Not the first Crossed I read, but the easiest to review. Its bad.

The issue with the whole series/concept/world of Crossed (and this won't be the last time I bring it up) is that it came too late. We already had Hills Have Eyes, Saw, Hostel, and Cannibal Holocaust. We already had the dark, gritty, graphically gory torture porn. The entire Crossed series is an attempt to push boundaries, to shock. But its far, far too late to the party. We've seen all of this already. We've seen worse. It comes off like an edgy teen seeing Saw and telling his buddies "Duuuude, let's totally be grosser!" Its the comic equivalent of Scroty McBoogerballs, but without the cleverness.

The dialogue is clunky and made me roll my eyes. The characters are inconsistent and one-dimensional. It played a bit with misdirection, but was clumsy in its execution. It leans too heavily on profanity. Let me be clear - I'm not offended or scandalized by it. It lacks the creativity and variety to actually elicit a reaction. If you repeat the same curse words over and over, they just become noise. They lose their impact. In the hands of a really talented set of writers, I could see the Crossed or a psychopathic character saying some truly disturbing, creepy shit without using profanity like a crutch.

The psychopath felt like an off-brand Rorschach, and a caricature. It was a child's understanding of psychopathy. It reads like when a high schooler on Reddit comments in a RoastMe thread thinking he's the next Hannibal Lecter and you can't help but laugh.

(I know they aren't technically zombies. But the series embraces every. single. trope. found in the 'fast zombies' subgenre, so I'm just gonna toss it in with that category.) ( )