History Crossed / TropesAToD

* DependingOnTheWriter: Given how many writers have poked at the franchise over the years, there ends up being a fair bit of disagreement. Individual characters tend to stick to their own writers, but details about how Crossed work can change frequently.

** Can you [[PretendWereDead disguise yourself as a Crossed]]? "The Fatal Englishman" explicitly claims it never, ever works, but other writers have had it work, usually justifying it with, for instance, using blood or cigarette ash to make the cross mark.

** The franchise in general is like this, with the various arcs taking place during different times in the Crossed plague, ranging from the initial outbreak to a few years later. Two ''Badlands'' arcs, ''Yellow Belly'' and ''The Golden Road'', start on the very first night of the outbreak, ''Psychopath'' and its sequels take place at least two years after the C-Day, ''Of the World in Its Becoming'', the first ''Badlands'' arc, takes place four years after the outbreak and ''The Fatal Englishman'' takes place five years after the outbreak, while ''Crossed: +100'' by Alan Moore and Gabriel Andrade takes place 100 years after the outbreak, the furthest yet in time.
** ''Grave New World'' is an interesting case - the reader explores the life on Fort Jefferson during certain years while also drawing parallels between the man Captain Barnes used to be during the sea operation and the tyrant he has become by the time he reached the island.

** In the final issue of ''Homo Tortor'', when Washington checks out the computers at Professor Nelson's bunker, they clearly have Windows 7 installed on them as shown by the boot-up screens. Given that the C-day happened in the summer of 2008, Windows 7 would not become available for distribution until 2009 (and it didn't even have such name until October 2008).

* AntiHero: Many of them, but Shaky and Land take the cake.

** Cindy and the others are unable to convince Joel how reckless it is to use salt on the Crossed without anything else.

** Shaky wrote comic books before C-Day and seems to feel that his works were fairly well-read, but he never sees to capitalize on this, and indeed as far as we know never reveals his real name to another character.

* ComplexityAddiction: Shaky's plan to sabotage the alliance with Drift Fleet. He could have maybe got Tabitha to go out there anyway and just argued the Drift Fleet's unpreparedness on its merits to everyone instead of being sneaky about it and convincing people to wait and see how they did on the Floata raid or making it look like they kidnapped Tabitha.

** The reaction at having Crossed liquid making its way into the human organism tends to vary as well. In certain stories survivors don't seem to notice it until it's too late while in most other story arcs humans feel its effects straight away.

** Des and Kitrick are both strong black fathers who became a DeathSeeker, due to loss of children but Kitrick is more peaceful and defeated, while Des is wrathful and brutal, and has a living child he neglects some.

* CowardlyYellow: Edmund "Yellowbelly" Wickenthorpe got his nickname for his cowardice and the series, even though he does not really wear anything of yellow cover on-panel. He runs from danger, abandons people, and is responsible for two deaths. [[spoiler:After killing Nicole in a fit of fear (he was checking if she was ok and she lunged forward, causing him to instinctually pull the trigger), he was convinced by Harold Lore to defile her corpse so he can cover up his crime (only to be told ''after'' having sex with the corpse that he only needed to destroy the head). Edward does own up to his crime, escapes his execution through a random cross attack, and redeems himself by saving Donna. However, Donna kills him after they have sex, brutally staving his head with a rock as punishment for killing Nicole.]]

** The cover for one issue has the Crossed putting kids on a playground slide. At the bottom of the playground slide is a wood chipper. In ''Wish You Were Here'', the Crossed [[spoiler:throw a newborn baby into the air and then shoot it to splatter its infected blood on a group of survivors.]]

** Smokey's travel to find the girls shows the Texas oil fields burning as depicted in the same volume. A rival tribe of Crossed Smokey and his band fight are red and resemble the depictions of Homo Tortor in, well, ''Homo Tortor'', though they could also be the band of Crossed from ''Psychopath'' that soak themselves in the blood of their victims.

