Crossed, Vol. 10: Badlands

Crossed (Collected Editions) #10

by Garth Ennis, Christian Zanier (Illustrations)

Garth Ennis returns to the horrifyingly brutal world he created with a story that fans have waited over five years for! The Crossed outbreak created a miserable, grueling world of monsters that dash out all hope of survival and ensures a terrifying end to everything in their path. For the first time, master storyteller Garth Ennis takes you back to the early days of outbreak and delivers the unexpected - a Patient Zero tale. With the outbreak spreading like wildfire across the globe, a group of soldiers attempt to piece together how the disease spread so quickly and to reverse the horror they see taking place in the streets. And as they struggle to catch up with events, a plane carries the extinction of the human race toward its target to trigger the nuclear destruction of the world. In a world where there is no help and there is no hope... there is only the Crossed. Collects issues #50-56 of the ongoing Crossed: Badlands comic book series.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Horror, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book, Zombies, Comics Manga

176 pages, Paperback

First published November 11, 2014

About the author

Ennis began his comic-writing career in 1989 with the series Troubled Souls. Appearing in the short-lived but critically-acclaimed British anthology Crisis and illustrated by McCrea, it told the story of a young, apolitical Protestant man caught up by fate in the violence of the Irish 'Troubles'. It spawned a sequel, For a Few Troubles More, a broad Belfast-based comedy featuring two supporting characters from Troubled Souls, Dougie and Ivor, who would later get their own American comics series, Dicks, from Caliber in 1997, and several follow-ups from Avatar.

Another series for Crisis was True Faith, a religious satire inspired by his schooldays, this time drawn by Warren Pleece. Ennis shortly after began to write for Crisis' parent publication, 2000 AD. He quickly graduated on to the title's flagship character, Judge Dredd, taking over from original creator John Wagner for a period of several years.

Ennis' first work on an American comic came in 1991 when he took over DC Comics's horror title Hellblazer, which he wrote until 1994, and for which he currently holds the title for most issues written. Steve Dillon became the regular artist during the second half of Ennis's run.

Ennis' landmark work to date is the 66-issue epic Preacher, which he co-created with artist Steve Dillon. Running from 1995 to 2000, it was a tale of a preacher with supernatural powers, searching (literally) for God who has abandoned his creation.

While Preacher was running, Ennis began a series set in the DC universe called Hitman. Despite being lower profile than Preacher, Hitman ran for 60 issues (plus specials) from 1996 to 2001, veering wildly from violent action to humour to an examination of male friendship under fire.

Other comic projects Ennis wrote during this time period include Goddess, Bloody Mary, Unknown Soldier, and Pride & Joy, all for DC/Vertigo, as well as origin stories for The Darkness for Image Comics and Shadowman for Valiant Comics.

After the end of Hitman, Ennis was lured to Marvel Comics with the promise from Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada that he could write The Punisher as long as he cared to. Instead of largely comical tone of these issues, he decided to make a much more serious series, re-launched under Marvel's MAX imprint.

In 2001 he briefly returned to UK comics to write the epic Helter Skelter for Judge Dredd.

Other comics Ennis has written include War Story (with various artists) for DC; The Pro for Image Comics; The Authority for Wildstorm; Just a Pilgrim for Black Bull Press, and 303, Chronicles of Wormwood (a six issue mini-series about the Antichrist), and a western comic book, Streets of Glory for Avatar Press.

In 2008 Ennis ended his five-year run on Punisher MAX to debut a new Marvel title, War Is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle.

In June 2008, at Wizard World, Philadelphia, Ennis announced several new projects, including a metaseries of war comics called Battlefields from Dynamite made up of mini-series including Night Witches, Dear Billy and Tankies, another Chronicles of Wormwood mini-series and Crossed both at Avatar, a six-issue miniseries about Butcher (from The Boys) and a Punisher project reuniting him with artist Steve Dillon (subsequently specified to be a weekly mini-series entitled Punisher: War Zone, to be released concurrently with the film of the same name).

Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garth_Ennis

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harry the Englishman, Taffy the Welshman, Paddy the Irishman and Jock return in this prequel where we get to to see where they were when the Crossed first struck the UK! How about with Prime Minster Gordon Brown? Yet this is a pretty good look at the impact of Crossed at the high political and military level, that in typical Ennis style has some nice digs at UK governments and is pretty pro military. Nice read 7.5 out of 12.

[mark monday · Rating 2 out of 5]

Crossed Volume 10 is a standalone story by Garth Ennis that takes the reader back to the beginning of the Crossed pandemic. the story details the initial outbreak from the perspective of four special agents assigned to protect the UK Prime Minister, two pilots, and most intriguingly, a potential Patient Zero.

the writing by Garth Ennis is smart and sardonic. the art by Christian Zanier is certainly not the same caliber as art by the excellent Jacen Burrows (the artist who collaborated with Ennis in prior volumes) - but it is still fairly well-done.

so why my lukewarm reaction? I'm not sure. one of the good-bad things about the two prior volumes I've read was the horrifically visceral quality to many of the scenes; that visceral quality is restrained in this volume and - surprisingly, because I am no gorehound - I miss it. maybe I just prefer an unrestrained Ennis, warts and all, to the Ennis in this story. another strength is missing: depth of characterization. Ennis was able to convey character backstories filled with regret and lost opportunities in the space of a few pages, at least within his short "Badlands" from Volume 4. but in Volume 10 the characters remain frustratingly opaque - except for the sole villainous character, who is unfortunately straight from Central Casting (Weaselly Ambitious Bureaucrat Division).

the still-ambiguous origin of the Crossed virus is interesting and gave me a little bit to contemplate. is Planet Earth inoculating itself against that notorious parasite, humanity? Patient Zero himself gave me even more to contemplate... where does violence and the urge to do harm to those we love come from? are some people just born with that tendency?

so on the one hand, some fascinating things to contemplate (at least for a few minutes). and on the other hand, a lot of uninteresting characters and a surprising lack of visceral shocks .



I dunno. I guess that means 2 stars?

[Drew Canole · Rating 2 out of 5]

Garth Ennis keeps beating this dead horse. Watching the apocalypse was fun the first few times, but now its just getting dull.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

This may have been my favorite volume yet. After reading the last volume, I complained that none of the main characters were worth caring about because they turned out evil and/or crazy in almost every case. However, this volume finally gave us some "good guys."

This volume shows how the outbreak began, although still didn't explain how exactly. We follow the Prime Minister in Great Britain just as things begin to happen, and the four military characters from Ennis' previous volume are shown as well.

This series is usually good, but its at its best when Garth Ennis is at the helm. His stories are just a notch better than the rest. The art as usual was nice as well.

I was beginning to get burnt out on the series, but this one got me interested again. Really a great volume, and for readers who started out with the series and then dropped it, if you didn't get this far you really should pick this one up even if you don't read any further.

[Pierre · Rating 5 out of 5]

When you read a series like this with multiple authors along the way, you can really tell the greats from the others.
Garth Ennis who created the series just shines when you land on his stories. What a talent! And he also gets his artists to shine along with him.

[Edward Kaye · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best "Crossed" story in a good long time. There's much less violence and gore than recent arcs, which I think have tried way too hard, and more emphasis on the human element.

[Marek Osvald · Rating 2 out of 5]

My second venture into the Crossed series turned out to be almost just as disgusting as the former — that being the original ten issue series. This one focuses on the four soldiers intially introduced in issue #26 and how Britain was dealing with the outbreak.

The art is unbelievably uneven. I have strong hints that Zanier was tracing photos a lot. When he's not tracing, the faces come up distorted and mangled. The same goes for the coloring. Some of it is terrible – feels almost like watching somebody discover the airbrush button in Photoshop for the first time and going bananas with it. On the other hand, some of it is unbelievably good, like the scene where two airmen try to rendezvous with their extraction party.

