Category: Marvel Crossovers

One of the most sprawling – and most effective – of all the X-family crossovers, the culmination of numerous long-running plot-threads, and almost as a footnote, the formation of a new Avengers team. It fits into the main Marvel Universe timeline here.

Titles in Bold are the essential parts of the storyline, everything else can be skipped unless you’re a particular fan of the characters involved.

Notes:

1. Only the Inferno relevant pages of this issue are reprinted in X-Men: Inferno, vol.1; the full issue is reprinted in X-Men: Inferno Prologue, but is not needed to follow the Inferno storyline.
2. I know I said that if it’s not bold, it’s not essential, but to me this is essential: Jarvis is the man!
3. Kingpin’s appearance in this story seems to precede his appearance in the Spider-Man story that follows.
4. Takes place more or less in parallel with the conclusion of the main arc, but works best as an epilogue.
5. Only the Inferno story from this issue is reprinted.

It’s only nominally a crossover – it’s more three thematically linked stories that occur around the same time. It fits into the main Marvel Universe timeline here.

Titles in Bold are the essential parts of the storyline, everything else can be skipped unless you’re a particular fan of the characters involved.

Placement Notes:

1. An epilogue to the New Mutants portion of the story, focusing on the funeral of Doug Ramsey.

The more ambitious, but less successful sequel to the original Secret Wars. It fits into the main timeline here.

Footnotes:

1. Takes place during Secret Wars II #1, as the Beyonder wears the form of the Molecule Man in this story.
2. This issue is also a part of the Scourge of the Underworld event.
3. Placed here as a best fit, since it is not clear where it would actually take place. Or what the point of it is.
4. These issues were not reprinted in the Secret Wars II Omnibus due to rights issues.
5. These two issues take place during Secret Wars II #8, as specified in that issue.
6. Deals with the fallout of New Mutants #37.

In the mid-Eighties, a mysterious killer cut a bloody swathe through the Marvel Universe, wiping out a series of pretty minor supervillains that no one really cared about, each time crying “Justice is served!” But the mystery of the Scourge’s identity was eventually solved…

…or was it?

To see how this event fits into the larger chronology, go here.

Notes:

1. These issues have only the Scourge sections reprinted in Captain America Epic Collection, vol.13: Justice is Served, Captain America: Scourge of the Underworld and Captain America by Mark Gruenwald Omnibus, vol.1; they are reprinted in full in other listed collections.
2. This issue is also a part of the Secret Wars II event.
3. The Scourge failed to kill his target in this appearance. I don’t why I thought that would interest you.
4. In which Scourge himself is killed by someone else, who then shouts “Justice is served!”

The Masters of Evil invade Avengers Mansion. Hold onto your hats, folks, this is gonna be good.

Under Siege wasn’t a crossover as such, but as an Avengers storyline, it had a number of other issues that tied in to it. It fits into the larger timeline here.

Footnotes:

1. Introduces the new Yellowjacket, who will play an important role in the story.
2. This two-part Alpha Flight crossover has no real connection to the main story, but is placed here for the flow of issues.
3. Specified to take place prior to West Coast Avengers #16 in that issue.
4. Tiger Shark’s appearance in this story can only fit here.
5. Specified to take place prior to Avengers #275 in that issue.
6. Deals with the immediate fallout of the story.
7. An epilogue focusing on that greatest of all Avengers, Edwin Jarvis
8. A multi-part story dealing with the fallout from Hercules’ injuries.

The first of the ‘Annuals’ crossovers, and one of the best. It didn’t always hang together as well as it should have, but compared to a lot of the crossovers that followed it (especially the DC ones), it worked very well.

You can see where it fits into the larger timeline here.

Footnotes:

1. All the prologues originally ran as back up features in the eleven annuals, retelling the prior history of the High Evolutionary.
2. Note that these two stories occur in the opposite order to that of the main stories in each Annual.
3. Reveals the fates of Hercules and the High Evolutionary after the events of this crossover.
4. Features an agent of the High Evolutionary who never learned that the war was over.