With Special Appearance by Wolverine!

In order to keep the cataloging process moving swiftly, my wife would read off the titles and issue numbers while I recorded them in the spreadsheet. On my own, I would never have made it through the first box, as I would just want to read everything I came across.

The problem is, as she's not a comic reader, she had trouble finding the title in many cases. Or, the title would look slightly different even though it was the same series.

So, there would be a lot of this:

Wife: Ghost Rider #1. Ghost Rider #2. Ghost Rider #3. Ghost Rider and Wolverine. Wait, it says number 4? Do you not have the first three issues of Ghost Rider and Wolverine?

And then I had to explain that sad point in Marvel's history in which Wolverine was required by law to appear in EVERY comic series Marvel published. So, Wolverine would team up with Ghost Rider. And the Punisher. And Captain America. The list goes on. And when Wolverine and Spider-Man teamed up... it was like magic. And, of course, all of these happened while Wolvie was still a member of the X-Men AND traveling the world alone under the name of "Patch". And yet, he still managed to find time to become a member of the New Fantastic Four and the Secret Defenders*?

Yep, a little cigar-chomping, 'snikt' action was all it took to increase sales on any Marvel comic. At least for one month. Clearly, Wolverine had an excellent agent who could always find work for his client.

But it wasn't just Wolverine getting in on the some hot cross-over action. Hell no. Eventually, everyone was appearing in everyone else's comics. X-Force meets Spider-Man (printed sideways!). Captain America fights Magneto. Nomad meets Gambit.

Eventually, the crossing over became so intense that the crossovers became their own stand-alone books. Truly, you couldn't expect Death's Head and Killpower to fight each other in their own book. Thank god for Battle Tide. Which also featured special appearances by Wolverine. And Sabretooth. And Psylocke...





*What do you mean you don't remember the Secret Defenders? Doctor Strange? Darkhawk? Sleepwalker? Dealthlok? This doesn't ring a bell?