Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 187 (click to see context) from:
** In ''Five Bloody Fingers,'' the scene showing the Crossed doing their thing at the cosplay convention has cosplayers identifiable as [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] and ComicBook/SpiderMan being murdered by the Crossed. One of the Crossed is in cosplay resembling [[Anime/DragonBallZ Goku.]] Other Crossed are cosplaying in outfits similar to Cammy, Judge Dredd, and, of all things, a female Pikachu.
to:
** In ''Five Bloody Fingers,'' the scene showing the Crossed doing their thing at the cosplay convention has cosplayers identifiable as [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] and ComicBook/SpiderMan being murdered by the Crossed. One of the Crossed is in cosplay resembling [[Anime/DragonBallZ Goku.]] Other Crossed are cosplaying in outfits similar to Cammy, Judge Dredd, [[Franchise/StreetFighter Cammy]], ComicBook/JudgeDredd, and, of all things, a female Pikachu.[[{{Franchise/Pokemon}} Pikachu]]. Another cosplayer that shows up later also resembles [[Franchise/MortalKombat Raiden]], down to his straw cone hat.
** One comic wrap cover has a jet pilot shoot a Crossed through the windshield. The colonel's name written on that plane is [[WesternAnimation/TheJetsons George Jetson]].
** One comic wrap cover has a jet pilot shoot a Crossed through the windshield. The colonel's name written on that plane is [[WesternAnimation/TheJetsons George Jetson]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 37 (click to see context) from:
** There are also two characters named Thomas: a member of Cindy's group from Volume One and the real name of Fleshcook from ''Mimic''. There is also Officer Thomas, who briefly meets Cindy's group in Volume One.
to:
** There are also two characters named Thomas: a member of Cindy's group from Volume One and the real name of Fleshcook from ''Mimic''.''Mimic'', Thomas Preiss. There is also Officer Thomas, who briefly meets Cindy's group in Volume One.
** There are two guys named Lloyd: Lloyd Thackery, who used to employ the Gamekeeper in ''Wish You Were Here'', and the Lloyd who employed Cody the bunker designer from the second Smokey arc. [[spoiler:Ironically, both of them end up dead by the hands of those who used to work for them]].
Changed line(s) 54 (click to see context) from:
** Skip is an easygoing version of this in ''Wish You Were Here''.
to:
** Skip is an easygoing version of this in ''Wish You Were Here''. [[spoiler:Though it turns out he's not even Lance's ''biological'' father per se.]]
Changed line(s) 59 (click to see context) from:
* ParentalIncest: Joseph Pratt is not above raping his own daughters.
to:
* ParentalIncest: ParentalIncest:
** Joseph Pratt is not above raping his owndaughters.daughters.
** Frank from ''Grave New World'' is mentioned to have outright fathered ''two'' children from his own daughter, and he had been sexually assaulting her even before Barnes's crew found them.
** Joseph Pratt is not above raping his own
** Frank from ''Grave New World'' is mentioned to have outright fathered ''two'' children from his own daughter, and he had been sexually assaulting her even before Barnes's crew found them.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 172 (click to see context) from:
** Both examples of ShownTheirWork from the second issue aren't followed up on. A year into the outbreak it's stated that Texas is largely burned from the refineries and New York City is flooded, but when New York is seen two years after C-Day in ''Crossed 3D'' it shows no signs of this, and at least part of Texas is untouched by flames or smoke at the end of Cody's story, 6-8 months after C-Day in Badlands #96, [[PlayingWith although the following issue shows Smokey walking through a part of the state which does have burning oil fields]].
to:
** Both examples of ShownTheirWork from the second issue of ''Volume One'' aren't followed up on. A year into the outbreak it's stated that Texas is largely burned from the refineries and New York City is flooded, but when New York is seen two years after C-Day in ''Crossed 3D'' it shows no signs of this, and at least part of Texas is untouched by flames or smoke at the end of Cody's story, 6-8 months after C-Day in Badlands #96, [[PlayingWith although the following issue shows Smokey walking through a part of the state which does have burning oil fields]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 205 (click to see context) from:
** Jackson kills a bunker of these in Iceland who'd previously worked on a serum to cause psychosis which he is convinced was used on him in the first Annual. [[spoiler: It wasn't. He was already mad to begin with, but the harmless steam that Magda sprayed on him made him ''think'' he had been turned insane, and his mind did the rest]].
to:
** Jackson kills a bunker of these in Iceland who'd previously worked on a serum to cause psychosis which he is convinced was a prototype version of the Crossed virus and was used on him in the first Annual. [[spoiler: It wasn't. He was already mad to begin with, but the harmless steam that Magda sprayed on him made him ''think'' he had been turned insane, and his mind did the rest]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 235 (click to see context) from:
** At one point in "Wish You Were Here", the main character decides to analyze a recently-destroyed military base where one of his cohorts, Selene, went missing. After a SherlockScan, he comes up with a CrimeReconstruction that the reader sees: the soldiers turned out to be {{Sociopathic Soldier}}s who wanted to turn Selene into a SexSlave a la ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater'', and she managed to escape but sacrificed herself by detonating a grenade that destroyed the fortified entrance and let the Crossed inside. Some time later, it is revealed that his theory is [[EntertaininglyWrong totally, totally wrong]]: the soldiers were actually quite welcoming to Selene, and the destruction of the base was completely unrelated to Selene's presence. He admits to himself when he sees Selene alive and well that thinking he could flawlessly piece together the events of a prior disaster from limited evidence when he's a writer by trade was probably kind of stupid. '''Valid'''
to:
** At one point in "Wish You Were Here", the main character decides to analyze a recently-destroyed military base where one of his cohorts, Selene, went missing. After a SherlockScan, he comes up with a CrimeReconstruction that the reader sees: the soldiers turned out to be {{Sociopathic Soldier}}s who wanted to turn Selene into a SexSlave a la ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater'', and she managed to escape but sacrificed herself by detonating a grenade that destroyed the fortified entrance and let the Crossed inside. Some time later, it is revealed that his theory is [[EntertaininglyWrong totally, totally wrong]]: the soldiers were actually quite welcoming to Selene, and the destruction of the base was completely unrelated to Selene's presence. He admits to himself when he sees Selene alive and well that thinking he could flawlessly piece together the events of a prior disaster from limited evidence when he's a writer by trade was probably kind of stupid. '''Valid'''
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
1.) Not an outcome. 2.) Doesn't explain why it's surprising. 3.) Character reaction. 4.) Plot happens. 5.) Not surprising if the intended outcome was stated beforehand. 7.) Doesn't explain why it's surprising. 8.) Doesn't explain why it's surprising 9.) Plot happens. 12.) Not an outcome, 13.) Doesn't explain why it's surprising.
Changed line(s) 235,243 (click to see context) from:
** In the very first ''Badlands'' arc, a band of survivors is trying to stay undetected while a large group of the infected psychopaths are in the area. One survivor asks a soldier in the group if he can just snipe them down from a distance. The soldier informs her that this isn't the movies where magazines are bottomless and shooters are uncannily accurate. He only has half a magazine left in his rifle, and even if every shot was a hit and every hit was a kill, he can't take them all out.
** In the last issue of the same arc, Ian gets to [[spoiler:Harry's rifle]] and begins to pick off the Crossed from a distance. In spite of firing single shots, he still empties the clip before he realizes it because he forgot how many shots had [[spoiler:Harry fired before the Crossed got him]].
** In the first volume [[spoiler: Geoff reveals that he used to be a serial killer that murdered and dismembered other young men until one of his victims, a Crossed individual, tried to rudely goad him to ravish him, something that [[HorrifyingTheHorror scared even Geoff himself]]. When he's done telling the story, ''every single member'' of the group turns away from him, and the next morning Kitrick takes him out for a walk in the woods and comes back by himself, having either killed Geoff or left him to his fate.]]
** While Crossed did start as intimidating force for survivors to deal with, their lack of self-preservation (with only a few of them being smart enough to plan things forward) became the main reason most of them have died out by the year 2108. This actually works in two ways, since there was a man named Beau Salt who had the foresight to realize how self-destructive the Crossed nature was and managed to preserve a tribe he led, making intelligent Crossed more dangerous than usual ones.
** From ''Wish You Were Here'', the Gamekeeper's group comes across an abandoned police van, and the majority of the crew decides to highjack it and leave the city faster. They ignore the Gamekeeper's warning that the Crossed will eventually catch them due to being "predictable" and drive away. Soon after that those who refused find the van crashed with everyone inside having suffered a gruesome death. The Gamekeeper only tells "tolja" when observing the carnage, and it is hard to argue with him in this situation.
** In ''Wish You Were Here'', Shakey uses the evidence at a destroyed military base to [[SherlockScan create a fairly sophisticated theory explaining Selene's fate and why the place exploded]]. Significantly later, we learn that almost everything he concluded was wrong, with the sole exceptions being that one of the soldiers was stabbed during sex and the doors were blown up from the inside by a grenade. As it turns out, trying to reach complicated conclusions off very nonspecific evidence tends to yield none-too-great results, especially when, like Shakey, your background has nothing to do with actual investigative work. Indeed, the potential problem with Shakey's theory is implied from the word go, when it's pointed out that the soldiers being rapists sounds oddly similar to a movie plot.
** From the same comic, in the flashback [[spoiler:Shaky ties the Gamekeeper to a tree and sets up a phone ringtone to go off once per hour, counting on the Crossed being drawn in sooner or later. As it turns out, not only did the battery die after a day (as Shaky himself predicted), but nobody came to the phone ringing sounds, allowing the Gamekeeper to stay alive long enough for Ashoke to free him from his bounds]].
** At the end of the second volume of ''Wish You Were Here'' we have [[spoiler:Jasper accidentally incapaciating himself courtesy of a gun exploding in his hands (and horribly maiming them). Given that his weapon is an ''antique rifle'', it is naturally more fragile than any modern firearm]].
** At the end of ''Quisling'' [[spoiler:Smokey finally gets Oliver after the latter tries to destroy as many military files as he can. After [[NoSell shrugging off]] the shot to the shoulder from the Glock, he promptly knocks it out of Oliver's hands. Because the recently discharged (and still smoking) pistol falls into a pool of oil that Oliver himself spilled earlier, it explodes and causes the whole room to catch on fire, stunning Smokey briefly and allowing Oliver to break free temporarily.]]
** In the last issue of the same arc, Ian gets to [[spoiler:Harry's rifle]] and begins to pick off the Crossed from a distance. In spite of firing single shots, he still empties the clip before he realizes it because he forgot how many shots had [[spoiler:Harry fired before the Crossed got him]].
** In the first volume [[spoiler: Geoff reveals that he used to be a serial killer that murdered and dismembered other young men until one of his victims, a Crossed individual, tried to rudely goad him to ravish him, something that [[HorrifyingTheHorror scared even Geoff himself]]. When he's done telling the story, ''every single member'' of the group turns away from him, and the next morning Kitrick takes him out for a walk in the woods and comes back by himself, having either killed Geoff or left him to his fate.]]
** While Crossed did start as intimidating force for survivors to deal with, their lack of self-preservation (with only a few of them being smart enough to plan things forward) became the main reason most of them have died out by the year 2108. This actually works in two ways, since there was a man named Beau Salt who had the foresight to realize how self-destructive the Crossed nature was and managed to preserve a tribe he led, making intelligent Crossed more dangerous than usual ones.
** From ''Wish You Were Here'', the Gamekeeper's group comes across an abandoned police van, and the majority of the crew decides to highjack it and leave the city faster. They ignore the Gamekeeper's warning that the Crossed will eventually catch them due to being "predictable" and drive away. Soon after that those who refused find the van crashed with everyone inside having suffered a gruesome death. The Gamekeeper only tells "tolja" when observing the carnage, and it is hard to argue with him in this situation.
** In ''Wish You Were Here'', Shakey uses the evidence at a destroyed military base to [[SherlockScan create a fairly sophisticated theory explaining Selene's fate and why the place exploded]]. Significantly later, we learn that almost everything he concluded was wrong, with the sole exceptions being that one of the soldiers was stabbed during sex and the doors were blown up from the inside by a grenade. As it turns out, trying to reach complicated conclusions off very nonspecific evidence tends to yield none-too-great results, especially when, like Shakey, your background has nothing to do with actual investigative work. Indeed, the potential problem with Shakey's theory is implied from the word go, when it's pointed out that the soldiers being rapists sounds oddly similar to a movie plot.
** From the same comic, in the flashback [[spoiler:Shaky ties the Gamekeeper to a tree and sets up a phone ringtone to go off once per hour, counting on the Crossed being drawn in sooner or later. As it turns out, not only did the battery die after a day (as Shaky himself predicted), but nobody came to the phone ringing sounds, allowing the Gamekeeper to stay alive long enough for Ashoke to free him from his bounds]].
** At the end of the second volume of ''Wish You Were Here'' we have [[spoiler:Jasper accidentally incapaciating himself courtesy of a gun exploding in his hands (and horribly maiming them). Given that his weapon is an ''antique rifle'', it is naturally more fragile than any modern firearm]].
** At the end of ''Quisling'' [[spoiler:Smokey finally gets Oliver after the latter tries to destroy as many military files as he can. After [[NoSell shrugging off]] the shot to the shoulder from the Glock, he promptly knocks it out of Oliver's hands. Because the recently discharged (and still smoking) pistol falls into a pool of oil that Oliver himself spilled earlier, it explodes and causes the whole room to catch on fire, stunning Smokey briefly and allowing Oliver to break free temporarily.]]
to:
** In the very first ''Badlands'' arc, a band of survivors is trying to stay undetected while a large group of the infected psychopaths are in the area. One survivor asks a soldier in the group if he can just snipe them down from a distance. The soldier informs her that this isn't the movies where magazines are bottomless and shooters are uncannily accurate. He only has half a magazine left in his rifle, and even if every shot was a hit and every hit was a kill, he can't take them all out.
** In the last issue of the same arc, Ian gets to [[spoiler:Harry's rifle]] and begins to pick off the Crossed from a distance. In spite of firing single shots, he still empties the clip before he realizes it because he forgot how many shots had [[spoiler:Harry fired before the Crossed got him]].
** In the first volume [[spoiler: Geoff reveals that he used to be a serial killer that murdered and dismembered other young men untilAt one of his victims, a Crossed individual, tried to rudely goad him to ravish him, something that [[HorrifyingTheHorror scared even Geoff himself]]. When he's done telling the story, ''every single member'' of the group turns away from him, and the next morning Kitrick takes him out for a walk point in the woods and comes back by himself, having either killed Geoff or left him to his fate.]]
** While Crossed did start as intimidating force for survivors to deal with, their lack of self-preservation (with only a few of them being smart enough to plan things forward) became"Wish You Were Here", the main reason most of them have died out by the year 2108. This actually works in two ways, since there was a man named Beau Salt who had the foresight to realize how self-destructive the Crossed nature was and managed to preserve a tribe he led, making intelligent Crossed more dangerous than usual ones.
** From ''Wish You Were Here'', the Gamekeeper's group comes across an abandoned police van, and the majority of the crewcharacter decides to highjack it and leave the city faster. They ignore the Gamekeeper's warning that the Crossed will eventually catch them due to being "predictable" and drive away. Soon after that those who refused find the van crashed with everyone inside having suffered analyze a gruesome death. The Gamekeeper only tells "tolja" when observing the carnage, and it is hard to argue with him in this situation.
