It genuinely does feel like a Donny Cates crossover series. The problematic father figure tropes, addictions, and a whole lot of characters. It was a genuine surprise to see other characters like Madman and how it dives into debates around comic books. There's a strong sense of love towards the characters and how they have value. Not to mention the criticisms they have towards event fatigue, the anti-comic cults, and toxic fandoms.

Crossover (2020) by Donny Cates and Geoff Shaw (Image)

William at Packrat Comics in Hilliard, OH (www.packratcomics.com) turned me on to this book shortly after its release. At that time, I hadn’t read anything by Cates and he had garnered was coming off some high praise (specifically for his Silver Surfer: Black project). Like it’s namesake, the premise for Crossover seemed like a fun meta-concept amalgam of unsorted toys. The book gained some serious initial interest as fans were intrigued about both the direction the story would go and the cameo appearances Cates could navigate the permissions to include.

Crossover would go on to receive a 2021 Eisner nomination for “Best New Series”. In preparation for Eisner voting, I researched the project and creators. I tend to really appreciate extended collaborative writer/artist teams like Cates & Shaw. I saw where they had worked together for a number of years on lesser-known projects like the Paybacks (2015 & 2016), Thanos (2016), and God Country (2017).

Having worked and ran a comic shop, I easily identified and rooted for the main characters and found the adventure “fun”. I particularly liked the novel use of the Ben-Day dot effect. I concur with the main criticisms the book suffers from are the disjointed plot and (understandable) use of “B-list”characters. Overall, I found the book fun but fell short on expectations.