Crossover (fiction)

A crossover is the placement of two or more otherwise discrete fictional characters, settings, or universes into the context of a single story. They can arise from legal agreements between the relevant copyright holders, unofficial efforts by fans, or common corporate ownership.

Background

Official

Crossovers often occur in an official capacity in order for the intellectual property rights holders to reap the financial reward of combining two or more popular, established properties. In other cases, the crossover can serve to introduce a new concept derivative of an older one.

Crossovers generally occur between properties owned by a single holder, but they can, more rarely, involve properties from different holders, provided that the inherent legal obstacles can be overcome. They may also involve using characters that have passed into the public domain with those concurrently under copyright protection.

A crossover story may try to explain its own reason for the crossover, such as characters being neighbors (notable examples being the casts from ''The Golden Girls'' and '' Empty Nest'') or meeting via dimensional rift or similar phenomenon (a common explanation for science fiction properties that have different owners). Some crossovers are not explained at all. Others are absurd or simply impossible within the fictional setting, and have to be ignored by the series' respective continuities. Still, others intentionally make the relations between two or more fictional universes confusing, as with ''The Simpsons'' and ''Futurama'', where each show is fiction in the other.

Unofficial

In contrast with legal crossovers, unofficial crossovers are created solely because of the artistic pleasure derived by their creators. Unofficial crossovers often take the form of fan-written fiction and fan art, but the trope is increasingly prevalent in amateur films and audio. Whereas official crossovers are frequently stymied by such concerns as copyright, royalties payments, quality of writing and ownership of the characters, unofficial crossovers are unfettered by such concerns, so long as property holders do not exercise their right to enjoin the distribution of such material. 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.

Unofficial crossovers can also occur in a "what-if" scenario. Roger makes frequent cameo appearances in ''Family Guy'', while Brian makes cameos on ''American Dad!''. Roger, Rallo Tubbs, and Klaus Heissler were seen in the final ''Family Guy'' ''Star Wars'' spoof, "It's A Trap!", as Moff Jerjerrod, Nien Nunb, and Admiral Ackbar, respectively. Stewie also appears as an interactive hallucination of Booth on '' Bones'' when the agent has issues over possibly becoming a sperm donor, with David Boreanaz (who plays Booth) repaying the favor in " Road to the North Pole". An appearance by Elmo, from ''Sesame Street'', was made, in a hallucination of Connie Ray's, on TV sitcom ''The Torkelsons''. Fan fiction fusions between different science fiction movies and series are often created, such as ''Star Wars'' and ''Star Trek'' or ''Babylon 5'' and ''Stargate''. ''M.U.G.E.N.'' is a fighting game engine that features many fan-created and fictional characters and stages from various television series, movies, as well as other video games.

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 a "shared universe". For example, in the Marvel Comics universe, Spider-Man has frequent dealings with another Marvel hero, Daredevil, just as in the DC Comics Universe, the Flash and Green Lantern often collaborate. In comic book terminology, these "guest star" roles are common enough that they are generally not considered crossovers; rather, this short-term collaboration to fight crime is called a team-up. 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 most or all of the stories in the shared universe; see Crossover comics.

The earliest such crossover event was Gardner Fox's ''Zatanna's Search'' which took place in ''Hawkman'' #4 (October/November 1964), ''Detective Comics'' #336 (February 1965), ''The Atom'' #19 (June/July 1965), '' Green Lantern'' #42 (January 1966), ''Detective Comics'' #355 (September 1966), and ''Justice League of America'' #51 (February 1967). This story dealt with Zatanna attempting to reconnect with her father, Zatara, and seeking the aid of Hawkman, Batman, Robin, the Atom, Green Lantern, and the Elongated Man along the way.

The first major crossover event was spearheaded by the Marvel Editor-in-Chief at the time, Jim Shooter. As a way to further toy sales he devised the '' Secret Wars'' crossover which brought all the major Marvel heroes into a 12-issue miniseries to battle a common threat. After the threat was dealt with, they all returned to their regular titles. ''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 technique 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.

Dark Horse Comics's ''Aliens Versus Predator'' comic book franchise was a success that continued into many video games, two films and even an ''Aliens versus Predator versus The Terminator'' comic book miniseries.

