‘Crossover’ Review: When Comics Break Reality

If you know me, you know I’m a big Donny Cates fan. His run on Venom, King in Black, and Absolute Carnage were incredible, so I already had a pretty good idea that Crossover was going to be my kind of weird. And honestly, this book feels like something only Cates would write.

What Is Crossover About?

Years ago, fictional comic book characters suddenly started appearing in the real world during an event known as the Crossover. Heroes, villains, monsters, and characters from completely different comic universes all materialized at once, and as you can imagine, things did not go particularly well.

The government eventually trapped them inside a massive energy dome over Denver. Comics were banned, fans became suspicious by association, and loving superheroes suddenly made you someone people might be afraid of.

The story follows Ellipses “Ellie” Howell, a comic fan whose parents were trapped inside the dome. She desperately wants to get inside and find them, but her life changes when she encounters a mysterious girl who appears to have escaped.

From there, things get considerably stranger.

A Comic Fan’s Dream Becomes Everyone Else’s Nightmare

This is probably the part of Crossover I loved most because the premise works in two completely different ways at once.

For comic fans, the idea of fictional characters becoming real sounds incredible. Imagine finding out the heroes and stories you have spent years caring about actually exist somewhere.

But then the book asks the much less fun question: what would actually happen if Superman-level people suddenly appeared in our world? Would we celebrate them? Probably for about five minutes.

After that, governments would panic, people would get scared, politicians would get involved, and somebody would absolutely decide the safest option was locking everyone behind a giant wall.

That tension between loving comics and being terrified of what comics would look like in reality gives the series much more to play with than just “look, famous character cameo!”

Then the Creators Become Part of the Story

Things get even more meta when a serial killer starts targeting comic book creators. The reasoning behind it is twisted but fascinating. If fictional characters are suddenly real, then somebody wrote every terrible thing that ever happened to them. They did not choose their trauma, their dead parents, their villain origins, or the endless horrible events that made their stories interesting. The writers did.

Now those characters exist in the same reality as the people responsible for creating their suffering. Suddenly revenge is possible. That idea completely changes the scope of the series because Crossover stops being only about fictional characters entering our world and starts pulling the people who actually make comics into the story too.

It becomes incredibly self-aware without losing the actual plot underneath all the jokes and references.

Yes, Everyone Shows Up

And obviously, part of the fun is seeing who appears. Because Image works with creator-owned properties, Crossover gets to pull characters from all over indie comics into the chaos. Savage Dragon, Invincible, The Walking Dead, and plenty of others appear throughout the series, sometimes for a quick moment and sometimes as an actual part of the story.

It honestly feels like someone blew up a comic convention and dropped everything into one universe.

It is chaotic and sometimes intentionally messy, but that is part of what makes the book work. You are constantly scanning pages wondering who is hiding in the background or what completely ridiculous character is about to appear next.

The cameos are fun, but thankfully the series does not rely entirely on recognizing them. Ellie and the central mystery still give everything something to follow even when the comic starts going completely insane around them.

Geoff Shaw Makes Reality Fall Apart

Geoff Shaw’s art deserves a lot of credit because this concept could easily become visually unreadable.

He has to make ordinary America exist next to giant superhero battles, impossible creatures, comic-book characters, and increasingly bizarre shifts in reality without making every page feel like noise.

When the book goes big, it goes big. There is a cinematic scale to the action, especially around the dome, but I also really like the contrast between all of that comic-book insanity and the much more ordinary world outside it. The normal settings make the impossible stuff feel even stranger.

Dee Cunniffe’s colors help sell that division too, especially when comic-book reality starts bleeding into everything around it.

The Chaos Is Kind of the Point

Crossover has real twists, and there were several moments where I genuinely had to stop and go, “Wait… what?”

Just when you think you understand what kind of story Cates is telling, it moves somewhere else. The superhero crossover becomes a conspiracy. The conspiracy becomes a serial killer story. Comic creators start appearing. Fiction and reality keep getting harder to separate. It should probably be too much. Somehow, that is exactly why I liked it.

Under all the violence, cameos, jokes, and meta nonsense, Crossover is weirdly sincere about loving comics. It feels like Cates looking directly at fandom and asking why these fictional people mean so much to us, while simultaneously making fun of basically everything surrounding comic-book culture. For me, it was chaotic in the best way. A love letter to comics that is not afraid to make the people who love them part of the joke.

The published story currently runs through Issue #13, collected across Kids Love Chains and The Ten-Cent Plague. The larger story remains unfinished, which is frustrating after everything it sets up, but what is there is still one of the strangest celebrations of comics I have read.

Related Reading

If Crossover reminded you why getting completely ridiculous with superheroes can be so much fun, our Rogue (2026) review looks at a much more personal side of superhero storytelling through one of our favorite X-Men. And our Magik review gives Illyana Rasputin the solo spotlight, complete with Limbo, the Soulsword, Darkchild, and plenty of comic-book chaos of its own.

FAQ

What is Crossover about?
Crossover takes place in a world where fictional comic-book characters suddenly become real, leading the government to trap them inside a massive dome over Denver while comic fans and creators become part of the conflict.

Who created Crossover?
The series was created by Donny Cates, Geoff Shaw, Dee Cunniffe, and John J. Hill. Chip Zdarsky writes Issue #7, with art by Phil Hester and Ande Parks.

How many issues of Crossover are there?
There are currently 13 regular issues, along with a special 3D edition of Issue #1 that includes additional material.

Is Crossover finished?
No. The published story currently ends with Issue #13, but the series went on hiatus before the larger story was completed.

What do the Crossover trade paperbacks collect?
Volume 1, Kids Love Chains, collects Issues #1-6, while Volume 2, The Ten-Cent Plague, collects Issues #7-13.