Crossover #10
Pendleton has Walker and Pilgrim interrogate another comic creator in Crossover #10, by writers Donny Cates and Brian Michael Bendis, artists Geoff Shaw and Michael Avon Oeming, colorist Dee Cunniffe and Nick Filardi, and letterer John J. Hill. Much like the last issue, this issue entertains completely.
The issue opens on a page of the script and jumps to a page of Pendleton being blasted from existence. He awakes from a nightmare as his son comes into the room. They talk about their past, and then Pendleton goes to work. He learns that the Dome is expanding and growing porous after finding what appears to be a dead Celestial. Back at the office, he learns that Walker and Pilgrim have brought in their creators, Bendis and Oeming, and after witnessing their interrogation, he goes to see the man who’s been writing the script and giving him the information he needs.
After last issue’s interlude into Bendis speak, Cates brings in the man himself, as well as Oeming and Filardi, to write a section of this book, and it’s so great. From the first couple of panels onward, Bendis makes fun of himself, and his writing gets in a couple of excellent jokes and moves the plot forward. While it doesn’t get as stereotypically Bendis as last issue’s Bendis speak section, it’s still recognizably his writing. It’s just a great little section of this issue, and there are some great laugh-out-loud moments.
Elsewhere in this comic, Cates focuses on Pendleton, getting into his back story a little bit and revealing his greatest fear. Pendleton seems to know he’s in a story and at the whims of the writer, and his greatest fear is being taken out of the story, blasted away in a moment. It all goes back to the first issue and how nothing but the story is permanent. The revelation about the Dome is certainly enjoyable because of what it opens up for the story and what it could possibly mean for the mysteries within, including who has been killing comic book writers. The end of the book reveals that the person in the room, the precog helping Pendleton, is both expected and a great moment.
Shaw, Cunniffe, Oeming, and Filardi do great jobs in their book sections. Shaw does some figure work that really sells Pendleton’s feeling in each panel. Oeming taps into the style he used in the Young Animal Cave Carson comics, and his exaggerated, cartoonish style works very well for these parts of the book, as they are more humorous than the rest of the issue.
Crossover #10 is a lot of fun. This is the second issue in a row that made fun of Bendis, but it’s even funnier because Bendis himself did it. The art is gorgeous, and the book sets up some stuff that should pay off nicely in the future..
