday, the Superworld Live show which runs on Instagram Tuesday nights at 6pm EST;
“What was the first superhero crossover?”
In todays world of comics publishing crossovers are not only commonplace they are expected. There was a point during Superman’s run a few years ago where you wouldn’t be shocked to see Batman’s name on the title because he was appearing so much. Superhero crossovers are done for a variety of purposes but the reality is they are done as an effort to boost sales. When they first came along in the late 1930s all superheroes existed in their own realities. Superman operated out of Metropolis but we had no idea where Gotham City was in relation to it, or if it even existed.
MLJ Comics which later evolved into Archie Comics, takes the title with Pep Comics #4 in which The Shield, a Captain America clone and The Wizard, a Mandrake clone in a two part rather pedestrian story which is little more than a meet and greet between the two characters in May of 1940. Comics Readers would have to wait until the Summer of 1940 before the first true larger than life face-off.
In 1939 Marvel Comics released MARVEL COMICS #1 which featured the debut of The Human Torch who was an android developed by a scientist to be an advanced machine that had the ability to burst himself into flame. This android was so advanced you’d never know he wasn’t human.
In his earliest appearances the robot known as Jim Hammond would drive himself to work so he could carry on an ordinary life as a New York City Policeman (!) and often times would go into action from inside the car, bursting into flame and burning a hole in the roof as he escaped (Maybe his alter ego should have been a car salesman). He made his debut in Marvel Comics #1 cover dated October 1939, just a few months after Batman’s debut at rival National Comics in Detective #27 from May of that year and Superman a year earlier in Action Comics #1.
Also making his debut in that same issue was Namor, the Sub-Mariner, the mutant underwater dwelling son of a Sea Captain and a Princess from the undersea world of Atlantis, Namor was comics first anti-hero, often attacking mankind as he avenges perceived wrongs. It was only natural that having two heroes with Fire and Water themes would eventually meet and it all happened in an epic Summer long story in MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS #8 – #10 cover dated June, July and August 1940.
Told from the perspective of each hero the three part epic found them battling in the streets of New York City leaving much of the city including The George Washington Bridge in ruins, and continuing the battle over the entire summer before The Human Torch’s girlfriend Betty Dean is able to convince Namor to go back home. Maybe not the conclusion the story warranted but the one we got.
The covers for the saga were by the great Alex Schomburg (#8,#10) and Bill Everett (#9) and promised action like no comic reader had ever seen before, and for the most part it delivered.
National Comics would go one better in the Winter of 1940 by introducing the ultimate in crossovers, a superhero TEAM that worked together to tackle the world’s biggest threats in ALL STAR COMICS #3! The original members including Doctor Fate, The Flash, Green Lantern, The Spectre, Hawkman, The Atom and Hourman. The team was an incredible success in sales as fans felt they were getting the most of their 10c in one adventure!
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