Superheroes are viruses in the "anti-event for the ages" Crossover by Donny Cates

(Image credit: Image Comics)

Image Comics' cryptic teaser for something called Crossover has been revealed as a long-awaited new title from writer Donny Cates and his God Country collaborator Geoff Shaw, along with colorist Dee Cunniffe and letterer John J. Hill. Though the plot of the story remains unrevealed, Cates previously tweeted images from the story with the hashtag "#godhatesmasks" and an image of a sign reading "Pray the capes away." Cates' tweets of the images have since been deleted.

Cates spoke about the project earlier this year, telling Newsarama the series will be "the craziest thing I've ever attempted."

"I'm doing a book with Geoff that we’ll announce some time this summer. It’s the biggest and craziest thing I’ve ever attempted in my life. The fact that it’s so out there, and so big, and that it might not work, is one of the most exciting things I've ever been involved in," Cates previously told Newsarama. "Like, I'm not gonna break Thor – I can try and be as crazy as I want to, but ultimately Marvel will make sure Thor is OK. I like the idea of getting out there without a safety net with Image, trying all these crazy story ideas I have. Like, what if a mom was raising the Antichrist, but it’s really a love story about a mom and her baby. It gets my creative blood hot."

Cates followed-up Image's reveal of the Crossover creative team with his own tweet, stating "'Superheroes aren’t myths....they’re viruses...and they’re spreading...' This November, the team that brought you God Country returns to [Image Comics] with Crossover. An Anti-Event for the ages..."

Image and Cates added to the original stark teaser image adding the creative team names to the title and three dots, which could be an ellipsis or something symbolic involving the number 3.

Crossover #1 is due out in November.

Original story follows

Image Comics has released a teaser image consisting simply of the word "Crossover..." displayed in white against a deteriorated black background, with ellipses. The publisher's tweet including the teaser did not offer any insight into what the story or series being foreshadowed might be but did include the caption "November. #CrossoverComic."

What exactly is being referenced remains a mystery – including whether the teaser is laying the marketing groundwork for a crossover among Image Comics properties (or something even bigger), or a new title called 'Crossover'. Image previously began a never-completed crossover comic book series titled Image United that brought together characters created by many of the Image founders, including Todd McFarlane's Spawn, Rob Liefeld's Youngblood, Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon, and more.

Earlier this year, when the comic book Direct Market and much of the overall industry went on hiatus due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, McFarlane spoke openly about a new Image Comics crossover or a crossover of characters between publishers as a way to maintain interest in the industry and drive potential blockbuster sails as a financial windfall for the companies involved and for retailers who might carry such a series.

"If they put me in charge – and no one wants that, I understand! – here's what I’d do. I’d take Image, Dark Horse, Marvel and DC – the top 90% of the market – and make a message from the four of us as a unified front, one message," McFarlane told Forbes at the time. "Maybe we can coordinate the timing for once, so each company gets a turn in the spotlight. Maybe do some cross-company stuff, to make it sexy."

More information will likely arrive sometime before that November date mentioned in Image's tweet.

I've been Newsarama's resident Marvel Comics expert and general comic book historian since 2011. I've also been the on-site reporter at most major comic conventions such as Comic-Con International: San Diego, New York Comic Con, and C2E2. Outside of comic journalism, I am the artist of many weird pictures, and the guitarist of many heavy riffs. (They/Them)