Comic Review – Crossed #02, The Boys #25 and Batman #682

Crossed #02

Written by Garth Ennis

Art by Jacen Burrows

Colors by Juanmar

Published by Avatar Press

In a nutshell: realistic, ruthless and brave, it pushes the boundaries of the genre with its fully intelligent but utterly psychotic “zombies” while never forgetting the human factor and the little subtle narrative nuances.

One of the many reasons I consider Avatar the best comics publisher in the industry today is that they give full creative freedom to the writers. It’s wonderful to see talented people like Warren Ellis and Garth Ennis being given room to fully develop their concepts however the fuck they want to, and it’s stuff like this that makes a book like “Crossed” possible. After all, it’s about creatures that go far beyond the mere label of zombie. They THINK, they SCHEME, they do everything in their power to kill people in the most horrible, evil way possible – they even turn on themselves from time to time, as this issue implies, simply to satisfy their overwhelming need to hurt. They’re fascinating and much more threatening than the typical zombie – which makes the small group of humans followed by this issue more vulnerable to our eyes.

Always a master in developing his characters (especially through dialogue), Ennis writes scenes that are powerful in their simplicity, being capable of conveying feelings in a single panel, like the moment Stan offers Cindy’s son a piggyback ride, or when Stan and his friend desperately try to make “fuck you” sound as shocking and rude as it did before the crossed appeared. And it’s touching to see Stan smile, almost amused, when he sees the crossed doing something that brings a fun memory back to his mind – even if it’s the crossed doing it.

Cindy is captivating due to the wall she builds around herself – and the characters acknowledge this (“Minimal use of personal pronouns”, one of them says). But that is counterbalanced by her son, who she tries to protect in every way possible – to the point of prohibiting people to curse in front of him, even as the world around him goes to hell. The characters are compelling and human, which just makes it sadder when the crossed manage to get to them somehow.

At the same time, Ennis never holds back when it comes to portraying the world around them – be it via flashbacks or present events. There’s a particularly striking moment involving a car parking lot, that is almost morbidly poetic. There’s quite a lot of blood and guts, which not only is more than appropriate for a story like this – they’re well-balanced with the narrative in order to paint a truly depressing, suffocating picture of post-apocalypse. And intriguing, too: after all, what ARE the crossed?

Jacen Burrows’ art- suitably colored by Juanmar with dark, melancholic tones – is superb as usual. I’d go as far as to rival his visual narrative with Steve Dillon’s, and that’s the greatest compliment I can offer an illustrator in that aspect. In the other aspects, he also does exceedingly well. His facial expressions are spot-on (the crossed always look raving mad) and the violence is realistic even when completely explicit – a good example would be a headshot that, instead of blowing the whole back of the head out, blows a simple hole – and it isn’t less shocking because of that. Burrows is especially talented with backgrounds and perspective – never failing to place the characters in a proper environment.

“Crossed #02″ is another excellent issue of the series. I always wanted to read a zombie story by Garth Ennis, and I’m glad he’s not limiting himself to the conventions of the genre.

The Boys #25

Written by Garth Ennis

Art by Darick Robertson

Colors by Tony Avina

Lettering by Simon Bowland

Published by Dynamite Entertainment

In a nutshell: funny, entertaining and relatively rich, it keeps the high standard of the series.

A word people don’t use to describe Garth Ennis is “subtle”. Except for me, of course. Just pay attention to the conversation this issue starts with. Notice how the man from Vought-American and the other character thank the waiter all the time. These are men who are clearly complete bastards – and yet, they thank a waiter for every drink he brings them. What immediately sprang to my mind was “bullshitters”. No need for an entire scene to prove this point – just a line of dialogue.

