Crossover vol 1 by Donny Cates

Vol 1: Kids Love Chains, written by Cates, Geoff Shaw, and Dee Cunniffe
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Ellipses Howell (or El to her friends) lives outside The Dome and works in a comicbook store that sells vintage titles from before The Event. The Crossover Event was an unexplained phenomenon that ripped a hole in our reality and let superheroes and other fictional characters spill out into Denver, Colorado. One of the supers put up a force field to not only keep the other superstars in, but to protect them from the outside world that is now bent on destroying them.  This field is now known as The Dome. Ryan is the son of a baptist minister who has been chosen to fulfill a special mission with almost no details as to what he’s expected to do, just that he is the only one who can do it. With shop owner Otto, the three rescue a young comicbook girl and try to get her back to her parents, but they’ll have to go into The Dome - and the war zone - to do it.

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Get ready for a pretty big image superhero comics circle jerk. Volume one doesn’t really get into why The Event occurred or what caused it, so maybe we’ll get that revealed later. If you love other image comics like God Country, Hitgirl, maybe even Black Hammer, you might enjoy this world where they’re all coming together in a singular storyline. My favorite part was probably the narrator, which is actually Cates breaking into his own story to execute fourth wall breaks. His commentary can be pretty funny. There are lots of fun nods to other creators and their works (wonder how some of them feel to have been killed off in Cates’ world?), so this is definitely a series for a pretty hardcore reader. Casual readers might get some enjoyment but won’t really know who the characters are in order to be impressed by their reveals or inclusions in the story.

There are several f-bombs but that’s, so far, the only thing in Volume One that elevates this to the publisher-recommended older teen reading level.

Sara’s Rating: 7/10
Suitability Level: Grades 10-12

Publisher: Image Comics
Publication Date: June 1, 2021
ISBN: 9781534318939 (Paperback)

Tags: Rating: 7/10, Suitability: High School, Comicbooks, Action Adventure, Image Comics