Mad Cave's Mark London Breaks Down Underworld's Epic Crossover and Teases Future Plans

Mad Cave Studios’ Underworld universe has grown and expanded from one series to three, and each one feels distinctly different from the others. Those titles include Revolution 9, Exit City, and Hour of the Wolf, and now all three titles are colliding in the universe’s first crossover event, Endless Night #1. ComicBook had the chance to speak to Mad Cave Studios CEO and Endless Night writer Mark London all about today’s big launch, the events that led to bringing some of the world’s biggest heroes together in the same place, and what’s in store for the future of this growing universe.

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Getting a Second Chance

Fans of all three series will see their favorites team up for the first time, but if you’ve only been following one or two of the series, that’s fine too, as Endless Night will quickly get you up to speed with what’s happening and what got things to this point. The approach was always for each series to be its own encapsulated adventure while also putting the building blocks in place for a larger event. That event has now arrived in the form of Endless Night, but Velveteen, McCormick, Miller, and Owen Blackwood have all been on London’s mind for quite some time. In fact, the Underworld universe sort of began when London went back and pulled some gems from the past that didn’t get their due the first time around.

“Well, for starters, all these characters have been in the back of my mind for 10 years plus now and then. They were actually some characters that have been reinvented, because back in the day when we launched Mad Cave Studios, we had a series called Midnight Task Force, and that was with Detective Aidan McCormick, which is one of your detectives in Exit City,” London said. “And we also had another series, which was RV9, in which your main character was Velveteen. So this was a little bit, I mean, they have been with me forever.”

“I think that growing up with what you were saying, with Marvel and DC and those big crossovers where you see all those characters coming together, I grew up with that stuff and I just fell in love with the fact that you could probably cross over stories, so I think that I always wanted to do that. So last year, when it was Mad Cave’s 10 year anniversary, I decided to actually kind of like retouch some of the old series, trying to reinvent the characters and the story a little bit. It was very, very satisfying to bring them back and to get to know them again, or try to see where they were going because they had such a short run at the beginning that it was just like, okay, how can we build from that and make something bigger, better, and something for the fans.”

An Epic Crossover

Each title feeling incredibly different from the others was a big part of that plan, as it allowed fans of different genres to find something they loved. Even now as they collide, each series still brings its own unique magic to the event.

“So these three stories, Revolution 9, Exit City, and Hour of the Wolf, I mean, they are so different and they’re designed that way,” London said. “You can actually pick up something that you like, whether it is an action adventure spy thriller story like Revolution 9, or Exit City, where you kind of see your noir detective in this surreal setting, or Hour of the Wolf, which is as you so well described it, it dwells in magic and the occult and something weird is going on.”

To pull all that together, you needed a place that could act as a central point and bring in some characters and situations organically, and that was pinpointed as Exit City from the very beginning. While they arrive with similar goals, it will still take a bit for Velveteen, McCormick, Miller, and Owen to trust each other, but they will need to make that happen quickly if they hope to stop an already incredibly powerful organization known as The Order of the Nine from recruiting a new member to the cause.

“Without spoiling too much, the Order of the Nine is a secret society that actually plays a very important part in this world, and is actually looking to replace one of its members. I’m just gonna leave it at that,” London said. “Then let’s just say that the seat is open, so they reach out to one particularly shady character that lives in Exit City, and this secret society basically tells him, listen, if you get us an ancient artifact that is rooted in magic and the occult and everything, because they’re into that stuff, you will definitely get a chance to become part of our secret society.”

“You will have that chair that is vacant, and this guy, this is what he has wanted all his life, and he basically just assembles, not a team, but he hires somebody to actually go and get that thing, that coveted thing that is going to get him his prize,” London said.

If you’re going to be leaning into the occult and secret societies, there better be an edge to things, and Endless Night has that in spades. With all the big action and grisly sequences in the mix, artist Tom Derenick soon emerged as the perfect person to bring all those elements to life.

“Well, one of the things that I was clear on was that this new story [Endless Night] was going to be very bombastic. It was going to be very action-packed, so speaking to my editor, who is Mike Martz, and I think that he’s one of the best editors in the industry, I told him look, this is what I really, really want. It has to be big. It has to be, I mean, balls to the wall, pardon my French. He was like, okay, then we need an artist that actually can handle that stuff, and then he suggested Tom Derenick, who I think doesn’t get enough credit,” London said. “Because he’s been around with the big two, he’s done his rounds with Marvel and DC. I mean, his Justice League is amazing. So when Mike basically just showed me the first few pages that Tom was taking a stab at, I was like, yes, this is solved. I want him, I mean, please!”

“Tom is such a professional that he just basically took the script and I think elevated every single page. He just went balls to the wall with it, with the action and with the visual aspects of Endless Night that we were going for. So that’s how we got the right artist for the series,” London said.

The Future

Endless Night is a major milestone for this evolving world, and fans will get some big teases of the future throughout the four-issue series. London gave us a clearer picture of the future of the world and the larger story at play, and the great news is that there are even bigger things to come.

“I mean, the plan is obviously, when you attempt something like this, especially from an independent publisher standpoint, is not like a lot of people know these characters, and then they’re just not going to drive a crossover by itself. So I think that for this, let’s just call it Phase one, I think that a lot of people were a little bit like, okay, should we pick up Revolution 9 first, or should we pick Exit City first, or should I read Hour of the Wolf? What, what’s going on here? And the way that they are designed is that you can enjoy those series standalones and those are the stories,” London said.

“Then if you read Endless Night, which is the crossover, and you have no idea who these other characters are, I mean it’s a great jumping-on point to actually get to know these characters. If you want to know them a little bit better, sure, you can go and revisit those stories, and that’s why we also did it in a very bite-sized way. Revolution 9, Exit City, and Hour of the Wolf are all four issues, and also the crossover is four issues, so very contained,” London said.

As for what’s after Endless Night, don’t worry, because there are big plans in place. “We are actually working on Phase two, which is going to bring five new titles to this world. They’re all going to be very, very different, as we did with Revolution 9, Exit City, and Hour of the Wolf. I think one of them you’re gonna love. If you tell me that magic is, is your thing and you really enjoyed Hour of the Wolf, I think that one is going to be right up your alley,” London said.

“So five series there, we’re gonna stretch them a little bit. Two series are planned to go 12 issues, another one is planned to go five issues, and the other one, I mean, we’re still tinkering with whether we do just a six issue arc or we decide to go the full 12, but again, expanding the world, each character is just going to be treated at its own contained thing,” London said. “And then, depending on the reception and how we see things, there are plans to do another crossover, and then we basically do a bigger one, kind of like the big two do it again. I just have so much fun, just like creating and writing this stuff. I just think that this is like a love letter to comic books and comic book tropes that I grew up with.”

Endless Night #1 is in stores now.

Are you excited for Endless Night, and what do you want to see next for Underworld? Let us know in the comments, and you can talk all things comics with me on Bluesky @knightofoa!