Saturday, December 20, 2008

Crossed #2

Well the good news is I don't feel dirty after reading this one. Issue #1 had some absolutely horrific stuff in it, stuff that actually made me upset at Garth Ennis. This issue is a little more what I hoped for from his survival horror. Sure, it is "mature" and extra repulsive, but there is some good post-apocalyptic survival stuff in it too, which is what I had been looking for. We find out the Crossed maniacs can spread their evil by biting people, and we learn how smart they are. They are using... "tainted" bullets to spread the disease too. So the actual tainting is about as gross as you'd expect from Ennis with no limitations. The most fascinating aspect of the book is a night of the living dead scenario but with still living and passionately evil "infected." This book would not be everyone's cup of tea, it is WAY over the top. I'm not even sure I'll stick with it, Walking Dead is more my speed for this type of thing.

The art is competently done, but man, putting pencil to paper to draw some of the stuff in this comic. I don't see how that couldn't mess a person up. I'll probably stick to Ennis' Punisher and more mainstream work, I'm just too wimpy for this title. (For most Avatar books in general, probably, but I am tempted to try Christos Gage's new title.)

Fair

3 comments:

PunchBuggyBlues said...

I just read the first issue and I think I know exactly which part you mean about making you angry at Garth Ennis.

I'm thinking about giving up Crossed at #1, primarily because I'm getting a been-there, done-that vibe from it, and possibly because I've just hit zombie burn-out.

Timbotron said...

Yeah, it felt like "f-you, nerds!" and that scene at the end was just so awful, I actually felt rattled for awhile after I read it. I hadn't planned on reading issue 2, but I was too curious to see if each issue would be that offensive.

PunchBuggyBlues said...

The thing is, I find that Ennis does his best work when Steve Dillon is drawing it (and I really haven't read much of the Punisher stuff).

A few months back Dillon was at our local comic shop doing a signing to raise money for the Hero Initiative and there was a kid there getting a sketch of Omega Red.

So the kid asks Dillon if drawing Omega Red ever gave him nightmares and he replies "Are you kidding? After the stuff Garth makes me draw?"

But I haven't had anything rattle me in a while like that two-page spread. Maybe it's the timing of reading it this week with the Adam Walsh and Caylee Anthony stuff in the news.

Or maybe it's just because some stuff is just f'd up.