Bigger Than Capes

Story: Donny Cates
Art: Geoff Shaw
Colours: Dee Cunniffe
Letters & Design: John J. Hill
Story Edits: Mark Waid
Publisher: Image

Crossover has been one of my favourite series of the year so far, but I do sometimes have the problem that the issues just seem to fly by and I immediately want more. I mean I say it’s a problem, but it’s definitely a sign of a good comic. The immediate need for more is reminiscent of Saga or Descender.

Issue #7 took a look at the wider world of Crossover as we focused on Chip Zdarsky on the run, here we’re back to Ellie and Ryan. Last time we saw the duo Ellie had just revealed that she wasn’t as human as she’d previously let on; it was a pretty solid ending to the first story arc. Picking up at that moment we see that Ryan is struggling to come to terms with this, but he’s also struggling with who he is too, after constantly being manipulated since his introduction.

There’s a lot of intrigue built in this issue, we see characters from Powers working alongside the police, comic book premonitions of how events were intended to play out and hints that we might be getting closer to finding out who’s been killing comic book creators.

Donny Cates has been doing a great job putting together a series that feels full of limitless possibilities, but with so many options it still manages to remain grounded as a narrative, focusing on the individuals rather than the massive comic book event that’s unfolding in the background.

Geoff Shaw’s artwork remains superb throughout this issue. In every panel the art conveys emotion and energy perfectly, particularly the sadness and frustration between Ellie and Ryan. There’s also a couple of pages done as rough comic book pages that have an almost Jeff Lemire feel to them and add a great bit of variety to the early part of this issue.

As always Dee Cunniffe’s colouring adds an extra dimension throughout the book. The shadow laden sections play well against the brighter sections of colour to convey the quite dark, grimey feeling of this issue. 

John J. Hill rounds off a great creative effort with consistent lettering throughout. There’s some subtle variations, with Valofax and the prisoner who’s been drawing comics having a different style of speech bubbles, which suits the difference in character.

I’ve said it recently when talking about Home Sick Pilots, but equally I think the team behind Crossover are on top form, each bringing their A-game to the series. I’m looking forward to seeing where the rest of this arc will lead.