Crossed = Fucked up to the max
Miles’ Book
Crossed #1
Written by Garth Ennis
Art by Jacen Burrows
Avatar Press, 2008
Well.
That was fucked up.
I mean, when I opened the book and landed on the page 2-3 spread (that would be the page where a naked woman is dragged by her hair), I knew this was going to be fucked up, but, wow, this was fucked up.
But, it is more than that. There’s an intelligence behind the liberal doses of violence and rape. I love and respect Preacher, so I know that Garth Ennis is good at going to grotesque places with intelligence, but I think he got there a little too quickly this time. Like, Crossed has Odin-fucking-his-meat-sculpture levels of twisted and it’s only the first 22 pages of story. If grotesque could be measured on a scale of 1 to 10, Preacher started at 2 and made its way up to 8. This starts at 10.
Crossed begins after civilization as we know it has ended. For some unknown reason — at this point in the series, anyway — a large portion of America’s population have become murderous, monstrous, and destructive. They are marked with a scabby “t” shape on their faces. The religious significance or practical explanation of the mark has not been explained at this time, but I’m sure there will be some pay-off eventually. This issue follows a small group of people unaffected by this plague, if it even is a plague, while they try to elude capture, and gang rape, from the Crossed.
But there is more to this book than just a series of swears and shocking sex acts. Ennis is a smart writer. When he brings in extreme sexuality or violence, he makes sure that he has a point. Granted, there aren’t a lot of answers in this issue, but there are signs they are coming. Moments like when Joey, our narrator, is attacked by a Crossed who was (is?) his lover. She arrives with a knife in her back and threatens, “I’ll put it up your ass like you did to me.” Yeah, that’s a fucked up moment, but you have to step back and ask what it is saying about Joey, about anal sex, about how fucked up we all are but just deny.
In terms of art, Burrows is an amazing find. I’ve never heard of him, but he’s fantastic. He’s an interesting blend of John Romita Jr and Steve McNiven. That might sound impossible, but it works for Burrows. There’s the occasional panel that looks rushed or uneven, but most of the time he shows incredible control and composition — even if the panel is of guts spilling out. I do, however, feel that the colouring is wrong for this book. It’s far too slick for a book that has content this horrible. The colouring makes everything look too pretty, and not in a way that stresses the juxtaposition of the art verses the content. It just looks like they wanted to have a book that looked professionally coloured regardless of if it fit.
Anyway, it’s an interesting read. It might give me nightmares tonight. I don’t know if that’s a recommendation or not.
Isaac’s Book
Secret Invasion: Inhumans #3 of 4
Written by Joe Pokaski
Pencilled by Tom Raney
Cover by Stjepan Sejic
Marvel Comics, 2008
I know a bit concerning the Inhumans, and what has always stuck out is their ever-present valuing of family. The main characters are the Inhuman Royal Family, and this connectedness made them an excellent mirror for the Fantastic Four, themselves an adventuring family, in their first appearance. Then you get all the cool Romeo-and-Juliet themes between Crystal and Johnny Storm — even though Crystal eventually marries and separates from Quicksilver? How’d that happen? The point is, these characters are defined by their loyalty to one another.
If you’ve followed Secret Invasion at all, you’d know one of its catch phrases is “Who Do You Trust?” and the creators wanted an aura of paranoia and mistrust to spread throughout the Marvel Universe. That never really happened. Of course I dropped New Avengers from my pull list not long after Spider-Woman handed over the dead Skrull-Elektra to Iron Man. No, not because of that, there are plenty of reasons. ANYways…
The schism the creators wanted for everyone? Well, it’s in this book. With Medusa in command of the Inhumans, she abandons her people to the Skrull invasion to find her husband Black Bolt, believing that’s the only way she can save everyone. But the more she clings to this plan the more things slip through her fingers, with compromises and coldness tearing everyone apart.
This is most evident when Trident, his water-breathing apparatus damaged, is left in a water-filled cell while Medusa, Gorgon, and Crystal walk away. His isolation from the others is palpable.
It’s been suggested in this comic, and probably in others ones as well, that the Inhumans were created by the Kree to infiltrate alien worlds and aid in the ongoing battles between Kree and Skrull. This accounts for the Inhumans looking so different from one another once they acquire their individual powers. The question then is: are the Inhumans really a family, or would they be happier seeded throughout the universe with “their own kind”? If this were a comic by Stan and Jack back in the day, there’s no doubt there’d be a sappy “family is what you make of it” message and the Inhumans would have a big old group hug (maybe that’s more DC style?) but Triton’s shock when he encounters a planet full of sea creatures just like him, well, obviously it’s nice to belong.
Watch out Triton! They’re probably all Skrulls!
We’re also shown Black Bolt himself in this comic, so it’s nice to know that he’s still alive, even if he’s imprisoned and being turned into a living weapon by the Skrulls. Those Skrulls are jerks.
The art inside is good (it can get pretty epic at times, which is important when so much is set in space), and there’s also a mini-history of the Inhumans at the beginning as narrated by Maximus (that’s Black Bolt’s brother) in an almost stained-glass window/Zelda format, which I’m sure many people will enjoy.
It’s amazing how much it feels like stuff happens in this comic, when if you really break it down it’s mostly pages of Medusa and Crystal fighting. That’s pretty much classic Marvel style, so no complaints there.