** In ''Wish You Were Here'', Shakey uses the evidence at a destroyedrecently-destroyed military base where one of his cohorts, Selene, went missing. After a SherlockScan, he comes up with a CrimeReconstruction that the reader sees: the soldiers turned out to [[SherlockScan create be {{Sociopathic Soldier}}s who wanted to turn Selene into a fairly sophisticated SexSlave a la ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater'', and she managed to escape but sacrificed herself by detonating a grenade that destroyed the fortified entrance and let the Crossed inside. Some time later, it is revealed that his theory explaining is [[EntertaininglyWrong totally, totally wrong]]: the soldiers were actually quite welcoming to Selene, and the destruction of the base was completely unrelated to Selene's fate presence. He admits to himself when he sees Selene alive and why the place exploded]]. Significantly later, we learn well that almost everything thinking he concluded was wrong, with could flawlessly piece together the sole exceptions being that one events of the soldiers was stabbed during sex and the doors were blown up a prior disaster from the inside by a grenade. As it turns out, trying to reach complicated conclusions off very nonspecific limited evidence tends to yield none-too-great results, especially when, like Shakey, your background has nothing to do with actual investigative work. Indeed, the potential problem with Shakey's theory is implied from the word go, when it's pointed out that the soldiers being rapists sounds oddly similar to he's a movie plot.
** From the same comic, in the flashback [[spoiler:Shaky ties the Gamekeeper to a tree and sets up a phone ringtone to go off once per hour, counting on the Crossed being drawn in sooner or later. As it turns out, not only did the battery die after a day (as Shaky himself predicted), but nobody came to the phone ringing sounds, allowing the Gamekeeper to stay alive long enough for Ashoke to free him from his bounds]].
** At the endwriter by trade was probably kind of the second volume of ''Wish You Were Here'' we have [[spoiler:Jasper accidentally incapaciating himself courtesy of a gun exploding in his hands (and horribly maiming them). Given that his weapon is an ''antique rifle'', it is naturally more fragile than any modern firearm]].
** At the end of ''Quisling'' [[spoiler:Smokey finally gets Oliver after the latter tries to destroy as many military files as he can. After [[NoSell shrugging off]] the shot to the shoulder from the Glock, he promptly knocks it out of Oliver's hands. Because the recently discharged (and still smoking) pistol falls into a pool of oil that Oliver himself spilled earlier, it explodes and causes the whole room to catch on fire, stunning Smokey briefly and allowing Oliver to break free temporarily.]]stupid. '''Valid'''
** In the last issue of the same arc, Ian gets to [[spoiler:Harry's rifle]] and begins to pick off the Crossed from a distance. In spite of firing single shots, he still empties the clip before he realizes it because he forgot how many shots had [[spoiler:Harry fired before the Crossed got him]].
** In the first volume [[spoiler: Geoff reveals that he used to be a serial killer that murdered and dismembered other young men until
** While Crossed did start as intimidating force for survivors to deal with, their lack of self-preservation (with only a few of them being smart enough to plan things forward) became
** From ''Wish You Were Here'', the Gamekeeper's group comes across an abandoned police van, and the majority of the crew
** In ''Wish You Were Here'', Shakey uses the evidence at a destroyed
** From the same comic, in the flashback [[spoiler:Shaky ties the Gamekeeper to a tree and sets up a phone ringtone to go off once per hour, counting on the Crossed being drawn in sooner or later. As it turns out, not only did the battery die after a day (as Shaky himself predicted), but nobody came to the phone ringing sounds, allowing the Gamekeeper to stay alive long enough for Ashoke to free him from his bounds]].
** At the end
** At the end of ''Quisling'' [[spoiler:Smokey finally gets Oliver after the latter tries to destroy as many military files as he can. After [[NoSell shrugging off]] the shot to the shoulder from the Glock, he promptly knocks it out of Oliver's hands. Because the recently discharged (and still smoking) pistol falls into a pool of oil that Oliver himself spilled earlier, it explodes and causes the whole room to catch on fire, stunning Smokey briefly and allowing Oliver to break free temporarily.]]
Deleted line(s) 246,247 (click to see context) :
** Crossed +100 points out that the Crossed's habit of raping each other's families leads to inbred children, who die faster. And the most dangerous threat to their continued existence is AIDS, a common problem with inbreeding families in real life.
** As Dylan from ''Lesser of Two Evils'' finds out the hard way, shooting yourself in the head does not mean you will die immediately, and as such gets further screwed over by the Crossed who happened to hear the gunshot.
** As Dylan from ''Lesser of Two Evils'' finds out the hard way, shooting yourself in the head does not mean you will die immediately, and as such gets further screwed over by the Crossed who happened to hear the gunshot.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Updating Link
Changed line(s) 184 (click to see context) from:
** In ''Five Bloody Fingers,'' the scene showing the Crossed doing their thing at the cosplay convention has cosplayers identifiable as [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] and [[Franchise/SpiderMan Spider-Man]] being murdered by the Crossed. One of the Crossed is in cosplay resembling [[Anime/DragonBallZ Goku.]] Other Crossed are cosplaying in outfits similar to Cammy, Judge Dredd, and, of all things, a female Pikachu.
to:
** In ''Five Bloody Fingers,'' the scene showing the Crossed doing their thing at the cosplay convention has cosplayers identifiable as [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] and [[Franchise/SpiderMan Spider-Man]] ComicBook/SpiderMan being murdered by the Crossed. One of the Crossed is in cosplay resembling [[Anime/DragonBallZ Goku.]] Other Crossed are cosplaying in outfits similar to Cammy, Judge Dredd, and, of all things, a female Pikachu.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 178,180 (click to see context) from:
* ShownTheirWork: In ''Crossed'' #2, a survivor mentions what's happened to Texas and New York in the months since the Crossed showed up. Both are realistic depictions of what would probably happen following the abandonment of either state. Texas's oil refineries eventually overloaded and exploded, and New York City flooded without the continuous pumping of its subways and sewers.
* ShootTheDog: Cindy and Stan [[spoiler:kill a group of kindergarteners whose guardian they had accidentally killed]] in order to keep traveling with minimal impediment.
** While still bad, it's not quite as bad as it sounds. With resources stretched thin, the guardian in question had been teaching the children to live off whatever they could find. [[spoiler:Specifically, [[ImAHumanitarian other survivors]]. Given the choice between having to stretch their own thin supplies to account for a dozen cannibalistic five-year-olds or shooting a bunch of children, Cindy went for option B.]]
* ShootTheDog: Cindy and Stan [[spoiler:kill a group of kindergarteners whose guardian they had accidentally killed]] in order to keep traveling with minimal impediment.
** While still bad, it's not quite as bad as it sounds. With resources stretched thin, the guardian in question had been teaching the children to live off whatever they could find. [[spoiler:Specifically, [[ImAHumanitarian other survivors]]. Given the choice between having to stretch their own thin supplies to account for a dozen cannibalistic five-year-olds or shooting a bunch of children, Cindy went for option B.]]
to:
* ShownTheirWork: In ''Crossed'' #2, a survivor mentions what's happened to Texas and New York in the months since the Crossed showed up. Both are realistic depictions of what would probably happen following the abandonment of either state. Texas's oil refineries eventually overloaded and exploded, and New York City flooded without the continuous pumping of its subways and sewers.
sewers. [[SeriesContinuityError Too bad both of these examples get contradicted by future installments on some occasions.
* ShootTheDog: Cindy and Stan [[spoiler:kill a group of kindergarteners whose guardian they had accidentally killed]] in order to keep traveling with minimalimpediment.
**impediment. While still bad, it's not quite as bad as it sounds. With resources stretched thin, the guardian in question had been teaching the children to live off whatever they could find. [[spoiler:Specifically, [[ImAHumanitarian other survivors]]. Given the choice between having to stretch their own thin supplies to account for a dozen cannibalistic five-year-olds or shooting a bunch of children, Cindy went for option B.]]
* ShootTheDog: Cindy and Stan [[spoiler:kill a group of kindergarteners whose guardian they had accidentally killed]] in order to keep traveling with minimal
**
Added DiffLines:
** In ''Yellow Belly'', the three towns listed on the circus billboard from the opening are [[Music/EmersonLakeAndPalmer Emerson, Lakeside and Palmer]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
* NoBikesInTheApocalypse: Averted. In the ''Homo Superior'' arc of ''Badlands'', Steve and Greg manage to survive out in the Florida sticks using bicycles to get around. They ditch them after reaching the Everglades.
Changed line(s) 17 (click to see context) from:
* NoNameGiven: Quite a few characters are never named in the story, including some that have relevent roles in the plot.
to:
* NoNameGiven: Quite a few characters are never named in the story, including some that have relevent relevant roles in the plot.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
** From the same comic, in the flashback [[spoiler:Shaky ties the Gamekeeper to a tree and sets up a phone ringtone to go off once per hour, counting on the Crossed being drawn in sooner or later. As it turns out, not only did the battery die after a day (as Shaky himself predicted), but nobody came to the phone ringing sounds, allowing the Gamekeeper to stay alive long enough for Ashoke to free him from his bounds]].
Added DiffLines:
** As Dylan from ''Lesser of Two Evils'' finds out the hard way, shooting yourself in the head does not mean you will die immediately, and as such gets further screwed over by the Crossed who happened to hear the gunshot.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 98 (click to see context) from:
* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: Oliver, Amanda, Clooney and arguably Shaky all adapt many villainous traits as their stories progress.
to:
* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: Oliver, Amanda, Clooney and arguably Shaky all adapt adopt many villainous traits as their stories progress.progress.
* PsychosexualHorror: Sexual violence is a ''very'' prominent theme in the series and it's not just limited to the Crossed themselves...
* PsychosexualHorror: Sexual violence is a ''very'' prominent theme in the series and it's not just limited to the Crossed themselves...
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 12 (click to see context) from:
* NiceGuy: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] with Aoileann. The series looks at the traits that might make a person genuinely nice if they were deeply internalized (self denial, a desire to form connections with others, etc.), gives them to a random person, [[spoiler:and then infects her with the HatePlague that created the Crossed]]. Since those traits are such a strong part of her personality, [[spoiler:they remain with her after she becomes a monster, only the ends they're directed to become warped and horrifying]].
to:
* NiceGuy: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] with Aoileann. The series looks at the traits that might make a person genuinely nice if they were deeply internalized (self denial, a desire to form connections with others, etc.), gives them to a random person, [[spoiler:and then infects her with the HatePlague that created the Crossed]]. Since those traits are such a strong part of her personality, [[spoiler:they remain with her after she becomes a monster, only the ends they're directed to become warped and horrifying]].horrifying. While she does not kill anyone herself, she nonetheless has her Crossed kill or infect quite a lot of innocent people, including almost everyone from the Driftfleet, Dolores and Tabitha]].
Changed line(s) 18 (click to see context) from:
* NothingIsScarier: Discussed in "Wish You Were Here", with a mixture of {{Foreshadowing}} considering the true BigBad turning out to be an intelligent Crossed.
to:
* NothingIsScarier: Discussed in "Wish You Were Here", with a mixture of {{Foreshadowing}} considering the true BigBad turning turns out to be an intelligent Crossed.
Added DiffLines:
** There are several people named Mark: Anya's brother from the first ''Badlands'' arc, a survivor from ''Family Values'' and a cheesemaker from ''Wish You Were Here''.
Added DiffLines:
** Jock is the same name of one of Harry's companions from ''The Fatal Englishman'' and ''Thin Red Line'' and one of Ricky's bikers from ''Yellow Belly''.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 113 (click to see context) from:
** The Cavaites include a former comic book writer, a University lecturer, a crusty fisherman (and part-time gun runner according to the first annual) an Australian parasailing tour guide and his wife and son, a London petty criminal and his daughter, a ColdSniper with several facial piercings who'd formerly been a caregiver, a deaf Spanish prostitute, a pair of old ladies from the countryside, a gay {{Goth}}, a paratrooper, a hippie art teacher, an aging former salesman [[spoiler: who’d been in prison for murdering his wife and her lover]], an American tourist, a Pakistani family and eventually the survivors of Jasper's group.
to:
** The Cavaites include a former comic book writer, a University lecturer, a crusty fisherman (and part-time gun runner according to the first annual) an Australian parasailing tour guide and his wife and son, a London petty criminal and his daughter, a ColdSniper with several facial piercings who'd formerly been a caregiver, a deaf Spanish prostitute, a pair of old ladies from the countryside, a gay {{Goth}}, a paratrooper, a hippie art teacher, an aging former salesman [[spoiler: who’d been in prison for murdering his wife and her lover]], an American tourist, a Pakistani family and eventually the survivors of Jasper's group. In addition, a former special agent visits the island while supply trading several times.
** Aoileann's horde consists of an Irish nun (Aoileann herself), a large army of blue-beret soldiers, a church vicar, [[spoiler:the above-mentioned Ashoke]], [[spoiler:the human Gamekeeper who is held captive]] and many other Crossed with no clear background.
Changed line(s) 116 (click to see context) from:
** The group in ''Homo Tortor'' is led by a college anthropology student and includes two soldiers, a competitive archer and a CrazySurvivalist.
to:
** The group in ''Homo Tortor'' is led by a college anthropology student and includes two soldiers, Canadians (one of which is implied to having been a soldier), a competitive archer and a CrazySurvivalist.
Changed line(s) 193 (click to see context) from:
* SnowMeansDeath: Most of the first ''Badlands'' arc, ''Of the World in Its Becoming'', takes place during winter in the highlands, and [[spoiler:Ian's entire group eventually ends up dead or infected]].
to:
* SnowMeansDeath: Most SnowMeansDeath:
** Two-thirds of the first ''Badlands'' arc, ''Of the World in Its Becoming'',takes take place during winter in the highlands, and this is where [[spoiler:Ian's entire group eventually ends up dead or infected]].infected]].
** The second volume of ''Wish You Were Here'' has the sortie group make their way through a snowy area. In addition, [[spoiler:Barry]] from Jasper's group gets killed in the winter forest.
** Two-thirds of the first ''Badlands'' arc, ''Of the World in Its Becoming'',
** The second volume of ''Wish You Were Here'' has the sortie group make their way through a snowy area. In addition, [[spoiler:Barry]] from Jasper's group gets killed in the winter forest.
Changed line(s) 229 (click to see context) from:
** In the last issue of the same arc, Ian gets to [[spoiler:Harry's rifle]] and begins to pick off the Crossed from a distance. In spite of firing single shots, he still empties the clip too early because he forgot how many shots had [[spoiler:Harry fired before the Crossed got him]].
to:
** In the last issue of the same arc, Ian gets to [[spoiler:Harry's rifle]] and begins to pick off the Crossed from a distance. In spite of firing single shots, he still empties the clip too early before he realizes it because he forgot how many shots had [[spoiler:Harry fired before the Crossed got him]].
Changed line(s) 236 (click to see context) from:
** ''Homo Tortor'' has Washington try to open up a fusebox while trapped near the professor Nelson's bunker door. With the full expectation of having to use the electrician skills he does not have much, Washington opens the electrical box... and finds three simple tumblers inside which he has no problem flipping back on.
to:
** ''Homo Tortor'' has Washington try to open up a fusebox while trapped near at the professor Nelson's bunker door. doorstep. With the full expectation of having to use the put little of electrician skills he does not have much, actually has to use, Washington opens the electrical box... and finds three simple tumblers inside which he has no problem flipping back on.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
With how close the Crossed were, I doubt Cody would be able to both open the door and take the Crossed out in time.
