Yes, The Muppets Are Crossing Over With the Marvel Universe (and It Looks Amazing)

Being a fan of The Muppets is filled with plenty of highs and lows, whether its the future of the crew’s theme park rides, or the question of why the heck Disney+ reboot of The Muppet Show hasn’t gotten a series order yet. In the meantime, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the premiere of the original run of The Muppet Show, Marvel Comics is tiding fans over in a pretty epic way.

On Monday, the publisher announced The Muppets Take the Marvel Universe #1, which will be available wherever comics are sold on Wednesday, September 23rd. As the title naturally suggests, the one-shot issue will mash up beloved Muppet characters with a slew of larger-than-life Marvel superheroes. The creative team for the issue includes Chip Zdarsky, Pete Woods, Ashley Allen, MacKenzie Cadenhead, Kyle Starks, David Baldeon, Mike Henderson, Phillip Kennedy Johnson, and more.

The Muppets Take the Marvel Universe #1 will have covers by Nick Bradshaw, Humberto Ramos, Ron Lim, including a special Muppet Treasure Island 30th Anniversary cover from Matteo Lolli, along with a Logo Mashup variant cover combining Spider-Man and Kermit. This one-shot arrives after Marvel already debuted a crop of variant covers celebrating last year’s 70th anniversary of The Muppets, many of which placed Muppet characters into iconic Marvel illustrations. (Marvel also previously published a few omnibus collections of The Muppets and Muppet Babies comics, although those collections have been out of print for over a decade.) Don’t worry, there will also be new Muppet-themed variant covers published alongside the one-shot this September.

“With the great power of two iconic properties comes great responsibility. I promise to not let down Kermit, Fozzie and Animal the way Spider-Man let down his Uncle Ben,” Zdarsky joked in a statement, adding that: “It’s impossible to overstate how excited I write for Miss Piggy, who I consider to be one of the greatest icons of the last hundred years, a character who speaks to every generation. I also got to write Deadpool. And Pete Woods is turning in the most stunning, detailed and joyous pages. Seeing his take on these characters interacting is a real delight.”

“It has been exciting for The Muppets Studio to collaborate with Marvel Comics in a new and unique way to bring the personality, humor and mayhem of The Muppets into the Marvel Universe and vice versa,” added Leigh Slaughter, Vice President of The Muppets Studio. “To do this during the 50th anniversary year of The Muppet Show makes this project even more meaningful.”

What Is The Muppets Take the Marvel Universe #1 About?

According to Marvel’s official description for the one-shot, stories in The Muppets Take the Marvel Universe #1 will include:

• Rowlf the Dog is kidnapped by Mojo to help launch his new streaming service! It’s the crossover no one saw coming as Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Spider-Man, Black Panther, Wolverine, Emma Frost, and many more team up to save the day in this pop culture history-making adventure by Chip Zdarsky and Pete Woods.
• Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker welcome Bruce Banner and Hank Pym to Muppet Labs for a daring experiment with Gamma Rays and Pym Particles! What could go wrong? Find out in this explosive story from Kyle Starks and Mike Henderson.
• When Clea falls ill from a mystical virus and Doctor Strange doesn’t have the cure—help arrives from the unlikeliest of sources: the Swedish Chef, in this appetizing tale from Ashley Allen and Paco Medina.
• Pigs in Space meet raccoons in space! Cosmic chaos ensues when Captain Link Hogthrob, First Mate Piggy, and Dr. Julius Strangepork crash into Rocket Raccoon and Groot in an intergalactic romp by MacKenzie Cadenhead and David Baldeon.
• Additional stories will be brought to life by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Adam F. Goldberg, E.J. Su and Áthila Fabbio.

As mentioned above, The Muppets Take the Marvel Universe #1 will be released wherever comics are sold on Wednesday, September 23rd.

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