While this is hardly an original story, the tensious atmosphere feels great. The dialog lines are poignant and crispy and tell the story of impending doom incredibly well, especially for a limiting medium such as comics. Then he dabbles into the bad batch of genre clichés, for example when Dr. Chopra tries to explain the otherworldliness of the Crossed virus, she spouts a bunch of pseudoscientific bullshit making absolutely no sense.

It's a writer's crutch, since Ennis isn't interested in the plausibility of the story, Crossed only supplies a platform to serve you a regular dose of gore and hand-drawn depravities. The story has hardly three three female characters and all of them suffer from a condition called Tig ol' bitties. Can't complain there.

Overall, I have a feeling that this is a fairly good story being drawned and suffocated in a wrong series. The thing is, Crossed doesn't have characters, it doesn't have stories, it doesn't have any meaning. It's just gross, and that's fine. It has an audience who like it the way it is.

After finishing this, I can't shake the feeling that the story would shine brighter had this been The Walking Dead: London, a prequel to 28 Days Later (28 Hours Later?) or an indie movie, a little tamer than Crossed, of course.

[Dávid Novotný · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was forced to read this by our local book club. And I suffered through every page of it.

The biggest surprise is, that there are actually more than 100 issues of this 'snuff'.

While first volume was able to at leas deliver some shocking and disturbing moments, this one is pure pain.

Ugly art, with computer coloring, where faces viewed from any angle beside the front one are just horrible. Same goes for the cars. It feels like drawn by some aspiring artist, who unfortunately, still doesn't posses skill and not have it 'in hand'.

You need to distinguish who is who by the dress and color of hair, as every agent looks almost the same.

Except the scientist, who is fitted with big pair of fanservice... And beside that, dull as ditchwater.
Beside her, there are also some memorable (in bad way) moments: 'something in Earth's DNA' or 'rewriting periodic table'... WTF OMG!!! This is dumb even for this kind of genre piece.

Even the bad guy is killed of the screen, so you are ripped of the one moment you can actually enjoy...

I can only hope, this was my last encounter with this series.

[Paulo "paper books only" · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is The author coming back - Garth Ennis. It's 6 chapters where we get back right to the beginning. IT's a not that filled with gore, sex and so on but more on the thriller aspect. You've got multiple characters in different places all combined to one. This story is also the prequel fromanother tale (crossed vol 8 I think or 7) of the british military guys trying to find something that could tip the war against the crossed.

I enjoyed this one...one of the best.

[Koen · Rating 4 out of 5]

After that last nosedive into nothing, we reach back up into the sky without limits!

Ennis is back behind the steering wheel and guiding us back with a looksie into the start of it all...
Giving us a lot of new information, new interesting characters and lots and lots of tension and action..

Looking forward to see what's next...

[Nate · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is Ennis’ origin of the Crossed outbreak, told from the point of view of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his security team, as well as two R.A.F. pilots. Ennis doesn’t exactly give a clear explanation of how the disease begins. There’s a patient zero, so to speak, who infects others but doesn’t display the symptoms we know, at least at first. What the story is really about is how the protagonists - who are mostly all good, likable people - respond to what’s happening, making difficult decisions and doing what’s best in the face of horror. It’s a chatty seven issues but the dialogue is just phenomenal. The dialogue is realistic, intelligent, and trusts the reader implicitly. Ennis is probably my favorite comic book writer, and he excels here with this story of politics and soldiers. I don't think I'll ever get tired of him writing about soldiers doing their best in horrible situations.

Haunting and powerful, with surprising touches of humanity. A top notch read.

