We doubted — honestly, we were very mean about this in the past — but look at that, Donny Cates, Geoff Shaw, Dee Cunniffe and John J. Hill delivered on the promise of the book. For all our complaining, all our criticism, the team delivered an action-packed finale to the first arc in Crossover #6.
Zachary Jenkins: You may notice that we didn’t actually cover Crossover #5. The honest reason? We didn’t have anything to say about the first boring issue of the series and truly thought our days as the leading critics of Crossover were through. But this issue? It reignited something.
Dan McMahon: No book has ever made me take my lunch as I saw an email come through with the review copy, but Crossover has me in its clutches.
A Real Crossover
ZJ: Two pages into this issue, something changes. The ever present, ever obnoxious narrator loses control of the story. Their caption boxes fade into nothingness. Three pages later? Otto puts on his glasses and sees what we the readers were promised all along. A big damn crossover.
Twenty-six different properties, from Savage Dragon to Kick-Ass, Powers to Wic+Div, Battle Pope to I Hate Fairyland. And it’s not limited to only Image properties either, as Dark Horse and BOOM get in on the fun with X and Incorruptible. For a book that has been Cates & Shaw OCs and also Madman, it’s a pretty big statement.
DM: Having the narrator lose control of the story was the first thing that worked for me in the way of having something more to say about comics. The narrator has been super overbearing and very “look how cool this is” since Issue #1. But to have them fade out and actually fight that we are supposed to listen to them because they’re in control? It absolutely works on another level while some of the other stuff has not.
For me, what this loss of control is saying is that the artist cannot control what people do or think about their creation once it’s out in the world. It’s the death of the author in a way because this story mostly revolves around characters other people have created in a sort of next-level fan fiction. For example, Mike Allred created Madman, but now he is in this other thing being written by someone else. The control over who that character is, their destiny and all that other stuff is in someone else’s hands. I am not sure if that was his intention, but it’s what made me think this issue is where the series clicks.
This breaking of the narrative ties that bind leads to what I think is the best scene in the entire series thus far, with Ellie telling Nick he doesn’t have to be “anyone for anyone else.” This theme isn’t groundbreaking, but I really do think Donny has found his groove in these first few pages that rival some of the emotions I felt when reading God Country.
It felt like someone blew the door off the hinges using C4 after the narrator vanished. Seeing ALL of this stuff on that splash page was actually very fun. It didn’t feel like there was a bigger agenda or anything. We are seeing these characters head on for the first time, where a lot of it has been just visual hints to them. These big battle scenes do sell that all of this is clashing and not just for the fun of the readers. My favorite thing is when Ellie uses Valofex to fight Walkers from The Walking Dead. There is a close call with a bite that looks and has the same tension it would in TWD, which makes it feel like less of an easy win but rather purposeful. Did you feel that they were better written here than they were before?
ZJ: I don’t know if the cast was written better here or if they finally had something to do. Elle, Otto and the characters whose names we can’t remember had mostly been passive observers prior in this book. A thing happened, they reacted to it, characters from the comicsverse did the real work. Here, Elle specifically takes control of the narrative when she convinces Ryan (that’s his name) not to shoot Ava. They have agency. They make their own future. They aren’t beholden to the narrator’s whims, jumping from OC to OC. It’s refreshing!
Not From Around Here
ZJ: We also get a pretty big reveal about Elle, one that recontextualizes a lot of the previous issues. She’s not from Denver in so much as she is a comic book character in disguise. The change in her motivation here is pretty important. She’s no longer some weird nerd who wears cosplay everywhere, she is a refugee trying to hold onto any memory of her home that she can. It makes a lot of the “God Hates Capes” stuff land a bit softer than it did in issue #1. Frankly, I was impressed by how much this change works for me. How about you, Dan?
