Crossover
Writer: Donny Cates
Artist: Geoff Shaw
Publisher: Image Comics
The character crossover concept is a well-known, long time staple of fictional storytelling and popular entertainment.
Crossovers are notably fascinating for their ability to draw impassioned reactions from fans even before the story has been consumed. They tap into a big part of what it means to be a fan; specifically, buying into characters and worlds and making them your own, well past the bounds of the original creation and creators intentions.
Dedicated fans will tap into their own imaginations to fill in narrative gaps, consider what happens after the conclusion of a tale, or, most interestingly, conceive entirely new adventures. These ideas often serve as a basis for engagement with other fans of the material, ranging from enthusiastic internet discussions to exceptionally talented fanfiction and fanart.
Passionate fans will also take the time to flesh out minor character traits, posit character morality, design visual adjustments and variations, and develop detailed backstories that provide the source material with a depth impossible to achieve of its own accord.
Without the commercial considerations that so much modern entertainment is hampered by, fans are unencumbered to ideate and create in a way that content developed to a budget for specific market segments to make profit cannot. These fan-developed ideas are sometimes then introduced into later professionally developed stories and become canon. Thoughts that produce the most engaging discussions within fandoms also often find their way into later adventures, as commercial entities recognise and seek to appease their audience.
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This isn’t to say that professional entertainment companies can’t produce highly engaging and creative media; far from it. Collectively, they consistently do at a remarkable level, even if they regularly also regularly miss the mark, or under deliver. It’s always worth remembering that entertainment products receive overwhelming customer scrutiny - especially on the internet - when compared to other industries. A new Spider-Man movie preview can get 355 million trailer views in one day, whereas a major, name-brand supermarket product would be very happy with just 355 online mentions over the course of a week.
However, entertainment companies know that material with wide commercial appeal offers the best chance of maximising profits. They’re strategically driven by this ethos, and will consistently make creative compromises in an effort to achieve return on investment. A three hour long R-rated Batman movie based on a lengthy and mature storyline like ‘Hush’, ‘The Killing Joke’ or ‘The Long Halloween’ would be most true to the character and satiate the most dedicated Bat-fans. A two hour PG-rated Batman movie where he gets drive-thru on his way to fight Jim Carrey allows for a younger audience and more sessions per day, and offers far greater potential for higher ticket sales and more revenue.
In addition to their lack of commercial appeal, many of the high concept ideas and thoughts that dedicated fans obsess over simply aren’t financially viable. Professional entertainment requires a huge amount of time and effort spent by many people. What can be creatively attempted is hindered by harsh realities and restrictions, and output must meet a level of creative quality to stand up to harsh criticism. Professional entertainment takes months or years to develop at great financial cost, before it’s finally released to a saturated and ultra-competitive marketplace.
All of this is a trepidatious balancing act. A lot of popular entertainment relies on appealing to masses of people a little bit, rather than to a few people a lot. Given the world’s population, and thanks to the power of the internet and modern technology, it’s now easier than ever for a person to find entertainment that speaks to them far more as an individual than broad-appeal entertainment such as Hollywood movies, network TV shows, radio-friendly songs, and airport paperbacks ever could.
Conversely, single fans can distribute their creative ideas with immediacy, without fear that mistakes or failures could cost them their livelihood. Fans create in a vacuum, whereas companies are forced to consider competing products, including other products they themselves are developing. The ideas and thoughts that fans share are only limited by their imagination; their creations are only limited by their skills and time. They don’t need to worry about intellectual property ownership or profit distribution. If a fan wants Kirk to fight Picard, then kiss Spock, and then team-up with E.T. to stop Luke Skywalker’s conquest of the Planet of the Apes, all they need to do is write it, or draw it, or even tweet it, and then that has happened in some form.
Crossovers created by professional entertainment companies are far more of a gamble. They’re often viewed with cynicism by ‘true fans’, and rightly so, given the wildly varying quality of crossovers created in decades past. Will you be creating the next ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ or an ‘Alien vs. Predator’? Are you developing the next ‘Super Smash Bros.’ or ‘Nicktoons Major League Baseball’? Just because you have the rights to Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Mummy, should you create your own ‘Dark Universe’?
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Interestingly, the world of comic books has existed in a state of constant and permanent crossover, dating back to before the moon landing. The characters of the big two publishers exist in long-established shared universes. Not only is there always the possibility for characters to crossover in the stories of one another, it’s even expected by readers.
