Trade Paperback Edition
Hardback Edition
First published within a single compilation volume back in June of 2016, the sixteenth instalment in the post-apocalyptic ‘Crossed’ series was entitled ‘Crossed Volume 16: Badlands’ and collected together issues 87 – 92 of the comic series which formed the stories ‘Shrink’ (written by Max Bemis and drawn by Fernando Melek) and ‘Anti-Crossed’ (which was again written by Max Bemis with artwork by German Erramouspe).
Shrink
Jack hadn’t seen his brother in six years, since Clancy had moved out on his eighteenth birthday. Communication between the two had been sporadic at best. Clancy was a very different type of person to Jack. Whilst Jack went off to university to get a degree in psychology, Clancy spent most of his life drinking, injecting nastiness into his body, and getting on the wrong side of the law. Then the Crossed epidemic hit.
Jack had been living by himself in the small hometown of Woodhill where he’d grown up. It was a standard suburban hamlet where not much happened. That was until the Crossed started raping and murdering everyone.
Two weeks into the epidemic and Jack had taken in a young woman named Tiffany. Then, Clancy arrives from out of nowhere, crashing his car into the front of Jack’s house. As with all things to do with Clancy, his unexpected arrival brings trouble.
Clancy has a plan. He intends to infect himself with the Crossed virus, then have Jack chain him up in a room, whereupon he’ll psychoanalyse him. He wants Jack to find out what’s in the mind of the Crossed. What makes them tick. What humanity is possibly left inside them.
Clancy’s life has been a car crash to say the least. A wasted existence which he feels there’s nothing worth salvaging. This one thing could maybe make his existence worthwhile. Give back something, where he’s only ever taken from others.
For Jack the whole idea is crazy. He’s a strait-laced man who doesn’t like veering from the rules of life. What Clancy’s proposing is insane! But with Clancy, there’s never any choice. This is to be Jack’s opportunity to hopefully gain some understanding about the Crossed, and maybe even about his brother himself. That’s the hope. For better or worse…
This is a different one for the ‘Crossed’ series. A more psychologically based story, which deals with the relationship between Jack and his dysfunctional brother, and the underlying issues they both have harboured within them.
As a catalyst for leveraging out the inevitable tension and gritty drama, we have a good-looking young woman thrown into this pressure cooker environment. The three of them, holed up in a small home, with the windows and doors boarded up, ala ‘Night Of The Living Dead’ (1968) style.
Outside we have the marauding Crossed, doing their thing. Although we don’t actually see all that much of them. The story is instead focussed more upon the brothers and Tiffany. That said, we do have a bigass naked biker guy who’s dubbed ‘Crossed Saul’. This beast of a fella rocks up to Woodhill to cause all sorts of mayhem.
Of course he’s a complete nutjob, even by Crossed standards. He’s basically the equivalent of the Alphas in Alex Garland’s ‘28 Years Later’ (2025) films. A big naked biker who’s constantly swiping at his battered and bloody genitals as he treks across the land.
The story’s focus on the brothers is however where it’s at. The strange dynamic between Jack and Clancy. The history between them, which is told through a series of flashbacks. How Clancy’s personality is almost amplified by becoming infected. But the dark twist at the end is where it punches you in the gut. It’s dark, disturbing, and offers another level of gritty horror to the series as a whole.
Anti-Crossed
Ever since the Crossed epidemic hit, the four of them had been holed up in the comic book store which they owned. They knew they were the all your typical cliched comic nerds. Lance modelled himself on a ‘Hugh Jackman style’ Wolverine look, Paulie was massively overweight, Reggie looked like he’d stepped off Wall Street, and Kit was a pink-mohawked punk.
At the time of the sudden outbreak in violence, the self-published comic book writer and artist – Leigha Tompkins – had been doing a signing session in their store. Now, weeks into the epidemic and the young woman had been locked up in a backroom, kept there to please them. Forced to suck their cocks at gunpoint.
However, with the savagery continuing outside, the four nerds needed some sort of respite. Some sort of hope. Which led to Lance thinking up an idea. They could make Leigha draw them a comic. One which gives them the distraction they need. A story for their time.
And so, the Anti-Crossed was born. He was the hope they’d sought after for so long. The remedy for this plague-ridden world. The ridder of rape. The murderer of molestation. The champion of the cunt-faced. He was the Anti-Crossed…
For this short two-issue story, we have another quite unique take on the whole Crossed setup. Essentially, we have a story of imprisonment and gang rape. Four nerdy comic book owners taking advantage of the Crossed situation, and abusing this feminist comic book writer, over the course of several weeks.
Within the story we also have a sort of story-within-a-story. Excerpts of this ‘Anti-Crossed’ superhero comic, that Leigha is forced to draw for them. An infected superhero, who flies around killing the crossed and saving the uninfected.
However, it’s the main overarching story about these four nerdy fucks, and how their mistreatment and abuse of Leigha evolve, and the strength she finds to fight back in any way she can, where the story really comes to its own. Even though Leigha is subjected to all sorts of abusive demands at their hands, she finds a way to not give up and keep going.
Then we have the arrival of two gay guys onto the scene. Patrick and Butch quickly become the catalyst for the big showdown we were all waiting for. It’s a revenge sequence worthy of ‘I Spit On Your Grave’ (1978). Comeuppance tasting sweeter than ever.
It’s a frigging fast-paced and highly entertaining one, with a strong feminist anti-scum-bag stance, which works in its favour. Again, we have the Crossed situation forming the backdrop rather than the centrepiece. There are also some cool Easter Egg style nods to Garth Ennis’ other work thrown in here and there, which will get you smirking. Yeah, it’s good stuff!
The graphic novel runs for a total of 160 pages.
© DLS Reviews
