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Crossover Couple

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"I hear he's nothing but Gotham trash: rich, spoiled, and ... absolutely gorgeous."
Lois Lane (when she sees Bruce Wayne for the first time), Superman: The Animated Series, "World's Finest"

Two people from separate universes (or at least different towns) meet in a crossover work. They fall for each other, or at least have a fling, but more likely than not they'll split up in the end. They are from different works, after all.

Crossover Couples occur when characters from separate works, be they in a Shared Universe or different universes, are paired up. This is usually a gag at best and is rarely taken seriously, with even more serious attempts rarely getting mentioned outside of the crossover itself.

For simplicity's sake, this trope refers to non-canon and semi-canon material as long as they're official. Fanworks, licensed works, and parodies also apply if they ship characters during crossovers.

Contrast with Crossover Ship for more generalized fan couples. Compare with Crossover Relatives.


Examples:

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    Advertising 

    Comic Books 
  • One of the one-issue "giant crossovers" from the 1980s teased the readers with hints of Beast Boy (then "Changeling")/Kitty Pryde.
  • A crossover played with the concept, possibly to parody it, by having Spider-Man ask Wonder Woman if she thought it was too early in their relationship to consider marriage (they had met, and briefly fought, only a few minutes earlier).
  • A Wolverine/Witchblade crossover licensed by Marvel and Top Cow started with Logan and Sarah Pezzini getting married. Obviously it didn't last.
  • JLA/Avengers:
    • The plot is set in motion by Kismet and Eternity, the avatars of the DC and Marvel Universes respectively, falling in love. In the end, they're forcefully torn apart.
    • Hawkeye and Black Canary get together, but only briefly and for the sake of a gag. A shift in the multiverse quickly puts her back together with Green Arrow.
  • Marvel vs. DC: Jubilee and Robin (Tim Drake) meet each other shortly after the DC and Marvel universes start merging, and the two quickly begin to fall in love with each other. They later learn that they have to fight to help decide which of the two universes will survive the merger, and share a Last Kiss before battling. Robin defeats her, and the two are separated again when the anthropomorphic universes decide to remain Friendly Rivals.
  • In the Image Comics-published third volume of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Michelangelo hooked up with Horridus from Savage Dragon.
  • Cassie Hack and Evil Ernie in Hack/Slash: The Final Revenge of Evil Ernie. Bomb Queen also hits on her in their crossover, but she would screw anyone.
  • One of the Third-Option Love Interest's for Archie of Archie Comics has been him and Valerie, from Josie and the Pussycats.
  • When the Runaways first crossed over with the Young Avengers, there was a bit of Ship Tease between Victor and Cassie.
  • Subverted in the The Punisher/Painkiller Jane crossover. While the cover of the first issue suggests the two characters will become lovers, in reality only Jane feels anything approaching sexual attraction. Poor Frank spends much of the crossover trying desperately to fend off her advances, while she does crazy stalker-esque things as sneaking into his apartment and trying on his Punisher shirts.
  • The Simpsons Futurama Crossover Crisis:
    • On the final page of the first miniseries, Zapp Brannigan is shown flirting with Edna Krabbapel.
    • That same final page also shows Mr. Burns and Mom greeting each other, which then leads to a romance between the two in the second miniseries.
  • In Batman/Elmer Fudd, Elmer had been in a relationship with Batman's old love interest Silver St. Cloud before she was killed by a hitman that he's sworn vengeance on. She'd actually been Faking The Death since she found out Elmer was a bounty hunter and sent him to kill Bruce Wayne to distract him from his vendetta.

    Comic Strips 

    Fan Works 

    Films — Animation 
  • It has never been released to the public, however many animators at Disney have confirmed that a few animators at Disney made a dirty animation of Tinkerbell from Peter Pan and Jiminy Cricket from Pinocchio together. The clip has been lost since the 1960s though, and its whereabouts are currently unknown.
  • Tom Thumb and Thumbelina is an actual film built around a Crossover Ship of Public Domain Characters.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Descendants 3 actually follows up on the below-mentioned Maleficent/Hades pairing from House of Mouse by revealing that main character Mal (previously only established as Maleficent's daughter) is their child.

    Literature 

    Live-Action TV 
  • The Syfy channel has embraced this trope, pairing up Claudia and Fargo in their Warehouse13 / Eureka crossover episodes. At first, it just seems like a mutual crush that won't go anywhere, but then, Claudia's boyfriend breaks up with her. Then, Claudia comes to Eureka. As they search for what's causing that week's problems, there is some flirting, and after being saved from a minefield, we get a full-blown makeout.
  • In The Wizards On Deck with Hannah Montana crossover, Justin/London, Max/London and Zack/Alex are teased.
  • When Power Rangers Wild Force teamed up with the previous Time Force team, they teased Eric and Taylor.
  • There's a Crossover Punchline at the end of the Boy Meets World episode "The Witches of Pennbrook" in which Eric is on a date with Sabrina (Sabrina the Teenage Witch).
  • Arrowverse:
  • The Supernatural crossover "Scoobynatural" has Dean wooing Daphne while Velma displays interest in Sam.
  • The end of the Magnum, P.I. / Murder, She Wrote crossover teased Jonathan Higgins and Jessica Fletcher, although it never went past Higgins quite obviously crushing on Jessica, to her amusement.
  • Jarod from The Pretender and Rachel Burke from Profiler. On the fourth season on both shows, they add a relationship arc spread over three crossover episodes.
  • In Crusade, protagonist Captain Matthew Gideon of EAS Excalibur has a small Romance Arc with Captain Elizabeth Lochley, base commander of Babylon 5 (debuting in the parent show's final season and continuing to command in the movies).
  • Michaela from How to Get Away with Murder and Marcus from Scandal work together on a case and ultimately hook up in Marcus’s car.
  • In the first Law & Order / Homicide: Life on the Street crossover "Charm City" and "For God and Country", Tim Bayliss has a crush on Claire Kincaid but it doesn't go anywhere.
  • There is an immediate attraction between J.R. Ewing from Dallas and his future sister-in-law Abby Cunningham from Knots Landing from their first meeting in the Knots Landing episode "A Family Matter". Each sees the other as a kindred spirit due to their shared love of money and power and their tendency to use blackmail and manipulation to achieve them. However, it is based more on lust than love. After the two of them have sex in "Designs", J.R. wishes that they could patent what they just invented.
  • In the Saved by the Bell: The New Class episode "The Kiss", Ryan Parker and Hang Time character Mary Beth Pepperton are immediately attracted to each other when they meet at Space Camp. They kiss after they are stranded alone on a country road. This causes complications in Ryan and Mary Beth's respective relationships with Rachel Meyers and Vince D'Amata but they are both eventually forgiven: Ryan in that very episode and Mary Beth in the Hang Time episode "Team Captain". Also in "The Kiss", Amy Wright, another Hang Time character, develops a crush on Screech Powers as she is attracted to the way that his mind works.
  • The Henry Danger and Game Shakers crossovers put Babe and Henry together, even having them go on a date. The Game Shakers finale even ends with Henry showing up to Game Shakers to see Babe.

    Print Media 

    Myths & Religion 
  • Maid Marian and Robin Hood's romance started out this way. She is thought to have originated as the originally unnamed May Queen or Queen of the Shepherds, a popular figure of the May festivities, and she gained her name from a series unrelated plays in which a Marian has a shepherd boyfriend who just happens to be named Robin. When Robin Hood plays became a fad, someone did a crossover and it eventually stuck.

    Video Games 

    Web Comics 

    Western Animation 

 
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Sex and the Matrix

Carrie Bradshaw goes on a date with Neo to the Matrix.

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