Crossover vol. 1: Kids Love Chains
First Donny Cates and Geoff Shaw toiled in obscurity on titles like “Buzzkill” and “The Paybacks.” Then they hit it big at Image with “God Country.” Then they hit it bigger at Marvel with “Thanos Wins.” Then they did an arc of “Guardians of the Galaxy” while Cates went on to even bigger success with “Venom.” With all that success behind them, the duo’s return to creator-owned comics at Image was going to be a blockbuster. This turned out to be true when the first issue of “Crossover” launched to an estimated 150,000 copies in sales.
Given the quality of their previous collaborations, it’s certainly gratifying to see Cates and Shaw enjoy this level of sales success. Especially on a title that they created themselves. Of course, it also begs the question of how good “Crossover” is itself. The answer to that question is, at this point, kind of difficult to answer.
You see, the series has a simple high concept behind it: What if a big superhero crossover event, something on the level of “Secret Wars” or “Crisis on Infinite Earths” spilled over into our world. That’s what happened in Denver, Colorado, on January 11, 2017, and all hell promptly broke loose with the superheroes fighting each other and the entire population of the city becoming caught in the crossfire. Before things could get worse, a force field was put up over the city. Now the humans and comic book characters were safe from each other. Except for all of the characters who were outside the field when it went up.
Flash forward to the present day and “superhero” has become a dirty word in America. Marvel and DC are no more, comic book creators live in fear for their lives, and only a handful of comic shops are still in operation. One of them is in Provo, Utah, and is run by the irascible Otto, who still deals in pre-event superhero comics. This story isn’t about him, however, it’s about his assistant Ellipsis “Ellie” Howell, whose parents were inside Denver when the force field went up. She’s tried to do her best to move on from that, even if it hasn’t been easy. That all changes one day when a little girl finds her way into the store and steals a comic. Before Otto can put the fear of God into her, he and Ellie see that she’s actually a comic book character. Oh, and she may have been brought out here by Superman.
That right there is the biggest problem I had with this comic. In doing a series where a superhero event breaks into the real world, I figured that Cates and Shaw would be doing off-brand versions of familiar heroes. It’s not like Marvel or DC would be loaning out their A-listers for this kind of thing, you know. This approach would also allow the creators more freedom to do what they wanted with characters we could recognize and were legally distinct from their inspirations. Better still would be that this could represent the kind of inter-company event that we haven’t seen in decades, what with the ongoing cold war between Marvel and DC’s owners, Disney and Warner Bros.
That’s not what Cates and Shaw have done, however. The implication is Marvel and DC’ characters (and more, but we’ll get to that in a second) are actually part of this crossover. We don’t see any of them specifically, but we get glimpses of them in shadow, observe others from great distances, and see some very recognizable arms hanging out of prison cells. It’s a ballsy move for the creators to try and sell the reader on the idea that these characters are actually in this comic. The problem is that it doesn’t really work since they can’t actually play a significant role in the story due to copyright issues. This may be a comic where Wolverine, Batman, Superman, and Captain America are all in it, except it doesn’t matter because you’ll never see them together in a single panel. The whole setup feels like a giant tease of something that isn’t going to happen.
Unless you’re a big fan of Image or certain other creator-owned titles, that is. While DC or Marvel aren’t going to let the creators play with their toys, it’s a different matter if Cates and Shaw get permission from their friends. Which is why you’ll see many characters from other creator-owned Image titles show up at the story’s climax, as well as a few others from Cates and Shaw’s history, and one more who isn’t Superman but is still pretty super regardless, over the course of the story itself.
While there’s a certain excitement to be had from seeing these characters in the same comic together, it still only serves to highlight the fact that we’re not getting the big A-list characters that are supposed to be in the story. Some of these cameos are a poor distraction too. Though the double-page spread showcasing the majority of them is pretty fantastic, that’s the only time we get to see most of them. It also did not impress me to see Col. Weird from “Black Hammer” and Hit-Girl from “Kick-Ass” get significant cameos in the final issue, but your mileage may vary.
In fact, I think the entertainment value offered by all of these cameo appearances is highly subjective based on how much you like the characters involved. I do think it was cool to see Cates and Shaw drawing on their own history here and one hero who has a significant role here happens to be one that I’ve been meaning to catch up on for a while now. All of this being said, if “Crossover” does turn out to be a vehicle for getting us a new “The Paybacks” series, then I think it’ll have been worth it. That’s just me, though.
It’s not there yet. While I’ve talked a lot about the other characters who are a part of the series, it’s really all about Ellie, Otto, Ava, and one more person, Ryan. The latter guy wants to get out from under his religiously domineering father’s thumb, but hasn’t quite figured out how yet. They’re a generally interesting bunch with their own issues who are here to give us a grounds-eye view of the events going on and their drive to get Ava back where she belongs is a decent hook for the first volume’s narrative. Decent, but not gripping. The characterization gets the job done here in this volume, but you’re left with the feeling that it’s constantly being upstaged by all these guest appearances.
Cates also throws in some bits that hint at long-term planning for the series: The government’s involvement in dealing with the supes, the “Amalgam” program, an untrustworthy narrator who might actually be the writer himself, and a final-page reveal that gives us a new perspective on one of the main cast. All of this is decent enough and there are hints of how well the writer can mix everyday humanistic issues with epic sci-fi/fantasy action, but it doesn’t come together as well as it has in his previous work. Mainly because I think we’re supposed to be distracted by how cool it is that all of these other comic book characters are in this one series.
One part of the series that doesn’t disappoint is the art from Shaw. A lot is being asked of him here with a premise that calls for the intersection of summer blockbuster action and destruction with our world. Shaw delivers on both counts, as he showed he could do in “God Country.” His work on “Crossover” is much in the same vein, only now he’s being asked to draw a lot of familiar characters as well. This is something that he’s able to pull off well here as each character is easily recognizable when filtered through Shaw’s style.
I’m sure that Shaw is a strong enough artist that he could’ve given us recognizable yet-off-brand versions of Marvel and DC’s characters and allowed them to play an actual role in the story. For whatever reason, Cates and Shaw didn’t take the story down that route and we’re left with a comic that wants us to believe that those characters are actually a part of it, except that they really aren’t. It’s a frustrating decision that keeps “Crossover” from being a genuinely entertaining comic and makes this first volume feel like a well-intentioned misfire. The creators are here to play the long game, and they’ve earned enough goodwill for me to come back and see if vol. 2 manages to improve on this setup.