The comic crossovers from Raj Comics are very famous in India, in which the superheroes meet to fight a common enemy. Many of these crossovers have occurred between Nagraj and Super Commando Dhruva. In ''Kohram'', all the heroes in the Raj Universe meet to finish ''Haru'', an extremely powerful enemy.

Webcomics creators sometimes produce crossovers; one of the first was a two-week sequence between Christopher Baldwin's ''Bruno'' and Peter Zale's ''Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet'' in 1998.

In 2013, Archie Comics released a 12-part crossover of Capcom character Mega Man and Sega character Sonic the Hedgehog called " Worlds Collide". Taking place in issues of the ''Sonic the Hedgehog'', '' Sonic Universe'', and ''Mega Man'' comic book series from Archie, the crossover involved Dr. Eggman and Dr. Wily forming an alliance to take over both their universes and destroy their respective nemeses. Sonic and Mega Man were briefly tricked into fighting each other, but later joined forces and teamed up with other heroes to battle the doctors' forces, which included virtually every Robot Master introduced in the ''Mega Man'' games. The popularity of this crossover and the books involved led to a second crossover in 2015 entitled "Worlds Unite", which not only reunited Sonic and Mega Man, but also featured comics-exclusive characters from both of their books, the '' Mega Man X'' and '' Sonic Boom'' spinoff franchises and various other SEGA and Capcom franchises. This crossover was enabled by the conclusion of the first crossover, which saw a reboot to the Sonic books as their universe was drastically rewritten. Aftereffects of this included the Genesis Portals, gateways connecting worlds that would be exploited by ''Mega Man X'' villain Sigma and his minions, forcing a reunion between Sonic and Mega Man and an alliance between heroes of the various franchises involved. "Worlds Unite" spans not only the three series featured in the first crossover, but also includes the ''Sonic Boom'' comic series, which entered publication between the two crossovers.

There are also intercompany crossovers, where characters owned by two different companies meet, such as those from DC and Marvel.

Animation

Cartoon crossovers are not uncommon, and most of them – like comics or live-action TV shows – will often feature characters owned by the same company or network. One example is Cartoon Network's ''The Grim Adventures of the Kids Next Door''. It features five crossovers – ''Ed, Edd n Eddy'', '' Codename: Kids Next Door'', '' The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy'', a reference to ''The Powerpuff Girls'', and a quote from ''Scooby-Doo'', which are all licensed Cartoon Network series. The cast of '' Ben 10: Ultimate Alien'' and ''Generator Rex'' team up in '' Ben 10/Generator Rex: Heroes United''. Similarly, characters from '' Uncle Grandpa'' and '' Steven Universe'' appeared in a crossover episode "Say Uncle". The same occurred with ''The Powerpuff Girls'' and '' Teen Titans Go!'' in an episode called "TTG v PPG". ''OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes'' did a crossover episode called "Crossover Nexus" to celebrate 25 years of Cartoon Network where the lead character joined forces with Ben 10, Garnet from ''Steven Universe'' and Raven from ''Teen Titans Go!''. Most of the last episodes of the '' Lilo & Stitch: The Series'' (a spinoff of the film '' Lilo & Stitch'') had crossovers with various other Disney cartoons, including '' The Proud Family'', ''Kim Possible'', '' Recess'', and ''American Dragon Jake Long''. The '' Jimmy Timmy Power Hour'' trilogy is another example, in which Jimmy Neutron and Timmy Turner switch universes. The Disney TV series ''Hercules'', based on the 1997 film of the same name, had an episode titled "Hercules and the Arabian Night" that had a crossover between the characters of the TV series and film and with the characters of the Disney film ''Aladdin'' in which Hades and Jafar each try to get rid of each other's enemies (Hades would try to defeat Aladdin, while Jafar would try to defeat Hercules). Another crossover is '' Rugrats Go Wild'' in which the Rugrats are stranded on an island where The Wild Thornberrys were at the time. In ''Dexter's Laboratory'' "Dial M for Monkey" "Huntor" who tries to hunt Monkey is himself hunted; "Huntor" later makes a cameo crossover in Samurai Jack's "Jack vs. Mad Jack."
During the 1970s and 1980s, crossovers were particularly common among the Hanna-Barbera properties. Some of the earliest examples happened on ''The New Scooby-Doo Movies'' which featured appearances by characters from ''Harlem Globetrotters'', '' Josie and the Pussycats'', '' Jeannie'', ''Speed Buggy'', '' Batman and Robin'', and '' The Addams Family''. Later, the ''Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10'' set of movies involved several crossovers, including such combinations as ''The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones''. This was taken to an extreme in the 1977–79 series '' Laff-A-Lympics,'' which was essentially a gathering of the Hanna-Barbera characters for a regular series.