Changed line(s) 154 (click to see context) from:
** Earlier in that issue, Red Mitchell shows some of this in his even briefer page time, showing up outside the bunker with Crossed right behind him and demanding to be let in, yelling that he paid for several floors (although to be fair it was a pretty desperate situation for him and looked like only a couple Crossed, who Cody might have been able to save him from if he'd tried). Lloyd points out that Red did in fact pay for the place but Cody says that doesn’t count next to practical concerns.
to:
** Earlier in that issue, Red Mitchell shows some of this in his even briefer page time, showing up outside the bunker with Crossed right behind him and demanding to be let in, yelling that he paid for several floors (although to be fair it was a pretty desperate situation for him and looked like only a couple Crossed, who Cody might have been able to save him from if he'd tried).him). Lloyd points out that Red did in fact pay for the place but Cody says that doesn’t count next to practical concerns.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
** In ''Wish You Were Here'', Shakey uses the evidence at a destroyed military base to [[SherlockScan create a fairly sophisticated theory explaining Selene's fate and why the place exploded]]. Significantly later, we learn that almost everything he concluded was wrong, with the sole exceptions being that one of the soldiers was stabbed during sex and the doors were blown up from the inside by a grenade. As it turns out, trying to reach complicated conclusions off very nonspecific evidence tends to yield none-too-great results, especially when, like Shakey, your background has nothing to do with actual investigative work. Indeed, the potential problem with Shakey's theory is implied from the word go, when it's pointed out that the soldiers being rapists sounds oddly similar to a movie plot.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 6 (click to see context) from:
[[folder:N-S]]
to:
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* SurprisinglyHappyEnding: There's enough entries on DownerEnding to have its own page, so any happy ending is this by default. Still, the ending to ''Dead or Alive'' stands out: [[spoiler:the VillainProtagonist has his misanthropic philosophy [[ShutUpHannibal thoroughly refuted]] and he meets a KarmicDeath, while the more goodnatured survivors he spent the whole story insulting escape and live on.]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* SociopathicHero: Richie in ''Dead or Alive'' is a deconstruction of the archetype. He fits every single one of the symptoms of TheSociopath, but instead of making him into [[TheUnfettered a deadly survivalist unbound by conscience]], he just ends up coming off as a selfish, short-sighted asshole. He spends most of his internal narration silently judging his fellow survivors for being weak, annoying, and wimpy, and thinks they'd gladly abandon him at a moment's notice, which results in him having no real friends among them. His own plan ends up being a spur-of-the-moment mess (amounting to "hit the guy next to me while we're on guard together during an attack, and then run in the opposite direction"), and [[spoiler:it ends in his fellow survivors leaving him to the Crossed for his failed betrayal, all while he [[MoralMyopia whines about them being horrible people for betraying him]]]]. For all his alpha-male bravado, he turns out to be little more than TheMillstone, while the genuine fellowship of his companions stays strong--[[spoiler:their last words to him say it all]].
-->[[spoiler:"Who do we think we are, Richie? Honestly, I have no idea. These days, I don't think anyone does. But I know we're not you."]]
-->[[spoiler:"Who do we think we are, Richie? Honestly, I have no idea. These days, I don't think anyone does. But I know we're not you."]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
** ''Conquers All'', set in Los Angeles during the first few days of the apocalypse, portrays the LAPD riot police attempting to disperse the Crossed with tear gas and truncheons. It goes as well as you would expect.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 71 (click to see context) from:
** In ''Yellow Belly'' Bobby [=McCann's=] father is a sheriff who upon hearing Edmund's story finds it outrageous, yet still decides to check out the overrun circus. [[UncertainDoom He is never heard from again]]/
to:
** In ''Yellow Belly'' Bobby [=McCann's=] father is a sheriff who upon hearing Edmund's story finds it outrageous, yet still decides to check out the overrun circus. [[UncertainDoom He is never heard from again]]/again]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 18 (click to see context) from:
* NothingIsScarier: Discussed in "Wish You Were Here."
to:
* NothingIsScarier: Discussed in "Wish You Were Here."Here", with a mixture of {{Foreshadowing}} considering the true BigBad turning out to be an intelligent Crossed.
--> '''Shaky''': This world, diary... In this world ''unknowns'' are evil. Unknowns are anxiety and horror and terror. [...] The Crossed are predictable. That's the only weapon we've got. They ''are'' predictable. They ''must'' be. We're all fucked, if ''not''.
--> '''Shaky''': This world, diary... In this world ''unknowns'' are evil. Unknowns are anxiety and horror and terror. [...] The Crossed are predictable. That's the only weapon we've got. They ''are'' predictable. They ''must'' be. We're all fucked, if ''not''.
Changed line(s) 56,58 (click to see context) from:
* PatientZero: This is explored in the Badlands arc, ''Thin Red Line''. In it, it is revealed that the infection started in the summer of 2008 and [[spoiler: that there is no single "Patient Zero", but individuals in every country on Earth that mysteriously became infected after seeing visions of the worst atrocities in human history. So far there have been several Patient Zeroes explicitly or implicitly identified including a Russian soldier, a French villager, and a mysterious man in the UK who seems to be immune to the effects of the virus through sheer willpower.]]
* PayEvilUntoEvil: Whatever Clooney has planned for depraved writer Gideon Welles and whoever is part of the Edgar Allan Poe-inspired orgy, including his own [[SleepsWithEveryoneButYou girlfriend]]. (After going with [[TakeAThirdOption the one option that not even Gideon thought of]]) in ''The Golden Road'', it isn't gonna be pretty.
** Case you're curious, [[spoiler: He plans to ''unleash the Crossed'' on them all!]]
* PayEvilUntoEvil: Whatever Clooney has planned for depraved writer Gideon Welles and whoever is part of the Edgar Allan Poe-inspired orgy, including his own [[SleepsWithEveryoneButYou girlfriend]]. (After going with [[TakeAThirdOption the one option that not even Gideon thought of]]) in ''The Golden Road'', it isn't gonna be pretty.
** Case you're curious, [[spoiler: He plans to ''unleash the Crossed'' on them all!]]
to:
* PatientZero: This is explored in the Badlands arc, ''Thin Red Line''. In it, it is revealed that the infection started in the summer of 2008 and [[spoiler: that there is no single "Patient Zero", but individuals in every country on Earth that mysteriously became infected after seeing visions of the worst atrocities in human history. So far there have been several Patient Zeroes explicitly or implicitly identified including a Russian soldier, a French villager, and a mysterious man in the UK who seems to be immune to the effects of the virus through sheer willpower.]]
willpower]].
* PayEvilUntoEvil: Whatever Clooney has planned for depraved writer Gideon Welles and whoever is part of the Edgar Allan Poe-inspired orgy, including his own [[SleepsWithEveryoneButYou girlfriend]]. (After going with [[TakeAThirdOption the one option that not even Gideon thought of]]) in ''The GoldenRoad'', it isn't gonna be pretty.
** Case you're curious, [[spoiler: He plansRoad''. [[spoiler:Even though his plan to ''unleash assasinate Gideon fails, his efforts still lead to Samarkand being taken over by the Crossed'' on them all!]]Crossed army and Welles receiving a gruesome comeuppance]].
* PayEvilUntoEvil: Whatever Clooney has planned for depraved writer Gideon Welles and whoever is part of the Edgar Allan Poe-inspired orgy, including his own [[SleepsWithEveryoneButYou girlfriend]]. (After going with [[TakeAThirdOption the one option that not even Gideon thought of]]) in ''The Golden
** Case you're curious, [[spoiler: He plans
** In ''Yellow Belly'' Bobby [=McCann's=] father is a sheriff who upon hearing Edmund's story finds it outrageous, yet still decides to check out the overrun circus. [[UncertainDoom He is never heard from again]]/
Changed line(s) 74 (click to see context) from:
** In the annual ''Lockdown'', the prison guards seem somewhat competent, both before and after the outbreak starts, but none of them last very long.
to:
** In the annual ''Lockdown'', the prison guards seem somewhat competent, both before and after the outbreak starts, but none of them last very long. long, with the last surviving guard releasing the inmates before getting killed.
Changed line(s) 83 (click to see context) from:
** [[spoiler:Jamie, a gay character from ''Wish You Were Here'', manages to survive the entire comic.]]
to:
** [[spoiler:Jamie, a gay character from ''Wish You Were Here'', manages to survive through the entire comic.]]
Changed line(s) 91 (click to see context) from:
* PrisonRape: Callahan in ''Lockdown'', apparently engages in this, although the level of consent is debatable. Martin invokes an unusual version of this in the Gavin Land arc. He isn’t a prisoner but (apparently through bribed guards) is sent into prison to rape Land.
to:
* PrisonRape: PrisonRape:
** Callahan in ''Lockdown'', apparently engages in this, although the level of consent isdebatable. debatable.
** Martin invokes an unusual version of this in the Gavin Land arc. He isn’t a prisoner but (apparently through bribed guards) is sent into prison to rape Land.
** Callahan in ''Lockdown'', apparently engages in this, although the level of consent is
** Martin invokes an unusual version of this in the Gavin Land arc. He isn’t a prisoner but (apparently through bribed guards) is sent into prison to rape Land.
Changed line(s) 97,98 (click to see context) from:
** Oliver, in the eponymous ''Quisling''.
** Cody in the final arc of Badlands fills a similar role.
** Cody in the final arc of Badlands fills a similar role.
to:
** Oliver, in the eponymous ''Quisling''.
''Quisling'', becomes a human slave for Smokey after [[spoiler:he is captured and gets forced to wipe out his own group]].
** Cody in the final arc of Badlands fills a similar role.
** Cody in the final arc of Badlands fills a similar role.
Changed line(s) 121 (click to see context) from:
** LadyOfWar Dora in ''Wish You Were Here'' is strict, but fair.
to:
** LadyOfWar Dora in ''Wish You Were Here'' is strict, strict but fair.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* StiffUpperLip: Harry from ''The Fatal Englishman'' and ''The Thin Red Line'' maintains this attitude to an almost absurd degree. Absolutely nothing fazes him; not the Crossed, not civilisation falling to pieces before him, not the end of the world as he knows it. The only time we ever see him lose it is [[spoiler:his reaction to his family's deaths at the hands of the Crossed.]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
** The cover of one issue shows a few scientists in an underground lab vivisecting Crossed prisoners and studying their brain patterns, but this is not shown in the issue itself.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Renamed, cutting ZCEs, low-context potholes and non-examples.
Deleted line(s) 27 (click to see context) :
* OneMillionBC: The setting for Creator/KieronGillen's ''Homo Tortor'' arc is 75,000 years ago.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 196 (click to see context) from:
** Harold Lorre claims to know of a convoy of these but it’s quickly revealed to the readers that he’s lying to make sure the people who found him, injured and alone, will take him with them.
to:
** Harold Lorre claims to know of a convoy of these doctors working on a cure as they travel cross country but it’s quickly revealed to the readers that he’s lying to make sure the people who found him, injured and alone, will take him with them.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 41,42 (click to see context) from:
** The protagonist of "Wish You Were Here" is named Shaky, short for Shakespeare, which he was mockingly called by another survivor after telling him his occupation as a writer. He's never revealed his actual name, and none of the
other characters have called him anything else. (Unless you count "cunt" as a name.)
other characters have called him anything else. (Unless you count "cunt" as a name.)
to:
** The protagonist of "Wish You Were Here" is named Shaky, short for Shakespeare, which he was mockingly called by another survivor after telling him his occupation as a writer. He's never revealed his actual name, and none of the
the other characters have called him anything else. (Unless you count "cunt" as a name.)
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
[[WMG:[[center:[-''ComicBook/{{Crossed}}'' '''Trope Examples'''\\
[[Crossed/TropesAToD A - D]] | [[Crossed/TropesEToM E - M]] | '''N - S''' | [[Crossed/TropesTToZ T - Z]]-]]]]]
----
[[Crossed/TropesAToD A - D]] | [[Crossed/TropesEToM E - M]] | '''N - S''' | [[Crossed/TropesTToZ T - Z]]-]]]]]
----
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:N-S]]
* {{Namedar}}: Given just how fast the infection seems to have spread, it seems a little odd that every group of survivors refer to the Crossed by the same name. Averted in "Wish You Were Here" since the survivors refer to them as "plus-faces" instead.
* NeckSnap:
** In ''Homo Tortor'', after [[spoiler:Lewis is blown off his feet by the explosion and gets impaled on a tree branch]], Warren has Ronnie snap his neck to fool the Crossed into thinking [[spoiler:Lewis tried to open the hatch by himself and died as result. The plan still fails.]]
** Smokey from ''Quisling'' has a habit of killing his most impulsive mooks this way, usually by twisting their heads 180 degrees. [[spoiler:Oliver himself eventually meets such fate after infecting himself on purpose]].
** In the final ''Badlands'' issue, Smokey also kills [[spoiler:the sailor that had been helping him and the twins homestead ''for years'' by breaking his neck, though the sad look on Smokey's face shows that even ''he'' didn't have fun doing so.]]
* NiceGuy: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] with Aoileann. The series looks at the traits that might make a person genuinely nice if they were deeply internalized (self denial, a desire to form connections with others, etc.), gives them to a random person, [[spoiler:and then infects her with the HatePlague that created the Crossed]]. Since those traits are such a strong part of her personality, [[spoiler:they remain with her after she becomes a monster, only the ends they're directed to become warped and horrifying]].
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: One of the characters, convinced that salt will kill the Crossed, attempts to stand against them by putting a ring of salt around himself and his family when his wife twists her ankle running from a pack of Crossed. It ''really'' doesn't go well.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Smokey inflicts such depravities on Oliver and Cody that they turn on him and ruin his plans even though it costs them their own lives. Before him, Horsecock goes after people tough enough to kill him and his group when they'd just wanted to avoid him.
** Of course, it's Horsecock's unusually . . . ''ambitious'' approach to depravity and evil that makes him and his group such a threat to begin with. The type of leader who wouldn't have bothered stalking Cindy's group beyond their initial encounter very likely wouldn't have even encountered them to begin with; the survivors would almost certainly have succeeded in circling around them without alerting the Crossed to their presence.
* NoHealthcareInTheApocalypse: The final ''Badlands'' arc starts by featuring rich doomsday preppers and their architect, who initially avoid the {{Technically Living Zombie}}s by hiding in a survival bunker. One of their early casualties dies after his appendix bursts and the only doctor available to remove it is a dermatologist.
* NoNameGiven: Quite a few characters are never named in the story, including some that have relevent roles in the plot.
* NothingIsScarier: Discussed in "Wish You Were Here."
* NotInFrontOfTheKid: In the first arc, Cindy calmly reminds her companions not to swear in front of Patrick.
* NoZombieCannibals: Averted, the Crossed will turn on each other if there are no regular people available. They just prefer humans due to the fact the Crossed are both sadist and masochist, which means torturing, raping and killing a fellow Crossed is far less satisfying. The fact they do attack each other when there's nothing else available is the reason many in the comics express optimism the Crossed will eventually die off. By the time ''+100'' rolls around, it turns out this is exactly what transpired, albeit some Crossed managed to survive and adapt just as good as the healthy humans did.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:O]]
* ObfuscatingStupidity: [[spoiler:Smokey's child "Cunt", who was thought to be capable of only saying his own name but turned out to be much more smarter than thought, all thanks to his mother and aunt, who had been secretly home-schooling him. He and the twins waited a long time to off Smokey.]]
