Fusion #1 Lands In Stores in May!

[ENGLISH] Top Cow tells us: LOS ANGELES, Calif., March 25th, 2009 – Top Cow Productions, Inc. proudly announced today that the characters from their popular titles Hunter-Killer and Cyberforce will team up against The Mighty Avengers and Thunderbolts from Marvel Comics, in Fusion, a three part crossover mini-series with the first issue to debut in May 2009.

As a summer crossover event, Fusion represents an apex in the continuation of an ongoing packaging agreement between Top Cow Productions and Marvel Comics that began in 2006.  The agreement between the two companies produced a number of great stories such as The Darkness/Wolverine, Cyberforce/X-Men, Witchblade/Punisher as well as a Magdalena/ Daredevil match-up.

“The crossovers with Marvel characters have been the most fun part of deal with Marvel,” commented Top Cow Publisher, Filip Sablik, “We wanted to go out with a bang and telling a multi-part story involving four of the biggest teams from both companies seemed like a natural.”

The writing team of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (Guardians of the Galaxy, Nova) will script Fusion, which begins when the Mighty Avengers and Cyberforce are together when Cyberforce’s own teammate, Ripclaw, appears in a small Northeast town in an uncontrollable rage.

“We’re really excited about the opportunity to bring the Top Cow and Marvel Universes’ mightiest teams together for the first time and weave the continuity of these two universes into a head-on collision of titanic proportions,” added co-writers Abnett and Lanning. “We’ve had a blast writing these classic characters both old and new and hope readers enjoy the ride. We think you will be blown away with Tyler Kirkham’s amazing artwork!”

Fusion will be drawn by Top Cow artist Tyler Kirkham (Ultimate Fantastic Four, Broken Trinity: Aftermath) and will feature covers by Marvel Young Guns Mike Choi and Sonia Oback (Uncanny X-Men, X-Force).

“I have always wanted to draw Ripclaw. I grew up with Cyberforce. Not to mention the chance to draw a nice lineup of big name Marvel Characters,” said artist Kirkham, “The great writing of Dan and Andy had me pumped up from the beginning!”

The conclusion to Fusion leads nicely into Top Cow’s Cyberforce/ Hunter-Killer, a new event series to be released by Top Cow in July 2009. Fusion will take place during the “Initiative” era of Marvel Comics continuity, prior to the events of Secret Invasion.

About Top Cow Productions Inc.
Top Cow Productions, Inc. (www.topcow.com), a Los Angeles-based entertainment company, was founded in December of 1992 by artist Marc Silvestri, who also co-founded Image Comics earlier that same year. Top Cow currently publishes its line of comic books in 21 languages in over 55 different countries. The company has launched 20 franchises (18 original and two licensed) in the industry’s Top 10, seven at #1, a feat accomplished by no other publisher in the last two decades. Its flagship franchise, WITCHBLADE, was TNT’s #1 original film of 2000 and the subsequent TV series was released on DVD on July 29, 2008. A feature film, co-produced by Platinum Studios, Inc. and Arclight Films, is slated to begin production in Australia with director Michael Rymer. WITCHBLADE is also the first American property to be fully adapted in Japan as an original anime and manga by Studio GONZO in 2006. Top Cow’s other flagship property, THE DARKNESS, was developed into a major next-generation video game release by Starbreeze and 2K Games and achieved platinum sales status. WANTED, an Eisner-nominated miniseries published by Top Cow from 2003-2005, is now a major motion picture from Universal Pictures starring Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman. Virtually all of Top Cow’s other properties are in development as feature films, live-action television, animation or video games. Top Cow has also successfully licensed and merchandised its franchises into toys, statues, clothing, lithographs, puppets, posters, magnets, shot glasses, lighters, lunch pails, wall scrolls, mouse pads, die-cast cars, calendars, Christmas ornaments, Halloween masks, trading cards, standees, video games and roleplaying games.