Well before Crisis on Infinite Earths or Secret Wars, The Laff-A-Lympics blew my young mind. Here was a show that took a whole bunch of cartoon characters from different shows and put them all together for one big free for all! It was a cinematic universe before cinematic universes were a thing, and a crossover nut like me thought it was just about the coolest idea ever.
Yep! Hanna-Barbera beat everyone else to the audio-visual punch. First, with Space Ghost vs. the Legion of Doom (featuring cameos by all the other superstars of Funtastic Saturday'67). Then, Scooby's Laff-alympics. Although, some of the Really Rottens technically debutied on that series. And Inspector Mumbly was really just a recycled Muttley!*
ReplyDelete*A dirty canine cop, at that. Unless, of course, he was working undercover...?
I know! I miss the old Battle of the Network Stars!
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Network_Stars
Fun cover and premise. Personally, I would have used the Hulk’s character model from the 1982 cartoon, to better match the aesthetic of the period, but I do like the 1996 cartoon, so it still works for me.
ReplyDeleteI love how the sidebar on the left includes shots of characters from the Hulk's onw cartoon among the H-B characters; nice touch!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you about that show. There might have been the occasional crossover on TV shows before that, but nothing on the scale of the Laff-a-Lympics.
ReplyDeleteAnd I think, along that right-hand column, I see a few other non-H-B characters; at least She-Hulk and the Leader, plus two or three I'm not sure about. Nice touch, that.
Aside: What if some of the Legion of Super-Heroes were to return from a time-travel adventure in the past, only to find that something they'd done changed things... and they met Thundarr? (It'd be an interesting setting for Timber Wolf, the White Witch, Brainiac 5, and Blok.)
@Carycomic: I think you mean "Council of Doom." The Legion of Doom appeared on CHALLENGE OF THE SUPER FRIENDS.
ReplyDelete@ Bob Greenwade: I think the other two are Major Glenn Talbot (insanely jealous arch-rival of Bruce Banner for the affections of Betty Ross) and the Puppet Master (sometime-ally of the Leader's fellow Intelligencia member, the "Mad" Thinker).
ReplyDelete@Anon1214: Looks more like Dr. Sivana wearing contact lenses
ReplyDeleteSince the Scooby-Doobies had more superheroes, they could get in touch with the Thing.
ReplyDeleteWhat if the Great Gazoo accidentally entered a parallel Bedrock with Pokémon powered gadgets?
ReplyDeleteIt would most likely result in punny name changes like "Ash Gypsum" or "Rock Takeshi" or "Misty Willemite".
ReplyDeleteThat is, of course, assuming there was ever any truth to the rumor that she is surnamed "Williams."
ReplyDeleteIf Gazoo meets Captain Caveman would he change his behavior? And when Gazoo meets the Hulk, can he affect the Hulk/Banner relationship? She-Hulk would have a new "pet" with Grape Ape. There are sooooomannny things that can blow up Dasterly's "plans"!
ReplyDeleteEmmy time for Ross!!
@Ross: Just a thought... perhaps for the upcoming April 1 issue, you could drop Waldo into the background. Very small. (Ditto Carmen Sandiego -- you could even do that with her multiple times, and let it lead up to a later story!)
ReplyDeleteHow about Carmen Sandiego vs. Arsene Lupin III?
ReplyDelete