It was recently announced that forStar Wars’fiftieth anniversary next year, the inhabitants from the galaxy far, far away would cross over with Marvel’s biggest heroes in a comic book event series. This will be the first major Star Wars crossover with another well-known IP ever. But according to a post from Marvels and Kingdom Comeartist Alex Ross, there was very nearly a Superman/Star Wars crossover at one point. And the iconic artist even did several concept paintings for the series, which never came to be. He talked about it in a video he posted to social media, which you can watch below:
A lot of this art has circulated for many years, but most fans believed it was just private commissions. One features Superman fighting Darth Vader. Kal-El is literally holding the blade of Vader’s lightsaber in his indestructible hand in this one. Another shows the two main heroes of their respective universes, Luke Skywalker and Superman, standing side-by-side. Boba Fett battles Batman in another image, which makes us feel very sorry for the bounty hunter. (Sorry, but Bruce clears Boba.) And finally, there’s one that recreates the iconic A New Hopeposter, only with the rebels alongside the Justice League. And looming behind them is Lord Vader and Darkseid. JLA/Avengerscrossover writer Kurt Busiek has said he would have been the one to write it.
So why didn’t it ever happen? According to Ross, they couldn’t come to an agreement on how the profits would break down between Warner Bros. and Lucasfilm. Obviously, this is not a problem that the upcoming Marvel/Star Wars crossover has to contend with, because Disney owns both Lucasfilm and Marvel. But with DC Comics and Marvel doing crossovers again in a big way, who knows what the future holds? If it does happen, we certainly hope Alex Ross gets to be the artist to do it. We’d love to see the power of Darkseid and the power of thedark side try to take down the Justice League.