* OffhandBackhand: In "Family Values" Kate ends up delivering a baby in the middle of a Crossed attack, with Hannah helping. When Jethro tries to get Hannah to leave before it's finished, she elbows him in the face, all without losing her excited expression and still talking to Kate.
* OffingTheOffspring: The First Child is murdered by his parents just when he thinks he's become a man, said parents call raising him "a practical joke 14 years in the making". When we next see him, his eyes have been gouged out and a fire lit in his guts.
* OneMillionBC: The setting for Creator/KieronGillen's ''Homo Tortor'' arc is 75,000 years ago.
* OneSteveLimit: Averted, several names are reused throughout the series.
** There is Cody the friend of Emiko from ''Gore Angels'' and Cody the apocalypse bunker salesman from Badlands' final arc.
** Harry is the name of both the soldier and Prime Minister's body guard from ''The Fatal Englishman'' and ''The Thin Red Line'', and the ginger possible royal from Badlands' first arc.
** There are also three characters named Tabitha (Clooney's cheating girlfriend in ''Golden Road'', Shaky's lover in ''Wish You Were Here'' and the old woman in Richie's group in ''Dead or Alive'').
** Finally there is Richie the informal leader of the group in ''Lesser of Two Evils'' and Richie the [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] protagonist of ''Dead or Alive.'' The third Richie, a Kenyan student and a member of Jasper's group, appears in ''Wish You Were Here''.
** ''Wish You Were Here'' also averted this with presence of two men originally named John, the Cavaites solved the problem by nicknaming one of them Jon (the paratrooper) and the second one Don (a former college lecturer turned one of Cava's co-leaders).
** Patrick is the name of both Cindy's son from Volume One and also Butch's boyfriend from ''Anti-Crossed''.
** There are also two characters named Thomas: a member of Cindy's group from Volume One and the real name of Fleshcook from ''Mimic''. There is also Officer Thomas, who briefly meets Cindy's group in Volume One.
** There are also two guys with the name of Ricky: the paramedic from Ian's group in the first ''Badlands'' arc and the biker gang leader from ''Yellow Belly''.
** Lance is the name of both Skip's son from ''Wish You Were Here'' and one of the rapists that had been holding Leigha captive in ''Anti-Crossed''.
** There are at least ''five'' guys named Frank: the boat fisherman and Amanda's incestuous father from ''Grave New World'', the hippie from ''American Quitters'', a father (Frank) and a son (Frankie) whom Amanda briefly travels with (and then murders) at the start of ''The Livers'', and finally Frank Giacoma from ''+100''.
* OnlyInItForTheMoney: Openly stated by Martin, one of Wentz's PsychoForHire's, who only protects Wentz and the rest of his entourage because he's getting paid, and starts raping Shirley as soon as he's left alone with her, after Wentz had [[TheWomenAreSafeWithUs apparently asked him to protect her]].
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname:
** The protagonist of "Wish You Were Here" is named Shaky, short for Shakespeare, which he was mockingly called by another survivor after telling him his occupation as a writer. He's never revealed his actual name, and none of the
other characters have called him anything else. (Unless you count "cunt" as a name.)
** Similarly, most smart Crossed go by their nicknames, examples include Horsecock, Face, Stump, Smokey, Captain Cuntbeard, Nose and also Salt's descendants.
* OrderliesAreCreeps:
** Averted with Dr. Tang's orderly Joe, who helped her and her nurses evacuate the sick kids out of the city, and later goes back with her to salvage meds from their old hospital.
** Apparently played straight with the rest of the staff at Aoileanns nursing home, who seemingly abandoned the patients.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:P]]
* PaintingTheMedium: All Crossed talk in a red, jagged font. One poor bastard gets the font before developing the rash.
* PapaWolf:
** Skip is an easygoing version of this in ''Wish You Were Here''.
** Mr. Masoud is also pretty protective of his children.
** In ''+100'' Frank Giacoma desires to lash out at the Crossed after the death of his daughter Hope.
** Edmund's father hides his sons in barrels and then rushes to take care of a Crossed that spotted them. Especially notable since he is mentioned to never have stood up against anyone, including his own wife.
** Sweeny's father might be an abusive drunkard, but the second a Crossed barges into their house, he exchanges a worried look with Sweeney and tells him to run, right as he is killed in front of his own son. Said son proceeds to blast the Crossed with a shotgun and decides to join his classmates in their RoaringRampageOfRevenge.
* ParentalIncest: Joseph Pratt is not above raping his own daughters.
* PatientZero: This is explored in the Badlands arc, ''Thin Red Line''. In it, it is revealed that the infection started in the summer of 2008 and [[spoiler: that there is no single "Patient Zero", but individuals in every country on Earth that mysteriously became infected after seeing visions of the worst atrocities in human history. So far there have been several Patient Zeroes explicitly or implicitly identified including a Russian soldier, a French villager, and a mysterious man in the UK who seems to be immune to the effects of the virus through sheer willpower.]]
* PayEvilUntoEvil: Whatever Clooney has planned for depraved writer Gideon Welles and whoever is part of the Edgar Allan Poe-inspired orgy, including his own [[SleepsWithEveryoneButYou girlfriend]]. (After going with [[TakeAThirdOption the one option that not even Gideon thought of]]) in ''The Golden Road'', it isn't gonna be pretty.
** Case you're curious, [[spoiler: He plans to ''unleash the Crossed'' on them all!]]
* PetTheDog:
** Clint does this literally, caring deeply for his militia's pack of guard dogs, especially their Alpha, who is named after his wife.
** Shaky covering Lance’s eyes and ears so he won't hear or see what [[spoiler: his infected mother]] is doing and saying.
** Bobby Lee bringing Tanya and Anna to the bunker with him might be this.
** The closest Harold Lorre comes to this is sincerely apologizing to Claire and admitting she doesn’t deserve the CruelAndUnusualDeath he’s about to inflict on her.
** [[spoiler:As bad as shooting Greg in the knee was, Steve did stitch his wound and give him a loaded pistol before leaving him behind afterwards.]]
* PistolWhipping: [[spoiler: Harold breaks Rick's jaw with the butt of his pistol before killing him.]]
* PlayingBothSides: [[spoiler: Morgan and Olivia]]. Although their conversation with [[spoiler: Tyree]] leaves it vague if they wanted to kill everyone or just weed out the poorer survivors.
* PoliceAreUseless: ZigZagged but often played straight.
** Alan, Joe, and Hunt [=MacAvoy=] are all cops who prove to be competent survivors and assets to their groups, but are the exception, and not the rule.
** The first arc shows that several cops (like Officer Thomas) tried to capture and interrogate Crossed about the infection, but only ended up turning as soon as any blood or spit got on their skin.
** In the first Badlands arc, Ian recalls a constable in a group he briefly stayed with wanted to hunker down and wait for TheCavalry, even though said cavalry weren't coming, and also got into a shouting match with a couple other survivors that they wouldn't stop even after being reminded that the noise risked drawing in the Crossed. [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse We never find out what happened to them]].
** In ''The Golden Road'' Lorna largely averts this, she’s pretty competent, ties to rescue her family members and briefly advises Clooney and Nathan to fall back to Samarkand and try to organize a defense, while planning to head out there.
** The first issue of ''Quisling'' also shows another small town cop (or maybe just a security guard) who lasted several months with a group, although Smokey finds them in a U-Haul and brutally kill the guy before he can get a shot off as Oliver watches grimly from a nearby building.
** In ''The Thin Red Line'' a few cops are among the crisis personal brought to Gordon Brown’s bunker and while they don't do that much, they are successfully able to barricade Patient Zero and a few infected soldiers inside a room [[spoiler: although not before they yank Alistair inside]].
** In the annual ''Lockdown'', the prison guards seem somewhat competent, both before and after the outbreak starts, but none of them last very long.
** Pre-apocalypse this is played straight with the LAPD, who tell Land they know Curtis Wentz is a pornographer and heroin trafficker but can’t prove it (not even after Wentz sends Land letters gloating in prison), and Land himself doesn’t inspire confidence by going CowboyCop and managing to kill nearly everyone in the room ''except'' Wentz and his henchmen.
** The Coast Guard also play this straight. Captain Barnes in ''Grave New World'' is a complete SOB with delusions of grandeur and a poor long-term plan, although his rescue of various civilians initially camouflages this. The patrol boat captain from the final Badlands arc has clearly made no efforts to save (or even take aboard) civilians or strike at the Crossed, instead focusing on simply staying at sea to survive until his ship runs out of food (not that this isn’t somewhat understandable given the setting). The fact that he casually offers to be Smokey’s collaborator and shows little concern for his crew beyond noting he needs some of them to keep the ship going cements his useless status. [[spoiler:Naturally, that captain doesn't even make it to the end of the issue he's introduced in]].
* PregnantBadass:
** Steve is an unusually unsympathetic version of this but seeing her struggling to fight and evade the Crossed while in labor is the highlight of ''Homo Superior''.
** Kate is pregnant (or has only just given birth) for all of her page time in ''Family Values'' and is one of the coolest heads and best shots of the survivors in that arc, all the way up until the last few days of her pregnancy.
* PreMortemOneLiner: Mr. Masoud gets a chilling, tragic one right before killing [[spoiler: his infected son]].
--> '''Mr. Masoud''': Your gloves. And the mask. And now everyone please go away.
* PreserveYourGays:
** [[spoiler:Jamie, a gay character from ''Wish You Were Here'', manages to survive the entire comic.]]
** [[spoiler:Butch and Patrick from ''Anti-Crossed'' also make it to the end.]]
* PretendWereDead:
** The group in "Psychopath" disguise themselves as Crossed as part of a plan to make two different groups kill each other. It works, but they always keep their distance. Trying to fool the Crossed at close range is probably a ''really'' bad idea, especially as the Crossed have no aversion to brutally slaughtering each other if no other victims are available.
** This was Father Dennis' plan in ''The Fatal Englishman.'' Harry and his men intervene because they have never seen it work.
** This option is discussed in ''Quisling.'' It apparently can work at short distances (and was used by Oliver's group to escape a bookstore), but you will need to use blood (uninfected blood in particular as infected blood being placed on the skin will cause you to go Crossed) and not linger too long.
** At the end of ''American Quitters'', Frank gives himself cig burns across the face so he can walk up to Zeke the Geek amidst his horde undetected [[spoiler:and stab him to death in Errol's stead. Of course, the rest of the horde turns on him immediately after.]]
** In ''Lesser of Two Evils'', Morgan and Olivia use cosplay makeup to disguise themselves as the Crossed. It's not clear if their approach worked on the Crossed themselves or if they just managed to avoid their attention, but it is sufficient enough to initially fool the survivor group they encounter.
* PrisonRape: Callahan in ''Lockdown'', apparently engages in this, although the level of consent is debatable. Martin invokes an unusual version of this in the Gavin Land arc. He isn’t a prisoner but (apparently through bribed guards) is sent into prison to rape Land.
* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: Oliver, Amanda, Clooney and arguably Shaky all adapt many villainous traits as their stories progress.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Q]]
* TheQuisling:
** Oliver, in the eponymous ''Quisling''.
** Cody in the final arc of Badlands fills a similar role.
** The ship captain is set up to become another one [[spoiler: but then he angers Smokey and gets killed. Smokey makes one of the crew his Quisling instead]].
** In ''Crossed +100'' it is shown that [[spoiler: using non-infected humans as Quislings is SOP for the Salt Clan.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:R]]
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Quite often, although frequently they lose some or all of their members in short order.
** While the group referred to as soldiers in ‘’Crossed 3D’’ are dressed in army fatigues for some reason, they come closer to this. Hunt Macavoy was a SWAT team leader, Matt was a science teacher, Phil was a mentally ill shut-in, Elmer was a prison inmate on C-Day and Preacher (whose real name is Jake) claims he’d never shot a gun before C-Day.
** The first Badlands arc included a group that includes a heavily bandaged ColdSniper in military fatigues who may be a royal, an oil rig employee, a paramedic, a bookstore owner, a pregnant woman and her brother, and three men whose pasts are never mentioned (one of whom serves as TheLoad while the other two are PluckyComicRelief).
** ''Quisling'' features science teacher Oliver, small town cop Alan, hunter Pat, his grandson Tommy, Tina the BrainlessBeauty, DeadpanSnarker Daniel and Eve (whose dressed in a PunkRock manner).
** Jasper's group consists of an army reservist (Jasper himself), Rugby player Miranda, Kenyan exchange student and football/soccer player Richie, cheese maker Mark, aging dental nurse Dolores and Barry TheImmune.
** The Cavaites include a former comic book writer, a University lecturer, a crusty fisherman (and part-time gun runner according to the first annual) an Australian parasailing tour guide and his wife and son, a London petty criminal and his daughter, a ColdSniper with several facial piercings who'd formerly been a caregiver, a deaf Spanish prostitute, a pair of old ladies from the countryside, a gay {{Goth}}, a paratrooper, a hippie art teacher, an aging former salesman [[spoiler: who’d been in prison for murdering his wife and her lover]], an American tourist, a Pakistani family and eventually the survivors of Jasper's group.
** In Shaky's flashbacks, the Gamekeeper's crew consisted of a comic book writer (Shaky), an upper-class couple (the Thakerys), their former employee turned leader (the Gamekeeper himself) and a Pakistani student (Ashoke) among others. Later on, an Irish nun (Aoileann) joins what's left of the group.
** The Five Bloody Fingers, despite their shared background, are pretty different people, including an aspiring manga writer, an Otaku, a Yakuza head's daughter, an escort and an eventual member of said Yakuza.
** The group in ''Homo Tortor'' is led by a college anthropology student and includes two soldiers, a competitive archer and a CrazySurvivalist.
** The main trio from ''American Quitters'' consists of a biker, a hippie and a pregnant Mexican woman.
** The final badlands arc begins with a survival bunker salesman, an ex-military chopper pilot, and various one-percenters (or in some cases friends and relatives) such as a computer tycoon and a dermatologist who marketed skin cream.
** Harold Lorre's group consists of a blue-collar worker he speculates was a carpenter, two medical students, and a park ranger. Downplayed given that Harold (a psychopathic former novelty shop owner) is the one who poses the most danger to the others.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure:
** Rab in ''Wish You Were Here'' is highly intelligent and cares about his people.
** Prime Minister Gordon Brown in ''Thin Red Line'' makes several good judgment calls, though it's hampered by his initial indecisiveness. His aide in the green suit is also fairly level-headed.
** Sutter's second-in-command Joe Collins for his tolerant attitude with Esperanza thinking the camp is TooGoodToBeTrue and also for recognizing the logistics of taking in too many people, but not advocating that they kick anyone out when he brings the matter to Sutter's attention.
** Alan, the leader of Oliver’s group, who listens to others ideas, as shown by how he as willing to try Oliver's PretendWereDead strategy, and keeps a level head.
** LadyOfWar Dora in ''Wish You Were Here'' is strict, but fair.
* RecurringExtra:
** In the first volume, one member of the group of ZombieApocalypse survivors is an unnamed man in a red baseball cap who never gets a name or really interacts with any of the others but still outlives a few named and semi-prominent characters before being killed by a WackyWaysideTribe in the fourth issue, after which he’s never directly mentioned again.
** The first volume of ''Wish You Were Here'' has lots of people in the survivor colony (Viceroy, John, Edith, Christine, Chanice, Maria, Jackie, Boy, Sofia, Jamie, and Tabitha) who spend a lot of time loitering around group meetings, doing chores, joining firing lines against the Crossed and such but take a long time to get proper introductions and (with a [[AscendedExtra couple notable exceptions]]) often suffer a DeathInTheLimelight or remain fairly unimportant even after they do get named and/or directly interact with Shaky.