* CallBack: The final arc of Badlands is full of them. In addition to the return of Smokey from ''Quisling,'' his relationship with Cody parallels that with Oliver, in addition Cody himself comes off as a less sadistic version of the Gamekeeper from ''Wish You Were Here'' with people who enlisted him for service pre C-Day now depending on him for survival, complete with [[spoiler:Cody killing his employers, directly or not]]. Ashley and Ashlynn from ''Homo Superior'' also return as Crossed and make reference to their original plans from the end of that arc. The ship captain Smokey talks to brings up his destruction of Cheyenne Mountain and makes a passing reference to Aoilean from ''Wish You Were Here'' as a rumored intelligent Crossed. The rumor the captain mentions about George W. Bush being an intelligent Crossed may also be a reference to [[spoiler: the phone call to the White House in ''The Thin Red Line'']] and the fact he dismisses this rumor likely means he is aware of the destruction of Air Force One over Oklahoma mentioned in Volume One and Smokey's travel to find the girls shows the Texas oil fields burning as depicted in the same volume. A rival tribe of Crossed Smokey and his band fight are red and resemble the depictions of Homo Tortor in, well, ''Homo Tortor'' though they could the band of Crossed from ''Psychopath'' that soak themselves in the blood of their victims. The presence of an intelligent Crossed in Tennessee is referring to [[spoiler: Beuregard Salt's clan that sets the groundwork for ''Crossed +100.'']]

* AbusivePrecursors: The Homo Tortor ([[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "Man the Torturer"]]) were a different hominid species who may have been responsible for the human population bottleneck of 75,000-70,000 BC (when the global human population may have been as low as 1,000-2,000 people). It's implied they drove other hominids to extinction. That is, if any of the story we see happened at all, or at the very least, happened the way we see it. The professor of the story had a theory, which had been mostly reviled and mocked by the scientific community, about some sort of plague being spread by a prehistoric empire, but the story we're shown is probably just fiction, since it's a firsthand account made by a tribesman who is killed by the end.

** Washington may be a contrasting character to Harry from ''The Fatal Englishman''. Both men have their respective teams supplied with firearms and have at least one person with an actual military training, and also lead their men into an underground facility in hopes of achieving their goal (for Harry it is to unleash bio-weapon on the entire United Kingdom, while Washington desires to learn about the first Crossed outbreak and also locate his ex-girlfriend), even if they are going to die in consequence. However, unlike Harry, Washington lacks proper combat training and instead relies on anthropology knowledge, ancient weaponry and his skills at being a ConsummateLiar. Washington also keeps the true reason behind his mission from his companions, while Harry is honest about his intentions to everyone. Harry and his crew are TrueCompanions, while Washington sees certain members of his group as expendable. Finally, [[spoiler:Harry's crew decides to not go through the risk and chooses to go out on their own terms, whereas Washington manages to reach the awful truth but pays with his life in return.]]
** Washington is also a less villainous (but still morally ambiguous) counterpart to Harold Lorre. Both tell lies about a quest related to a SoleSurvivingScientist to get allies and protectors while really on a quest involving a woman they loved but who didn’t love them. Washington’s is more rescue-oriented and Harold’s is described under InsaneTrollLogic, and also has elements of RoaringRampageOfRevenge. Washington is aware of what he’s doing, Harold is self-deluding. Washington’s story has some basis in truth and might not be a complete lie, while Harold’s is utter bullsh*t. Harold kills most of his companions and Washington does try to keep them alive (though he does sacrifice a couple members of his group to get into the professor's bunker alive). Harold is a middle-aged white man, Washington is a college-aged black man.
** Both Harold and Washington might also be contrasting characters to Shaky. All three are separated from a woman they love [[spoiler: who was turned into a Crossed]] and are somewhat manipulative due to the detriment of those around them. But Shaky struggles to keep his lover away (feeling either she'll kill the Cavities or they'll kill her, neither of which he wants) rather than going on a quest to seek her out. Shaky's lover also returns his feelings to the end (unlike the subjects of Harold and Washington's affections).

** Does the Crossed mark start at the edges of the face and work its way inward, or start at the center and work outward? Most lean toward the former, but ''The Golden Road'' does the latter.

* TheDogBitesBack: Bobby from the final ''Badlands'' story finds out the hard way that actively abusing someone who sold you a place in the bunker will not end well, especially if you lack proper skills required in keeping the bunker operational. Cody kills him before he can even set foot underground because even he had enough sense to realize Bobby's action-oriented attitude could get the whole group wiped out. The same thing happens with Red Mitchell, who despite paying for three floors was still denied access and left to die outside because Crossed were right on his tail and could have easily destroyed the whole bunker from within. Even Ben, who claimed to be a soldier, was briefly threatened by Cody himself, before being allowed to enter the shelter.

* AlternateHistory: ''The Thin Red Line'' establishes the setting as this. The arc is set in 2008 despite being published several years later and establishes the Crossed appeared during this time-contemporary figures such as Gordon Brown, Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush all play plot-relevent roles in trying (or failing) to address the outbreak.