Crossover appearances are consistently used to widen audiences for second-tier and minor titles; some readers are far more likely to pick-up ‘Justice League: Dark’ if they know Batman is making an appearance. Other readers might find a Batman & Scooby-Doo mystery comic far more appealing; for some young readers, it may even be their introduction to reading comic books.
Taking this one-step further are DC and Marvel’s major events, which generally see their heroes combining to fight off a major villain that they are unable to face solo. Sometimes they’re facing the end of the world, and other times they’re even facing off against each other. Given their characters’ shared universes, it’s normal for all characters to be directly involved in the conflict of a major event, or to have it cause a tangential impact within their own stories.
Crossovers aren’t limited to DC and Marvel; Indie publishers also regularly create their own, particularly with their ongoing titles and most popular characters. Archie Comics characters populate a shared universe, and regularly interact with one another. There are regular crossovers involving the comic book versions of popular movie and TV characters, like ‘Star Trek vs. Transformers’, ‘Judge Dredd vs. Aliens’, and ‘Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash’.
One core difference is that many indie publishers focus on regularly publishing creator-owned singular stories. Once the book ends, the characters end with it, unless the creators decide to write another story, which they may not want to. DC and Marvel own their intellectual property. If a writer no longer wants to work on Iron Man or Wonder Woman, another writer can be employed almost immediately. If Warner Bros. or Marvel Entertainment wants a specific character to appear in a comic book because they have a related movie or show being released soon, DC or Marvel Comics can easily hire creators to facilitate this. Generally speaking, the potential likelihood for a character to crossover can be assumed fairly safely based on publisher. Some characters are a certainty to crossover, while others are basically an impossibility.
Image Comics is the world’s most notable publisher of creator-owned comic books, allowing individual creators to distribute material of their own creation without giving up the copyrights. Their few crossovers mostly date back to the 1990’s, such as ‘Spawn/Batman’ and ‘WildC.A.T.s/X-Men’. Generally speaking though, readers can be confident that Rick Grimes isn’t going to appear in the pages of ‘Saga’.
With this in mind, ‘Crossover’ is not only a significant departure from Image’s modus operandi, but of comic book crossover events in general. Created by Donny Cates, Geoff Shaw, Dee Cunniffe and John J. Hill, the book is a crossover of not just Image characters, but characters from all comic book publishers. While there are numerous comic book crossover examples of characters from two publishers engaging. ‘Crossover’ puts everything on the table, and takes the crossover concept as far as it has ever gone before.
The story of ‘Crossover’ is born out of a devastating 2017 event. The city of Denver, Colorado was invaded by fictional superheroes and supervillains fighting each other, causing destruction and death, until a force field is finally created around the city, trapping them inside. Five years later, the world is a more tentative place, mourning the loss of Denver and forever under the threat of total devastation if the characters manage to escape.
The scope of this threat – and the crossover itself - can’t be understated. Picture Archie, Batman, Colonel Weird, Cosmic Ghost Rider, Doctor Strange, Emmet Quinlan, Godzilla, Hit-Girl, Hulk, Invincible, The Joker, Savage Dragon, ShadowHawk, Spawn, Spider-Man, Superman, Thor, The Tick, Witchblade, Wonder Woman and countless other heroes and villains battling it out in a non-stop fight to the death. The creators do an exceptional job to portray this visual spectacle, and it’s a must see for any dedicated comic reader.
The scale of this fight-to-end-all-fights is superbly contrasted by the book’s main storyline, which offers endearing subtleties and an empowering kindness. Comic book store employee Ellie Howell comes across Ava, a small girl and fictional character who has somehow managed to escape the Denver bubble. Ellie endeavours to return Ava to her parents, unaware she has latent superpowers. They face a fraught journey full of dangers, and receive much-needed support from some familiar faces.
Playing with its freedom, ‘Crossover’ takes the opportunity to be tongue-in-cheek and meta, including murders against popular real world comic book writers and artists. In 2020, Donny Cates explained to San Diego Comic-Con: “In the world of Crossover, how does the idea that the notion of fiction has now died, when every fictitious character you could ever think of is here, in our world… How does that effect society? How does that effect the notion of the comic book store?…When the notion of fiction gets shattered, so does the notion of reality.”
If that sounds like a lot, well, that’s a fair summation of ‘Crossover’. It is a lot, but in a positive way that begs readers to pore over every page, and come back for repeat readings. Highly recommended to every long-term comic book reader.
Want more of 2021’s greatest comics? Visit Amazon to purchase the full length ‘Best Comic Books of 2021’ book or eBook. It contains 45 detailed essays reviewing the year's best comic book titles.
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