* RedeemingReplacement: The Sailor from the last four issues is this to Smokey's previous collaborator in the eyes of both Smokey and the audience. Unlike Oliver and Cody, he didn't prostate himself before Smokey and promise to help him willingly, didn't directly sell out any other survivors upon becoming Smokey's {{Quisling}}, never gets forced to rape anyone and helps care for the Crossed children. It's doubtful that some of that meant anything to Smokey, but he probably felt happy having a {{Quisling}} who didn't turn on him in the end, and who he could actually see as a friend, [[spoiler: to the point he gives him a MercyKill]].
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler: Edmund redeemed himself by going back into the bar to save Donna from the infected cops and he did lead her to safety. Donna appeared to be grateful when she had sex with him but she was still furious at Edmund for killing Nicole. At the first opportunity, she brutally beats Edmund to death with a rock, staving his head in as she calls him a "yellow bellied sonofabitch" and a "fucking coward."]]
* ReformedButRejected: [[spoiler: Geoff]] and Edmund try to make up for their despicable acts at the worst timing possible, and it ultimately doesn't work out well.
* {{Retirony}}: One ''+ 100'' side story has some East Coast hunters sent to clean out some tunnels of the last known Crossed enclave in the state. Veteran hunter Bloom comments that the stress of the job has been getting to him and that if he never sees another Crossed face again after this, then he'll be as happy as if he were at a family reunion. A couple of pages later, he's killed in a surprise attack.
* RhetoricalQuestionBlunder: Edmund’s classmate Sweeny is insulted by his dad and asked who pays the bills, to which Sweeny points out the welfare checks from the government do.
* RightWingMilitiaFanatic:
** White supremacist militias show up in ''Homo Superior'' and ''Quisling.'' In the former, a redneck militia is led by Leon's dad [[spoiler: and is destroyed by tainted meth created by [[TheDogBitesBack Leon]].]] In the latter, Oliver spends a few days gaining their trust before leading Smokey's horde to them. In spite of their heinous views, Oliver still feels guilty for handing them over to the Crossed and one of them telling him about more intelligent Crossed [[spoiler: provides the impetus for his realization that Smokey needs to die.]]
** Camp Casper in ''Mimic'' is a futuristic example of this. It is unclear in the story whether they are descended from a remnant of the US military or simply from a band of white supremacist militia cosplaying as one, but given their very regressive and abusive society - where the mostly male "soldiers" are at the top of the hierarchy and the mostly female "civilians" are at the bottom - the latter is likelier.
** The Waco bunker group from Badlands #95 appears to be a subversion. Given their location and the way they're armed and dressed they appear to be one of these but don't seem hostile or unreasonable in their brief page-time and Cody didn't seem to think that there'd be a problem with the African-American Ben seeking refuge from them if he made it there in his chopper.
** Lewis in ''Homo Tortor'' is a rare heroic example of this. Before the outbreak, he lived off the grid stocking up on canned food and firearms out of fear the government would confiscate his guns. He has since mellowed out considerably, pokes fun at attributes of this mindset and acts as an expert on survivalist plans of action for Washington's group [[spoiler: before his death.]]
* RoyalBrat:
** The First Child from ''Homo Tortor'', [[spoiler: assuming he really existed]]. His first onscreen act is to declare he wants to rape a man, and is slapped for ''saying'' he wants to do it instead of doing so. [[spoiler:He's murdered by his own parents at the end, who'd raised him that way specifically to be killed.]]
** Prince Harry (assuming it is actually him) is a subversion, as while capable of being ruthless and unsentimental, he doesn't display any entitlement and carries his own weight.
* RugbyIsSlaughter: We never actually see a game obviously but former rugby player Miranda is escribed as a “tank” and half-seriously considered by Shaky to be capable of ripping a man in half.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:S]]
* SadClown: Possibly Skip, who acts pretty confident and relaxed most of the time, but is shown to have regrets and insecurities as ''Wish You Were Here'' progresses.
* SanityHasAdvantages: Played with to varying levels, but generally in effect. The Crossed aren't mindless zombies, and from an intellectual standpoint can be surprisingly intelligent - enough to catch survivors off guard to their peril. Fundamentally, however, the greatest weakness of the Crossed is their extreme impulsivity, making long-term planning difficult. Most of them don't bother to feed and clothe themselves or seek shelter in winter - quite a few even mutilate themselves for fun. Those don't last long. The Crossed relied on sheer weight of numbers in the early days, but most died off the first winter after C-day...by which point the global population had already fallen from 7 billion humans to 2 million humans and 100 million Crossed. Natural selection (and AIDS) set in after that, and the smarter, more "sane" Crossed survived and are a lot more dangerous while the dumber Crossed have tended to die off over the course of the next century.
* SayYourPrayers: On occasion, although religion is burned out of a lot of people by the nature of the apocalypse. A notable example is that when the Cavaites unsuccessfully try to flee the infected [[spoiler:Drift Fleet]] only to be forced back there by Aoileann’s army to watch them fight, Shaky notes that Edith (or Christine), Seline and Maria all started praying desperately.
* ScaryBlackMan: Smokey, Deacon White (after his infection) and Jokemercy. Wentz's FauxAffablyEvil {{Sadist}} [[TheDragon right-hand man]] Omar is also one both before and after his infection. BloodKnight Des is a (relatively) heroic version.
* ScarilyCompetentTracker: Several of the Crossed show a remarkable ability to track their chosen victims, across miles of land if needed.
** Human examples include The Gamekeeper, Xavi from ''American Quitters'', and David in the Australia annual [[spoiler: who backtracked to Ayers rock with broken legs after being infected]].
* ScienceHero: Dr. Chopra is a [[{{Deconstruction}} failed example]] and too early in the story to be a SoleSurvivingScientist.
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Bobby Lee embodies this in his brief page time, threatening Cody while ranting about how he got the investors for the bunker in the first place.
** Earlier in that issue, Red Mitchell shows some of this in his even briefer page time, showing up outside the bunker with Crossed right behind him and demanding to be let in, yelling that he paid for several floors (although to be fair it was a pretty desperate situation for him and looked like only a couple Crossed, who Cody might have been able to save him from if he'd tried). Lloyd points out that Red did in fact pay for the place but Cody says that doesn’t count next to practical concerns.
** The rest of the bunker people, the Thackerys from ''Wish You Were Here'', and the Stillwells and Peter from ''''Grave New World'' avert this, being aware of their own precarious chances, only making reasonable complaints, and not throwing any weight around.
** Curtis Wentz and Gideon Welles had a lot of this before the apocalypse, but it seems to go away once things turn bad and they go into survival mode (and in Wentz’s case even altruism towards other survivors).
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Among the refugee spokesmen in Murfreesboro is a man who says that his community voted to take the SadisticChoice offered by the Salt Clan, and that he and a few others made a run for it on bicycles while the others were drawing lots to see who got sacrificed.
* SeadogBeard: Rab sports an impressive one.
* SemperFi: Carl, the Marine from ''DOA'' is described by Richie as being a little too hung up on the ideals and mentality of the Marine Corps to be a good survivor (although Richie is an UnreliableExpositor).
* SequelEscalation: Each series in the universe, from the Ennis original to ''Family Values'' to ''Psychopath'', tries its damned hardest to be more shocking, [[{{Gorn}} gorny]] and full of BlackComedy than the one that came before it.
* SerialKiller: [[spoiler:Geoff, in the Jeffrey Dahmer vein. Also Beauregard Salt]].
* SeriesContinuityError:
** The timing for Smokey's two arcs seems pretty tricky, given the long amount of time he spends with both Oliver and Cody and how he seems to catch both of them at the end of the summer of the outbreak (Oliver wanted to get to Wyoming before the cold, hoping it would kill the Crossed, and Cody specifically stated that timeline, plus his group's gasoline hadn't gone bad). Also counts as WritersCannotDoMath.
** Also occurs with regard to London in the beginning of the outbreak. Shaky's flashback scenes from ''Wish You Were Here'' quite clearly show the city falling to the Crossed early on, with London turned into a gigantic slaughterhouse in hours if not ''minutes''. ''The Thin Red Line'', however, indicates London as having been among those areas less hit by the initial outbreak, with Whitehall still being in contact with Gordon Brown's command center, as one of his aides explains to him that the security cordons south of Nottingham seemed to be holding. He also relays to him Whitehall's suggestion that they be relocated to a point south of the Thames "as a precautionary measure."
** ''The Thin Red Line'' establishes that communication with the White House was cut off very early into the outbreak, with both NORAD and the governments of Britain and Russia struggling to reach the US president to discuss the situation with the [[spoiler: Russian nuclear bombers]]. It is then revealed that [[spoiler: George W. Bush is infected or has at least been killed by the Crossed]]. However, ''The Lesser of Two Evils'' has the media reporting on criticism of the White House's response to the outbreak as though the US government is still in functioning order, and Volume 1 has Captain Juneaux's journal note that Air Force One was shot down over Oklahoma with no mention being made of [[spoiler: Bush getting turned or killed.]] Granted, it is possible that the reference to the White House was to the US federal government in general rather than specifically to the location, and that the (short-lived) president by the time Air Force One is shot down is [[spoiler: Dick Cheney, Nancy Pelosi or another relevent member of the line of succession]], but it is not made clear.
*** ''The Thin Red Line'' also establishes that India does not retaliate to Pakistani Crossed nuking New Delhi (something mentioned by a CNN journalist survivor in Volume 1), which contradicts the white supremacist militia in ''Quisling'' claiming Pakistan was wiped out by nuclear war. Admittedly, the apocalyptic nature of the outbreak means some information may have been muddled - it's also possible the militia conflated Pakistan with the Middle East as a whole owing to their racism and referring to Israel nuking its neighbors as established in Volume 1 and shown on one cover of Badlands.
** Both examples of ShownTheirWork from the second issue aren't followed up on. A year into the outbreak it's stated that Texas is largely burned from the refineries and New York City is flooded, but when New York is seen two years after C-Day in ''Crossed 3D'' it shows no signs of this, and at least part of Texas is untouched by flames or smoke at the end of Cody's story, 6-8 months after C-Day in Badlands #96, [[PlayingWith although the following issue shows Smokey walking through a part of the state which does have burning oil fields]].
** ''Yellow Belly'' seemingly takes place in early May, judging by the circus billboard performance dates, even though it had been established later (most notably, in ''Thin Red Line'') that the C-Day occured in summer 2008.
* SexForSolace: [[spoiler: Between Amanda and Rick in "Psychopath" after their lovers are murdered.]]
* SheepInSheepsClothing: The Drift Fleet, whose biggest flaw (albeit a crucial one) is being too inexperienced at fighting Crossed to go against The Nun and her army. The Black Watch soldiers, apparently, [[spoiler: although it's never explained why they didn't send Seline back out with the supplies she'd came for]]. Arguably Wentz (in the present that is, definitely not in the flashbacks), as he really did seem to be just trying to save people rather than taking them out to his island for some dark ulterior motive, given his past as a pornographer, rapist, drug dealer and sex trafficker. Fleshcook appears to be this by the end of ''MIMIC'', but he might also just be a really good manipulator.
* ShelteredAristocrat: The Thackerys are a sympathetic example of this.
* ShootTheMedicFirst: Scott is one of the first members of Cindy’s group to die, while he’s treating Randall who turns out to be infected, although this is less intentional than most examples and has limited repercussions for the group. Harold Lorre kills Darwin, a medical student, first but since Amanda is also a medical student and remains alive this is less noticeable.
* ShownTheirWork: In ''Crossed'' #2, a survivor mentions what's happened to Texas and New York in the months since the Crossed showed up. Both are realistic depictions of what would probably happen following the abandonment of either state. Texas's oil refineries eventually overloaded and exploded, and New York City flooded without the continuous pumping of its subways and sewers.
* ShootTheDog: Cindy and Stan [[spoiler:kill a group of kindergarteners whose guardian they had accidentally killed]] in order to keep traveling with minimal impediment.
** While still bad, it's not quite as bad as it sounds. With resources stretched thin, the guardian in question had been teaching the children to live off whatever they could find. [[spoiler:Specifically, [[ImAHumanitarian other survivors]]. Given the choice between having to stretch their own thin supplies to account for a dozen cannibalistic five-year-olds or shooting a bunch of children, Cindy went for option B.]]
* ShoutOut:
** Morgan and Olivia in "The Lesser of 2 Evils" are carrying around a copy of ''Surviving D-Day," a book by [[Literature/TheZombieSurvivalGuide Brooks]][[Literature/WorldWarZ Maxwell]].
** ''Anti-Crossed'' features an in-universe comic book team-up between Anti-Crossed and a character clearly meant to be [[Franchise/EvilDead Ashley Williams]], complete with a chainsaw hand.
** In ''Wish You Were Here'' after Selene [[spoiler:seemingly dies during the Black Watch fort destruction]], Shaky starts making theories about the reasons of the explosion, and the one that comes up to his mind is how soldiers stationed there were raping Selene, and this situation reminds Shaky of [[Film/TwentyEightDaysLater a certain film]].
** In ''Five Bloody Fingers,'' the scene showing the Crossed doing their thing at the cosplay convention has cosplayers identifiable as [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] and [[Franchise/SpiderMan Spider-Man]] being murdered by the Crossed. One of the Crossed is in cosplay resembling [[Anime/DragonBallZ Goku.]] Other Crossed are cosplaying in outfits similar to Cammy, Judge Dredd, and, of all things, a female Pikachu.
** ''Crossed +100'' has this at least OnceAnEpisode, with each issue being titled after a classic work of "wishful fiction" Future has read. Just to name a few, [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Return of the King]], [[Literature/ACanticleForLeibowitz A Canticle for Leibowitz]], [[Literature/IAmLegend I Am Legend]], [[Literature/LastAndFirstMen Last and First Men]] and [[Creator/IsaacAsimov Foundation and Empire]] are all namedropped.
** In the last ''Badlands'' arc, a person with some medical knowledge trying to perform a surgery on a patient and accidentally killing him is oddly similar to the same scene from ''Literature/TheStand''.
* ShutUpHannibal: In the second webcomic, ''Dead or Alive'', [[spoiler: a badly injured [[SmugSnake Richie]] hurls abuse at each member of his now ex-group as they're walking away from him, leaving him to the Crossed.[[note]]He had tried to abandon them by knocking out Carl and leaving him for the Crossed, leaving them without a rear-guard and hence also likely facing certain death, and he had also been hoarding vital supplies from them.[[/note]] He tries to imply that none of them are any better than him.]] Their answer?
--> '''Tabitha''': Who do we think we are, Richie? Honestly, I have no idea. These days I don't think anyone does. But I do know we're not you.
* SkewedPriorities: After [[spoiler: Prince Harry is captured by the Crossed and they start dismembering him]], Ian's first reaction is simply disappointment that now they'll never know if he was the real Prince Harry or not.
* SlasherSmile: This is the '''only''' expression the Crossed seem to have. Except for [[EliteZombie Super-Crossed]] like Smokey.
* SleptThroughTheApocalypse: Taro spent the first several hours of it on a video game binge and napping it off in an Internet cafe (only bothering to go out when the internet got cut off), making this literal in his case.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: This series makes its home on the cynical end of the scale.
* SmugSnake:
** Don, one of Cava's two "leaders" in WYWH. Though competent in some matters, he is supremely arrogant and is more often than not ignored by the other Cavaites. Shaky refers to him as a "poison dwarf" and "sly, string-pulling, venomous little politico."
