In 2017, the city of Denver, Colorado is all but destroyed when some kind of big comic book Crisis Crossover involving countless characters from many different genres and publishers opens up in the middle of it, killing several people, in an incident known as "the Event". Five years later, the city has been zoned off, comic book characters are feared by the public as the authorities work hard to detain the ones who slip out of Denver, many comic books have been burned or recalled, and for some extreme people, comic books and the people who sell them are downright hated. There is also an ongoing series of murders of comic book writers, with the prevailing theory being that some comic book character out there is getting payback for how they've been treated.
At a comic book shop in Provo, Utah, an employee, Ellie (short for "Ellipsis") and the store's owner, Otto, get drawn into this crisis when Ava, a child comic book character, is caught shoplifting in their store. Hearing this, a priest protesting the store, Father Lowe, and his followers, including his reluctant son, Ryan, burn the store down. As Ellie and Otto work on sneaking Ava back to her parents in Denver, Ryan is secretly recruited by Special Director Nathaniel Pendleton, who is in charge of the secret government program to apprehend escaped comic book characters and end the Event, and has some sort of intelligence saying that Ryan and Ellie will play a big part in future events. The story that follows can best be described as an action-thriller-drama with a big side of metafiction.
After 13 issues, the last of which was published in May of 2022, the book went on hiatus.
Now is when we list all the tropes we can think of that appear in this thing
- Abusive Parents: Father Lowe is very abusive to Ryan, to the point that he'd rather take his punishment for the comic store fire and go to jail than go back to him.
- Author Avatar:
- Deconstructed in issue #7, written by Chip Zdarsky, which is about him in the world of Crossover as he has gone into hiding to avoid being murdered by the comic writer killer. He encounters a version of himself seen in issue #14 of Sex Criminals, who is trying to save him. When they are alone together, Zdarsky reflects on how his fictional avatar is much crasser and cooler than his real self is, and what a relief it's been to have a surrogate like him who can be the cool person he isn't.
- Issue #10 reveals that the mysterious, rambling prisoner in the Powerhouse is Donny Cates himself.
- Brian Michael Bendis appears As Himself in issue #10, which he co-wrote with Cates, along with Mike Oeming, the artist of Powers.
- Robert Kirkman also appears as himself in issue #12, also co-written with Cates.
- Art Shift: Comic book characters seen in the real word are drawn markedly different from real people, often having bolder lines and brighter colors.
- Batter Up!: The death of Robert Kirkman at the hands of Negan.
- BFS: Valofax, a mystical sword from Cates and Shaw's previous comic, God Country.
- Big Good: Frank Einstein, more famously known as Madman (though he would prefer you don’t call him that), is the hero trying to ensure the safety of so called “Fakes”, breaking them out of the camps and generally trying to keep the peace.
- The Cameo: Tons of real-life comic book characters appear throughout the comic in cameos, including Hit-Girl, Colonel Weird and Savage Dragon.
- Cool Old Guy: Otto, who seems to be in his 50s or 60s and is a big fan of comic books.
- Crossover: Besides taking place in the periphery of an actual big epic comic book crossover, Crossover features appearances by fictional characters from comic books included with the owners' permission. While some, as stated above, are just brief cameos, some take on more supporting roles in the story, like Christian and Deena from Powers, the sword Valofax from Cates and Shaw's previous collaboration God Country, and Negan from The Walking Dead.
- Crusading Widower: Pendleton's actions and current occupation are partly informed by the fact that he and his family lived in Denver and his wife apparently died in the Event; he now raises their son on his own.
- Deconstruction:
- The whole "comic book writer murders" subplot is one of fiction writing in general, basically asking the question of "what would fictional characters who have suffered badly in their stories have to say to the people who wrote them"? As it turns out, quite a few harsh words, and from the look of it, one is downright vengeful.
- The trip to Denver deconstructs the big comic book Crisis Crossover. Sure, stories like that are fun and epic when you're following the main characters and know what's going on, but when you're just a bystander passing through with no idea of the circumstances, it just feels like a lot of chaos with familiar faces flying by.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: As a result of the Event causing the reputation of comic books and their characters to go right down the gutter, anyone who continues to enjoy comic books are labeled "traitors" and "heretics" and are harassed by rednecks and fundamentalists.
