The Ultimate Crossover Pin-up Book!

Let's look at the strange oddity that is Malibu and Marvel's Dream Team

Back in 1994, Marvel Comics purchased the growing independent publisher Malibu Comics, mostly to keep their rivals DC Comics from doing the same, and possibly taking the top spot in market share. This would ultimately spell doom for Malibu and its premiere line of superhero titles, the Ultraverse. But in the early days of the buyout, Malibu and the Ultraverse continued to operate, leading to several crossovers. It also delivered a few pin-up books featuring top artists drawing Malibu characters with Marvel characters. I believe Dream Team was the first, but Malibu did something quite interesting to score several name creators at the height of the creator-owned revolution. So we ended up with several pages of crossovers between Marvel, Malibu, and a character owned by the artist.

All art featured in this article is for review purposes and is copyright to its respective owners.

That's the Fantastic Four versus Ultraverse's Sludge by artist Michael Allred, but it also features another character out of place in either universe. Allred's creator-owned Madman made an appearance in this book, and he wouldn't be alone!

William (then Billy) Tucci gave us his own Shi posing with Malibu’s Shuriken and Psylocke:

Wolverine and Prime team up with Ash by his creators Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti!

The wildest and weirdest add-on crossover of the book, though, is by Ben Edlund, who teams up the Hulk and Prime with his own nigh-invulnerable creation for the world's strongest... thumb war?

Dream Team is certainly a strange oddity, but one I’m glad that exists just to give us these truly wild crossover ideas. Unfortunately, complications with the rights to the Ultraverse mean none of this will ever likely be reprinted, so you’ll have to hunt your own copy of the classic comic down if you want to see these and the rest of the book.

What are your thoughts on this crazy mix of multidimensional superheroics?