** Alistair, Gordon Brown's political advisor in "Thin Red Line." Constantly tries to manipulate his boss for his own ends (with Harry implying that Alistair is trying to ingratiate himself with Tony Blair so that he can join his team instead), is openly contemptuous of him behind his back, looks down on Harry and engineers Gordon Brown's arrival at the government facility where Patient Zero is being kept, [[spoiler: thereby causing John Duff's entire security team to become infected/killed.]]
** Richie, the protagonist in Garth Ennis' ''Crossed DOA'' webcomic is initially introduced as a cynical man who is competent enough to have survived for five years. As the chapters go by, however, he increasingly reveals himself to be this as it is revealed that [[spoiler: he hoarded vital supplies from the other members of his group, was always a sociopath who viewed other people as objects, always intended to abandon his group and leave them to the Crossed the moment they were no longer useful to him, and it is also heavily implied that he has gotten other people killed this way.]]
* SnowMeansDeath: Most of the first ''Badlands'' arc, ''Of the World in Its Becoming'', takes place during winter in the highlands, and [[spoiler:Ian's entire group eventually ends up dead or infected]].
* SoleSurvivingScientist: Generally averted or played with due to the grim and/or deconstruction nature of the series, but not entirely absent.
** Dr. Chopra in ''Thin Red Line'' is arguably the most prominent example, as she and her team arguably learned more about the Crossed virus than anyone else [[spoiler: before they were all infected or killed]].
** Jackson kills a bunker of these in Iceland who'd previously worked on a serum to cause psychosis which he is convinced was used on him in the first Annual. [[spoiler: It wasn't. He was already mad to begin with, but the harmless steam that Magda sprayed on him made him ''think'' he had been turned insane, and his mind did the rest]].
** Jack from ''Shrink'' is an interesting version of this: a psychologist trying to study Crossed and find a cure through their mental workings (interestingly, it wasn't his idea, but that of his brother, who voluntarily infected himself and locked himself upstairs in Jack's house after describing the plan). [[spoiler:After it's revealed Jack had molested his brother during childhood, he willingly gets himself infected.]]
** Oliver (an anthropologist studying Crossed and their behavior and taking notes) and Cody (an architect who built survival bunkers) could have been these if not for their FaceHeelTurn.
** Harold Lorre claims to know of a convoy of these but it’s quickly revealed to the readers that he’s lying to make sure the people who found him, injured and alone, will take him with them.
** Denise Tang from ''Crossed 3D'' checks a lot of this in that she’s a highly qualified researcher who survived with a few assistants and is on a quest to recover some stuff important to her work, needing to be saved by a hunch of ragtag misfits led by a SWAT veteran, but she subverts this given that her field was pediatrics, she’s trying to get medicine that will save the lives of her patients and has no knowledge or affect on the big picture stuff related to the Crossed infection that this trope would imply.
** Professor Nelson looks like an example of this given his research into an ancient Crossed-like virus and how he’s hiding in a bunker after C-Day, with people looking for him and his work, but he didn’t survive uninfected. It’s never revealed if he was actually right with his theory, and even if he was, it had few if any practical applications for people fighting the Crossed (Washington just let the others think that to have protectors in his search for Amy).
** In ''Wish You Were Here'' Shaky lampshades the absence of these after the first few years, noting that when they actually do find someone who might be TheImmune, if there was a movie they’d rush him to some bunker to make a vaccine out of his blood but there’s nowhere left to do that anymore.
* SourOutsideSadInside: Lance can act a bit bratty and self-assured at times, but Shaky suspects that he's putting on a facade, trying to "copy his Dad's cool", noting that Lance cries in his sleep most nights, and he's occasionally caught him sucking his thumb.
* SpitefulSpit: In the first arc, the current group of survivors come across a cop who's been keeping a Crossed locked in the back of his police car. The Crossed manages to anger him to get close enough to spit on him, infecting him.
* SpoiledSweet:
** Hazuki Yamada. Although through her father she has more money than she knows what to do with it, and is constantly spoiled and pampered by her father due to her life-style induced by her father's wealth, she is cheerful, friendly and fervently loyal to her friends (who by and large are considered losers by society at large).
** Unknown to her friend Miku, who goes on "compensated dates" with men and steals their money, Hazuki had her father use his connections with the police to protect Miku from her clients.
** This is taken further because even [[spoiler:becoming Crossed doesn't fully remove her sweetness. When Crossed and having the opportunity to kill her friends who she sees as her real family, she refuses to. She does convince them to give up trying to survive against a giant horde of Crossed and join her as a group of Crossed, then go out having tons of violence and sex though, all while they value their friendship. So even when she's a cannibalistic, sadomasochistic, violent Crossed, she still can value people close to her in a way; which is more than most Crossed can say.]]
** Cody in ''Gore Angels'' is one of the nicest characters in the arc and had enough money to buy three plane tickets to Japan for himself, Ryan and Nathalie.
** Peter from '' Grave New World'' was the son of a construction magnate who take pride in how many of his family's buildings are still standing but carries his weight in the group and shows horror at many of Barnes' darker actions.
** [[ShelteredAristocrat The Thackerys]] come across as adult versions of this, especially early on.
* SpoilerCover: Not often (normally CoversAlwaysLie for this series) but Badlands issue 3 is accurate showing [[spoiler: a surrounded Ian going for a grenade to kill himself]] and and Badlands #93 features Smokey on the front cover even though his appearance near the end is built up as more of a WhamShot and/or a CruelTwistEnding for that issue. The twins are also on that cover, foreshadowing how Smokey will join up with them in that arc even though they aren’t mentioned for another two issues and he doesn’t find them until a couple of issues after that.
* SpoilerTitle: ''Quisling'' given how the first issue builds up like a quest to reach Wyoming using Oliver's PretendWereDead strategy, with hints that Smokey will chase them like Horsecock did Cindy’s group. ''Psychopath'' and ''Breakdown'' to some extent but we get a feel of Harold and later Amanda’s craziness quickly enough anyway. In ''Yellow Belly'' we’re told Edmund’s nickname fairly early but it also foreshadows how he’ll live up to it as time goes by.
* StarCrossedLovers: Shaky and the Nun provide a somewhat disturbing, or at least alarming, example of this, retaining feelings for each other even after her infection.
* StealthExpert: Pat (a lifelong hunter), Tommy and Daniel are this among Oliver's group. He doubts that he would be able to find them after selling out to Smokey, so instead, he makes a lot of noise to get them to find him.
* StepfordSmiler: Joyce Pratt. Generally, her forced smiles become wider the more screwed up the situation around her is. Eventually replaced by a permanent [[SlasherSmile slasher smile]] as a Crossed.
* TheStraightAndArrowPath: Downplayed with Curtis from ''Homo Tortor''. While he prefers to use bow in favor of firearms, he nonetheless has no problem with using guns as well.
* StrangeSyntaxSpeaker: In the future of "Crossed + 100", everyone speaks strangely to the point where even abbreviations and cuss words are a part of normal vocabulary.
* SuicideAttack: [[spoiler:Tom and Jackie do this in ''The Thin Red Line'', when the engine of their Tornado fighter (which is carrying the nuke) dies and they're forced to make a kamikaze attack on the incoming Russian nuclear bombers.]]
* SuppressedRage: A few of those who become Crossed turn out to have been this, with the infection taking away all their inhibitions and allowing them to really say what they feel about the person close to them. Notable examples include Joyce Pratt toward her husband Joseph and Hazuki Yamada toward her father.
* SurprisinglyEliteCannonFodder: Two of Boss Yamada's goons make it pretty far into ''Five Bloody Fingers''.
* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** In the very first ''Badlands'' arc, a band of survivors is trying to stay undetected while a large group of the infected psychopaths are in the area. One survivor asks a soldier in the group if he can just snipe them down from a distance. The soldier informs her that this isn't the movies where magazines are bottomless and shooters are uncannily accurate. He only has half a magazine left in his rifle, and even if every shot was a hit and every hit was a kill, he can't take them all out.
** In the last issue of the same arc, Ian gets to [[spoiler:Harry's rifle]] and begins to pick off the Crossed from a distance. In spite of firing single shots, he still empties the clip too early because he forgot how many shots had [[spoiler:Harry fired before the Crossed got him]].
** In the first volume [[spoiler: Geoff reveals that he used to be a serial killer that murdered and dismembered other young men until one of his victims, a Crossed individual, tried to rudely goad him to ravish him, something that [[HorrifyingTheHorror scared even Geoff himself]]. When he's done telling the story, ''every single member'' of the group turns away from him, and the next morning Kitrick takes him out for a walk in the woods and comes back by himself, having either killed Geoff or left him to his fate.]]
** While Crossed did start as intimidating force for survivors to deal with, their lack of self-preservation (with only a few of them being smart enough to plan things forward) became the main reason most of them have died out by the year 2108. This actually works in two ways, since there was a man named Beau Salt who had the foresight to realize how self-destructive the Crossed nature was and managed to preserve a tribe he led, making intelligent Crossed more dangerous than usual ones.
** From ''Wish You Were Here'', the Gamekeeper's group comes across an abandoned police van, and the majority of the crew decides to highjack it and leave the city faster. They ignore the Gamekeeper's warning that the Crossed will eventually catch them due to being "predictable" and drive away. Soon after that those who refused find the van crashed with everyone inside having suffered a gruesome death. The Gamekeeper only tells "tolja" when observing the carnage, and it is hard to argue with him in this situation.
** At the end of the second volume of ''Wish You Were Here'' we have [[spoiler:Jasper accidentally incapaciating himself courtesy of a gun exploding in his hands (and horribly maiming them). Given that his weapon is an ''antique rifle'', it is naturally more fragile than any modern firearm]].
** At the end of ''Quisling'' [[spoiler:Smokey finally gets Oliver after the latter tries to destroy as many military files as he can. After [[NoSell shrugging off]] the shot to the shoulder from the Glock, he promptly knocks it out of Oliver's hands. Because the recently discharged (and still smoking) pistol falls into a pool of oil that Oliver himself spilled earlier, it explodes and causes the whole room to catch on fire, stunning Smokey briefly and allowing Oliver to break free temporarily.]]
** ''Homo Tortor'' has Washington try to open up a fusebox while trapped near the professor Nelson's bunker door. With the full expectation of having to use the electrician skills he does not have much, Washington opens the electrical box... and finds three simple tumblers inside which he has no problem flipping back on.
** The same issue has Curtis try and shoot down the Crossed with a bow. While the Crossed no-selling the shot in the eye is fantastical, Curtis himself finds out the hard way that firing a modern bow is also very difficult. It is just awfully easy to fire too early and miss entirely which is exactly what happens shortly thereafter.
** Crossed +100 points out that the Crossed's habit of raping each other's families leads to inbred children, who die faster. And the most dangerous threat to their continued existence is AIDS, a common problem with inbreeding families in real life.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Luke from ''DOA'' feels eerily similar to Kitrick. They're both DarkAndTroubledPast black men who show little emotion after the trauma they've experienced, and even have that aspect of their personalities introduced with almost the exact same phrase (that what happened to him was worse than anything the narrator of the arc had heard of). The biggest difference between them is that [[spoiler: Luke lives and Kitrick doesn't]].
[[/folder]]
----
[[folder:N-S]]
* {{Namedar}}: Given just how fast the infection seems to have spread, it seems a little odd that every group of survivors refer to the Crossed by the same name. Averted in "Wish You Were Here" since the survivors refer to them as "plus-faces" instead.
* NeckSnap:
** In ''Homo Tortor'', after [[spoiler:Lewis is blown off his feet by the explosion and gets impaled on a tree branch]], Warren has Ronnie snap his neck to fool the Crossed into thinking [[spoiler:Lewis tried to open the hatch by himself and died as result. The plan still fails.]]
** Smokey from ''Quisling'' has a habit of killing his most impulsive mooks this way, usually by twisting their heads 180 degrees. [[spoiler:Oliver himself eventually meets such fate after infecting himself on purpose]].
** In the final ''Badlands'' issue, Smokey also kills [[spoiler:the sailor that had been helping him and the twins homestead ''for years'' by breaking his neck, though the sad look on Smokey's face shows that even ''he'' didn't have fun doing so.]]
* NiceGuy: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] with Aoileann. The series looks at the traits that might make a person genuinely nice if they were deeply internalized (self denial, a desire to form connections with others, etc.), gives them to a random person, [[spoiler:and then infects her with the HatePlague that created the Crossed]]. Since those traits are such a strong part of her personality, [[spoiler:they remain with her after she becomes a monster, only the ends they're directed to become warped and horrifying]].
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: One of the characters, convinced that salt will kill the Crossed, attempts to stand against them by putting a ring of salt around himself and his family when his wife twists her ankle running from a pack of Crossed. It ''really'' doesn't go well.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Smokey inflicts such depravities on Oliver and Cody that they turn on him and ruin his plans even though it costs them their own lives. Before him, Horsecock goes after people tough enough to kill him and his group when they'd just wanted to avoid him.
** Of course, it's Horsecock's unusually . . . ''ambitious'' approach to depravity and evil that makes him and his group such a threat to begin with. The type of leader who wouldn't have bothered stalking Cindy's group beyond their initial encounter very likely wouldn't have even encountered them to begin with; the survivors would almost certainly have succeeded in circling around them without alerting the Crossed to their presence.
* NoHealthcareInTheApocalypse: The final ''Badlands'' arc starts by featuring rich doomsday preppers and their architect, who initially avoid the {{Technically Living Zombie}}s by hiding in a survival bunker. One of their early casualties dies after his appendix bursts and the only doctor available to remove it is a dermatologist.
* NoNameGiven: Quite a few characters are never named in the story, including some that have relevent roles in the plot.
* NothingIsScarier: Discussed in "Wish You Were Here."
* NotInFrontOfTheKid: In the first arc, Cindy calmly reminds her companions not to swear in front of Patrick.
* NoZombieCannibals: Averted, the Crossed will turn on each other if there are no regular people available. They just prefer humans due to the fact the Crossed are both sadist and masochist, which means torturing, raping and killing a fellow Crossed is far less satisfying. The fact they do attack each other when there's nothing else available is the reason many in the comics express optimism the Crossed will eventually die off. By the time ''+100'' rolls around, it turns out this is exactly what transpired, albeit some Crossed managed to survive and adapt just as good as the healthy humans did.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:O]]
* ObfuscatingStupidity: [[spoiler:Smokey's child "Cunt", who was thought to be capable of only saying his own name but turned out to be much more smarter than thought, all thanks to his mother and aunt, who had been secretly home-schooling him. He and the twins waited a long time to off Smokey.]]
* OffhandBackhand: In "Family Values" Kate ends up delivering a baby in the middle of a Crossed attack, with Hannah helping. When Jethro tries to get Hannah to leave before it's finished, she elbows him in the face, all without losing her excited expression and still talking to Kate.
* OffingTheOffspring: The First Child is murdered by his parents just when he thinks he's become a man, said parents call raising him "a practical joke 14 years in the making". When we next see him, his eyes have been gouged out and a fire lit in his guts.
* OneMillionBC: The setting for Creator/KieronGillen's ''Homo Tortor'' arc is 75,000 years ago.
* OneSteveLimit: Averted, several names are reused throughout the series.
** There is Cody the friend of Emiko from ''Gore Angels'' and Cody the apocalypse bunker salesman from Badlands' final arc.
