Crossover vol. 2: The Ten-Cent Plague
I was expecting a lot from the first volume of this series. As writer Donny Cates and artist Geoff Shaw’s first creator-owned title after hitting it big with “God Country” and “Thanos Wins” over at Marvel, I was expecting them to bring their A-game to a brand new series. That series was “Crossover” and it was all about what happens when a big superhero event breaks out into the real world. The problem was that Cates and Shaw wanted it to be about all the superheroes we were familiar with, which were also the ones that Warner Bros. and Disney would never allow them to actually use. We did get some good cameos featuring characters from Image titles and other indie comics, but the whole thing felt like the creators were delivering a concept that they’d never be able to realize to its fullest extent. That remains true here, except that Cates and Shaw have now found a way for their series to matter beyond being the superhero event to end all others.
The volume starts off by picking up on a plot thread introduced in the previous volume. Someone is going around and killing comic book writers, which is causing some of them to go underground. One of them is Chip Zdarsky, writer of “Howard the Duck,” multiple “Spider-Man” titles, in addition to being the artist of “Sex Criminals.” He’s masquerading (badly) as a short-order cook and has just about reached the end of his rope. It isn’t until he meets one of his own creations that he realizes things might not be so bad after all.
I won’t tell you which of Zdarsky’s creations he winds up meeting. In fact, don’t expect to find out about any of the other major comic book character cameos here because there are some really good and surprising ones this time around. The one by “Batman” isn’t one of them though. Assuming it’s actually him, and not the Joker trying to frame him, then what he does here is EXTREMELY out of character and not something this series is prepared to engage with unless Cates and Shaw are looking to get a very angry call from Warner’s lawyers.
Where was I? Oh yeah, Zdarsky’s creation. What winds up happening here is a genuinely tender talk between a creation and his creator about the relationship between an artist and his work. For a character that initially appeared to be created as a joke, he actually has some insightful things to say about his existence, and one good joke about Jonathan Hickman. Zdarsky learns from himself here and the big scene they share together actually feels like a meaningful character piece.
It’s in this issue, which I should mention is written by Zdarsky himself and illustrated by Phil Hester, that “Crossover” becomes something more than a wannabe superhero event comic involving (a lot of) superheroes it can never actually use. It becomes a platform where comic book creators can interact with their creations. Two more instances of this take place over the course of the series, with most of the actual creators involved working on the scenes involving their characters. While I don’t think either of these scenes are as impactful as the Zdarsky issue, they’re still interesting in how they offer up experiences that we’d never see in their actual comics.
Beyond comic book characters interacting with their creators, the plot of vol. 2 takes a different track than what the first one did. With the concept firmly established, now we can start finding out why these characters are here and for what purpose. Right? Mostly.
You see, “Crossover” vol. 2 decides to get meta in a very specific way. It might be possible to guess the specific way that it does if I tell you that it’s done in the most hack-y way imaginable. I have no problems in describing it that way because I’m sure the individual involved would agree with me. In fact, the whole of the story of vol. 2 gets progressively more-head-up-its-ass clever the more it goes on and the more metafiction plays a role in the story.
It all feels very cringe in spots and I’d likely find it unreadable if it didn’t feel that Cates and Shaw were aware of what they’re doing. They very much are judging by all the self-deflating humor they toss out along the way. Whether or not this will work for you will depend on your appetite for seeing just how shameless the creators can get as the story goes on. While this is far from either creator’s best work, you can tell that their hearts are in every twist and ridiculous meta development. I admire that, even though I can understand that there are a lot of people who will stop reading vol. 2 before its end and toss it on their own “to sell” pile.
Which they really shouldn’t because the end of the volume contains a genuinely great twist. It’s all about who’s in control of the story being told and it turns out that the answer isn’t as clear-cut as we were led to believe. This is great because the actual reveal makes perfect sense and was expertly foreshadowed up to this point. I can’t say that it completely transforms the book into something I’d recommend to everyone, but it at least got me excited about the prospect of a third volume to this series. A concluding one, I should hope, because I can’t imagine Cates and Shaw stretching things out any further than that.