So, here we have the Crossed series flung forward exactly one-hundred years. The world has changed considerably since July 2008 when the Crossed outbreak first spread across the globe. Now nature has reclaimed much of the landscape. It’s essentially the same sort of backdrop as seen in the 2007 film adaptation of ‘I Am Legend’ (1954).

The graphic novel follows a group of uninfected with a long-established settlement in the rural outback of Chattanooga. The Crossed don’t really bother the community anymore. In fact, quite surprisingly, the numbers of uninfected now seem to outweigh the infected. Honestly, I’d assumed it would be the other way around!

This essentially equates to far less blood, gore and violence when compared to what we saw in the original ‘Crossed’ comics. That said, we still have the odd scene of extreme violence in this first +100 volume, with some of the scenes being particularly explicit! Furthermore, some of the violent scenes have some extra edges of extremity to them – such as young victims being savagely mutilated.

However, the levels of violence contained within these ‘Crossed +100’ comics is markedly less than the originals. Instead, the storyline seems to deal more with survival, rebuilding, and establishing the legacy of mankind and the Crossed. There are also the beginnings of a big twist to the plot, which starts out with the discovery of the two strange shrines. This whole thread to the story remains a mystery for much of this first volume, only revealing itself and coming to fruition in the last handful of pages.

The next big thing to mention about the ‘Crossed +100’ comics is the dialogue. This again, I was not expecting! It’s sort of akin to ‘Newspeak’ from Orwell’s ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ (1949), whereby language has evolved, become distorted, simplified, and more efficient. It’s sort of metamorphosed into something you can still follow, although it takes a little getting used to. Indeed, at first you’ll find yourself trying to work out what they’re saying. You can see where the origins of certain words come from, like “skulling” is “thinking”, “opsy” is “look/see” and “audy” is “audible/hear”.

Then there’s the words or phrases that are simply a corruption of their origins, akin to a lazy mishearing of the original. Like “fashion-the-pan” has clearly evolved from the phrase “flash in the pan”.

We also have specific words and phrases relevant to the Crossed and this new world. For example, they now refer to the infected as the “Churchface” and the hillbilly pockets of infected as “illbillies”. Another example being the renaming of ‘C-Day’ to the far less threatening “The Surprise”. 

What quite quickly becomes evident in the comics is that there’s uncertainty with everything now, leading to the constant use of the abbreviation ‘AFAWK’ which stands for “as far as we know”. This basically proceeds almost every statement that’s made about the past, present or future! A constant reminder that these guys are still just picking up the pieces.

At the bottom of this review, I’ve included a glossary of the main recurring words and phrases, to help anyone starting out on this ‘Crossed +100’ journey. However, once you get used to the language, you’ll find the dialogues and the story itself starts to flow well. You kind of get into a rhythm with it. 

That said, the graphic novel’s still quite a bit of a slow burner. There’s absolutely no sense of urgency in the majority of this first volume, but instead, a cautious almost plodding pace has been used, setting down the intricacies of the history, the evolution of the Crossed, and the beginning breadcrumbs for the big twist.

It’s as we gradually edge towards the final pages of this first volume, that we see the tension and violence really starting to ramp up. It’s at this point that the big twist starts to reveal itself, connecting dots and with it, escalating the action and suspense at quite an impressive rate. It’s now we start understanding the meaning of the shrines, how it’s all connected to a serial killer called Beauregard Salt (the “Phonebook Killer”) and the dramatic importance of the 27th July 2108 (trust me, this will all make sense to you by the end of the first volume).

However, with the action and violence toned down dramatically for the most part, the graphic novel has instead put more effort into the intricacies of projecting us on one-hundred-years. It’s not just the evolution of language, but with so many other subtle aspects too. For example, how Islam managed to adapt to the new world and remains in place 100 years later, whilst Christians and Jews just gave up with their beliefs after the arrival of the Crossed.

The effort put into such predications for what a future might look like (here in such extreme circumstances) is science fiction’s greatest asset. It’s all compelling and intriguing in itself. Something to have the reader pondering the possibilities.

The end result of all this is a solid first volume. Although it’s probably not quite what you’d expect coming off the back of the original ‘Crossed’ comics. Nevertheless, there’s plenty in this whole ‘Crossed +100’ storyline to keep you engaged, with an interesting Charles Mason style ‘cult’ backstory coming to fruition, to give a strong backbone to the progression of the overarching story.

So yeah, although it’s not quite got the impact, brutality, and gruesome eye-candy of the original ‘Crossed’ comics, this first volume in the ‘Crossed +100’ series is still a damn good read!

The graphic novel runs for a total of 160 pages.