''Crossover'' is an
American comic book ongoing series
In comics, an ongoing series is a series that runs indefinitely. This is in contrast to limited series (a series intended to end after a certain number of issues thus limited), a one shot (a comic book which is not a part of an ongoing series), ...
created by
Donny Cates
Donny Cates (born September 14, 1984) is an American comic book writer, artist, and podcaster, known for his work on titles like ''Venom (Marvel Comics character), Venom'', ''Thanos'', ''Doctor Strange'', ''Thor (Marvel Comics), Thor,'' and ''Hul ...
, Geoff Shaw, Dee Cunniffe and John J. Hill, and is being published by
Image Comics
Image Comics is an American comic book publisher and is the third largest comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry in both unit and market share. It was founded in 1992 by several high-profile illustrators as a venue for creator-o ...
.
The series debuted on November 4, 2020.
Premise
In 2017,
fictional characters
In fiction, a character (or speaker, in poetry) is a person or other being in a narrative (such as a novel, play, radio or television series, music, film, or video game). The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life perso ...
from
comic books
A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
, across various publishers and genres, come to life in the
real world, causing mayhem, destruction and death around the city of
Denver
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the United ...
,
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...
.
Five years later, a ragtag team of humans and characters join forces and embark on a quest to return to Denver, now domed off and containing the displaced characters, to find out the cause behind "The Event".
Publication history
In July 2020, during
San Diego Comic-Con
San Diego Comic-Con International is a comic book convention and nonprofit multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California since 1970. The name, as given on its website, is Comic-Con International: San Diego; but it is co ...
,
Image Comics
Image Comics is an American comic book publisher and is the third largest comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry in both unit and market share. It was founded in 1992 by several high-profile illustrators as a venue for creator-o ...
announced a comic book series titled ''Crossover'', created by
Donny Cates
Donny Cates (born September 14, 1984) is an American comic book writer, artist, and podcaster, known for his work on titles like ''Venom (Marvel Comics character), Venom'', ''Thanos'', ''Doctor Strange'', ''Thor (Marvel Comics), Thor,'' and ''Hul ...
, Geoff Shaw, Dee Cunniffe and John J. Hill.
Three years earlier, they created ''God Country'' and ''Redneck'', two other Image series.
According to Cates and Shaw during an interview on
IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa dist ...
, the story is inspired by the concept of several
crossover summer events that are presented by comic book publishers like
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery.
DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with their f ...
,
Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics is an American comic book publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Comics'' in 19 ...
, among others, with the story being inspired on "''
Avengers: Endgame'' as ''
Cloverfield
''Cloverfield'' is a 2008 American found footage monster film directed by Matt Reeves, produced by J. J. Abrams, and written by Drew Goddard. It stars Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T.J. Miller, Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel and Odett ...
''", and they also revealed the possibility for other characters from Image and other owners to appear.
Characters
Main
* Ellipses "Ellie" Howell — A survivor of the Event in
Denver
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the United ...
,
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...
, who works as an employee for a
direct market
The direct market is the dominant distribution and retail network for American comic books. The concept of the direct market was created in the 1970s by Phil Seuling. The network currently consists of:
* four major comic distributors:
** Lunar ...
retail
Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and th ...
er in Otto's comic book store, but now wants to return to her home. She is in fact a character from the fictional world.
* Orion "Ryan" Lowe — The son of an extremist Protestant, who previously has an altercation with Ellie and the others, but according to a prisoner in the Powerhouse (whose identity is later revealed), he will play a role in ending the Event.
* Ava Quinn — A citizen from the other world, who has superpowers of her own and befriends Ellie.
* Otto — The owner of a comic book store in
Provo, Utah, who is Ellie's boss.
* Father Lowe — Ryan's abusive father and an extremist Protestant, who strongly believes the Event in Denver is the Devil's work to the point of planning a war against the characters.
* Nathaniel Abrams Pendleton — The Special Director of the Powerhouse, an organization that hunts characters, to the point of even doing experiments on them. He secretly instructs Ryan to find the way to end the Event, while holds Donny Cates as a prisoner against his will.
Guest
*
Brian Michael Bendis
Brian Michael Bendis (; born August 18, 1967) is an American comic book writer and artist. He has won five Eisner Awards for both his creator-owned work and his work on various Marvel Comics books.Bendis, Brian Michael and Oeming, Michael Avon, ...
*
Stefano Caselli
Stefano Caselli (born 21 February 1978) is an Italian comic book artist best known for his work on the Marvel Comics title '' Avengers: The Initiative'', the mini-series '' Civil War: Young Avengers/Runaways'' and ''Secret Warriors''. He was one ...
*
Donny Cates
Donny Cates (born September 14, 1984) is an American comic book writer, artist, and podcaster, known for his work on titles like ''Venom (Marvel Comics character), Venom'', ''Thanos'', ''Doctor Strange'', ''Thor (Marvel Comics), Thor,'' and ''Hul ...
*
Jonathan Hickman
Jonathan Hickman (born September 3, 1972) is an American comic book writer and artist, best known for his creator-owned series ''The Nightly News'', ''The Manhattan Projects'' and '' East of West'', as well as his lengthy stints as a writer on M ...
* Megan Hutchison
*
Robert Kirkman
Robert Kirkman (; born November 30, 1978)Löchel, Ingo"The Walking Dead: Die Comic-Serie – Robert Kirkman" Zauberspiegel. Retrieved February 17, 2013. is an American comic book writer, screenwriter and television producer. He is best known ...
*
Michael Avon Oeming
Michael Avon Oeming is an American comic book creator, both as an artist and writer.
Career
Oeming is a fan of ancient mythology, having written or drawn several projects centering on the Norse gods. He frequently collaborates with long-time f ...
* Geoff Shaw
*
Brian K. Vaughan
Brian K. Vaughan (born July 17, 1976) is an American comic book and television writer, best known for the comic book series '' Y: The Last Man'', '' Ex Machina'', ''Runaways'', '' Pride of Baghdad'', ''Saga'', and '' Paper Girls''.
Vaughan was a ...
*
Chip Zdarsky
Steve Murray (born December 21, 1975), known by the pen-name Chip Zdarsky, is a Canadian comic book artist and writer, journalist, illustrator and designer. He has also used the pseudonym Todd Diamonte. He worked for ''National Post'' for over a ...
Returning
Issues
Reception
Oscar Maltby wrote for ''
Newsarama
Newsarama is an American website that publishes news, interviews, and essays about the American comic book industry. It is owned by Future US. In June 2020, Newsarama was merged with the website GamesRadar+, also owned by FutureUS.
History
N ...
'' that the first issue was "bold as hell" and an intriguing start.
Collected editions
References
{{Image Comics
Comics about parallel universes
Image Comics titles
2020 comics debuts
Crossover comics
Metafictional works