Crossover #6 Review

“You don’t have to be anyone for anyone else. You can write your own story.”--Ellie

Donny Cates--Story

Geoff Shaw--Art

Dee Cunniffee--Colors

John J. Hill--Letters & Design

Mark Waid--Story Edits

Geoff Shaw w/ Dee Cunniffe--Cover

Image Comics--Publisher

Donny Cates grabs you with chains in this issue and drags you kicking and screaming in a really good way to the end of this issue and the end of the Kids Love Chains story arc. The art by Geoff Shaw and the colors by Dee Cunniffee gives you a treat for your eyes that goes along with this thrill ride of a story. 

Donny Cates picks up with the story where Ellie and team are in Denver trying to get Ava back home to her world. Of course, since they are in Denver where all these worlds collided, superheroes and villains run rampant. A LOT of really fun characters from across many properties, and owned by other companies!, show up in this issue. I am totally amazed that Cates was able to pull that off. But, these days, if anyone can pull off something as epic as Crossover, it is Donny Cates. And, obviously, being the last issue of the arc there is a twist that I didn't see coming. After it was revealed, I thought “You know, I should have seen that coming” but I certainly didn’t  see that coming. 

Geoff Shaw and Dee Cunniffee are no slouches either and really help tie this story together. Shaw does some amazing crisp pencils and there are splash pages that are reminiscent of George Perez with his epic stories that he did...including Crisis on Infinite Earths (I mention that because I’ve been kind of neck deep in Crisis lately with my day job and it’s been so much fun). There is so much detail in these splash pages especially that Shaw almost seems masochistic with this. Those pencils are just so crisp and clean and every image is just chock full of detail. Perez did that a lot in his stories and Shaw is following in those footsteps. There is no “halfway” with those pencils. 

Cunniffee is adding some amazing colors to this. Cunniffee is certainly bringing in those vibrant bright comic book colors into this story while still giving it a hint of real world colors. I say that because the comic book characters are bright and vibrant but they do not belong in this “real world” that they have been transported to. Cunniffee certainly gives a nice juxtaposition. You can especially see that with the splash pages and the close ups that he colors in this story. The art and colors on this story is just as epic as the story itself. 

I have seen a lot of people posting on Twitter that they are thinking about stopping pulling this series after this month. I do understand that impulse myself. I usually grab an arc of something and if I decide to drop it, I’ll pick up the trades when they come out. I’ve done that with several series lately. Comics cost money after all and with my addiction...it adds up. If you do decide to drop this from your pull list monthly, I would highly encourage you to get the trade paperback that comes out next month. I may end up picking that up anyways because I do that a lot with Donny Cates’ items. Besides, you are still supporting the creative team with you picking up the trade paperbacks as well.  But, if you have been picking up the first arc, this story concludes that arc. From what I’ve seen about issue 7, it is kind of a bridge story by Chip Zdarsky and I would probably hold off on dropping the series until after that issue.