- Fourth Wall Shut-In Story: When the Event happened, Donny Cates was stuck in the story he and Geoff Shaw created, which has now gone wildly different from the original outline he wrote.
- Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: The comic book characters that appear most prominently are from creator-owned books and more indie-oriented titles. When ones from DC Comics or Marvel are included, it's mostly just either through references to them or issues of their comics In-Universe, or when they are mostly obscured, like with their hands sticking out through the bars of jail cells (which is actually a trick Todd McFarlane used in an issue of Spawn to include representations of characters owned by DC and Marvel).
- In the big two-page spread of the fighting superheroes in issue #6, eagle-eyed readers can spot the dark outlines of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the upper-left corner.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
- Issue #9, which came out a bit late, opens with Pendleton's words to Ryan, who has been waiting in a hallway:Sorry for the wait. Writers. Swear to God they'd be late for their own fucking funerals.
- Also in issue #9, Pendleton says that, if the special prisoner is who he says he is, "the whole world would just be people walking into rooms and talking". Sure enough, almost that whole issue consists just of character dialogues at the Powerhouse. This also doubles as a bit of foreshadowing, seeing as the prisoner is the story's writer, Donny Cates.
- Issue #11 opens with a flashback to Pendleton beginning interview session nr 11 with the mysterious prisoner.
- Issue #9, which came out a bit late, opens with Pendleton's words to Ryan, who has been waiting in a hallway:
- Massive Multiplayer Crossover: Eyewitnesses of the Event claim to have seen every comic book character in the chaos, from DC superheroes to Marvel superheroes to Image's own superheroes. And several characters from non-superhero comics make cameo appearances.
- Meaningful Name:
- Ellie says her parents named her "Ellipsis" because of all the possibilities contained within those three dots.
- Ryan's actual first name is "Orion", named by his father after how the Greeks spoke of the mythological hero.
- Mythology Gag: In issue #9, Scott Snyder, whose most famous work includes his various runs on Batman, is found murdered in an alley next to a movie theater showing The Mask of Zorro, just like Batman's parents are in most versions of his origin story.
- Powered Armor: Pendleton briefly wears one in issue #13.
- Reading Ahead in the Script: The narrator is well aware of what's about to happen in the story and will usually make some hints about it. He is pretty miffed in the start of issue #6, when the story starts going differently from what he wrote.
- Red Herring: The Bat-a-rang used to kill Scott Snyder was not actually used by Batman; Negan just got a hold of it and used it himself.
- Refugee from TV Land: The comic book characters are all this, coming from stories created by real-life writers.
- Self-Deprecation:
- One of the reviews on the cover of the first trade collection is from Donny Cates himself: "Meh."
- Issue #10 opens with a picture of the first page of the issue's script, covered with frustrated notes like "This whole fucking issue! Nothing happens!" and "When is someone going to punch someone?!"
- Self-Parody: Brian Michael Bendis pokes a bit of fun at his decompressed writing style in issue #10 (co-written by him) when he is interrogated by Deena and Christian from Powers and spends five panels just hemming and hawing.Deena: God!! Must you drag everything out?!
- Serial Killer: The series of murders of comic book writers, which are attributed to a comic book character who is running around and taking revenge on them for writing their tragic stories.
- Shout-Out: In issue #10, we see that the password to the Powerhouse's most restricted area is "Kimota", the magic word used by Miracleman to transform.
- Sinister Minister: Father Lowe is a religious zealot and one of those turning people against comic book sellers, and is abusive to his son, Ryan. He is publicly known to run his "church" more like a cult and isn't even an ordained minister.
- Wham Shot:
- The big two-page spread in issue #6, showing a lot of superheroes from real-life comics fighting in an all-out brawl in Denver.
- The final page of issue #6, showing that Ellie has been a disguised comic book character all along.
- The last page of issue #13, the last issue before the book went on hiatus:KILL GEOFF SHAW
