Top Cow announced today that two of their most buzzed-about titles in years, Aphrodite IX and Cyber Force, will cross over beginning in July in a series that will reshape the Top Cow Universe.Coming July 2, Aphrodite IX/Cyber Force #1, written by Matt Hawkins and with art by Stjepan Šejić, will begin a crossover spin-off series.Aphrodite IX, fans will remember, launched last year as Top Cow’s Free Comic Book Day offering. It’s been critically-acclaimed and, along with Think Tank, has made Hawkins one of the most-respected executives in comics (he’s also the President and COO of Top Cow) by readers. Cyber Force launched following a sometimes-controversial Kickstarter campaign that crowdfunded the initial handful of issues so that both physical and digital copies could be freely distributed, with the idea that free comics would attract more fans than trying to relaunch a long-dormant IP. Combine “free” and “good,” the logic went, and you’ll have a hit. The experiment seemingly has been a success.Two teams, seven centuries apart, united by one woman’s diabolical plan. The Chairwoman from Cyber Force and Aphrodite IX had a plan to recreate the world in her children’s image. Things didn’t go as planned. Featuring the present day team of Cyber Force and the 28th century Aphrodite IX, this story lays the origins of the new comic series IXth Generation, launching in 2015.”When Marc Silvestri and I sat down to talk Cyber Force two years ago we were building up to this eventual connection between Aphrodite IX and Cyber Force,” said Hawkins. “This book is a self-contained, oversized one shot that will explain who all these characters are and their importance to each other and to the Artifacts side of the universe as well. We’re not looking to overburden it with continuity, just show tangentially how they relate.”There’s quite a bit of action planned for the Artifacts side, as well, with 2015 being the twentieth anniversary of Witchblade, one of Image Comics’s longest-running series.Aphrodite IX/Cyber Force #1 arrives in stores on July 2. It will be 48 pages and available for $5.99. Cover A can be pre-ordered with Diamond Code MAY140582 and Cover B can be pre-ordered with Diamond Code MAY140583. A variant cover featuring art by Marc Silvestri can be pre-ordered with Diamond Code MAY140584.
