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3.17 AVERAGE
3.17 AVERAGE
There is this place where god-awful and amazing intersect.
When you are 100% aware that stuff is cheesy and campy, but you are still having fun and it's kind of amazing.
Think...From Dusk Till Dawn.
Or Tremors.
I am guilty of having soft spot for these which is why Garth Ennis totally works for me.
The thing is, that's a veeery thin line of awesome and story can easily go in wrong direction.
This is exactly what happened with Crossed in Vol.2.
Vol. 1 had this perfect balance of ridiculous depravity that never fails to entertain, but vol. 2 was aiming to out-shock.
No Ennis, no fun. (-_-)
What I did like was awesome take on covers. :D
Very clever.
Oh, and this volume had a scene that's in my top ten Crossed fucked up moments.
The art was good, but David Lapham is no Garth Ennis.
Disappointing, shallow storytelling from a writer who proved he has much stronger chops in STRAY BULLETS.
WELL. Was this an appropriate Halloween read or WHAT? More like 3.5 stars but rated up because they managed to make an entire graphic novel volume revolve around incest and got away with publishing it and creeping readers the hell out. I was expecting pretty intense stuff, and it definitely goes a step further than the previous volume (which makes me wonder if each one is a preparation for the next, and each will get gradually more awful...), but in a way it wasn't as bad. It didn't seem to focus on the Crossed nearly as much as the previous volume, depending instead on the whacked family dynamics of the main character and her siblings and parents. More nudity in the volume though, and some unconventional gory scenes...
After two attempts, I finally fought my way through this thing, and while I can't say that I "enjoyed" the first volume of Crossed, I definitely appreciate it way more after reading this tasteless pile of nothing..
Volume 1 was disturbing, vile and simply uncomfortable just like this one, but at least it had compelling characters and story, and most importantly the scenes of despicable gore etc. etc. either served a purpose to the story or at least affected the characters to some degree. In this, the characters are paper-thin and most of them are only introduced in order to kill them off shortly after in the worst ways possible with no build-up whatsoever.
The comic is also incredibly impatient, and if there's an actual calm scene which attempts to flesh out the characters just a bit, it's sure to be interrupted by a sudden page showing a flashback or some random event where the crossed are having the time of their lives. It basically felt like an excuse to publish personalized torture porn. But the finishing blow to this comic for me, was the fact that a lot of the kills on female characters are incredibly sexualized and the entire thing just ended up leaving me with a bad taste in my mouth...
The comic also has the audacity to end on a somewhat hopeful note, as if a tiny bandage could ever cover up this gaping hole that this piece left me with. The ending is also incredibly sudden and forced which makes me feel like the writer just dropped everything and left before it was finished.
If I had to find some pros, then there were a few very intense and pretty well paced chapters that kept me on edge, and I did appreciate the creativity and details of the different covers and a lot of the panels this volume had, even if I would prefer to never look at them again.
I should've probably followed my gut feeling in the first place and kept this as my first ever DNF, but curiosity always gets the better of me. And if I ever continue this comic, it would probably not be from this specific series.
Anyways, I'm off to wash my eyes in bleach..
Volume 1 was disturbing, vile and simply uncomfortable just like this one, but at least it had compelling characters and story, and most importantly the scenes of despicable gore etc. etc. either served a purpose to the story or at least affected the characters to some degree. In this, the characters are paper-thin and most of them are only introduced in order to kill them off shortly after in the worst ways possible with no build-up whatsoever.
The comic is also incredibly impatient, and if there's an actual calm scene which attempts to flesh out the characters just a bit, it's sure to be interrupted by a sudden page showing a flashback or some random event where the crossed are having the time of their lives. It basically felt like an excuse to publish personalized torture porn. But the finishing blow to this comic for me, was the fact that a lot of the kills on female characters are incredibly sexualized and the entire thing just ended up leaving me with a bad taste in my mouth...
The comic also has the audacity to end on a somewhat hopeful note, as if a tiny bandage could ever cover up this gaping hole that this piece left me with. The ending is also incredibly sudden and forced which makes me feel like the writer just dropped everything and left before it was finished.
If I had to find some pros, then there were a few very intense and pretty well paced chapters that kept me on edge, and I did appreciate the creativity and details of the different covers and a lot of the panels this volume had, even if I would prefer to never look at them again.
I should've probably followed my gut feeling in the first place and kept this as my first ever DNF, but curiosity always gets the better of me. And if I ever continue this comic, it would probably not be from this specific series.
Anyways, I'm off to wash my eyes in bleach..
Not quite zombies, something passed in bodily fluids causes people to become utterly depraved, ala Reavers from Firefly. Garth Ennis is a masterful storyteller, but he goes places it's hard for me to go. I read his stuff sparingly, with long stretches of mental palate cleansers in between. (He's not listed as an author on this volume, but he wrote vols 1 and 3, and it's his world so it counts.)