Some superheroes bring out the best in each other and help each other work towards achieving
their goals.
But sometimes heroes team up to work toward a common goal and bring out the worst in each
other, making one another more violent or more egotistical or even accidentally or on
purpose sabotaging one another and risking achieving their goal.
Welcome back, nerd squad.
Today we are going to be discussing just such issues when it comes to superhero team ups,
ones that are scary and that could have almost ruined everything.
And when I say everything, I mean, everything!
We’re talking about heroes who have the potential to ruin one another, their comic
series and just ruin their ability to be a superhero.
What disastrous team-ups do you love the most?
Feel free to reflect as you watch and let us know in the comments below.
One of my favourites, while they may not be superheroes, pers se, is Poison Ivy and Harley
Quinn.
I just love them together whether they are getting one another into trouble or getting
into trouble together.
Alright, let’s forget about those two villainesses for awhile and talk superhero team-ups as
we get counting.
10
Deadpool, Wolverine and Captain America
The Marvel storyline the Good, the Bad and Ugly which is a part of the Deadpool series,
sees these three powerhouses team up.
The series mainly follows Deadpool who approaches the fellow heroes looking to team up as he
thinks someone is targeting Weapons Plus alumni.
The other two heroes refuse to join him which leads to him being captured by a villain who
goes by the name, Butler.
He escapes to discover a group of alternate X-Men made from Deadpool’s organs and other
regenerated X-Men bits.
With the help of them and Captain America and Wolverine who Wade also finds out were
kidnapped by Butler, he defeats the villain.
Unfortunately his daughter and her mother, Carmelita were also kidnapped by the Butler
and perished before Deadpool could save them.
This time they actually ruined everything as a team in Deadpool’s instance.
He lost his family as a result of the fact that Cap and Wolverine didn’t join him soon
enough.
9
Wolverine and Spider-Man
Yeah there are certain superheroes who just make bad teammates and Wolverine is one of
those.
Spider-Man isn’t usually but there are certain people he just really doesn’t get along
well with.
Of course, their differences have also made them a strong team as these two do tend to
team up quite a bit in the comics.
But I’m specifically talking about a time when they swapped bodies.
One this team up is also just awful in regards to the storyline.
It happens in Ultimate Spider-Man vol 1 when Jean Grey gets mad at Logan for hitting on
her and causes him and Peter Parker to swap bodies using her powers.
Which seems a little severe and kind of unfair to Peter.
The two damage one another’s bodies some what but the end of this comic issue is what
is truly terrifying.
The swap ends with the horrifying implication that Wolverine tried to sleep with teenage
MJ while in Peter’s body.
Gross.
8
Batman/Hellboy/Starman
Yeah, you’re probably wondering what is going on with this one.
This crossover happened in the late 90s and is a two part short series that actually has
a really awesome story but was also kind of done oddly.
It’s like a spooky trade off series revolving around Hellboy taking down a neo-Nazi group.
In part one he works with Batman to save Ted Knight from the neo-nazi group called Knights
of October.
But then in part two as Starman is joining the group, Batman reveals that he has to dip
to go deal with some Joker stuff back in Gotham.
So then Batman leaves but sends Starman and Hellboy on a private jet to the Amazon Rainforest
where they work to track down the leader of the villainous group who managed to escape
in the original tussle of part 1.
And the two then also have to take on a demon in typical Hellboy fashion.
This spooky team up is almost ruined by the weird swap out of our heroes.
Seems like Batman just wasn’t feeling the part 2 of this crossover or working with Starman.
Makes me wonder if he really did have business to attend to or he just wanted out.
7
Punisher and Archie
Yes, this really happened.
This team up sounds like it was a terrible idea but it was actually fairly well received,
despite most people thinking it was a joke when it was announced.
The Punisher is employed by the government to hunt and capture, not kill Red, a drug
dealer who looks similar to Archie.
Red escapes the Punisher and attempts to lie low in Riverdale where he uses his legitimate
business connections to finagle his way into Hiram Lodge’s mansion.
The Punisher tracks Red down to Riverdale and thinks he spots him in an ice cream shop
but he’s really spotting Archie and Jughead.
However Punisher’s team isn’t the only one tracking Red and another group, one that
is comprised of thugs who aim to kill Red before he can be caught and potentially snitch
out the rest of the operation.
They kidnap Archie and Jughead before Punisher can get to them.
Meanwhile Veronica takes Red on a date to the school dance in an attempt to make Archie
jealous.
Eventually things all work out and Punisher figures out who the real Red is and even thinks
Riverdale is pretty nice and that Archie is a pretty alright kid.
He leaves with his bounty and later gets to resume his violent ways.
And Archie goes back to his wholesome life.
Well, sort of, because now we have the show Riverdale which definitely paints the town
of Riverdale more in the vein of what Punisher originally expected.
6
Venom and Hulk
The Incredible Hulk vs Venom is a bizarre but fantastic one-shot that imagines what
would happen if these two terrifying heroes teamed up.
