Regular Cover By: Jacen Burrows
Story By: David Hine
Art By: Issue #14: Georges Duarte, Issue #15-18: Eduardo Vienna
Inks By: Issue #15-18: Nelson Pereira
Colours By: Issue #14: Juanmar , Issue #15-18: Digikore Studios
Avatar Press
This arc of the bi-weekly gong show that is Crossed Badlands pertains to two separate survivor groups. One being a police officer and her niece, the other a group of young want-to-be authors shacked up in the home of Welles; a famous writer out to get some kicks from his uncanny ability to mess with one’s mind. Bringing forth these two miraculously horrifying tales is none other than David Hine (Civil War: X-Men, Spider-Man Noir), a man most of us have enjoyed plentiful amounts of comic goodness from but, I promise you have never seen him create a tale quite like this.
In a town like Stableford, Wisconsin one can expect to find a few things: farmers with missing limbs (aka the Stumps, a group of farmers that purposefully lose limbs to get insurance money), small town gossip and most of all – nothing. That’s what towns like this are best known for after all, right? Unlike those other farm towns you have seen though, this one comes with an added bonus in the form of a manic, slightly criminal, author named Gideon Welles.
Welles is known worldwide for his grizzly fictitious novels in regard to human nature and where exactly a person’s breaking point, or in his eyes purest-self, stands and how it can be torn down to display the true man beneath. Every so often he opens the doors of
Regular Cover By: Raulo Caceres
his mansion to a group of hand-picked young adults with aspirations in writing and seemingly a personality he sees as controllable. In his vain attempts to teach them the art of word, he presents their task: become the character he has chosen for them based off of whom he believes they really are. They must embrace this person fully and hold no regard for shame, embarrassment or anything of a moral manner. When you strip away the rules, you strip away the ‘self’ you’ve created for society and become overwhelmed with the carnal and lustful feelings people like Welles deem more natural. His goal is simply to witness and feel your inner sexual demons.
Clooney, an awkward guy with very little to offer in terms of excitement, and his girlfriend are both chosen to enter Welles’s sick game. After only a few hours though, Clooney quickly begins to realize what his place is in this play; the two-bit coward loser with no chance of getting laid. Sounds like a great time right? Well, despite Welles’s attempts to make him snap and bear the man beneath the craptastic personality, Clooney retains his anger and in the end finds a much more personal and creative way to display his thirst for vengeance.
When the Crossed arrive it isn’t only the Welles house that is set in the sights of danger but, the entire town must fight to keep their lives as well. When the good fight quickly turns bad for the town’s entirety Lorna, one of the first on-site police, takes off in an attempt to find her young niece and save her, as temporarily as the safety she provides might actually be. Although, Lorna’s story takes the back seat throughout the arc and likely plays a role if for no bigger reason than explanation in terms of the town’s infection, I promise her outcome will tear your heart in two.
With every new arc and every writer introduced to the series, one challenge becomes perfectly clear: How do they keep it fresh while still entertaining the gory and overtly disturbing aura that is the Crossed universe? Seeing people get torn up will always sell but, it will sell more and much better if the reader cares about those people being torn up – even to the slightest degree – and Crossed has always embraced this truth. Regardless of how terrifyingly ugly any plot has gotten, it always breaks down to an
Regular Cover By: Raulo Caceres
emotional connection between the reader and the receiving end of the horror. What Hines has done that is beautiful and oddly refreshing for a tale like this was that he not only played off of your emotions but focused on those of your moral nerve. There is much less sympathetic emotion because, let’s face it, none of these characters (except Lorna and her niece) are worthy of anything less than the Crossed damned hell they find themselves buried in.
To be honest, Hine’s writing and dialogue between characters constantly had me pondering which reality I feared more, the one where Welles’s demented house and several of his guests exist or the one filled with mentally-deranged rape monsters… In the end I chose the Crossed, at least they have the infection as an excuse for their actions. Self-assessment and understanding has gone way too far in the home of Welles and it is much likelier that his students will lead healthier lives as Crossed than they ever would have being re-entered into society after the week he has put them through.
I have never been let down by an artist working on any Avatar title and the art teams for this arc of Crossed have proven to meet that expectation without a doubt. Duarte’s detailing is subtle and clean but, very expressive in the characters faces. Pair that with the bright, realistic coloring of Jaunmar and you have an issue worthy of artistically standing alongside its processors. Vienna, Pereira and Digikore worked the art on the remaining issues and reminded me just how abysmal a death can be at the hands of one of these infected. The harsh blacks and solid colors bring a simplistic modern atmosphere to the tale that aids in calming you and scaring the piss out of you all at once. This calming effect misleads you into safety, making you think he’s bringing you daisies when really they were severed heads on sticks all along.
Hines has a background of being a very talented, well thought out comic writer. From my experiences with him throughout his works in Marvel/DC titles he has always taken my attention by the throat and made me beg for more. So, it comes as no surprise that when I saw his words were to grace the pages of Crossed I was helplessly stoked. Then when you consider the fact that he and the art teams managed to pull it off so well? All the freaking better! Despite not being a hard core horror author like many Crossed writers are, Hines has formed a tale that will keep you on your toes past its final pages. He took the in your face brutality of the Crossed style and paired it with a different reflection of that world – the one where some of us already live in something worse than it. Worth the buy for any existing fan or anybody with a strong stomach and an itch to see some blood, guts and great story telling put to work.
4 buckets of red paint out of 5.
Regular Cover By: Raulo Caceres
Regular Cover By: Raulo Caceres
