In advance of a teaser on Free Comic Book Day, Dynamite surprised fans with the news that they will be releasing a Gargoyles/Fantastic Four one-shot crossover in October. Only, here’s the thing that was left out of that announcement: there are going to be two one-shots, not just the one from Dynamite… But one from Marvel, as well.
During his appearance on this past week’s live Comic Book Club podcast taping, writer Greg Weisman dropped the surprising info while on to discuss the upcoming Gargoyles: Demona series that was also teased on Free Comic Book Day (FCBD).
“We’re doing two books this fall,” Weisman said. “I’ve written the scripts already, and the arts being done on both. Marvel is doing the Fantastic Four meets the Gargoyles, and then Dynamite is doing the Gargoyles meets the Fantastic Four.”
As Weisman explained, the story kicked off in the FCBD issue, then follows through in the two upcoming one-shots. In the four-pager in the FCBD special, the Gargoyles see a flaming “4” in the sky, and head over to the Baxter Building, where they meet the Fantastic Four. But rather than a portal connecting the two universes, or some sort of villain-based mix-em-up… They’re just in the same universe.
To explain this lack of classic crossover shenanigans, Weisman noted that while these stories are all in continuity with each other, “they’re not part of the Marvel 616 continuity, though I’m trying as much as possible to be consistent with that. And they’re not part of the main Gargoyles universe continuity, because obviously the Fantastic Four don’t exist in that.”
Earlier in the discussion, Weisman explained the genesis of the project, which came from Marvel — not Dynamite. As Weisman works for Marvel, writing the just-concluded Spectacular Spider-Men and a story coming up in Fantastic Four Fanfare, as well as his work on Gargoyles for Dynamite, the project came about in discussion with his editors who suggested crossing over the classic animated property with Marvel characters.
“My initial thought, because I’m writing Spectacular Spider-Men, [was] ‘let’s do Spider-Man and Gargoyles,'” Weisman recalled. “And they’re like, “‘Oh, you can’t do Spider-Man.’ And I’m like, ‘Okay, and what do you want me to do?'”
Given that Weisman had Fantastic Four members Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm guest-star in a couple of issues of Spectacular Spider-Men, as well as the upcoming 11-pager for FF Fanfare, “I guess I didn’t screw that up,” Weisman joked. He also noted that of course there’s a movie coming out, so that timing makes sense as well. But for the writer, who has been shepherding Gargoyles for three decades and change now, the main draw was the perfect fit of the two families.
“Fantastic Four are the first family of the Marvel Universe, and the Manhattan Clan is the first family of the Gargoyles universe,” Weisman continued. “It made sense to me to bring these two first families together. They’re both based in New York. The Gargoyles are at Castle Wyvern, which is atop the Eyrie Building on Central Park South and the Baxter Building is somewhere in midtown Manhattan.”
And while these stories are out of continuity, technically, fans of Gargoyles might want to keep their eyes open anyway. Weisman noted that he’s adding, “Gargoyles nuggets in these stories that hint at things that might come someday in the actual Gargoyles universe, sort of Easter egg kind of stuff. They’re in continuity with each other. But mostly it’s just, hey, let’s have fun with it. If Batman can meet the Ninja Turtles, then why not?”
Why not, indeed? And on a related note, it is interesting to see that not only did Marvel approach Dynamite about this, but the linked one-shots is consistent with the release pattern for the also forthcoming DC/Marvel and Marvel/DC crossover. It seems the House of Ideas isn’t just open to other publishers’ ideas, they’ve also got a new publishing strategy.
You can watch the full interview with Weisman, where he talks more about Gargoyles/Fantastic Four as well as Gargoyles: Demona and the legacy of the animated series, below:
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