Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Get "Cross" with Me...

You might recall my April Fool joke: Peter Pan vs. Tom Sawyer. I’ve been thinking more about it. No, not terribly much. And especially, no, I don’t mean as a viable project. Just in general. It would be be quite the pairing, good for a lark. I then recalled my other match-up for Peter Pan: Mary Poppins. Also a crazy-cool meeting of characters. Again, not to be written in actuality. Just the playful entertainment value. So, naturally, I began to wonder who else might be intriguing to befriend (or pit against) Pan. I’ll be honest, I didn’t get further than one other idea before writing this post.

Quite frankly, he just may be the most logical pairing. One of my absolute favorites: Jim Hawkins of Treasure Island. Why logical? Besides the quite obvious reasons that Hawkins loves adventure and has had more than his share of a run-in with pirates, there’s the fact that the books are already purposely connected. (Via Barbecue and Hook.)

I’d love to see Jim and Peter battling pirates together. But I also don’t think I would ever try to manifest it beyond internal amusement. For one thing, it just seems “wrong.” For another, it doesn't actually work out. Peter Pan lives forever whereas Jim Hawkins does not. Even if their match-up adventure were placed immediately after the end of Treasure Island, it seems to me that the timeline is off. (In terms of what stage of development Peter would be experiencing then.) But it IS fun to think about!

Next I wondered about this very subject - “crossovers.” It happens in the comic world quite often. Another set that springs to mind: television shows. I think as with much, I am on the fence. It depends, of course, on the merits and execution.

How do you feel about the crossover of tales/characters?

And -- just for fun -- anyone else you’d like to see Peter Pan run into?

(Don’t worry, it won’t show up in anything I write in earnest!)

Addendum: Reading through my "Pan vs. Poppins" post again, how could I have forgotten THIS match-up? I might want to see that one more than Hawkins. Even better - Peter Pan and Jim Hawkins teaming up against the character in the picture!

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