First published back in November of 2014 Garth Ennis’ ‘Crossed: Dead Or Alive – Issue One’ formed the first part in a two-comic mini-series from the ‘Crossed’ franchise. The comic was written by Garth Ennis with artwork by Daniel Gete.
The two ‘Dead Or Alive’ comics were released as a special limited edition run to raise funds for a proposed live-action series. The comics themselves collected together short webcomics that Ennis originally released online, in an attempt to promote a future film and then live-action series.
The comic was released with a variety of different covers: Regular (3000 copies), Art Deco (750 copies), Horror (750 copies), Missing (500 copies), Turbulence (500 copies), Pure Art (250 copies), Red Crossed (400 copies) and VIP Signed (500 copies).
DLS Synopsis:
Richie was on a Virgin flight going to LAX via Dulles when the Crossed outbreak hit. The captain had just informed the passengers that they were cruising at an altitude of thirty-eight thousand feet, when all of a sudden, the violence erupted.
It was probably one of the worst places to be when the Crossed shit hit the fan. Nevertheless, somehow Richie managed to survive both the crossed outbreak onboard the flight, and the plane crash.
Now he’s with a group of survivors. A gang of individuals trying to stay away from the Crossed. Trying to stay alive.
However, Richie’s becoming increasingly frustrated with those he’s with. He’s now at the point where everything they do annoys him. He feels no loyalty to them, and he knows the feeling’s mutual. He’d drop them at the first sign of trouble. He was with them out of necessity only.
Now they were facing the Rockies. About to cross through the vast mountains to stay ahead of the Crossed. A difficult trek at the best of times, let alone with the Crossed at your heels…
DLS Review:
Here we have the first of two comics that were principally designed to introduce a bunch of new characters for a proposed live-action series. And essentially, that’s pretty much all we have with this first comic – an opening and introductory starting of another ‘Crossed’ story.
The comic is basically split into two threads which it jumps between throughout the two issues. First, we have the situation onboard the Virgin flight at the point when the Crossed outbreak first hits. Alongside this we have what we assume is a short while later, perhaps a few weeks, with Richie tagging along with a group of survivors who he can’t stand being around.
In this latter thread, we’re briefly introduced to each of the characters – Tabitha, Carl, Joe, Lauren, Justin and Luke. Although at this stage none of them particularly jump out as anyone special or out of the ordinary. Kind of run-of-the-mill everyday characters who Richie is gradually losing his patience with.
We also have a small amount of violent Crossed action in this first comic, but honestly, it’s really not all that much. An eruption of violence on the flight as well as snippets of the Crossed doing their thing, which is simply viewed from afar by the survivors. That’s about it!
Even with introducing the characters, the comic doesn’t really achieve much. Yeah, we have a short intro for each of them, and we see a bit of Richie’s cold and selfish personality coming out too. But other than that, there’s little else.
As such, as much as I love the Crossed comics, I can’t rate this one very highly. Definitely not a good intro into the wider series for someone, but instead, more a collectable comic for the hardcore fans.
The comic runs for a total of 32 pages.
© DLS Reviews
Other ‘Dead Or Alive’ instalments:
- ‘Crossed: Dead Or Alive – Issue One’ (2014)
- ‘Crossed: Dead Or Alive – Issue Two’ (2014)