After that intriguing conversation (which serves as foreshadowing), we are better introduced to Goldolkin’s G-Men – and Garth Ennis went wild with his satire. I absolutely love his version of Wolverine (“GONNA!”) and Professor Henry McCoy (known here as “Critter”). But these spoofs take a backseat to the story, fortunately, and it’s nice to see Hughie in action, planting the bugs like the professional he’s quickly becoming. Always compelling, he also shares the reactions of the reader – like his bewilderment at seeing his “mates” entertaining themselves in front of a home theather. I also like how the Female got a panel of her own, hanging upside-down, which made me wonder – why was the “camera” focused on her? More foreshadowing, possibly. I love that. Also, notice how Frenchie can give Butcher a sitrep simply by glancing at The Female’s reactions, and you’ll see how smoothly they work together.

We also get more insight on Mother’s Milk and his new friend, Roger. Especially, on how Mother’s Milk got involved with the Boys in the first place (“His war turned into my war.”). And, of course, Monkey makes a fantastic appearance that builds up to an absolutely perfect final page.

Darick Robertson’s art is brilliantly sharp. Putting special effort on facial expressions (Butcher’s face in the last page is magnificent), Robertson emphasizes the humor and the nuances, always using little hints and touches to further develop the characters (notice Hughie’s eyebrows, constantly arched in surprised, as opposed to the rest of the Boys, who are way more experienced). Tony Avina’s coloring once again fails to disappoint, and Simon Bowland’s lettering is efficient – maybe because there’s no Legend in this issue (that font size thing does bother me).

An excellent week for a Garth Ennis fan like myself.

Batman #682

Written by Grant Morrison

Art by Lee Garbett

Inked by Trevor Scott

Colors by Guy Major

Lettering by Jared K. Fletcher

Published by DC Comics

In a nutshell: a surprisingly good – yes, I said GOOD – issue. Sadly, it comes after a world of shit consisting of pretty much all the previous ones.

Considering the things I say against Grant Morrison in this blog, you’d think he raped my childhood hamster or something. But no, my opinion toward Morrison is sincere  – as a writer, he is incredibly overrated. But ocasionally, I see a true hint of brilliance – like in the good “WE3″, or the haunting “Arkham Asylum” (which, sadly, suffered from a poor ending – with the glorious exception of Joker’s final line. Something like: “There will always be a place for you here.”). And I’m more than happy to acknowledge when I think a writer does a good job – I take no pleasure in hating a person’s work.

In this issue, we follow Batman in a dreamlike, disjointed plot spanning his career as the dark knight. While this could be a complete mess, Morrison manages to keep it fluid and interesting – and there’s a particular line of dialogue that’s simply brilliant, when Alfred wonders what would have happened if nothing had flown through the window in the night Bruce Wayne decided to become Batman (let’s just say it involves a curtain). It’s comfortably nostalgic to read this issue, and the revelation in the ending – while a bit predictable – points toward an interesting new direction that will – hopefully – redeem a bit of Morrison’s horrible run on the character. There’s some typical Morrison bullshit here and there – like the ridiculously pretentious dialogue the villains insist in uttering as though they’re reciting Shakespeare – but this time, the writer strikes the right tone.

There’s also a small moment that’s almost poetic – when we see Thomas Wayne telling Bruce that a “grinning mental patient” poisoned the water reservoir because there was no-one to stop him. This illustrates one of the most interesting ironies in Batman’s history: that Batman doesn’t know that, if he had never existed, neither would the Joker. As Alan Moore brilliantly showed us in “The Killing Joke”, Batman was vital to create his own nemesis. And to this day, Batman doesn’t know that – an ignorance that this scene cleverly portrays.

The art is narratively effective, even if it’s miles below Tony Daniel’s work. I would have liked to see Daniel illustrating an actual good script by Morrison, but unfortunately that’s not the case, so here’s hoping the next script will keep up the quality of this one – which is not mind-blowing, but it’s definitely above-average. Still, the art has some good moments (like the double splash-page that starts this issue) and Guy Major’s coloring is typically excellent.

I’m glad to read a good piece of work by Morrison – as crazy as that might sound coming from me.