During Comics Pro, IDW announced that they would be publishing a new series called the “Super Secret Crisis War”, a crossover event starring all of their licensed Cartoon Network properties. Planned as a 6-issue mini-series for July, the book is set to be written by Louise Simonson and illustrated by Derek Charm, with variant covers by Troy Little.
The book, which is a pretty ambitious undertaking and seems like pretty epic service for fans, finds the demon Aku (from “Samurai Jack”) pulling together all the bad guys from the various cartoons to form the League of Extraordinary Villains for a throwdown full of tongue-in-cheek references in the crossover to end all crossovers. As Sarah Gaydos, IDW Editor working on the series, explains, “We’re playing off the big event crossover titles at the Big 2 companies, but doing so in a hugely over the top, fun, all ages way.”
And during Emerald City Comic Con, IDW laid out all of their plans for the “Super Secret Crisis War” with full creative teams and more, as revealed at CBR. The crossover will take place between “Samurai Jack, “Ben 10,” “Powerpuff Girls,” “Dexter’s Laboratory” and “Samurai Jack” and each issue of the main series will feature two-page back-ups written by Simonson and illustrated by Charm that explain how the League was formed. Supporting the series by Simonson and Charm, IDW will release a few one-shots for properties that they had not produced comics for previously, including:
“Johnny Bravo” by Erik Burnham with art by Erica Henderson
“Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy” by Kate Leth with art by Troy Little
“Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends” by Ivan Cohen
“Cow and Chicken” by Jim Zub with art by Jorge Monlongo
“Codename: Kids Next Door” by Scott Peterson with art by Ryan Jampole
It’s a pretty ambitious endeavor, but Gaydos does note that the hope is that some of these one-shots could hopefully spin out into other books, or that the books currently being published could see a bigger boost in attention and sales. The main thing that is stressed, however, is that this is an all-ages crossover with the intent of being fun, and that certainly seems like a great idea to appeal and connect to younger audiences that watch these shows.
“Super Secret Crisis War” and all tie-ins launch this June.
