Daily Archives: 3 May 2010

You know what, I’m really pissed off.

Really, really, really pissed off.

Because Ennis doesn’t do something lame with the conclusion, he doesn’t do something predictable following up on that last cliffhanger. He does something else entirely.

He’s seen The Last of the Mohicans is all I’ll say. The original cut with the better music.

He does something beautiful with his story about killer rapist cannibals or whatever they’re called.

And I’m mad about it.

Because somehow the format doesn’t allow for the possibility he’s going to turn it into what he turns it into. It’s a really quiet ending about a couple people who are really upset. More upset than if they’d just poorly anticipated how Ennis was going to end Crossed.

Overall, with this conclusion, it’s one of his best works. Without it, maybe not. But he does some beautiful things here.

I feel like crying right now.

CREDITS

Writer, Garth Ennis; artist, Jacen Burrows; colorist, Juanmar; editor, William Christensen; publisher, Avatar Press.

Gosh, Garth, thanks for the miserably downbeat foreshadowing at the end.

Things are winding down in Crossed, obviously, and it’s kind of hurried. Not a lot of stuff happens this issue. Instead, it’s just a little bit of reaction to the last issue and a lengthy aside with Ennis filling the reader in on other people’s experiences outside the scope of the comic. But all of a sudden things just rev up and go full speed ahead….

Only to have Ennis do everything he can to depress the reader with the last passage.

Wait, I know what the problem is… it’s a cliffhanger. He’s finally ending an issue on a cliffhanger and it just doesn’t work. It feels overly sentimental and melodramatic and cheap.

It’s sucking the anticipation out of the story with a cute device. Ennis’s way better than a move like this one. Worries me for the finish.

CREDITS

Writer, Garth Ennis; artist, Jacen Burrows; colorist, Juanmar; editor, William Christensen; publisher, Avatar Press.

The seventh issue basically brings the story to where, event-wise, not location-wise (since they’ve been moving for the series), it would pick up before Ennis’s digressions into non-epical storytelling. In other words, the shit hits the fan.

And there’s some bad stuff, but it’s nowhere near as affecting as the old guy’s confession scene in the previous issue. It’s just bad Crossed stuff. If the reader’s given up on a happy ending–and in the case of Crossed, it’s the worst possible ending one’s preparing him or herself for–there’s nothing much more Ennis can do to shock.

So, lots of bad stuff happens. Burrows draws it really disturbing and it’s a nasty time.

Ennis does action well and it’s a good comic. It’s just what I’ve been expecting to happen since the end of the third issue and… I had hoped it wouldn’t have to happen.

CREDITS

Writer, Garth Ennis; artist, Jacen Burrows; colorist, Juanmar; editor, William Christensen; publisher, Avatar Press.

Ennis’s goal with Crossed, I’ve decided, is to make me sorry I ever said the book wasn’t going to surprise me anymore.

There are Crossed in this issue, there’s even a horse and a dog and an annoying new member of the group who’s pissing Stan off a lot because Stan feels like the first husband even though Cindy’s not interested.

There’s this whole awful flashback to Kitrick’s past and it finally makes the character visible. Even though he’s the only black guy, he’s almost not there in the previous issues. And, surprisingly, it isn’t as terrible as Ennis could have made it. There’s some restraint.

But the big surprise is what Ennis comes up with when he plays with conventions. The one guy sitting around talking about himself and what he did before takes an incredible turn (it seems like a joke for a while).

Then it ends quietly.

CREDITS

Writer, Garth Ennis; artist, Jacen Burrows; colorist, Juanmar; editor, William Christensen; publisher, Avatar Press.

I don’t think a single Crossed appears in this issue and given the previous issue ended with the Crossed targeting Cindy (she’s the leader woman) and Stan (I think the narrator’s name is Stan, nearly positive). Instead, Ennis spends the entire issue on the characters. There’s some more flashback, but it’s revelatory here, about the characters, not about events.

So, while I’m way too burnt to be surprised by the level of violence or terror–one character refers to the Crossed as “killer rapist cannibals,” which seems both redundant and somehow not–I can be surprised with Ennis doing a life-affirming issue. It’s not life-affirming in the general, human sense (Ennis doing those stories is rare), but it’s an exceptionally positive return-to-nature feeling… along with humanity being, essentially, a waste of space. So, very Ennis.

The issue’s lovely. Too bad Ennis is going the kill everyone.

CREDITS

Writer, Garth Ennis; artist, Jacen Burrows; colorist, Juanmar; editor, William Christensen; publisher, Avatar Press.

It’s a… no pun intended… bridge issue (the final scene takes place on a bridge, I love how Ennis doesn’t spend time doing cliffhangers on Crossed, he always takes it a page or two beyond the cliffhanger). He uses this issue to pause and expand on a few things.

First, the woman responds to the narrator’s crush on her (I’m not sure I know the narrator’s name, I think he has one; it’s not important). It doesn’t go particularly well for the narrator and it’s interesting to see how Ennis has removed the typical relationship developments from an end of the world story.

Second, there’s more on how the Crossed are evolving. It’s more of a standard, zombie movie moment, since it’s all about the series’s mythology. Makes for some nasty scenes though.

Like I said, I’m so burnt, it’ll be hard for Crossed to shock me at this point.

CREDITS

Writer, Garth Ennis; artist, Jacen Burrows; colorist, Juanmar; editor, William Christensen; publisher, Avatar Press.