The announcement of a Batman and Deadpool crossover collaboration from Marvel and DC slated for later this year is one of the most surprising news stories from out of the comics industry in a very long time. Although the two publishers are generally viewed as bitter rivals, the animosity is exaggerated by fans for the most part, and Marvel and DC have actually worked together in the past (more on than later).
As surprising and exciting as the idea of Batman and Deadpool (and potentially the wider Marvel and DC universes at some point) intersecting is for comics fans, even a quick look at the long history of comic book crossovers shows that this isn't even the most bizarre crossover event put out by either Marvel or DC.
We'll be doing more of a deep dive into some of wildest Marvel and DC crossovers a little later, but even just a quick tally of other properties Marvel and DC have collaborated with includes:
• Four Batman/Judge Dredd one-shots
• A Superman vs. Terminator series
• A Batman/Ninja Turtles series
• Crossovers with Aliens in both the Marvel and DC universes
• Conan the Barbarian entering the mainline Marvel Universe in the Savage Avengers series when Marvel regained the comic book rights to Conan in 2018.
• The beloved Marvel vs. Capcom series of fighting games, as well as the DC parallel, 2008's Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (this one isn't actually that strange; Mortal Kombat and DC are both owned by Warner Bros.).
Godzilla creates some strange common ground between the two publishers
Marvel recently announced a collaboration with Toho to produce two Godzilla crossover comics, though Godzilla's first appearance in a Marvel comic book actually occurred nearly 40 years ago. In 1977, when Marvel put out a 24-issue run of a Godzilla-centric series that depicted Godzilla encountering Marvel's heroes for the first time. Now, two Marvel-Godzilla crossovers have been announced for 2025. The first of the two new crossover series, announced in late 2024 was Godzilla vs. Marvel, which is currently running and set to conclude in July 2025. This will be followed in July 2025 by the Godzilla Destroys the Marvel Universe event.
The official announcement of the comic series from Toho provides an explanation of the plot of the first comic in the Godzilla vs. Marvel event.
"The first in the "Godzilla vs. Marvel" lineup will be Godzilla vs. Fantastic Four #1 by writer Ryan North (Fantastic Four) and John Romita Jr. (The Amazing Spider-Man). The tale will pit Marvel's first family against Galactus and his newest herald, King Ghidorah."
Before stomping into the Marvel universe, Godzilla crossed over with the DC Comics universe in the 2023-2024 series Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong. The crossover event featured the MonsterVerse iterations of the iconic kaiju colliding with DC's biggest heroes. A second DC-MonsterVerse crossover has been announced for June 2025 under the title Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong 2.
In addition to being the King of the Monsters, Godzilla might just be the king of the comic book crossovers. Before crossing over with either Marvel or DC, Godzilla starred in yet another crossover comic in the form of 2022's five-issue Godzilla vs. The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
This isn't even the first time Marvel and DC have crossed over with each other
As exciting as the upcoming Batman-Deadpool crossover is, it's not the first time Marvel and DC have collaborated. Across 1996 and 1997, Marvel and DC co-produced not only a DC vs. Marvel event that featured 11 fights between the two publishers' biggest characters — including Aquaman vs. Namor, Elektra vs. Catwoman, Thor vs. Captain Marvel (the hero now known as Shazam), Batman vs. Captain America and Superman vs. Hulk — but they also briefly put out a shared universe under a label known as Amalgam Comics.
The Amalgam Comics featured a universe — created in-story by the efforts of DC's Specte and Marvel's Living Tribunal — that combined Marvel and DC characters into new characters with traits of both. Dr. Strange and Dr. Fate became Dr. Strangefate. Wolverine and Batman were combined into Dark Claw. Superman and Captain America became Super Soldier. Marvel and DC's two Captain Marvel characters were combined into a character named… wait for it: Captain Marvel.
Fans who may have missed out on the Amalgam Comics universe and might be having trouble that such a thing ever existed are in luck. The entire Amalgam Comics storyline was re-released in an omnibus graphic novel edition in 2024.
The Amalgam event wouldn't be the last time Marvel and DC directly crossed over. A similar JLA/Avengers event was published in 2003-2004. And, of course, we now have this year's Batman-Deadpool crossover. The Marvel-branded Deadpool/Batman No.1 is slated for September 17, followed by the DC-branded Batman/Deadpool No. 1 in November. It is currently unknown if the Batman-Deadpool crossover will be a standalone one-off, or if it will lead to further Marvel-DC crossovers. The Bam Smack Pow team will be following this story and we'll be here with any additional information as it becomes available.