Crossovers are not necessarily composed of characters under common ownership. Two of the most notable cartoon crossovers consisted of characters from different companies. Disney's movie ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' had characters from various companies, most notably Disney and Warner Bros. Daffy Duck and Donald Duck made a simultaneous appearance in one scene in which the two of them exchanged blows during a piano duet. Later in the movie, Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse were shown parachuting together (to keep things from getting too iffy legally, Mickey and Bugs' lines were written so that each of them said exactly the same number of words in the movie). The film also includes cameos of characters from MGM. The end of the movie features all the cartoons from all of the animation companies joining in song, to be concluded by Porky Pig stuttering his famous "That's All, Folks!" line as Tinker Bell ends the scene with a magical fade-out.

On February 27, 1998, the Fox Kids shows '' Power Rangers in Space'' and '' Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation'' had their crossover with the episode "Shell Shocked".

On October 4, 1997, the two Kids WB shows, ''Superman: The Animated Series'' and ''The New Batman Adventures'', had their first crossover with the TV movie ''World's Finest'', which was also released on DVD.

Another cartoon crossover would occur in 1990, '' Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue''. This cartoon featured popular characters from children's Saturday morning cartoons, banding together to promote an anti-drug message. ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC aired this half-hour special one Saturday morning with characters from all their networks, including Huey, Dewey, and Louie (from Disney's '' DuckTales''), Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Slimer (from '' The Real Ghostbusters'' and ''Extreme Ghostbusters''), Michelangelo (from ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles''), Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Alvin and the Chipmunks, the Smurfs, ALF (from his short-lived cartoon spinoff), Garfield, and the trio of Baby Kermit, Baby Piggy, and Baby Gonzo (from Jim Henson's '' Muppet Babies''). Animation companies granted unlimited, royalty-free use of their cartoon characters for this project, a feat that has been unequalled before or since. This cartoon was also introduced by then-President George H. W. Bush and Barbara Bush, and would be distributed to schools and video stores free of charge nationwide.

Manga artist Leiji Matsumoto has been known to cross over the characters of his various stories and characters such as '' Captain Harlock'', '' Galaxy Express 999'', and ''Queen Millennia'', all of which were originally written as separate, self-contained stories. In the '' Maetel Legend'', Queen Promethium is revealed to be having been Yukino Yaoi, the protagonist from ''Queen Millennia''. Matsumoto has also created various crossovers with ''Space Battleship Yamato'', an anime on which he served as director, although the rights to Yamato are actually owned by Yoshinobu Nishizaki.

The adult parody-oriented series '' Drawn Together'' features many crossovers; while some are regular cameos, such as Peter and Lois Griffin from ''Family Guy'', others involve a personality twist, such as the homicidal version of Bambi from the eponymous film or the gay version of Elmer Fudd from the ''Looney Tunes'' franchise.

The Disney/Marvel crossover '' Phineas and Ferb: Mission Marvel'' features the Marvel heroes Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Hulk, and Thor, the Marvel villains Whiplash, MODOK, the Red Skull, and Venom, and characters from ''Phineas and Ferb'', where the storyline involves Phineas and Ferb trying to restore power to the Marvel heroes, whose powers were taken away by Doofenshmirtz.

During its 26th season, ''The Simpsons'' had crossovers with ''Family Guy'' and ''Futurama''. In the hour-long ''Family Guy'' season 13 premiere "The Simpsons Guy", the Griffins met the Simpson family, who met the Planet Express crew in the ''Simpsons'' episode "Simpsorama".

In the Disney series '' House of Mouse'', Mickey Mouse and friends host a nightclub featuring cameos by other Disney characters.

Webtoons (animated shows from the internet) can also have crossovers with different webtoons, franchises, YouTubers and more. Some examples are when Kate from TomSka's ''Crash Zoom'' series makes an appearance in '' Eddsworld'' as a trick or treater who possesses Matt and Edd in the episode, "Trick or Threat". In addition to this a couple of characters from ''Eddsworld'' make appearances in some ''Crash Zoom'' episodes such as "Orcs and Dorks". Another example is ''Death Battle'' which is a show where two hosts (Wiz and Boomstick) put two characters from different franchises together to battle each other. These characters range from television, movie, video game, or comic franchises. Shows like ''One Minute Melee'', ''Cartoon Fight Club'', and ''Death Battle Exhibitions'' (the spinoff series) have a similar format to ''Death Battle''.