DM: So I thought she was from a comic in Issue #1, I just thought maybe I was reading the issue wrong, so that has been in my brain since then. But I agree with the idea that her being from the comicverse makes a lot of the themes click for me a bit better than they did before. It makes me feel a lot more for her thinking she was in the comic shop to feel closer to whatever world she is from. Having that world ripped away from her by bigots is a lot more potent knowing she is a refuge. I am not sure if that’s the story Donny should be the one to tell, but this reveal does make it work a bit better than it did before.
ZJ: Oh there are FOR SURE some things The Don should have probably just not touched, but it makes the characters’ internal motivation much stronger. It importantly turns Elle from a fan cipher to a character I can care about. This issue doesn’t erase the sins of the past, but it does give me some excitement for the future.
Kids Love Chains
ZJ: We’re done with the first arc of this book. Did it deliver?
DM: That is such a hard question because I do not think the other five issues reach the same heights this one does. I think a lot of the things that didn’t work previously work super well here. Reading stories like this in floppies is hard for me because I think reading them all in one go would have been a better experience. I think seeing all of the themes built over the issues would have been a lot less sour when I have Issue #6 to show me the why behind a lot of it. As someone who has been pretty critical of this book for being a nostalgia and Ready Player One-for-comics affair, I think Issue #6 cements that it actually has potential to be more and say more.
ZJ: We’ve talked about how this book, regardless of being things like “good” or “coherent,” has constantly been wild. Cates and Shaw are talking a massive swing here, and while this issue might be a home run, the rest have been strikes. I guess that makes the arc as a whole like a foul ball down the third base line? I don’t know, I don’t watch baseball. But there’s a reason those big sluggers are so fun to watch, because when they hit? It’s a thundering, bat-cracking grand slam.
That’s what Crossover has been so far, crackling potential that has remained unrealized until now.
DM: I think I have burned myself out on comics after a year of non-stop writing, critique and analyzing, but Crossover has been the only book that’s actively made me super excited to read comics again. Before, it was a feeling of “Oh boy, what’s gonna happen now?” but this issue made me care about the world and the characters to a new level. I totally get that this is not a thing for everyone, but it made me smile and I need that sometimes more than I need something that makes me think too deep. I saw so many characters and ideas that made me go “I f#@%*^$ love how weird comics are.” So did it deliver? I am ordering the trade to put on my shelf, picking up Luther Strode, and am just so excited to read the funny books again, so … what are your feelings?
ZJ: I genuinely get excited by stuff like a surprise cameo from Lucifer from Wic+Div. Moments like that are electric in ways that things like the introduction of The Paybacks wasn’t. The cliffhanger of the first issue was the potential (read: lie) that Detective Comics Comics Superman would show up with a cheesy-as-hell line about hope. Frankly, the reality of Colonel Weird from Black Hammer giving cryptic warnings is much cooler. It’s a big summer crossover for the cool kids who read books where Spider-Man doesn’t show up. If it started by celebrating that, maybe it would have worked better for me. I don’t need to be teased with all of the biggest, coolest nerd shit. Give me the obscure, the weird, the forgotten. Give me the leftovers, baby! The pretentious-as-hell narrator is gone, though, so that bodes well for everything moving forward.
Stray Thoughts
- How in the world did they open this arc with a Todd McFarlane quote and not have Spawn show up? WHERE IS MY BIG CAPE BOY, DONNY!?
- Interesting legal tidbit, while the zombies here are obviously supposed to represent The Walking Dead, going as far as being presented in black and white, they are not officially listed as such in the back matter or legal text of this book. Both Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore are thanked for the use of Battle Pope, so obviously the creators aren’t against the idea of this crossover, but then again the legal ownership of this IP has not been simple in the past.
- Chip Zdarsky writes the next issue. I continue to be fascinated by whatever this book is trying to be.
- Dan is on loan to us as part of a crossover with Gatecrashers.fan. GateCrashers is a podcast and website dedicated to making all things nerdy more approachable and accessible for everyone. They want to help you find a world you’ll fall in love with. So go check them out today!
Zachary Jenkins runs ComicsXF and is a co-host on the podcast “Battle of the Atom.” Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside of all this.
