Our America – Review Of Crossed: Badlands #4

What are the Crossed? Zombies? Infected, delusional maniacs? Cleveland Cavaliers fans? Who are these creatures and why do they want to violate various orifices in my body while they eat my face? The latest entry in Avatar’s own, never-ending man vs. monster in a post apocalyptic setting, Crossed: Badlands #4, kicks off a new story arc written by Jamie Delano with art by Leandro Rizzo.

Delano’s new arc follows a very brief one by series creator Garth Ennis. That one, set in Scotland, went in perhaps the most predictable direction of any story in Crossed thus far – after 3 issues, everyone was dead or turned Crossed. Pretty much what you’d figure would happen if the world was actually over run by contagious monsters. This new story moves the action back to the United States, somewhere in the swamp lands of the South. Delano showcases a new cast of characters, most of which illustrate the way some of us worry that we Americans come across to the rest of the world: the meth head trailer trash, the disgruntled, water boarding Islamophobe, the degenerate, bored offspring of cocaine cowboys. About the only broad stereotypes that seemed to be missing were The Situation and Snooki – but this is just the first issue. We may still have time to shoehorn them in, yet.

But, is it a worthwhile read? That and infectious spoilers, after the jump!

Delano has mined the arena of those dark characters which make up our American fabric in the past with Outlaw Nation. However, where he had nineteen issues previously to explore this territory, Delano will be pulling a six issue arc here. Where Ennis’s arc focused on how the decisions of one group, brutal at times, were made to try to ensure the survival of its members (and, ultimately, failed), Delano appears to be examining “ruthless self interest” as a means of survival against the Crossed. There is, after all, nothing more American than fucking over other people on the road to getting that which you feel you are entitled. It is the foundation on which we have built reality television empires. God bless the USA.

Still, despite the fair amount of exposition jammed into this issue as Delano brings us up to speed on his characters, the initial volley is entertaining. Delano’s use of dialogue in his characters’ banter is worth the price of admission. Consider this exchange between twin teens, Ashlynne and Ashley:

Ashlynne: Anyhow, it wasn’t your dad coming at you naked, screaming he was going to wear your cervix as a cock-ring while he chewed you little titties off –

Ashley: Yeuuw – don’t remind me.

Ashlynne: It was the demon from hell that possessed him.

Ashley: Could be all this is, like, punishment for what we did, you know?

Ashlynne: You’re so self engrossed, Ashley! Like everyone in South Florida gets massacred by fiends because we uploaded our nude pictures to our step-dad’s laptop for our mom to find?

You’re not going to find that heartfelt outpouring of human emotion between siblings on an episode of The Kardashians. Maybe next season, though. They’ve got to figure out some contrived plot for those trainwrecks and no one’s getting married to Kim again any time soon.

For the record though – I would pay to watch zombies eat Kim and Khloé Kardashian on pay per view.

Leandro Rizzo (Fictionauts, Warcraft: Legends) does solid work on the art in the book. He’s put together clean layouts that clearly move the action of the story along. Rizzo has a talent for the gore spattered panels and graphic violence we’ve come to expect from an Avatar book. I would pay him to draw zombies eating Kim and Khloé Kardashian in Artists’ Alley.

For the casual comics reader, pick this up if you enjoy gory zombie stories with witty dialogue. If you’re a fan of Delano’s work, you’ll want to pick up this series as he doesn’t have any more comic projects in the pipeline for now beyond an adaptation of Lovecraft’s “Pickman’s Model” for a Self-made Hero anthology to be illustrated by Steve Pugh, his collaborating artist on Animal Man. He will be self publishing a novel called Book Thirteen, more details of which can be found on his Web site.