Not that we've come a long way in terms of fun stories that don't make a lick of sense, as last year's Age of Ultron proved. Confusing everybody from the off by consisting of a ten-issue limited series and tie-ins comics that took the form of weirdly-numbered single issues - Fantastic Four #5.AU, Superior Spider-Man #6.AU etc - and coming out way quicker than events tended to, things weren't cleared up any more in the story itself, which took place on not one but two alternate Earths! On one the mystic villain Morgan le Fay had conquered half the planet, and on the other the titular robotic Ultron had wiped out all of humanity. Man, robots really enjoy doing that, huh. Despite some goofy payoffs nobody really cared about - like contentious Spawn character Angela becoming part of the regular Marvel Universe for some reason - for the most part Age of Ultron was a fun "darkest timeline" romp along the lines of Days Of Future Past, only it's the entire superhero population that's being hunted down and killed by evil androids, not just mutants. Throw in some shocking twists and some gorgeous Bryan Hitch artwork, and you've got a pretty darn good crossover. That's before the Ultron universe crosses over with the Morgan le Fay one, even! Age of Ultron does a great job of updating the Silver Age's propensity for dimension-skipping adventures and truly epic superhero yarns, placing them in a modern context that just makes it all the more fun for today's readers. Plus it lead to the great What If? spin-off series which included, amongst other things, an alternate take on the story where Wolverine is a salty sea captain (complete with hat).
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