The Netflix original series ''Harvey Girls Forever'' is a crossover of the comics ''Little Audrey'', ''Little Dot'' and '' Little Lotta'', although later episodes in the third and fourth season are crossovers of Richie Rich and Casper the Friendly Ghost.

in the Warner Bros. Animation ''Looney Tunes''-based animated series '' Animaniacs'', created by Steven Spielberg and Tom Ruegger, characters from its predecessor series ''Tiny Toon Adventures'' and its "spin-off" series '' Freakazoid!'' (two other cartoons based on the ''Looney Tunes'' created by Spielberg and Ruegger), as well as from the actual ''Looney Tunes'' shorts, often made crossover cameo appearances throughout the series (some of which are speaking); Similarly, characters from ''Animaniacs'' frequently crossed over into ''Freakazoid!'' through cameo appearances (again, some cameos are speaking).

Many characters from animated franchises have had crossover episodes, films and specials regardless of the canon of those media open to interpretation; see Crossover animation.

The X-Files and The Simpsons in The Springfield Files.

The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo with The Dick Tracy Show.

Anime and manga

Anime has also participated in many crossover events featuring characters or shows from the same company or network. One of the biggest projects down would be ''Dream 9 Toriko x One Piece x Dragon Ball Z Super Special Collaboration'' as it includes three ''Shonen Jump'' franchises, being ''Dragon Ball Z'', ''One Piece'', and '' Toriko'', crossed over into an hour long special-like most crossovers, this special is filler, a fan-service episode that follows the common plot line in most crossovers. In the first half of the special, characters from the three franchises meet-up and fight. In the second half, they team up to battle a stronger foe. What makes this crossover unique is when the characters from all three shows split into groups, where the members all share the same clichéd character archetypes, such the main characters Goku, Luffy, and Toriko falling into the dumb, good-natured, strong character archetype.

'' Carnival Phantasm'' is also an OVA comedy series based on a '' Type-Moon'' gag manga called Take-Moon. Created to celebrate the company's 10th anniversary, the anime consists of several funny and unusual scenarios involving various characters from the Type-Moon franchises. Some examples include characters from ''Fate/stay night'' and ''Tsukihime''.

The ''Dragon Ball'' franchise is one of the most popular manga and anime in the world, and has its fair share of crossovers as well. The creator of the franchise, Akira Toriyama, has used another character from a different manga series he created, Jaco from ''Jaco the Galactic Policeman'' as a reoccurring character in ''Dragon Ball Super''. He comes to Earth to warn the characters about the return of Frieza and is later seen in the disputes involving Beerus and Champa.

'' Cyborg 009 VS Devilman'' is a three part anime OVA that crosses over the ''Cyborg 009'' and '' Devilman'' series. It originally aired on 17 October 2015 and then was released on 11 November 2015 Netflix currently owns the rights to this title.

Other anime- or manga-based crossovers include: '' Digimon Fusion'' and ''Pokémon Journeys, Fairy Tail x Rave Master'', '' Isekai Quartet'', ''It's a Rumic World: 50th Anniversary Weekly Shonen Sunday'', ''Kamen Rider Fourze x Crayon Shin-chan'', '' Lupin III vs. Detective Conan: the Movie'', '' Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle'', '' Undersea Super Train: Marine Express'', and '' Yu-Gi-Oh!: Bonds Beyond Time''.; see Crossover anime and manga.

Film

The first film crossover in a series of Universal Studios monster films was '' Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man'', in 1943. In 2003, ''Freddy vs. Jason'' was released by New Line Cinema. In 2004, 20th Century Fox released ''Alien vs. Predator'' along with the sequel '' Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem'' in 2007. One year later, both ''Dollman vs. Demonic Toys'' and ''Puppet Master vs Demonic Toys'' were released by 20th Century Fox and Terry Kelley Studios. In 2015, Sony released '' Lake Placid vs. Anaconda''.

