The modern era of Thanos begins in 1990’s Silver Surfer #34, returning after his seeming death in the late 1970s (and a cameo appearance here and there). And he’s hardly left after that, starring in multiple event series (such as Infinity Gauntlet and its several follow-ups), and showing up everywhere from Ka-Zar to Guardians of the Galaxy to even the Marvel live-action movies ever since reappearing in that comic pictured above. Not too bad for a dead guy! Thanos will be featured in a new ongoing monthly series due out in November, so clearly he’s not going away again any time soon!

There’s been a long history in Marvel and DC’s comics of stories outside the regular continuity of their superhero comics, in which either minor changes to characters and situations (“What If Spider-Man Joined the Fantastic Four?”) or more drastic alterations (“What If Superman and Lex Luthor Were Brothers?”) were explored. These were called (as may come as no surprise) “What If” stories by Marvel, and “Just Imagine” or (mostly) “imaginary stories” by DC, though DC would adopt the “Elseworlds” label in later years.

One of the most famous (well, next to Kingdom Come) of DC’s Elseworlds is Superman: Speeding Bullets, in which the infant Kal-El is rocketed to Earth and, instead of being found the Kents in Smallville, is instead adopted by the Waynes in Gotham City. Effectively, it’s “what if Superman became Batman,” with even Lex Luthor becoming a variation of one of Batman’s most famous villains over the course of the story. In a way, Speeding Bullets is an updating of the “Bruce (Superman) Wayne” stories that ran in the 1980s…a similar set-up (Kal-El raised by the Waynes) only actually becoming Superman from the get-go. (You can see a cover blurb for those stories on this cover).

Nowadays, DC has mostly avoided doing new Elseworlds stories in favor of trying to establish the main continuities for their characters, but has been in the process of bringing them back into print (such as the recent Elseworlds: Batman trade paperbacks). Fun stuff, and individual Elseworlds specials are still pretty easy to find in the back issue bins.

The comic fans couldn’t believe was going to happen…and then still couldn’t believe it once it came out! A precursor of sorts to more recent comics like Archie Meets The Ramones or Archie Vs. Sharknado, this crossover between the family-friendly teen shenanigans of the world of Archie with Marvel’s dark ‘n’ gritty gun-toting vigilante shouldn’t have worked, but somehow it did! Legendary Marvel artist John Buscema handled the Punisher-side of the art chores, while classic Archie artist Stan Goldberg took on that side of the book, and inker Tom Palmer provided the overall finishes, bringing a unifying look to the art job that didn’t sacrifice the visual qualities specific to each character.

Of note is the die-cut cover on the direct market edition, pictured above, with Archie peering through the target sight hole, evoking the Punisher’s first appearance from Amazing Spider-Man #129. In contrast, the “regular” version of the comic (titled Archie Meets the Punisher) was more in the style of the typical Archie Comics gag cover. And now, over twenty years later, this still remains one of the champion oddball crossovers of all time!