Deadman and Wolverine

 

Thank you to Yuri Volte, a patron of this blog, for suggesting this long overdue team-up!  Deadman met Wolverine with the rest of the X-Men in STF #1991, but I've never featured a cover with just the two of them. There's definitely story potential here.

Ultra the Multi-Alien and The Silver Surfer

 

Ultra The Multi-Alien is definitely a Silver Age C-lister, but as a kid, I thought he was pretty cool.  Maybe it's because he looks like something that a kid might have come up with.  We used to play a game where we would fold paper in three and pass it around with each of us kids drawing a head, torso, or legs on it.  Then you would unfold the paper and see what kind of crazy character was created.  Ultra reminds me of one of those.

Robin and Mockingbird

 

Bobbi Morse had such success recruiting Nightwing into  S.H.I.E. L.D. in STF #4088, that it looks like she decided to also bring in the original Dick Grayson as a well! It's probably for the best, he's been looking for a new purpose after finding himself unstuck in the Multiverse as a result of battling Kang in STF #1744.

Lex Luthor Vs. Medusa

 

Even as a kid, I thought the Silver Age origin given to Lex Luthor was pretty silly.  He and Superboy were on good terms as teenagers until the Boy of Steel had to rescue him from a fire.  In extinguishing the flames, the super-breath also blew some chemicals on young Lex, causing permanent baldness.  Lex swears revenge and thus a life long rivalry was born!  I mean, he did save your life and wigs do exist, Lex!

Casey Jones and Wild Dog

 

These guys are two street level heroes with similar tastes in fashion, it's only natural that they should cross paths at one point or another.  It's always interesting to read about crimefighters that operate on a limited budget, and these are two of the better examples.  It would be cool to see them share a story.

Spider-Man and Wild Dog

Costume variants are pretty commonplace today, but when Spider-Man first got his black costume from Secret Wars, it was a pretty big deal.  I remember thinking it would only stick around for an issue or two, and being surprised at how long it lasted.  Plus, the whole alien symbiote angle was an inventive concept that has spawned new characters and storylines in the decades since.  That was a costume change that truly counted.

The Avengers meet Orion and Lightray

Avengers: Infinity War was originally supposed to have "Part I" in the title, but they decided not to go that route, and will give the 4th film in the franchise its own (for now, mysterious) title.  Does this mean that the new film will be self-contained, without feeling like half of a story?  I can't imagine there won't be at least a couple of cliffhangers. 

Long-time STF visitors know that Darkseid enslaved The Avengers way back in issue #377...

Hourman and The X-Men in: "The Rex Factor!"

I was all excited when Hourman appeared at the end of the first season of DC's Legends of Tomorrow, but I have to I was disappointed with what was actually done with him.  Rather than become a new member of the team. he was unceremoniously killed off before he got to do anything heroic.  Hopefully, given the time-travel nature of the show, the indignity can be undone some day.

Hourman faced off against the original team of X-Men in one of my very first STF covers...

Power Girl and She-Hulk

The first season of Supergirl ended with the title character looking surprised at the unseen passenger of a rocket.  Was it Krypto, Superman, her mother, or someone else?  Some have speculated that this could be the introduction of Power Girl into the series, which could be interesting as well.  For a character that has been cosplayed so much, it is surprising that we still have not seen an official live action version yet.

Shazam and Shazzan

I remember watching Shazzan on Hanna-Barberra's World of Super Adventure and thought it was a clever cross between the Aladdin myth and super-heroes.  Still, I thought the "young masters" were a bit stiff and lame.  I would have rather have seen Shazzan as a solo act.  OK, he could keep Kaboobie around, he was kind of cool.

Hawkman and Hercules

The Thor movies have been a bit uneven for me.  While I like the heroics and the scenes on Asgard, the scenes on Earth featured a bit too much humor which I felt fell flat.  I think that a better source of humor for future sequels might be the introduction of Hercules into the mix.  I have always gotten a kick out of his battle happy attitude and his friendly rivalry with the God of Thunder.

Wild Dog and Judge Dredd

I'm guessing that the only way a by-the-books character like Judge Dredd would team up with loose cannon like Wild Dog is if he found himself on the wrong side of the law as well.  It might be fun to watch these two forced to depend on each other while battling a government organization out to take them down.

Wild Dog and The Punisher

Wild Dog only had a handful of appearances - A mini-series, a special and a serial in Action Comics Weekly - but he struck a nerve with me.  Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty created a character that seemed to be to be a more realistic take on a Punisher-type of vigilante.  He kind of faded into obscurity fairly quickly, but the must be a few other fans out there, as I have seen him make a cameo here in there during big DC get-togethers.

Ace and the Dogs of War

I love superheroes and I love dogs, so when the two are combined it really captures my interest.  I know I am not the only one who must feel that way because once I started featuring new teams on this blog, an all-pooch crew was one of the more common requests I would get.  I think a team like this, once they stopped sniffing each other's butts, would be unstoppable!

Jonah Hex Vs. Man-Thing

There are plenty of cowboy characters in comics, but one has always risen to the top for me, and that's Jonah Hex.  Part of it was his cool disfigured look and cranky attitude that made him stand apart from more traditional western stars.  Then there was the fact that Hex fit in better with the overall DC Universe, as he was no stranger to time travel or the occasional guest appearance in a superhero title.  Finally, he is a character that seems to bring out the best in artists, and always seemed to have very exciting, eye-catching covers.  That was true back in the day with masters like Nick Cardy and JL Garcia Lopez, and today we have modern greats like Darwyn Cooke and Jordi Bernet to carry on the tradition.

Jonah Hex and Madman

Sometimes the team ups that appealed to me most as a kid were the ones completely out of left field.  This cover features a pair of characters that have very little in common and nobody in particular was asking to see together.  That's just the thing though - put them side by side for a tale, and you will have an adventure unlike anything either of them have had before.

Adam Strange and Space Ghost (Part One)

I haven't seen Adam Strange popping up in the new DCU, and that's too bad because DC had been doing a good job of featuring him prior to the relaunch.  Hopefully when he returns, he will not have strayed too far from the elements that made him great - a man of two worlds who uses science, courage and  ingenuity to battle outlandish menaces.

One great Alex Toth design deserves another, so I thought I would throw Igoo in here as well as Space Ghost.

Dr. Mid-Nite and Daredevil

This is the kind of match up that I really wanted to do when I decided to make the switch to Super-Team Family.  Sure, I love the classic match-ups like Aquaman and Namor, but it's the more off-beat team ups that always appealed to me. Matt Murdock and Charles McNider together in one tale would make for a fun story, I think. I have heard great things about Daredevil's most current series and definitely plan to pick it up.  Dr. Mid-Nite's fate is uncertain until DC relaunches a Justice Society title... hopefully it won't be too long before that happens.