Wolverine in the Avengers movie - plus other possible superhero crossovers...

ACTOR Hugh Jackman has said he would be interested in his Wolverine character appearing in the upcoming Avengers team-up movie.

It's not such a crazy idea as it might sound. Wolverine has become a member of two comicbook versions of Marvel's Avengers team.

The line-up of the Avengers has changed many times over the years and there are several versions of the team. The original team, in 1963, comprised Thor, Iron Man, Ant-Man, Wasp and Hulk, with Captain America joining a year later.

Wolverine joined Marvel's New Avengers variant in issue 6 in June 2005, to fight alongside that team's founding members Iron Man, Captain America, Luke Cage, Spider-Man and Spider-Woman (see image on right).

He is also a member of the alternative-universe Avengers team in the Marvel Adventures series, fighting alongside Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, Spider-Man, Giant Girl and fellow X-Men member Storm, who also joined this version of Avengers (see main picture at top).

When Jackman was asked by MTV News if he could envisage a Wolverine cameo in the Avengers, he responded: "Any movie with Robert Downey Jr I want to be in. I'm open to it. I love playing this guy."

He added: "The great thing about Wolverine is he's still a fun character. He's a tortured soul but he's always got a quip. He's always got a line. He's like Dirty Harry and Mad Max. These aren't nice guys but they get the job done. He marches to the beat of his own drummer. That's why I love playing him."

Jackman also promised next May's X-Men Origins: Wolverine would be darker than the three X-Men movies seen so far.

The idea of a Wolverine cameo in the Avengers movie is interesting, but could be problematic, if not impossible.

When Marvel went bankrupt in 1996, it helped itself climb out of the abyss by selling off the film rights to several of its characters. The rights to X-Men, Fantastic Four and Daredevil went to 20th Century Fox; Sony's Columbia Pictures snapped up Spider-Man and Ghost Rider; and Universal bought the screen rights for Hulk and Namor the Submariner.

Although all these are Marvel comicbook characters, the fact that different studios own the movie rights makes crossovers less likely.

Marvel is now making its own movies - it started the ball rolling with Iron Man in May and then, having clawed back the rights to Hulk following Ang Lee's underachieving version, it released The Incredible Hulk in June this year.

It's planning an Iron Man sequel, a Thor movie, an Ant-Man movie, a Captain America film and then will bring them together in an Avengers team-up adventure. The film rights to all those characters are owned by Marvel so it can create a 'unified movie-verse' in which all those beings co-exist.

We've already seen Iron Man's public alter-ego Tony Stark mention Avengers in a brief cameo at the end of The Incredible Hulk, which also made a reference to Captain America.

But including characters whose film rights are with other studios is much more tricky.

Sony's Columbia Pictures already said 'no' when director Louis Leterrier wanted a cool Spider-Man nod in his movie The Incredible Hulk. He first wanted Tobey Maguire to appear in a brief shot as Peter Parker in the scenes at a university where Bruce Banner meets scientist Samuel Sterns and, when that was refused, he asked as a compromise if he could at least use the name Empire University, the fictional institution where Parker is studying. Sony refused that as well.

Leterrier said: "The university at the end [where Banner meets with Samuel Sterns] is Columbia University. Columbia University in the Marvel world, especially in the Spider-Man world, is Empire State University. I wanted some kind of shot where you're like, 'Oh my god. Is that Peter Parker?' That would have been fun!"

"Then I just wanted to call it Empire University - to treat it like a coherent world. And Sony, who has the rights to Spidey, didn't want us to do that. It was a small thing but something we couldn't do."

He added: "Marvel is pretty good at doing their own movies and so eventually the studios will allow them to chaperone the production of [all of them]," he said. "Years from now you'll see Peter Parker meeting Bruce Banner."

I think it will be a long wait. Sony is obviously clinging to its Spider-Man franchise, with more movies planned, just as Fox is hanging on to everything X-Men related by planning three prequel origin movies - on Wolverine, Magneto and the younger years of the main mutants.

Fox could bring Fantastic Four and X-Men into the same world, as it owns rights to both. It already had some very small nods when a desk photograph in Fantastic Four showed Victor von Doom meeting William Stryker and President McKenna from X2, and a computer screen in X2 listed the name Franklin Richards, the mutant son of Mr Fantastic and Invisible Woman, who has the power to alter reality.

In the comics, Mr Fantastic used his molecular technology to create the X-Men's costumes. (In addition, a hologram device called an image inducer, used by Nightcrawler to appear as a normal human when in public, was designed by Tony Stark/Iron Man). There have been many X-Men/Fantastic Four comicbook crossovers. In addition, the X-Men have fought Fantastic Four archfoe Doctor Doom and Storm once became a temporary member of the Fantastic Four. It's perhaps worth noting that Beast has been a member of the Avengers too.

Some fans have asked for a movie crossover with X-Men and Fantastic Four, although it could be unwieldy bringing two teams into one two-hour movie, and would risk many characters being sidelined in order for the movie to have flow and focus. But, if done right, it could be brilliant to see on screen.

It could perhaps involve the two teams joining forces to stop Galactus when he returns to Earth.

Or the Silver Surfer's matter-altering powers (as seen in the second Fantastic Four movie, where they caused snow over the pyramids, solidified a bay and transferred the Fantastic Four's powers to each other) - or Franklin Richards' reality-altering mutant abilities - could bring back the Phoenix and restore the abilities of anyone who was cured in X-Men: The Last Stand. Such characters could be used to change, undo and reinstate whatever the writers wanted.

Or maybe Franklin's emerging, unstable, reality-warping powers could be a reason for the two teams to join up and stop the child from unravelling the world as we know it. Alternatively, little Franklin could be the one whose amazing abilities save the day against a larger threat.

The possibilities seem endless. The Fantastic Four and the X-Men could even be fighting against each other if, perhaps, the Fantastic Four were trying to protect Franklin while the X-Men saw his powers as a threat, or the X-Men were trying to protect a resurrected Phoenix which the Fantastic Four saw as a threat.

All it would take is some imagination, a good director and some solid storytelling.

Which cameos, crossovers and team-ups would you like to see, bearing in mind which studios own the film rights to various characters?