Fictional crossover

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A fictional crossover occurs when two or more otherwise separated fictional characters, stories, settings, universes, or media meet and interact with each other. Most fictional crossovers take the form of stories in which these separated characters and others are brought together and united with (or pitted against) each other over the course of the story that is being told. Official fictional crossovers usually occur between characters owned by the same person, company or production team (such as most comic book crossovers) or through the incorporation of characters and fictional universes within the public domain (or those that are at least considered to be; examples include Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, or other classical characters), as the crossing over of characters owned by different people or production companies usually raises complicated issues over copyright, ownership and royalties. Many crossovers generally take the form of a marketing tool, a joke or gag, or to play out a "what if" scenario.

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[edit] Reasons for crossover

There are a number of different reasons for fictional crossovers to occur:

  • To establish a unified continuity and a 'universe' for the works of a particular author or production company;
  • To explore a particular 'what-if' scenario devised by the author or production company;
  • To promote and market other works produced by a particular author or production company by including them in a particular piece of work (especially if the works being included and marketed are a spin-off of the original work, which may not be as successful or well-known as the original);
  • To reference, homage or parody an existing piece of work, regardless of ownership.

A crossover story may try to explain its own reason for the crossover, such as "they live next door" (one example being the casts from Golden Girls and Empty Nest) or "a dimensional rift brought them together" (a common explanation for superhero/science fiction properties that have different owners). Some crossovers are not explained at all. Some are absurd or simply impossible within the fictional setting, and have to be ignored by the series' respective continuities. Some even intentionally make the relations between two or more fictional universes confusing (a good example of this phenomenon involves The Simpsons and Futurama, where each show is fiction in the other.)

[edit] Standard crossover scenarios

[edit] Single author and public domain crossovers

In officially published and broadcast media, the most common form of crossover occurs either between properties owned by a single author or production company, or between properties already existing in the public domain.

[edit] Comics

Crossovers of multiple characters owned by one company or published by one publisher, have been used to set an established continuity, where characters can frequently meet within one setting. This is especially true of comic book publishers, as different characters in various Marvel, DC or Valiant comic books frequently interact with one another since they live in the same "universe". For example, in the Marvel Comics universe, the X-Men have frequent dealings with another group of Marvel heroes, the Fantastic Four, just as in the DC Comics Universe, Batman and Superman frequently collaborate. In comic book terminology, these "guest star" roles are common enough that they are not considered crossovers. A crossover in comic book terms only occurs when a story spans more than one title. This has led to "crossover events", in which major occurrences are shown as affecting (almost) all the stories in the shared universe.

The first major crossover event was spearheaded by, then Marvel Editor-in-Chief, Jim Shooter. As a way to further toy sales he devised the Secret Wars crossover which brought all the major Marvel heroes into a twelve issue mini-series to battle a common threat. After the threat was dealt with they all returned to their regular titles. This Secret Wars was hailed as both a critical and commercial success largely because the events of the crossover had lasting effects on the characters (such as the introduction of Spider-Man's black suit which would later become the villain Venom). Jim Shooter later perfected his crossover at Valiant Comics with the Unity event. Unity brought all the Valiant characters together to defeat Mothergod but was told within the existing Valiant Comics titles (and two bookend special issues). Readers were not obliged to buy all 18 chapters as the story was coherent when reading just one title, but far more layered when all were read. Like Secret Wars, the Unity crossover had lasting effects on the Valiant universe most notably the introduction of Turok, the birth of Magnus Robot Fighter and the death of a major Valiant hero.

[edit] Literature

In literature, certain authors also engage in crossovers by including characters from different novels they have written in one particular volume; Michael Moorcock frequently uses this device - particularly in his Eternal Champion sequence of novels, which establish a vast 'multiverse' populated by numerous different characters, many of whom appear in different novels and even different genres. Kim Newman is another author who frequently uses this device. The works of James Branch Cabell, William Faulkner, Margaret Laurence, Mordecai Richler, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Isaac Asimov also 'crossover' with each other, linking different characters and settings together over a number of different works. Brazilian writer Monteiro Lobato also created solid and imaginative crossovers, using elements and characters from Brazilian folklore such as the Cuca and Saci, from Greek Mythology such as Hercules, from the Arabian Nights, from Fairy Tales such as Grimm's Snow White, western literature such as Peter Pan, silent movies such as Popeye and Felix the Cat (cartoons) and western films actor Tom Mix.

[edit] Public domain

It is also common for authors to 'crossover' characters who have passed into the public domain, and thus do not require copyright or royalty payments for their use into their works; a prominent example of this occurs in Loren D. Estleman's novel Sherlock Holmes vs Dracula, in which Sherlock Holmes and Dracula are brought together and pitted against each other. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill is another example of this, as all of the main characters and most of the secondary / background characters are fictional characters whose copyright has expired, and all are characters of different authors and creators brought together within one massive extended universe. Many of the works of Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton family sequences (which has also been explored and developed by other authors) also utilize and interweave numerous otherwise unrelated fictional characters into a rich family history by speculating familial connections between them (such as a blood-relationship between Sherlock Holmes and Tarzan).

Occasionally, authors will include into crossovers classic fictional characters whose copyright is still held by the original authors (or at least their estates), but who are nevertheless considered iconic or 'mythic' enough to be recognised from a few character traits or descriptions without being directly named (thus not requiring royalties payments to be made to the copyright holder). A prominent example occurs within the first volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, wherein a character who is clearly intended in appearance and description by other characters to be Dr Fu Manchu appears as a significant villain; however, as this character was not in the public domain at the time of writing and the rights still held by the estate of his creator Sax Rohmer, he is not directly named as such in the work and is only referred to as 'the Doctor'.