** Harry is the name of both the soldier and Prime Minister's body guard from ''The Fatal Englishman'' and ''The Thin Red Line'', and the ginger possible royal from Badlands' first arc.
** There are also three characters named Tabitha (Clooney's cheating girlfriend in ''Golden Road'', Shaky's lover in ''Wish You Were Here'' and the old woman in Richie's group in ''Dead or Alive'').
** Finally there is Richie the informal leader of the group in ''Lesser of Two Evils'' and Richie the [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] protagonist of ''Dead or Alive.'' The third Richie, a Kenyan student and a member of Jasper's group, appears in ''Wish You Were Here''.
** ''Wish You Were Here'' also averted this with presence of two men originally named John, the Cavaites solved the problem by nicknaming one of them Jon (the paratrooper) and the second one Don (a former college lecturer turned one of Cava's co-leaders).
** Patrick is the name of both Cindy's son from Volume One and also Butch's boyfriend from ''Anti-Crossed''.
** There are also two characters named Thomas: a member of Cindy's group from Volume One and the real name of Fleshcook from ''Mimic''. There is also Officer Thomas, who briefly meets Cindy's group in Volume One.
** There are also two guys with the name of Ricky: the paramedic from Ian's group in the first ''Badlands'' arc and the biker gang leader from ''Yellow Belly''.
** Lance is the name of both Skip's son from ''Wish You Were Here'' and one of the rapists that had been holding Leigha captive in ''Anti-Crossed''.
** There are at least ''five'' guys named Frank: the boat fisherman and Amanda's incestuous father from ''Grave New World'', the hippie from ''American Quitters'', a father (Frank) and a son (Frankie) whom Amanda briefly travels with (and then murders) at the start of ''The Livers'', and finally Frank Giacoma from ''+100''.
* OnlyInItForTheMoney: Openly stated by Martin, one of Wentz's PsychoForHire's, who only protects Wentz and the rest of his entourage because he's getting paid, and starts raping Shirley as soon as he's left alone with her, after Wentz had [[TheWomenAreSafeWithUs apparently asked him to protect her]].
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname:
** The protagonist of "Wish You Were Here" is named Shaky, short for Shakespeare, which he was mockingly called by another survivor after telling him his occupation as a writer. He's never revealed his actual name, and none of the
other characters have called him anything else. (Unless you count "cunt" as a name.)
** Similarly, most smart Crossed go by their nicknames, examples include Horsecock, Face, Stump, Smokey, Captain Cuntbeard, Nose and also Salt's descendants.
* OrderliesAreCreeps:
** Averted with Dr. Tang's orderly Joe, who helped her and her nurses evacuate the sick kids out of the city, and later goes back with her to salvage meds from their old hospital.
** Apparently played straight with the rest of the staff at Aoileanns nursing home, who seemingly abandoned the patients.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:P]]
* PaintingTheMedium: All Crossed talk in a red, jagged font. One poor bastard gets the font before developing the rash.
* PapaWolf:
** Skip is an easygoing version of this in ''Wish You Were Here''.
** Mr. Masoud is also pretty protective of his children.
** In ''+100'' Frank Giacoma desires to lash out at the Crossed after the death of his daughter Hope.
** Edmund's father hides his sons in barrels and then rushes to take care of a Crossed that spotted them. Especially notable since he is mentioned to never have stood up against anyone, including his own wife.
** Sweeny's father might be an abusive drunkard, but the second a Crossed barges into their house, he exchanges a worried look with Sweeney and tells him to run, right as he is killed in front of his own son. Said son proceeds to blast the Crossed with a shotgun and decides to join his classmates in their RoaringRampageOfRevenge.
* ParentalIncest: Joseph Pratt is not above raping his own daughters.
* PatientZero: This is explored in the Badlands arc, ''Thin Red Line''. In it, it is revealed that the infection started in the summer of 2008 and [[spoiler: that there is no single "Patient Zero", but individuals in every country on Earth that mysteriously became infected after seeing visions of the worst atrocities in human history. So far there have been several Patient Zeroes explicitly or implicitly identified including a Russian soldier, a French villager, and a mysterious man in the UK who seems to be immune to the effects of the virus through sheer willpower.]]
* PayEvilUntoEvil: Whatever Clooney has planned for depraved writer Gideon Welles and whoever is part of the Edgar Allan Poe-inspired orgy, including his own [[SleepsWithEveryoneButYou girlfriend]]. (After going with [[TakeAThirdOption the one option that not even Gideon thought of]]) in ''The Golden Road'', it isn't gonna be pretty.
** Case you're curious, [[spoiler: He plans to ''unleash the Crossed'' on them all!]]
* PetTheDog:
** Clint does this literally, caring deeply for his militia's pack of guard dogs, especially their Alpha, who is named after his wife.
** Shaky covering Lance’s eyes and ears so he won't hear or see what [[spoiler: his infected mother]] is doing and saying.
** Bobby Lee bringing Tanya and Anna to the bunker with him might be this.
** The closest Harold Lorre comes to this is sincerely apologizing to Claire and admitting she doesn’t deserve the CruelAndUnusualDeath he’s about to inflict on her.
** [[spoiler:As bad as shooting Greg in the knee was, Steve did stitch his wound and give him a loaded pistol before leaving him behind afterwards.]]
* PistolWhipping: [[spoiler: Harold breaks Rick's jaw with the butt of his pistol before killing him.]]
* PlayingBothSides: [[spoiler: Morgan and Olivia]]. Although their conversation with [[spoiler: Tyree]] leaves it vague if they wanted to kill everyone or just weed out the poorer survivors.
* PoliceAreUseless: ZigZagged but often played straight.
** Alan, Joe, and Hunt [=MacAvoy=] are all cops who prove to be competent survivors and assets to their groups, but are the exception, and not the rule.
** The first arc shows that several cops (like Officer Thomas) tried to capture and interrogate Crossed about the infection, but only ended up turning as soon as any blood or spit got on their skin.
** In the first Badlands arc, Ian recalls a constable in a group he briefly stayed with wanted to hunker down and wait for TheCavalry, even though said cavalry weren't coming, and also got into a shouting match with a couple other survivors that they wouldn't stop even after being reminded that the noise risked drawing in the Crossed. [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse We never find out what happened to them]].
** In ''The Golden Road'' Lorna largely averts this, she’s pretty competent, ties to rescue her family members and briefly advises Clooney and Nathan to fall back to Samarkand and try to organize a defense, while planning to head out there.
** The first issue of ''Quisling'' also shows another small town cop (or maybe just a security guard) who lasted several months with a group, although Smokey finds them in a U-Haul and brutally kill the guy before he can get a shot off as Oliver watches grimly from a nearby building.
** In ''The Thin Red Line'' a few cops are among the crisis personal brought to Gordon Brown’s bunker and while they don't do that much, they are successfully able to barricade Patient Zero and a few infected soldiers inside a room [[spoiler: although not before they yank Alistair inside]].
** In the annual ''Lockdown'', the prison guards seem somewhat competent, both before and after the outbreak starts, but none of them last very long.
** Pre-apocalypse this is played straight with the LAPD, who tell Land they know Curtis Wentz is a pornographer and heroin trafficker but can’t prove it (not even after Wentz sends Land letters gloating in prison), and Land himself doesn’t inspire confidence by going CowboyCop and managing to kill nearly everyone in the room ''except'' Wentz and his henchmen.
** The Coast Guard also play this straight. Captain Barnes in ''Grave New World'' is a complete SOB with delusions of grandeur and a poor long-term plan, although his rescue of various civilians initially camouflages this. The patrol boat captain from the final Badlands arc has clearly made no efforts to save (or even take aboard) civilians or strike at the Crossed, instead focusing on simply staying at sea to survive until his ship runs out of food (not that this isn’t somewhat understandable given the setting). The fact that he casually offers to be Smokey’s collaborator and shows little concern for his crew beyond noting he needs some of them to keep the ship going cements his useless status. [[spoiler:Naturally, that captain doesn't even make it to the end of the issue he's introduced in]].
* PregnantBadass:
** Steve is an unusually unsympathetic version of this but seeing her struggling to fight and evade the Crossed while in labor is the highlight of ''Homo Superior''.
** Kate is pregnant (or has only just given birth) for all of her page time in ''Family Values'' and is one of the coolest heads and best shots of the survivors in that arc, all the way up until the last few days of her pregnancy.
* PreMortemOneLiner: Mr. Masoud gets a chilling, tragic one right before killing [[spoiler: his infected son]].
--> '''Mr. Masoud''': Your gloves. And the mask. And now everyone please go away.
* PreserveYourGays:
** [[spoiler:Jamie, a gay character from ''Wish You Were Here'', manages to survive the entire comic.]]
** [[spoiler:Butch and Patrick from ''Anti-Crossed'' also make it to the end.]]
* PretendWereDead:
** The group in "Psychopath" disguise themselves as Crossed as part of a plan to make two different groups kill each other. It works, but they always keep their distance. Trying to fool the Crossed at close range is probably a ''really'' bad idea, especially as the Crossed have no aversion to brutally slaughtering each other if no other victims are available.
** This was Father Dennis' plan in ''The Fatal Englishman.'' Harry and his men intervene because they have never seen it work.
** This option is discussed in ''Quisling.'' It apparently can work at short distances (and was used by Oliver's group to escape a bookstore), but you will need to use blood (uninfected blood in particular as infected blood being placed on the skin will cause you to go Crossed) and not linger too long.
** At the end of ''American Quitters'', Frank gives himself cig burns across the face so he can walk up to Zeke the Geek amidst his horde undetected [[spoiler:and stab him to death in Errol's stead. Of course, the rest of the horde turns on him immediately after.]]
** In ''Lesser of Two Evils'', Morgan and Olivia use cosplay makeup to disguise themselves as the Crossed. It's not clear if their approach worked on the Crossed themselves or if they just managed to avoid their attention, but it is sufficient enough to initially fool the survivor group they encounter.
* PrisonRape: Callahan in ''Lockdown'', apparently engages in this, although the level of consent is debatable. Martin invokes an unusual version of this in the Gavin Land arc. He isn’t a prisoner but (apparently through bribed guards) is sent into prison to rape Land.
* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: Oliver, Amanda, Clooney and arguably Shaky all adapt many villainous traits as their stories progress.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Q]]
* TheQuisling:
** Oliver, in the eponymous ''Quisling''.
** Cody in the final arc of Badlands fills a similar role.
** The ship captain is set up to become another one [[spoiler: but then he angers Smokey and gets killed. Smokey makes one of the crew his Quisling instead]].
** In ''Crossed +100'' it is shown that [[spoiler: using non-infected humans as Quislings is SOP for the Salt Clan.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:R]]
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Quite often, although frequently they lose some or all of their members in short order.
** While the group referred to as soldiers in ‘’Crossed 3D’’ are dressed in army fatigues for some reason, they come closer to this. Hunt Macavoy was a SWAT team leader, Matt was a science teacher, Phil was a mentally ill shut-in, Elmer was a prison inmate on C-Day and Preacher (whose real name is Jake) claims he’d never shot a gun before C-Day.
** The first Badlands arc included a group that includes a heavily bandaged ColdSniper in military fatigues who may be a royal, an oil rig employee, a paramedic, a bookstore owner, a pregnant woman and her brother, and three men whose pasts are never mentioned (one of whom serves as TheLoad while the other two are PluckyComicRelief).
** ''Quisling'' features science teacher Oliver, small town cop Alan, hunter Pat, his grandson Tommy, Tina the BrainlessBeauty, DeadpanSnarker Daniel and Eve (whose dressed in a PunkRock manner).
** Jasper's group consists of an army reservist (Jasper himself), Rugby player Miranda, Kenyan exchange student and football/soccer player Richie, cheese maker Mark, aging dental nurse Dolores and Barry TheImmune.
** The Cavaites include a former comic book writer, a University lecturer, a crusty fisherman (and part-time gun runner according to the first annual) an Australian parasailing tour guide and his wife and son, a London petty criminal and his daughter, a ColdSniper with several facial piercings who'd formerly been a caregiver, a deaf Spanish prostitute, a pair of old ladies from the countryside, a gay {{Goth}}, a paratrooper, a hippie art teacher, an aging former salesman [[spoiler: who’d been in prison for murdering his wife and her lover]], an American tourist, a Pakistani family and eventually the survivors of Jasper's group.
** In Shaky's flashbacks, the Gamekeeper's crew consisted of a comic book writer (Shaky), an upper-class couple (the Thakerys), their former employee turned leader (the Gamekeeper himself) and a Pakistani student (Ashoke) among others. Later on, an Irish nun (Aoileann) joins what's left of the group.
** The Five Bloody Fingers, despite their shared background, are pretty different people, including an aspiring manga writer, an Otaku, a Yakuza head's daughter, an escort and an eventual member of said Yakuza.
** The group in ''Homo Tortor'' is led by a college anthropology student and includes two soldiers, a competitive archer and a CrazySurvivalist.
** The main trio from ''American Quitters'' consists of a biker, a hippie and a pregnant Mexican woman.
** The final badlands arc begins with a survival bunker salesman, an ex-military chopper pilot, and various one-percenters (or in some cases friends and relatives) such as a computer tycoon and a dermatologist who marketed skin cream.
** Harold Lorre's group consists of a blue-collar worker he speculates was a carpenter, two medical students, and a park ranger. Downplayed given that Harold (a psychopathic former novelty shop owner) is the one who poses the most danger to the others.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure:
** Rab in ''Wish You Were Here'' is highly intelligent and cares about his people.
** Prime Minister Gordon Brown in ''Thin Red Line'' makes several good judgment calls, though it's hampered by his initial indecisiveness. His aide in the green suit is also fairly level-headed.
** Sutter's second-in-command Joe Collins for his tolerant attitude with Esperanza thinking the camp is TooGoodToBeTrue and also for recognizing the logistics of taking in too many people, but not advocating that they kick anyone out when he brings the matter to Sutter's attention.
** Alan, the leader of Oliver’s group, who listens to others ideas, as shown by how he as willing to try Oliver's PretendWereDead strategy, and keeps a level head.
** LadyOfWar Dora in ''Wish You Were Here'' is strict, but fair.
* RecurringExtra:
** In the first volume, one member of the group of ZombieApocalypse survivors is an unnamed man in a red baseball cap who never gets a name or really interacts with any of the others but still outlives a few named and semi-prominent characters before being killed by a WackyWaysideTribe in the fourth issue, after which he’s never directly mentioned again.
** The first volume of ''Wish You Were Here'' has lots of people in the survivor colony (Viceroy, John, Edith, Christine, Chanice, Maria, Jackie, Boy, Sofia, Jamie, and Tabitha) who spend a lot of time loitering around group meetings, doing chores, joining firing lines against the Crossed and such but take a long time to get proper introductions and (with a [[AscendedExtra couple notable exceptions]]) often suffer a DeathInTheLimelight or remain fairly unimportant even after they do get named and/or directly interact with Shaky.
* RedeemingReplacement: The Sailor from the last four issues is this to Smokey's previous collaborator in the eyes of both Smokey and the audience. Unlike Oliver and Cody, he didn't prostate himself before Smokey and promise to help him willingly, didn't directly sell out any other survivors upon becoming Smokey's {{Quisling}}, never gets forced to rape anyone and helps care for the Crossed children. It's doubtful that some of that meant anything to Smokey, but he probably felt happy having a {{Quisling}} who didn't turn on him in the end, and who he could actually see as a friend, [[spoiler: to the point he gives him a MercyKill]].
