Crossover (Image Comics)


Crossover is an American comic book ongoing series created by Donny Cates, Geoff Shaw, Dee Cunniffe and John J. Hill, and published by Image Comics.
The series debuted on November 4, 2020 and was put on hold on August 18, 2022.

Premise

In 2017, fictional characters from comic books, across various publishers and genres, come to life in the real world, causing mayhem, destruction and death around the city of Denver, Colorado.
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, Image Comics announced a comic book series titled Crossover, created by Donny Cates, 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, the story is inspired by the concept of several crossover summer events that are presented by comic book publishers like DC Comics, Marvel Comics, among others, with the story being inspired by/based on "Avengers: Endgame as Cloverfield", and they also revealed the possibility for other characters from Image and other owners to appear.
Following the release of issue #1 in 3D edition on August 18, 2022, Image put the series on hold to release another comic book titled Vanish, also co-created by Cates.

Characters

Main

  • Ellipses "Ellie" Howell — A survivor of the Event in Denver, Colorado, who works as an employee for a direct market retailer 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, 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 dedicated to hunting characters and even conducting experiments on them, secretly instructs Ryan to find a way to end the Event. Meanwhile, he holds Donny Cates as a prisoner against his will.

    Guest

  • Brian Michael Bendis
  • Stefano Caselli
  • Donny Cates
  • Jonathan Hickman
  • Megan Hutchison
  • Robert Kirkman
  • Michael Avon Oeming
  • Geoff Shaw
  • Brian K. Vaughan
  • Chip Zdarsky

    Returning

Issues

Reception

Oscar Maltby wrote for Newsarama that the first issue was "bold as hell" and an intriguing start.
IssuePublication dateCritic ratingCritic reviewsRef.
#1November 4, 20208.9/1026
#2December 9, 20207.9/1015
#3January 6, 20218.4/1011
#4February 24, 20218.2/1014
#5March 31, 20218.0/1012
#6April 28, 20219.2/1011
#7June 30, 20218.5/107
#8September 29, 20218.9/106
#9November 3, 20219.3/106
#10December 8, 20218.1/106
#11February 2, 20229.1/106
#12March 2, 20228.9/104
#13May 11, 20229.2/106
Overall8.7/10130

Collected editions