Ready?
The Simpsons/Futurama Crossover Crisis.
Both series are the brainchild of Matt Groening, and being the intellectual property of the same person with vaguely (okay, obviously) similar art styles, a crossover was inevitable. Both Series are/were wildly popular (though Simpsons more so) and had their own lines of excellent comics (see? Told you it would get nerdy). For the Simpsons, it offered an expansion of the universe for rabid fans to devour and catalog. For Futurama it served as a continuing existence after its premature cancellation, before the sublime series was renewed by Comedy Central. Both lines were published by the hysterical Bongo Comics and if you enjoy either series in its TV incarnation I would highly recommend seeing what the transition to print is like. It's often an interesting twist, as it allows for more deviations from the established canons that TV guidelines and censors wouldn't deem acceptable.
Point of order, here. In my household The Simpsons is gospel. Having been firmly ingrained in mine and my better half's psyche's at the elementary level, it tickled the funny bone in a way that both formed and guided our mutual senses of humor for the rest of our lives. Admittedly the series has waned a bit in recent years but it still is better than almost anything you can throw at it, even on an off day. I recall one of the producers explaining its longevity thusly "How do you stretch a show for over ten seasons? Lower your standards." Sad, but true. It serves as a mental comfort food. I honestly think if some horrible tragedy befell the nation, we would just start a marathon and cook a feast for our friends and family while we burn through the series on a tv in the kitchen. The Halloween themed 'Treehouse of Horror' episodes, which I've written about before, are a tradition for us every October.
Futurama is more of an oddity. I was sold on the show from the first season, having been raised on a steady diet of Star Wars and Star Trek (and this is the point my future father-in-law forbids the wedding). The in-jokes, the characters and sense of humor, I love it all. It's another one of those things I've written about where it makes me so happy I feel like it was created just to amuse me. Imagine my surprise when my fiancée, who almost never indulges in fictional TV (let alone science fiction, of all things) finds it to be not only interesting but hysterical. The fact that she laughs at anything I do makes my heart skip a beat, and is one of the countless reasons I love her. Funny is funny regardless of medium, and she gets that. So while The Simpsons soldiers on, barely fatigued, Futurama met an untimely end at the hands of Fox, only to be brought back to life by Comedy Central. In the intervening period, though, the most amazing thing happened.
These two awesome worlds collided.
The story hinges on the fact that Futurama is, despite its outlandish setting, characters and stories, our universe. In previous episodes of the show it had been established that the Simpsons existed as it did for us (even more crazy, Matt Groening has appeared IN THE SIMPSONS as the creator of Futurama, just to further twist us around). Fry, our lovable everyman, is reading a Simpsons comic, in a wonderful bit of meta-humor. Utilizing a plot device from their phenomenally written 'The Day the Earth Stood Stupid', the Brainspawn, capable of transporting conscious minds into fictional worlds, traps the Futurama crew in the world of the Simpsons comic. After a mind-blowing series of cross-continuity interactions, including Homer and Bender imbibing at Moe's, Lisa and Leela bonding and Fry and Bart causing mischief, the worlds are brought back into balance via the requisite complicated plot devices of meta-awareness and literary boundaries.
But wait! There's more!
The wonderful hardcover edition published in 2010 continues the saga in an excellent move. Due to the weakening walls of reality, the cast of the Simpsons is unleashed into Futurama's present day, New New York, 3000 A.D. The two casts must work together to fight off the brainspawn and vanquish various marauding fictional characters back to their respective books, in a display of some of the most absurd, laugh out loud literary jokes I've ever read. I won't spoil the results, but the entire experience is equal parts hysterical, confusing and manic. As such a mash up would be, of course. This volume of comics is an excellent example of what's possible when given free range with ideas, showing how two great flavors go great together. But only in small doses.
I am all too aware of how insanely geeky this whole write up is and yet I do not care one bit. Both of these series are cherished institutions in the annals of pop-culture, and to see them combined in such a fantastic, quality adventure is nothing short of astounding. It's an experience akin to Jetson's Meet the Flintstones, only zanier and with higher standards of production. If you've stuck with me this far, I would highly recommend you seek it out, if only to blow minds at the sight of these two forces combing.
