Hey, look - it's another zombie comic book series!

Well, it certainly looks like one, and it reads like one too, and while I initially muttered loudly to no one in particular that the industry should stop putting these out, I was pleasantly surprised by this book.
I'm pleased to report that Crossed looks like it might actually be worth your reading time - sort of.

Why is that? For starters, Crossed actually tries really hard to push the oversaturated genre trope forward - and it does a pretty good job of it, too. While keeping with the general theme and structure of the apocalyptic zombie story, it twists the roles in terms of characterization and plot arc just enough to deliver a very strong message beyond the norms.

Garth Ennis is writing this series, and while critics have complained here and there that Ennis is descending into Frank Miller territory - especially with his newish series 'The Boys', so there may or may not be hesitation on reading this book. 'The Boys' is essentially the old "bad superheroes" storyline with extra depravity. I liked the first twelve issues or so of that series, but I'll admit it has gotten pretty shaky since then. The story arc seems to be spinning its wheels - like Ennis has lost interest in the entire project.

Anyway, that aside, Crossed caught my interest and brings hope that Ennis isn't done yet. We open with a very familiar scenario: the survivors of some sort of vague apocalypse eke out an existence and do their best to stave off the walking dead - who enjoy finding and killing them sadistic glee. These particular zombies speak English quite well, they wield tools/weapons, and they are as intelligent as the living.

Sounds familiar, right? So what makes this series different from the countless others?

It appears that Ennis isn't trying to address the usual themes with Crossed. Instead of being about humanity's struggle to survive against insurmountable odds and the trials and values associated with such efforts, he's actually commenting on man's general naivety and propensity for failure here. The living characters in this story are as unlikable as any of the dead - and that's hard commentary leveled directly at the reader beyond the pages. There's a strong subtext here. No doubt, this is a zombie comic book, and the characters do everything that typical protagonists do in the face of the apocalypse. The difference however, is that they are extraordinarily wrong almost all of the time, and the decisions they make are born less out of care for their fellow man, but more out of blind pride and the act of caring for their fellow man - like they're only acting the way they think they're supposed to, and failing at every wrong turn.

It's a remarkably bleak and nihilistic outlook, but it's also remarkably portrayed in Crossed. I've read novels that have difficulty getting this world view across, never mind comic books, but Ennis pulls it off with brilliant subtlety amidst some of the most violent and repulsive imagery I've ever seen in a comic book.

So, yeah, in case you were wondering, the book is overtly gratuitous. We've got pages upon pages of rape, baby mutilation, rape, curse words, rape, and murder. But beyond the rather excessive... um, physicality, of the storyline, we've also got stomach churning characterization. The protagonists of the story aren't much better than weak, dumb, and scared animals - too busy worrying about all the wrong things and clinging hopelessly to a social structure and order that no longer exists - to actually be any good at survival. Worse, they not only place themselves in danger, but everyone around them as well.

The series isn't driven by survival as most zombie comics are - it hinges on the reader's expectations that one of these people will actually develop into something other than prey. And it works really, really well, especially when one realizes that they are completely hopeless in this regard.

Beyond the standard iconography and comic books using said iconography as window dressing for otherwise banal comic book plots, horror often works best on a broad and subtle scale, and the hopelessness conveyed in Crossed is as broad and subtle as I've perhaps ever seen it.

That said, the comic probably isn't for everyone. It is, as I've mentioned, it's about as hardcore violent as I've ever read, and the added punch with regards to its commentary on the human race is most certain to upset particular readers simply looking for some entertainment. I'm pretty sure that when most open comic books, they're hardly looking to have their entire moral and social values rendered to pieces over the span of thirty-odd pages - but that's exactly what this series seems intent on doing.
Most highly recommended - just don't say that I didn't warn you.