After the comics publishing house Marvel Comics ventured into movie production, they set off to produce solitary films with popular superheroes from the Avengers team, with characters from upcoming films making cameo appearances in films starring another superhero, leading up to the crossover film '' The Avengers'' (2012). The same process was repeated for '' Avengers: Age of Ultron'' (2015), '' Avengers: Infinity War'' (2018), and '' Avengers: Endgame'' (2019), and all the movies together form the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Inspired by Marvel's success, Warner Bros., who hold movie rights for DC Comics' heroes, announced the production of '' Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice'' (2016) and further plans to develop the cinematic DC Extended Universe, while Paramount Pictures and Entertainment One announced plans to create a cinematic universe on the ''Transformers'' film series.

There have been numerous crossovers in Japanese cinema. The boom of kaiju films saw a lot of crossovers produced at Toho Studios, with some of the monsters forming teams in numerous movies, much like the Marvel movie franchise. Godzilla, Mothra and Rodan (Radon) each first appeared in standalone films before being set against each other or even teaming up against stronger enemies. Their first encounter was in 1964, first in '' Mothra vs. Godzilla'' and a few months later of all three in ''Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster''. In 1962, Toho released '' King Kong vs. Godzilla''. The long running Zatoichi series sees Shintaro Katsu's blind master swordsman face off with Toshiro Mifune in his iconic role in '' Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo'' (1970) and also features a unique cross-Asian project ''Zatoichi and the One-Armed Swordsman'' (1971). This coproduction sees Jimmy Wang reprise his famous part of the '' One-Armed Swordsman'' while featuring two different endings for both the Japanese and Hong Kong audiences; see Crossover films.

Games

Crossovers in video games occur when otherwise separated fictional characters, stories, settings, universes, or media in a video game meet and interact with each other. These can range from a character simply appearing as a playable character or boss in the game, as a special guest character, or a major crossover where two or more franchises encounter.

''Konami'' made the first crossover video game featuring Simon Belmont from ''Castlevania'', Universal Pictures' King Kong and Mikey from the Warner Bros. movie ''The Goonies'' in '' Konami Wai Wai World'' for the Famicom in 1988. '' The King of Fighters'', '' Marvel vs. Capcom'', and many other franchises from third-party developers such as Capcom and SNK bring these licenses together.

The 2.5D fighting game series '' Super Smash Bros.'' brings various Nintendo characters together and allow players to fight against each other as these characters in arenas. The third game in the series, '' Super Smash Bros. Brawl'' introduced two third-party characters with the inclusion of Solid Snake and Sonic the Hedgehog, of Konami's ''Metal Gear'' series and Sega's ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' series respectively. The fourth installments, ''Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS'' and ''Super Smash Bros. for Wii U'', feature characters from the third-party franchises of Capcom's ''Mega Man'' (Mega Man) and '' Street Fighter'' (Ryu), Sega's ''Bayonetta'' (Bayonetta), Bandai Namco's ''Pac-Man'' (Pac-Man), and Square Enix's ''Final Fantasy'' (Cloud Strife), in addition to other Nintendo characters from the company's different universes. The fifth installment, '' Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'' also introduced Simon and Richter Belmont from Konami's ''Castlevania'' series, Ken Masters from Capcom's ''Street Fighter'' series, Joker from ''Persona 5'', the Hero from the ''Dragon Quest'' series, Banjo-Kazooie from the ''Banjo-Kazooie'' series, Terry Bogard from the '' Fatal Fury'' series, Steve from ''Minecraft'', Sephiroth from ''Final Fantasy VII'', Kazuya Mishima from the ''Tekken'' series, and Sora from ''Kingdom Hearts'' in addition to bringing back all of the playable characters from the previous entries in the series.

The Namco-developed ''Soul'' series features characters from a variety of other franchises including Link from Nintendo's ''The Legend of Zelda'' series, Heihachi Mishima from ''Tekken'', Todd McFarlane's Spawn, Darth Vader, Yoda, and Starkiller from ''Star Wars'', Lloyd Irving from ''Tales of Symphonia'', Ubisoft Montreal's Ezio Auditore from the ''Assassin's Creed'' series, Geralt of Rivia from Andrzej Sapkowski's ''The Witcher'', YoRHa No. 2 Type B from Yoko Taro and PlatinumGames' '' Nier: Automata'', and Haohmaru from SNK's ''Samurai Shodown''.

''Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games'', released in Japan two months before ''Super Smash Bros. Brawl'', was the first time that Mario and Sonic (as well as their associated characters) appeared in a game together.

The ''Kingdom Hearts'' series of role-playing games developed by Square Enix features a number of characters from Disney and Square Enix.

Starting with ''Mortal Kombat'', video game developer NetherRealm Studios has guest characters ranging from ''Mortal Kombat'' veterans Scorpion, Sub-Zero and Raiden to Freddy Krueger from '' A Nightmare on Elm Street'', Jason Voorhees from ''Friday the 13th'', Leatherface from '' The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'', The Xenomorph from ''Alien'', The Predator from ''Predator'', the T-800 from '' Terminator'', John Rambo from '' Rambo'', RoboCop from ''RoboCop,'' Kratos from ''God of War'', The Joker from ''Batman'', all four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Todd McFarlane's Spawn and Mike Mignola's Hellboy.

'' Super Robot Wars'' are turn-based strategy games featuring a variety of Japanese mecha series from many generations, such as '' Mazinger Z'', '' Gundam'', ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'', and ''GaoGaiGar''.

'' Warriors Orochi'' is the game that features the casts of both the ''Dynasty Warriors'' and '' Samurai Warriors'' series. The third installment of this series included a number of playable characters from other Koei Tecmo properties, such as '' Ninja Gaiden'', '' Dead or Alive'', ''Zill O'll'', and Sophitia Alexandra from Bandai Namco's ''Soul'' series. ''Warriors All-Stars'' similarly crossed-over a number of characters from Koei Tecmo series.

Video game developer Capcom has frequently developed crossover fighting games featuring their own characters and those of another IP holder, including '' Marvel vs. Capcom'', ''SNK vs. Capcom'', ''Tatsunoko vs. Capcom'', and ''Street Fighter X Tekken''.

'' Heroes of the Storm'' is an example of the major crossover video game which is developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. This hero brawler brings various Blizzard's characters together as playable heroes, as well as different battlegrounds based on '' Warcraft'', '' Diablo'', ''StarCraft'', and ''Overwatch'' universes.

Perhaps one of the most notable video game crossovers is ''Lego Dimensions'' which makes use of over 30 different franchises, including DC Comics, ''Doctor Who'', ''The Lego Movie'', ''The Lord of the Rings'', ''Sonic the Hedgehog'', and more.

A large number of video game characters make cameo appearances in the Disney computer-animated film ''Wreck-It Ralph'' and its sequel.

Literature

In literature, some authors also engage in crossovers by including characters from different novels they have written in one; see Crossover novels.

The first popular crossover in literature was the 1885 Mark Twain novel, '' The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'', which had an important guest appearance by Tom Sawyer. Similarly, Lady Glencora Palliser from the Pallisers series of Anthony Trollope appears towards the end of ''Miss Mackenzie'', a novel published between the first and second Palliser novels in 1865, a character first introduced in the novel, '' Can You Forgive Her?'' (1864). Andrew Lang's 1890 collection, ''Old Friends: Essays in Epistolary Parody'', contains letters combining characters from different sources, including one based on Jane Austen's '' Northanger Abbey'' and Charlotte Brontë's ''Jane Eyre''.

Kim Newman frequently uses this device, as does Stephen King. The works of James Branch Cabell, J.D. Salinger, William Faulkner, Margaret Laurence, Thomas Pynchon, Kurt Vonnegut, Mordecai Richler, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert Heinlein, and Isaac Asimov also cross over with each other, linking different characters and settings together over a number of different works. Author Rick Riordan publishes multiple book series featuring gods of ancient civilizations in the modern day, which have had two crossovers and three references to other series. Science fiction writer Poul Anderson allowed fellow writer A. Bertram Chandler to "borrow" Anderson's space-faring character Dominic Flandry and let Flandry meet with Chandler's John Grimes in a common adventure (the two fail to like each other). Alex Scarrow featured the characters Cato and Macro from his brother Simon's ''Eagles of the Empire'' series in one book of the ''TimeRiders'' series: ''Gates of Rome'' (2012), serving as supporting characters when the three protagonists travel back in time to Ancient Rome.

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, from the ''Arabian Nights'', from fairy tales such as Grimm's " Snow White", Western literature such as Peter Pan, cartoons such as ''Popeye

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