It’s nearly summer.
If you’re a comic book reader – well, a comic book reader of the “Big Two” publishers, Marvel Comics and DC Comics, that generally means it’s high time for a blockbuster crossover comic book series that aims to shake up the status quo of the publishers roster of superheroes and supervillains.
We love them, those event-themed crossovers.
We love them for their action, their grand scale, the heightened risk to our beloved heroes, and the impending deaths of any number of characters, A and B-listers alike.
And we love to hate them.
We hate them, generally for their constantly successful strategy of emptying our wallets of every nickel and dime as we buy (and read) each tangential publication flashing some epic tagline that stems from the main series itself. And we hate them because we go back to them, summer after every senses-shattering, bank account reducing, (sometimes buyer’s remorse) soul searching summer.
But that’s not why we’re here today, mid-way through the depths of this particular Wednesday Run column. No, today, we get to enjoy the real blockbuster summer crossover event that is first trade paperback compilation of the monthly Crossover series!
Published in six monthly installments (thus far), Crossover is a comic book story that takes the previously mentioned publishers yearly go-to sales machine storyline, well, literally.
Written and illustrated by fan favourite’s Donny Cates (Venom, Thor) and Geoff Shaw (God Country), Crossover takes the likes of Crisis on Infinite Earths and Infinity War and blends it with a heaping of Stephen King’s The Stand and The Dark Tower novels. It’s The Unwritten by Carey and Gross, Black Hammer by Lemire, Preacher by Ennis and Dillon and Fables by Willingham rolled together with the biggest summer superhero stakes in the offing!
In Crossover, fiction is real. And superheroes from your favourite four-colour titles have bled their way, somehow, into our own reality, fighting the biggest of electrifying events over…Denver, Colorado?
Ellises “Ellie” Howell, knows comic book characters. She works at a comic shop after all and we all know that anyone who works in a comic book shop knows their superheroes. Trying to return an “escaped” character back to Denver, she sets off on her own hero’s journey through reality and fiction, secretive government agencies and religious zealots.
True to its title, each issue of Crossover has a plethora of pop culture characters that jump from the gutters of indie and mainstream life. Look for appearance like Mike Allred’s Madman, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Todd McFarlane’s Spawn, Alan Moore’s infamous Squid, and Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.’s Hit-Girl to make appearances. Of course, there are also “lesser known” pop culture creations like Scooby-Doo, Godzilla, Superman, Batman, Spider-Man and Archie that show up in some form or other.
That’s the fun, the hook, the mischief, the excitement and the fascination that is Crossover!
Maybe you missed it in its monthly release format, but don’t miss the compilation. Make the run to your local comic book shop – where they know all the answers like how great this series is – and pick up the Crossover TBP Vol. 1 today!
