Inter-company crossovers are tricky, tricky things. They can be ingeniously creative and surprisingly enjoyable in how they meld two worlds and two sets of characters together, or they can be shallow and disappointing, and everything in-between. I must confess that I am a sucker for crossovers. I've got over half a long box worth of them amongst my collection, and so it goes without saying that I was excited upon hearing about Marvel's latest crossover with comic company Top Cow. Fusion is the result, and features a massive combination of four superhero groups: Marvel's Mighty Avengers and Thunderbolts, and Top Cow's Cyberforce and Hunter-Killer.

Most comic fans are already familiar with the Avengers and the Thunderbolts, but not as many will know about Top Cow's teams. If you were a comic collector in the mid '90s, chances are you know at least something about Cyberforce. Though many accused that Cyberforce was simply a rip-off of the X-Men (and was some good reasons), anyone who has read the Cyberforce series knows that it was one of the best thing to come out of '90s comic books, and that the characters are interesting in their own right, despite noted similarities. Hunter-Killer is a relatively younger comic title, but one which drew fans due to its unique take on the superhero genre and its incredible art quality.

With this massive amount of outstanding characters to draw from, Fusion #2 is a whole lot less than the sum of its parts. The writing is where the story really falls apart. There's two ways to write a crossover: you can either make an elaborate explanation as to how the two worlds/universes crossed over and waste a lot of story time doing it; or you can just pretend the characters have always been in the same world together. But risks of frequent readers having a hard time taking the story seriously. For Fusion, Abnett and Lanning opted for the latter. Unfortunately, in this case it does make it hard to take seriously. On top of that the interactions between the characters most often seem forced and false. The worst example of this is when Wonderman yells out in pain due to being shot by what appears be a regular machine gun wielded by Ballistic! Not as terrible but still ridiculous is the amount of trouble Iron Man has in facing Ripclaw.

To be fair, Fusion #2 does have some redeeming features. Kirkham's art on the issue is excellent. He evokes movement and action well and, despite the large cast of diverse characters he captures each of them perfectly. There are also some interesting moments, such as when we learn that apparently Black Widow and Cyblade have had a violent rivalry for years, but these moments don't make up for the overall uninteresting story and hard to believe character interactions. Seeing these amazing but neglected Top Cow characters back in action and interacting with major Marvel characters is great in and of itself, but also doesn't quite make up for it.

In the end, this issue is certainly sub-par and my love for these characters can only take me so far. I can only hope, really really hope, that the final issue of this crossover is a mind-blower.

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