While the time period it comes out of make you question Venom’s capacity for heroics,
in this comic he is seen trying to heroically save people in the aftermath of an earthquake.
During this he runs into the Hulk who fights him thinking he’s a villain.
This version of the Hulk is also oddly well spoken.
Eventually the two realize they are both after the same guy Doctor Bad Vibes who was claiming
to be behind the earthquakes.
They team up to take him down but find out that the earthquake was a result of natural
causes and that Doctor Bad Vibes is just a crazy guy with an earthquake button who thinks
it works.
The idea of these two coming after you is pretty terrifying and they almost don’t
decide to work together but I’m glad they do cause this mashup is oddly delightful.
5
Sentry and the Dark Avengers
Granted Sentry is part of Norman Osborn’s Dark Avengers but he’s probably the only
member that you could consider a hero when it comes to the assembly of this villainous
team.
What’s more scary than Sentry on a regular hero day?
Sentry under the control of Norman Osborn.
Sentry when he joined the Dark Avengers believed he was guilty for the death of his wife and
because of this, his moral compass is somewhat misaligned and off-kilter.
He doesn’t really see anything he’s doing as wrong and tries to be a hero in the dark
times.
However as many heroic deeds as the Dark Avengers try to accomplish, the way they go about things
is what often makes them scary and is what sometimes makes them unable to accomplish
the true heroics that original team of Avengers often successfully completed.
4
Ironman, Black Panther and sort of Batman
This team up originally sounds awesome, in principle but it was part of a dreadful series
called Marville that was the result of a competition between Bill Jemas, Jon Quesada and Peter
David as to who could sell more issues.
This series was Bill Jemas entry.
In issue 2, he puts these three heros together who assemble to stop kids from handing out
money.
Obviously Batman isn’t really there as Bill Jemas did not get DC’s permission but the
character looks a lot like Batman and talks about his dead parents sooo… yeah.
The victims in the comic, these bystanders accepting money that is being donated to them,
berate the “heroes” for being rich and selfish.
The heroes respond by violently beating them up and killing them.
Ironman even uses his repulsor beams to just straight up kill someone upon arriving at
the scene.
Goodness.
If that isn’t terrifying, I don’t know what is.
3
Old Man Logan and Hawkeye
During the Old Man Logan storyline in the 2008 Wolverine series, we see old man Hawkeye
and Logan team up.
Logan is hired by now blind Hawkeye to help him make a delivering across the futuristic
wasteland.
Despite being blind it seems like Hawkeye has developed radar like site similar to Daredevil,
making him still a crack shot and still able to drive even.
The two come up against all sort of supervillains including a T-Rex from the Savage Lands that
is bonded with the venom symbiote.
Yet still this deadly duo doesn’t quite get everything right in the end.
It turns out the delivery Hawkeye is aiming to make is 99 vials of super soldier serum
in a now grossly un-super world.
He is supposed to be delivering the vials to someone who wants to create a new team
of Avengers but he gets double crossed and murdered in the process and almost gets Logan
killed too.
2
Eminem and Punisher
While I was actually kind of excited when I first heard about this team-up I was unfortunately
let down by it.
Eminem is a huge superhero fan, in case you didn’t know so seeing him team up with the
Punisher could be interested awe-inspired.
The standalone team-up series was originally slated to be a two parter but it just ended
up being one issue.
Probably as a result of it being a let down.
The duo are terrifying together and spend part of the comic beating up on one another
despite being on the same side.
Punisher is there to protect Mathers from Barracuda, Eminem’s old friend and apparently
a contract killer who is trying to complete a hit on Mathers.
The fight ends with them out on a frozen lake.
Eminem gets away manages to borrow a chainsaw from a fan who is ice fishing and comes back
to save Punisher who is getting his butt kicked by Barracuda.
The comic ends with Punisher turning on Eminem for trying to kill him but he only shoots
around him, putting him on a floating iceberg and tossing him a satellite phone, calling
Marshall a criminal for killing Barracuda and trying to kill him but saying they’re
even.
What a weird one-shot.
1
Spawn-Batman
I wish there was more than one issue of this fantastically dark duo.
These two heroes meet up in New York where Batman is tracking an arsenal of robots who
are built to use human brains as their own as well as a ton of weapons.
He runs into Spawn and the two fight one another, suspicious of the other, almost eliminating
the other hero in the process.
Eventually though they realize they are on the same case and team up to find and stop
the robots.
One thing I really love about this team up is the way Batman is drawn.
Todd MacFarlane draws the iconic Spawn-style artistry in the issue and Frank Miller is
behind the writing helm for this one.
It truly is a dark, gritty, gruesome little one shot.
Thank you so much for watching, nerd squad.
I hope you enjoyed this list.
There are so many amazing and terrible team-ups out there.
Some that should have never happened and some that should have never stopped happening and
some that just don’t work no matter how awesome they are.
What is your favourite scary team up or just team up in general?
Are there any on this list that you wish had been longer or never happened?
Let me know in the comments below.
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This is top 10 nerd and I’m your host, Amanda McKnight, reminding you to stay nerdy, YouTube.