[edit] Spin-offs

Main article: Spin-off

It is less common to see crossovers on television programs, even those broadcast on the same network, as many television programs are produced by a number of different companies, which can result in complications over rights and authorship. Nevertheless, whilst spin-off programs are not themselves crossovers, it is common for spin-off television programs made by the same production company to still frequently interact with each other, in order to create a sense of a unified universe between the two. This is the case between the following television shows:

While not technically classified as a spin-off, That's So Raven, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, and Hannah Montana were crossed over on July 28, 2006 in an hour-and-a-half-long episode entitled "That's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana" in Disney Channel's first crossover event. Despite the fact that all three shows share many of the same producers and creators, there were many unavoidable continuity errors (unavoidable because most of the main actors at one time guest-starred on each other's shows playing different roles).

[edit] Cameos

Crossovers between characters / universes of a single author / production company may also be take the form of a guest or cameo appearance, often to promote another work of fiction, sometimes with little contextual or rational explanation. This is frequently scorned by fans of either as being purely for marketing reasons, with little point to the characters appearing or development within the story. A notable example of this is The Simpsons episode 'A Star is Burns', in which the character of Jay Sherman (from The Critic, a show developed by two writers and producers of The Simpsons and also broadcast on the Fox network) appeared. This episode was largely condemned by fans of The Simpsons as existing largely to promote The Critic, and even Simpsons creator Matt Groening objected, preferring to remove his name from the credits of that particular episode in protest.

[edit] Multi-owner crossovers

Main article: intercompany crossover

Crossovers between the characters or universes of two different authors or production teams are significantly rarer, as copyright matters and ownership is a significant barrier and frequently impedes crossovers for various reasons, including cost of necessary licensing or other agreements. Crossovers of this nature are more likely to occur between:

  • Television programs that broadcast on the same network (such as the Doctor Who and Eastenders crossover 'Dimensions in Time', both shows of which appear on BBC 1);
  • Authors or production teams who are known to each other or respect each other's work. Examples include the fictional private investigators Bill Pronzini's Nameless Detective and Marcia Muller's Sharon McCone often work together due to the fact that their creators are married and frequent collaborators.

This tends to make agreements easier to reach so that a crossover can be produced. Significant exceptions where this has nevertheless occurred include:

  • The properties of DC Comics and Marvel Comics, which have frequently crossed over into each other's 'parallel universe' - most recently in the mini-series publication JLA vs. Avengers;
  • Michael Richards' character Kramer appeared as one of Murphy Brown's secretaries on an episode of Seinfeld. Jerry and Elaine see Kramer on TV in the role. Elaine likes to watch Murphy Brown because she aspires to be a writer for the show. Candice Bergen appeared as herself playing Murphy Brown in the scene, which was filmed on the Murphy Brown set.
  • The television police procedural programs Law & Order and Homicide: Life on the Street, which have crossed over several times due to agreements between the different production companies and the network involved;

[edit] References, parodies, jokes and other crossovers

Many crossovers occur in a parodic or satirical context, or as part of a homage that is being paid by one property to another; they are usually used to either pay homage to or parody a particular source, and are usually throw-away or instantaneous in nature. Programs such as The Simpsons, Family Guy and Spaced frequently use crossovers in this context. They frequently occur like so:

  • Crossovers directly established as being outside of the continuity of one / all of the properties being crossed over (such as the crossover between The Simpsons and The X-Files, which was largely accepted as being outside of standard X-Files continuity by virtue of its parodic nature);
  • Crossovers which occur by virtue of a dream sequence (the characters of one show will appear as part of a dream had by a character on another show; such as select cast members of The Young And The Restless appearing in a dream of a character onThe King of Queens);
  • 'Gag' cameos by characters of one property appearing on another (such as characters from King of the Hill appearing on The Simpsons to comment on a peewee football game);
  • Background or uncommented references to one property appearing in another (such as Bender finding and eating the shorts of a Bart Simpson doll on Futurama or Milhouse having a talking Bender doll.)
  • On the ABC/CBS show Family Matters during the closing credits of a particular episode, a scene which was showed earlier in the episode featuring Reginald VelJohnson is re-played, but this time with one of the child actors stating that he "looks like that fat guy from Fresh Prince," referring to James Avery who played Judge Phillip Banks on NBC's The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. To the obvious surprise of the studio audience and VelJohnson, Avery walked onto the set with an angry look, being in on the staged joke himself.

[edit] Fan-made crossovers

In addition to the official crossovers already discussed, the crossover is also present within unofficial fan-written fiction and fan art. Whereas official crossovers are frequently stymied by such concerns as copyright, royalties payments and ownership of the characters, unofficial crossovers - given their very nature as being unofficial and unauthorised - are largely unfettered by such concerns. As a result, unofficial crossovers are limited only by the writer's imagination in bringing two (or more) properties together and the property holder's stance on fanfiction (whether the owner cracks down on unofficial use of owned property or turns a blind eye to it).

A good example would be the unauthorised live action fan film: Batman: Dead End, which brings together the properties of Batman, Alien and Predator in one setting.

  • The comedy music song and video Ultimate Showdown is like a giant crossover featuring many famous real and fictional characters battling in one giant showdown.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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