Crossed Badlands #13

Written By: David Lapham

Art By: Jacen Burrows

Colour By: Juanmar

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Edmund has proven over the past three issues that he is, in fact, nothing more than the yellow-bellied coward everyone assumed him to be. He had several chances to help save and aid other people during attacks but instead, he runs. At the end of last issue and just in the nick of time, Lorre (the Psychopath we all known and love from Volume 3) appears with a solution for all of Edmund’s problems: the dead girl, the soon-to-be angry bikers and most notably of all, a strengthening of his ego.

Everything is well and good, Edmund didn’t necessarily see eye to eye with the options Lorre presented him with but it got him out alive and in the end that is all that truly mattered. Since the corpse of their dead biker-chick appeared more Crossed-destroyed than human, the gang quickly named Edmund a hero and treated him as such with beer, women and a party like none he had ever seen.

I know what you’re thinking: But what of the karma due on this cowards head? What of this woman who was, in life and death, submitted to the confused and thoughtless ways of young Edmund? There’s a simple solution to that – read the issue. And between you and me, he gets his in a fashion worthy of his self-focused existence.

Although it lacked on the gore front in comparison to other instalments, Edmund’s run in Crossed Badlands, headed by Lapham and Burrows, has been one of my favourite to date. It was refreshing to take a trip back to the start through the eyes of a young man known for his inability to buck-up and fight for those he loves since we normally find ourselves following a more heroic, powerful protagonist. It felt like an appropriate transition from Delano’s character-packed run to have the focus on a single character, and of course the inclusion of my greatest fear; Harold Lorre.

I was extremely exited when I heard that Lapham and Burrows would be teaming up for the series and frankly I couldn’t be happier with the result. Edmund provided an intriguing and original perspective that you don’t often find in apocalypse stories. The dialogue, language and style all felt real enough to terrify and the imagery only amplified those fears. Proving that it is men like Edmund you need to fear come the end of the world because nothing screws you over harder than a coward.