The concept of massive crossover events is nothing new. Print comics have been indulging in this money-making endeavor for decades now, with a primary storyline spawning numerous tangential side-stories as various comic books join in with varying levels of participation. Webcomics borrowed a number of traditions from their print brethren, including that of crossovers, but with the intention of exchanging readership rather than increasing sales of books. Still, early on the largest crossover events involved three or even four webcomics, partly due to the logistics involved. They served to combine disparate elements of various storylines that had no editorial connection.

That changed in 2001 when Damonk of Framed!!! talked some thirty other comics into joining in on a grand crossover event where characters of his comic escaped into the webcomic multiverse and caused a bit of mischief before nearly all of the escapees were captured and dragged back to where they belonged. No doubt this massive crossover event was partly the inspiration for the current massive webcomic crossover event, Crossover Wars.

The central comic for Crossover Wars is Evil Overlords United. EOU is much like its sister comic Cameo Comic in that there are frequent segments where you need to visit alternative comics to fully comprehend what’s going on. However, EOU is more self-contained and with but a few hiccups you can usually follow its story without visiting other strips.

If I were to try and sum up EOU in one sentence, I’d say that EOU is a comic of multiversal domination by a group that had memorized the “Evil Overlords List.” This is a group that while nominally evil (I say nominally because while they’ve threatened people with torture and worse, I’ve not yet seen them do anything that I’d consider “evil”) are able to work together without the conflicts of leadership often found in traditional “evil organizations.”

Yet while the storyline and the massive crossovers of EOU are what drives this comic (and indeed is the impetus behind its inception), what truly makes this comic worth reading is the characters. The comic could easily have become overwhelmed in the minutia of various crossover events and left its characters pale one-dimensional caricatures. Instead, we have frequent moments of actual character development that have breathed life into the cast.

The heart of EOU lies with the characters. In this, EOU is an ensemble cast with several key stars. At the forefront is the Editor, a Naga who is the drive behind the multiversal invasion. He is possibly the closest to being “evil” among the Overlords, though how much of that is due to his inhuman nature remains to be seen. He is also the most powerful of the cast, with the power to easily overcome any of his erstwhile allies. Interestingly, he downplays his own magical strengths and instead uses his intellect to think things through. He has worked hard to form alliances with antagonists from other comics and create an army capable of achieving his goals.

While the Editor’s origin story has not yet been revealed, his drive, sense of humor, and intelligence (coupled with sheer power) could easily allow him to overshadow the rest of the cast. He easily could have become the Mary Sue that crippled EOU. Instead, the Editor tends to vanish for periods of time, allowing his minions to work through problems on their own while his own strengths are rarely shown. Part of this also lies with his ability to anticipate friend or foe, and he often is five steps ahead of those around him, with only the occasional stumble.

Celine is another fascinating part of the cast, with a role traditionally held by women in many spy thrillers. She’s attractive, a powerful psychic, and quite cunning, but also has several flaws to help balance her concept. One of these lies in her pathological hatred of aliens as she and her mother were kidnapped by the G.R.A.I.S.E. of Melonpool when she was a young child. Her mother would die of malnutrition while their prisoner, leaving her daughter alone at the tender mercies of the aliens. Her back story gives a barebones treatment of that past, and also hints at fellow Overlord Jason Fellback, who was sent to retrieve her.

One of the more intriguing moments, and a point where I realized EOU was more than just an instrument for Crossover Wars and was working in character growth for the cast, was when Celine revealed elements of that past… and the fact that Dr. Catastrophe was her father. The story of how Catastrophe and the Editor tracked her down remains a cipher, unfortunately, and it seems unlikely we will learn those details even when the comic ends.

The story behind Jason Fellback is likewise rather bare. We know he has amnesia and that he was sent to rescue Celine from the G.R.A.I.S.E.; added hints in the comic suggest he is a Goddess-worshipper, and some form of priest of the facility where the Overlords have set up their base of operations. But the wheres and hows of his joining with the Overlords and his past remain unknown. He’s shown remarkably little initiative in learning about his past, though whether his prior efforts were never shown or he trusts the Editor that greatly remains to be seen. His other flaw, an intense allergy of cats, is often played for comedic relief and has been used in some of the crossover events to defeat him.

Deception is the second in command of the Overlords, and has shown a tendency to try and act without waiting for input from the Editor. Despite this tendency to try and seize the initiative, Deception has not tried to overpower the Editor, and in his own back story his defeat at the hands of the Editor revealed that this deceptively-mild looking elf is in fact a Dragon… and one who was defeated with but a little difficulty by the Editor. His character is one of the least serious of the cast, with him portrayed as a womanizer and general pervert, though one who has shown considerable loyalty to his fellow Overlords.

The remainder of the cast exists in a secondary role. Dr. Catastrophe heads up the research division of the Overlords, and is given a more human touch with his obvious concern over his daughter Celine. He also holds the position of confidant of Zworgue, an alien entity whose technology and abilities has enabled the Overlords to launch their raids into other worlds. Zworgue himself has been played mostly for comic relief and it seems unlikely this will change anytime soon.

Tertiary characters include Catnap and Death Bunny, who are base cannon fodder who’ve had minimal character development within the EOU comic. Outside of EOU, they’ve been developed to a greater extent, depending on the whims of the cartoonist borrowing them. And of course, there’s the Droids. These are the backbone of the invasion force, and are mostly faceless cyphers… but hold enough eccentricities that as a whole help make the background happenings in the comic worth watching.

Recent events have the Overlords preparing for the next phase in their assault on the webcomic worlds. Initial attempts to overthrow Rogues of Clwyd Rhan succeeded, and the armies from that world will be utilized in the next stage of the invasion. Considering the general inept nature of the majority of the troops in RoCR (with its success due more to trickery and brute force than actual strategy), this invasion will fall flat on its face and no doubt lead to reversals in the Crossover Wars.

And that is perhaps the greatest flaw in EOU. It’s destined to end with its protagonists having failed in their quest. Sure, they’re “evil” and the bad guys. But the primary cast works well together and they have shown surprising character development. Whether we’ll see additional character development as things start going south for the Overlords remains to be seen, but I couldn’t be surprised for additional quiet moments to appear, building additional bonds between these characters before their final end.

For all crossovers eventually end. Whether it will be with the Editor tied down and Velma yanking his fake head off to reveal Damonk was the mad genius behind it all, or for one or more of the Overlords to sneak off in preparation for the next mad bid to take control, that end is inevitable, and will call in the curtain call of EOU itself. But while EOU is the central picture of this puzzle, it is the variety of cameos and crossovers that have emerged because of this that truly make the whole. And the webcomicking world will be changed by the Wars as cartoonists realize that they too can be a part of something this big.

This is not the end, nor the beginning of the end. It is the start of something new.