[OmniBen · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Zero spoiler review)
Thank goodness this came along when it did. Just when I was bored, jaded (and a little disgusted quite frankly), in the Crossed series, Ol Mr. Ennis comes along and saves the day. Then again, the reasons for my despondence with the series is largely due to Mr. Ennis. I would assume, given he is the creator of the series, he would have final say on the writers and artists who write for his book. So considering the series for the last 7 issues has been a consistently catastrophic descent into pointless depravity, piss weak plots and even poorer execution, that he has to bare the considerable brunt of the blame for allowing such middling talents to clog up his series. I was essentially done with the series before I opened this. I'm glad it came along when it did.
I could point to the clever plotting, the meaningful, well thought out dialogue, though it perhaps could have been reigned in just a little. I could even point to the art being the strongest I've seen from the series in a while, but the restraint shown with the 'gore' was one of my biggest takeaways from this book. A lesson other writers could do well to learn, should they wish to actually craft an interesting narrative, rather than just try to out do each other when it comes to the depravity. That, and when you do get the trademark Crossed 'violence', it hits so much harder when done sparingly. When everything is shocking, then nothing is.
The characters were mostly well done, though a tad flat here and there. Some of the repetitive political dialogue and posturing could have gone to greater fleshing out of the characters, but that's a somewhat minor quibble within what was a mostly well told story. Hell, it's been a while since I've read an ending that, even though I saw a good deal of it coming, still managed to put a smile on my face with its excellent execution. This really is the most mature and well told story of the series so far, and the best thing I've read since volume two. It's been a long time coming, but this has renewed my interest in the series. Now to have the next volume piss me off with whatever hack writer follows in Ennis' wake. 4/5


OmniBen.

[Mykhailo Gasyuk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Нарешті хоч щось засяяло серед купи цієї хворобливої постапокаліптики. Сюжет про те, як в Британії з’явився вірус, і що з ним не зробили, аби запобігти його розповсюдженню. До того ж, це пріквел до історії чотирьох спецпризначенців, які вирушили випускати додатковий вірус, щоб прикінчити хрестоносців, але логіка перемогла, разом із мертвим почуттям самозбереження.

Посеред ночі біжить чоловік. Біжить від свого минулого, де трупи, до свого майбутнього, де також трупи, але в кількостях. Прем’єра Британії везуть на нього подивитись, бо настільки довбанутий в нього заступник, щоб перти високопосадовця прямо у заражену зону. Привід простий: нульового пацієнта тримають у надзахищеній лабораторії-бункері, і там точно знайдеться безпечне місце для прем’єр-міністра. Нульовий пацієнт - це наш бігун, і він добряче пробігся по місцевості до того, як його помістили в карантин.

Десь недалеко військова авіабаза. На неї нападають.

У світі починаються аномальні зараження. Всюди.

Расєянські пілоти сідають на свої атомні бомбардувальники і летять бомбити США. Незрозуміло, чи у московії керівництво ще адекватне, та хтось з них передає інфу, що вони не проти, аби бомбардувальники були збиті. Маршрут проходить повз Британські острови, отже - збивать, поки вони не почали дамбіть! (Це - елемент політичної фантастики - надшвидка реакція московитів у критичній ситуації, та ще й без відмазок типу “це не ми” чи “нічого там не летить”.)

З авіабази треба витягувати пілотів, бо всі інші ресурси запіхвилися, але десь в таємному куточку неподалік є винищувач, який може відсипати бомбардувальникам британських пєчєньок.

А далі обійдемося без спойлерів, бо історія і намальована чудово, і розвивається як треба. Ніхто не вигадував унікального коня в вакуумі, напруження росте завдяки діалогам у камерних локаціях, самі хрестоносці просто розбавляють сюжет і не є основною рушійною силою. Бо тут все вирішують помилки окремих людей, які і призводять до катастрофи.

[Rick Ray · Rating 2 out of 5]

Garth Ennis returns to Crossed with "The Thin Red Line", an arc that spans the entirety of this volume. It's been a little while since Ennis fleshed out his demented post-apocalyptic world, and this story arc serves as a bit of a prequel to "The Fatal Englishman" story from Crossed, Vol. 6 . Featured here is some elaboration on the initial outbreak of the Crossed virus as we're introduced to the possible 'patient zero'. Told from the perspective of a group of soldiers from various corners of the United Kingdom, all of whom serve as the protection detail attached to the Prime Minister.

