Warning: Mature Readers Only!
Crossed: Badlands sees Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows return to the franchise-series they started, with a tale about love lost. Set in the highlands and lowlands of the Scotish Isle, the story opens with a group foraging for food and trying to stay ahead of a group of Crossed. Badlands is told through the narration of Ian, a bookshop worker. Ian tells us how tragically he lost his wife, Penny, while in a town.
Ennis and Burrows' creation of the Crossed Universe gave us a world where a disease, much like a zombie virus, has ravaged most of the world's population. The illness is different though, from conventional "zombies" in that within minutes it can turn a normal human being into an insane blood thirsty killer. Carriers of the disease can pass on the virus though the exchange of fluid - any fluid. Unlike the classic zombie ailment the Crossed' diseased mind is able to process thought, learn, plan, organise and therefore they are able to carry out atrocious killing sprees. Also, once the Crossed see or get a whiff of you they never stop the chase until either they or you are dead. Death by a Crossed is something you would barely wish upon the vilest of persons possible.
With Crossed, Ennis has run wild with his imagination and there are no holds barred. Babies thrown from moving cars, a woman with heads worn as a skirt around her waist and later Pat, a slightly pudgy male, gets hamstrung and left for the the Crossed after being caught stealing a biscuit. This act alone shows how desperate the situation is in this new world after the outbreak of the Crossed disease.
Ian continues to reflect on the past in issue #2. After burying his wife he joins up with a group. After realizing it would be pointless to stay with them for his own survival, he leaves to head off on his own.
With the pregnant girl, Anya, ready too give birth at any time soon, Ian tells the group that they need to decide on whether they leave the brother and sister behind or carry on with them with the girl slowing them and therefore risk the Crossed catching up with. With the group taken off guard by the suggestion, there are some heated moments which is only placated by a vote on the matter.
Once again we see Ian showing his dog-eat-dog mentally. And becoming more and more self-serving. Sadly after a long labor period, both mother and baby die in child birth. Once again, the group continues marching through the winter's snow filled mountains and valleys, trying to survive another day.
Crossed: Badlands sees Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows return to the franchise-series they started, with a tale about love lost. Set in the highlands and lowlands of the Scotish Isle, the story opens with a group foraging for food and trying to stay ahead of a group of Crossed. Badlands is told through the narration of Ian, a bookshop worker. Ian tells us how tragically he lost his wife, Penny, while in a town.
Badlands group of misfits consists of a pregnant girl and her boyfriend, a paramedic and a young man with a bandaged face who may or may not be Prince Harry. Ian laments about the pregnant girl forshadowing a tragedy to come later in the series.
Ennis and Burrows' creation of the Crossed Universe gave us a world where a disease, much like a zombie virus, has ravaged most of the world's population. The illness is different though, from conventional "zombies" in that within minutes it can turn a normal human being into an insane blood thirsty killer. Carriers of the disease can pass on the virus though the exchange of fluid - any fluid. Unlike the classic zombie ailment the Crossed' diseased mind is able to process thought, learn, plan, organise and therefore they are able to carry out atrocious killing sprees. Also, once the Crossed see or get a whiff of you they never stop the chase until either they or you are dead. Death by a Crossed is something you would barely wish upon the vilest of persons possible.
The Crossed is a mixture of the movie Hostel meets the Spanish flick, Rec. It is in my honest opinion that the series has allowed Ennis to create a world that is so disturbing that it has gained a cult readership. Even I at times have to look away from what some of the panels depict. Crossed, unlike other depictions of the zombie genre, stands apart from what has gone before and therefore, is in a league of it's own. Crossed people are able to function in normal ways after turning. They are unlike Zombies, able to understand how to operate a car if they knew how to do it before, as long as it includes hurting people in the most disgusting of ways.
Each Crossed mini-series out so far has been about desperation, survival and struggling to hold onto hope that something will change and an end to the Crossed disease will come.
But in the mean time the survivors struggle to stay ahead of the Crossed, to live another day.
With the pregnant girl, Anya, ready too give birth at any time soon, Ian tells the group that they need to decide on whether they leave the brother and sister behind or carry on with them with the girl slowing them and therefore risk the Crossed catching up with. With the group taken off guard by the suggestion, there are some heated moments which is only placated by a vote on the matter.Once again we see Ian showing his dog-eat-dog mentally. And becoming more and more self-serving. Sadly after a long labor period, both mother and baby die in child birth. Once again, the group continues marching through the winter's snow filled mountains and valleys, trying to survive another day.
Next time, I will be writing the next story arc starting with Issue #4 of the Badlands series by another one of my favorite writers adding his own sordid tale into the mix : Jamie Delano (Hellblazer, Rawbone, Animal Man).
(ARU), Aruneshwar has a Bachelors Degree in Digital Media -Digital Film-making. Aru is writing and illustrating a graphic novel about the 30yrs of Institutionalised Slavery of Indians in Fiji from 1885 -1915. He is a prolific script writer and writes in all comicbook genres which include several graphic novels for his own company,Rising Sun Comics. Aru also uploads a digital comic series on Facebook called, Zero as well as completing his first crime-noir graphic novel, The Circle. He is also trying to finishing off coloring and lettering a superhero comic book mini-series he co-created with Mike Burbeck called, Incredi-Girl.
(ARU), Aruneshwar has a Bachelors Degree in Digital Media -Digital Film-making. Aru is writing and illustrating a graphic novel about the 30yrs of Institutionalised Slavery of Indians in Fiji from 1885 -1915. He is a prolific script writer and writes in all comicbook genres which include several graphic novels for his own company,Rising Sun Comics. Aru also uploads a digital comic series on Facebook called, Zero as well as completing his first crime-noir graphic novel, The Circle. He is also trying to finishing off coloring and lettering a superhero comic book mini-series he co-created with Mike Burbeck called, Incredi-Girl.
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