Instead of the typical gory affair that is most volumes of Crossed, this one serves to flesh out the real world as it looked before the societal collapse. It's quite the divergence from the usual formula of shock and violence, which should make this particular volume more novel. But unfortunately "The Thin Red Line" is a dragged out and utterly dull affair. None of the characters are remotely interesting, and the lore behind the virus isn't much more interesting either. Definitely one of the weaker entries in the series.

[Jake Parker · Rating 3 out of 5]

“An Englishman, an Irishman, a Scotsman, and a Welshman meet at the end of the world.”

Technically 3.5 stars for this. Weird, I know.
I wish I understood more of contemporary British politics so I could have picked up on the satire Ennis was going for. Because boy howdy there were some jabs being made.

But this Crossed story is the least Crossed of all of them, pulling back on the shock factor of all the awful things these “not-zombies” will do to you if they get their hands on you. Acting as a prequel to “The Fatal Englishman” arc (one of the only Crossed stories I enjoyed), we see the world start to collapse as the “virus” starts to take shape in Great Britain. Is it supernatural? Evolutionary? The planet taking revenge on humans?

Who knows - because what makes answering the central mystery of this universe interesting? Well, a lot actually when every Crossed story is the same level of creative and depraved torture porn.

Dark humor, solid dread, and four characters I wanted way more time with - Ennis writing Ennis, minus the usual levels of bodily fluids. So not the worst, but not what I hoped for.

[Kris Shaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes questions are better than answers, at least as far as I am concerned. The end of John Carpenter's The Thing. The end of Watchmen. For Crossed the question has always been not what happens at the end, but what happened at the beginning? Series creator Garth Ennis returns to set the record straight without really telling you the answer. I like that. The answers given only provide more questions.

These are some of the best Crossed comics published in quite some time. Things seem to have become more story and character driven, something not necessary for a visceral experience like Crossed. Fortunately things “return to the roots” here, leaving me cackling like Bart and Lisa Simpson at the end of an Itchy And Scratchy Show cartoon.

So Crossed has survived another round of being crossed off of my to buy list. That is not easy to do these days!

[Amanda Savieri · Rating 3 out of 5]

I havent loved the last couple of these. Not sure after reading 10 volumes if I am getting a little bored or they are running out of ideas. Look, I got through it, it wasnt the worst I have read but I have certainly read better in the series and have another 7 volumes to go. Lets hope they havent run out of ideas. This one is different in that the whole volume is one story though, not something I have seen at all while reading these. May have slowed it down. This one is less 'crossed' and more 'military' too. Also not really my thing. As I said, okay but not great.

[Vittorio Rainone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ennis torna a sceneggiare la serie horror che ha generato. Raccontando il momento del contagio. Una storia ben scritta, che ha per difetto un bassissimo effetto sorpresa, anche se la costruzione dei personaggi da parte di Ennis è al solito positiva. Disegni buoni, anche se Crossed è una serie che richiede un livello di dettaglio superiore a una serie normale, e pochi riescono a reggere a una simile richiesta.

[Sooraya Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Story takes place at the start of the outbreak with the capture of a patient zero. I was really hoping for some insight on the origin of the disease. Not much is revealed anyway. Kinda disappointing. Despite that, this was still a strong volume. Awesome characters. Politics. Intense action. This is a jump in the right direction. Similar vibe as the earlier issues that have been missing quite a while.

[Krystl Louwagie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was so much longer than it needed to me. Way too text heavy and sluggish. The points of interest were there, but they were so hidden and far between that most of this was not very enjoyable. I understand a bit why it's an important or interesting to the saga as whole, but it could've been done in a much cleaner, quicker fashion, IMO.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my least favorite one so far which is odd because it was by Ennis and he is usually the golden standard. It was very very heavy on dialogue, less than half of which was interesting or important to the story. Not much to be seen in terms of like-able characters in this one.

[Book Shark · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually enjoyed this one. I enjoy seeing Day 0 in other parts of the world. And I do enjoy the idea that the virus started with one person in each area of the world.

Just remember.

Crossed has no happy endings.

[Monqeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally something way less gorey and more thrilling and dramatic.

[Rizzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I highly recommend you read all Crossed stories by Ennis, and the one arc by Alan Moore. Avoid everything else like the plague.

[Eddie Gonzales · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid crossed origin story...even though nothing was really answered.

[Štěpán · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think, Mr Ennis did not write this one for me :)

[José Figueira · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume contains "The Thin Red Line", telling the beginning of the Crossed pandemic in Yorkshire, focusing on the British PM, his decisions and his security team (acting as a prequel to "The Fatal Englishman", and an origin story for the whole series).

As a story from the original author, Garth Ennis, it doesn't thankfully rely on the torture porn, graphic imagery and sadism for the sake of sadism of most of this series.
Instead, when violent imagery appears, it serves the story, and is frequently avoided with "off the camera" actions - the final shot of Gordon Brown, devoid of any violence, was more suspenseful and impactful than any of the cheap full spreads of gore that made this series famous. Another example would be a simple exchange between a soldier and the PM's security.

If you want to dip your toes in this franchise without feeling physically sick, read this one. If you just like mindless gore, skip it.

[47Time · Rating 5 out of 5]

Liam Neeson is a character here? This is an enjoyable story that feels like it can be easily converted into a movie. It's a good addition to the universe from its creator and focuses on the very first day when the infection manifests itself. The governments try to organize and contain the chaos, but are quickly overwhelmed.

Garth Ennis's four brits are revisited in the days when the first infection occured. They are the second team sent in to protect the prime minister. The first team started behaving violently, but had no external identifiable features. The first news is of a town completely emptied of people. They are found later by the media as they throw themselves off a cliff. Fighter planes fall from the skies after having attacked friendly units. A nuclear explosion occurs in New Delhi. Waves of infected spread the disease like wildfire. It's belived that the virus is maturing, so the bloody cross sign on the face of the infected only appears later on. More news come in from other parts of the world, some certain that the infection started from one infected individual. Infected airmen threaten to start a nuclear war between Russia and the US with only Britain able to shoot down the aircraft. The mission involves two pilots and an old fighter plane that almost fails them in mid air. They sacrifice themselves to detonate the a-bomb on board. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister gives the leader of our four brits some information on how to access a facilty that can be used as the final solution to the infected, likely the chemical facility they were heading to in their previous story.

[Michelle Morrell · Rating 2 out of 5]

This has been a hard series for me, I stopped reading after a handful of the compilations, a few years ago. It's from Garth Ennis, so I knew it would be gritty and gross and wrenching, and it's a "Crossed" story, so amp that to 11. But I keep going back to his stuff, the writing is generally superb and I'm usually in for a good ride.

I picked this one up because I was promised an origin story, and that's mostly what I got. Mysterious patient zero, some musings on whether this is human-begat or possibly the earth's self-defense mechanism. But in the end no questions are truly answered and I've got a couple more horrific images seared forever into my brain. It's not the gore that bothers me, it's the tragedy. Over and over, worse and worse, trying to one-up the horror of what one human being can do to another. I do believe I am finally done with "Crossed."

[Dann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm always excited when Ennis to returns to Crossed, he always seems to hook me in unusual, and otherwise "unexciting" locales. But unfortunately Badlands continues its descent into the low point. I do respect that, unlike the last volume, volume ten attempts to weave in a political dimension that has been lacking. It is Interesting, but I teetered on the verge to boredom from time to time.

Art style, Crossed will be Crossed--still relishing in the bloody gore.

I do recommend reading volume ten as Ennis remains a rock-solid writer in relation to Crossed canon, but this volume might not be for everyone.