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler: Edmund redeemed himself by going back into the bar to save Donna from the infected cops and he did lead her to safety. Donna appeared to be grateful when she had sex with him but she was still furious at Edmund for killing Nicole. At the first opportunity, she brutally beats Edmund to death with a rock, staving his head in as she calls him a "yellow bellied sonofabitch" and a "fucking coward."]]
* ReformedButRejected: [[spoiler: Geoff]] and Edmund try to make up for their despicable acts at the worst timing possible, and it ultimately doesn't work out well.
* {{Retirony}}: One ''+ 100'' side story has some East Coast hunters sent to clean out some tunnels of the last known Crossed enclave in the state. Veteran hunter Bloom comments that the stress of the job has been getting to him and that if he never sees another Crossed face again after this, then he'll be as happy as if he were at a family reunion. A couple of pages later, he's killed in a surprise attack.
* RhetoricalQuestionBlunder: Edmund’s classmate Sweeny is insulted by his dad and asked who pays the bills, to which Sweeny points out the welfare checks from the government do.
* RightWingMilitiaFanatic:
** White supremacist militias show up in ''Homo Superior'' and ''Quisling.'' In the former, a redneck militia is led by Leon's dad [[spoiler: and is destroyed by tainted meth created by [[TheDogBitesBack Leon]].]] In the latter, Oliver spends a few days gaining their trust before leading Smokey's horde to them. In spite of their heinous views, Oliver still feels guilty for handing them over to the Crossed and one of them telling him about more intelligent Crossed [[spoiler: provides the impetus for his realization that Smokey needs to die.]]
** Camp Casper in ''Mimic'' is a futuristic example of this. It is unclear in the story whether they are descended from a remnant of the US military or simply from a band of white supremacist militia cosplaying as one, but given their very regressive and abusive society - where the mostly male "soldiers" are at the top of the hierarchy and the mostly female "civilians" are at the bottom - the latter is likelier.
** The Waco bunker group from Badlands #95 appears to be a subversion. Given their location and the way they're armed and dressed they appear to be one of these but don't seem hostile or unreasonable in their brief page-time and Cody didn't seem to think that there'd be a problem with the African-American Ben seeking refuge from them if he made it there in his chopper.
** Lewis in ''Homo Tortor'' is a rare heroic example of this. Before the outbreak, he lived off the grid stocking up on canned food and firearms out of fear the government would confiscate his guns. He has since mellowed out considerably, pokes fun at attributes of this mindset and acts as an expert on survivalist plans of action for Washington's group [[spoiler: before his death.]]
* RoyalBrat:
** The First Child from ''Homo Tortor'', [[spoiler: assuming he really existed]]. His first onscreen act is to declare he wants to rape a man, and is slapped for ''saying'' he wants to do it instead of doing so. [[spoiler:He's murdered by his own parents at the end, who'd raised him that way specifically to be killed.]]
** Prince Harry (assuming it is actually him) is a subversion, as while capable of being ruthless and unsentimental, he doesn't display any entitlement and carries his own weight.
* RugbyIsSlaughter: We never actually see a game obviously but former rugby player Miranda is escribed as a “tank” and half-seriously considered by Shaky to be capable of ripping a man in half.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:S]]
* SadClown: Possibly Skip, who acts pretty confident and relaxed most of the time, but is shown to have regrets and insecurities as ''Wish You Were Here'' progresses.
* SanityHasAdvantages: Played with to varying levels, but generally in effect. The Crossed aren't mindless zombies, and from an intellectual standpoint can be surprisingly intelligent - enough to catch survivors off guard to their peril. Fundamentally, however, the greatest weakness of the Crossed is their extreme impulsivity, making long-term planning difficult. Most of them don't bother to feed and clothe themselves or seek shelter in winter - quite a few even mutilate themselves for fun. Those don't last long. The Crossed relied on sheer weight of numbers in the early days, but most died off the first winter after C-day...by which point the global population had already fallen from 7 billion humans to 2 million humans and 100 million Crossed. Natural selection (and AIDS) set in after that, and the smarter, more "sane" Crossed survived and are a lot more dangerous while the dumber Crossed have tended to die off over the course of the next century.
* SayYourPrayers: On occasion, although religion is burned out of a lot of people by the nature of the apocalypse. A notable example is that when the Cavaites unsuccessfully try to flee the infected [[spoiler:Drift Fleet]] only to be forced back there by Aoileann’s army to watch them fight, Shaky notes that Edith (or Christine), Seline and Maria all started praying desperately.
* ScaryBlackMan: Smokey, Deacon White (after his infection) and Jokemercy. Wentz's FauxAffablyEvil {{Sadist}} [[TheDragon right-hand man]] Omar is also one both before and after his infection. BloodKnight Des is a (relatively) heroic version.
* ScarilyCompetentTracker: Several of the Crossed show a remarkable ability to track their chosen victims, across miles of land if needed.
** Human examples include The Gamekeeper, Xavi from ''American Quitters'', and David in the Australia annual [[spoiler: who backtracked to Ayers rock with broken legs after being infected]].
* ScienceHero: Dr. Chopra is a [[{{Deconstruction}} failed example]] and too early in the story to be a SoleSurvivingScientist.
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Bobby Lee embodies this in his brief page time, threatening Cody while ranting about how he got the investors for the bunker in the first place.
** Earlier in that issue, Red Mitchell shows some of this in his even briefer page time, showing up outside the bunker with Crossed right behind him and demanding to be let in, yelling that he paid for several floors (although to be fair it was a pretty desperate situation for him and looked like only a couple Crossed, who Cody might have been able to save him from if he'd tried). Lloyd points out that Red did in fact pay for the place but Cody says that doesn’t count next to practical concerns.
** The rest of the bunker people, the Thackerys from ''Wish You Were Here'', and the Stillwells and Peter from ''''Grave New World'' avert this, being aware of their own precarious chances, only making reasonable complaints, and not throwing any weight around.
** Curtis Wentz and Gideon Welles had a lot of this before the apocalypse, but it seems to go away once things turn bad and they go into survival mode (and in Wentz’s case even altruism towards other survivors).
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Among the refugee spokesmen in Murfreesboro is a man who says that his community voted to take the SadisticChoice offered by the Salt Clan, and that he and a few others made a run for it on bicycles while the others were drawing lots to see who got sacrificed.
* SeadogBeard: Rab sports an impressive one.
* SemperFi: Carl, the Marine from ''DOA'' is described by Richie as being a little too hung up on the ideals and mentality of the Marine Corps to be a good survivor (although Richie is an UnreliableExpositor).
* SequelEscalation: Each series in the universe, from the Ennis original to ''Family Values'' to ''Psychopath'', tries its damned hardest to be more shocking, [[{{Gorn}} gorny]] and full of BlackComedy than the one that came before it.
* SerialKiller: [[spoiler:Geoff, in the Jeffrey Dahmer vein. Also Beauregard Salt]].
* SeriesContinuityError:
** The timing for Smokey's two arcs seems pretty tricky, given the long amount of time he spends with both Oliver and Cody and how he seems to catch both of them at the end of the summer of the outbreak (Oliver wanted to get to Wyoming before the cold, hoping it would kill the Crossed, and Cody specifically stated that timeline, plus his group's gasoline hadn't gone bad). Also counts as WritersCannotDoMath.
** Also occurs with regard to London in the beginning of the outbreak. Shaky's flashback scenes from ''Wish You Were Here'' quite clearly show the city falling to the Crossed early on, with London turned into a gigantic slaughterhouse in hours if not ''minutes''. ''The Thin Red Line'', however, indicates London as having been among those areas less hit by the initial outbreak, with Whitehall still being in contact with Gordon Brown's command center, as one of his aides explains to him that the security cordons south of Nottingham seemed to be holding. He also relays to him Whitehall's suggestion that they be relocated to a point south of the Thames "as a precautionary measure."
** ''The Thin Red Line'' establishes that communication with the White House was cut off very early into the outbreak, with both NORAD and the governments of Britain and Russia struggling to reach the US president to discuss the situation with the [[spoiler: Russian nuclear bombers]]. It is then revealed that [[spoiler: George W. Bush is infected or has at least been killed by the Crossed]]. However, ''The Lesser of Two Evils'' has the media reporting on criticism of the White House's response to the outbreak as though the US government is still in functioning order, and Volume 1 has Captain Juneaux's journal note that Air Force One was shot down over Oklahoma with no mention being made of [[spoiler: Bush getting turned or killed.]] Granted, it is possible that the reference to the White House was to the US federal government in general rather than specifically to the location, and that the (short-lived) president by the time Air Force One is shot down is [[spoiler: Dick Cheney, Nancy Pelosi or another relevent member of the line of succession]], but it is not made clear.
*** ''The Thin Red Line'' also establishes that India does not retaliate to Pakistani Crossed nuking New Delhi (something mentioned by a CNN journalist survivor in Volume 1), which contradicts the white supremacist militia in ''Quisling'' claiming Pakistan was wiped out by nuclear war. Admittedly, the apocalyptic nature of the outbreak means some information may have been muddled - it's also possible the militia conflated Pakistan with the Middle East as a whole owing to their racism and referring to Israel nuking its neighbors as established in Volume 1 and shown on one cover of Badlands.
** Both examples of ShownTheirWork from the second issue aren't followed up on. A year into the outbreak it's stated that Texas is largely burned from the refineries and New York City is flooded, but when New York is seen two years after C-Day in ''Crossed 3D'' it shows no signs of this, and at least part of Texas is untouched by flames or smoke at the end of Cody's story, 6-8 months after C-Day in Badlands #96, [[PlayingWith although the following issue shows Smokey walking through a part of the state which does have burning oil fields]].
** ''Yellow Belly'' seemingly takes place in early May, judging by the circus billboard performance dates, even though it had been established later (most notably, in ''Thin Red Line'') that the C-Day occured in summer 2008.
* SexForSolace: [[spoiler: Between Amanda and Rick in "Psychopath" after their lovers are murdered.]]
* SheepInSheepsClothing: The Drift Fleet, whose biggest flaw (albeit a crucial one) is being too inexperienced at fighting Crossed to go against The Nun and her army. The Black Watch soldiers, apparently, [[spoiler: although it's never explained why they didn't send Seline back out with the supplies she'd came for]]. Arguably Wentz (in the present that is, definitely not in the flashbacks), as he really did seem to be just trying to save people rather than taking them out to his island for some dark ulterior motive, given his past as a pornographer, rapist, drug dealer and sex trafficker. Fleshcook appears to be this by the end of ''MIMIC'', but he might also just be a really good manipulator.
* ShelteredAristocrat: The Thackerys are a sympathetic example of this.
* ShootTheMedicFirst: Scott is one of the first members of Cindy’s group to die, while he’s treating Randall who turns out to be infected, although this is less intentional than most examples and has limited repercussions for the group. Harold Lorre kills Darwin, a medical student, first but since Amanda is also a medical student and remains alive this is less noticeable.
* ShownTheirWork: In ''Crossed'' #2, a survivor mentions what's happened to Texas and New York in the months since the Crossed showed up. Both are realistic depictions of what would probably happen following the abandonment of either state. Texas's oil refineries eventually overloaded and exploded, and New York City flooded without the continuous pumping of its subways and sewers.
* ShootTheDog: Cindy and Stan [[spoiler:kill a group of kindergarteners whose guardian they had accidentally killed]] in order to keep traveling with minimal impediment.
** While still bad, it's not quite as bad as it sounds. With resources stretched thin, the guardian in question had been teaching the children to live off whatever they could find. [[spoiler:Specifically, [[ImAHumanitarian other survivors]]. Given the choice between having to stretch their own thin supplies to account for a dozen cannibalistic five-year-olds or shooting a bunch of children, Cindy went for option B.]]
* ShoutOut:
** Morgan and Olivia in "The Lesser of 2 Evils" are carrying around a copy of ''Surviving D-Day," a book by [[Literature/TheZombieSurvivalGuide Brooks]][[Literature/WorldWarZ Maxwell]].
** ''Anti-Crossed'' features an in-universe comic book team-up between Anti-Crossed and a character clearly meant to be [[Franchise/EvilDead Ashley Williams]], complete with a chainsaw hand.
** In ''Wish You Were Here'' after Selene [[spoiler:seemingly dies during the Black Watch fort destruction]], Shaky starts making theories about the reasons of the explosion, and the one that comes up to his mind is how soldiers stationed there were raping Selene, and this situation reminds Shaky of [[Film/TwentyEightDaysLater a certain film]].
** In ''Five Bloody Fingers,'' the scene showing the Crossed doing their thing at the cosplay convention has cosplayers identifiable as [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] and [[Franchise/SpiderMan Spider-Man]] being murdered by the Crossed. One of the Crossed is in cosplay resembling [[Anime/DragonBallZ Goku.]] Other Crossed are cosplaying in outfits similar to Cammy, Judge Dredd, and, of all things, a female Pikachu.
** ''Crossed +100'' has this at least OnceAnEpisode, with each issue being titled after a classic work of "wishful fiction" Future has read. Just to name a few, [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Return of the King]], [[Literature/ACanticleForLeibowitz A Canticle for Leibowitz]], [[Literature/IAmLegend I Am Legend]], [[Literature/LastAndFirstMen Last and First Men]] and [[Creator/IsaacAsimov Foundation and Empire]] are all namedropped.
** In the last ''Badlands'' arc, a person with some medical knowledge trying to perform a surgery on a patient and accidentally killing him is oddly similar to the same scene from ''Literature/TheStand''.
* ShutUpHannibal: In the second webcomic, ''Dead or Alive'', [[spoiler: a badly injured [[SmugSnake Richie]] hurls abuse at each member of his now ex-group as they're walking away from him, leaving him to the Crossed.[[note]]He had tried to abandon them by knocking out Carl and leaving him for the Crossed, leaving them without a rear-guard and hence also likely facing certain death, and he had also been hoarding vital supplies from them.[[/note]] He tries to imply that none of them are any better than him.]] Their answer?
--> '''Tabitha''': Who do we think we are, Richie? Honestly, I have no idea. These days I don't think anyone does. But I do know we're not you.
* SkewedPriorities: After [[spoiler: Prince Harry is captured by the Crossed and they start dismembering him]], Ian's first reaction is simply disappointment that now they'll never know if he was the real Prince Harry or not.
* SlasherSmile: This is the '''only''' expression the Crossed seem to have. Except for [[EliteZombie Super-Crossed]] like Smokey.
* SleptThroughTheApocalypse: Taro spent the first several hours of it on a video game binge and napping it off in an Internet cafe (only bothering to go out when the internet got cut off), making this literal in his case.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: This series makes its home on the cynical end of the scale.
* SmugSnake:
** Don, one of Cava's two "leaders" in WYWH. Though competent in some matters, he is supremely arrogant and is more often than not ignored by the other Cavaites. Shaky refers to him as a "poison dwarf" and "sly, string-pulling, venomous little politico."
** Alistair, Gordon Brown's political advisor in "Thin Red Line." Constantly tries to manipulate his boss for his own ends (with Harry implying that Alistair is trying to ingratiate himself with Tony Blair so that he can join his team instead), is openly contemptuous of him behind his back, looks down on Harry and engineers Gordon Brown's arrival at the government facility where Patient Zero is being kept, [[spoiler: thereby causing John Duff's entire security team to become infected/killed.]]
** Richie, the protagonist in Garth Ennis' ''Crossed DOA'' webcomic is initially introduced as a cynical man who is competent enough to have survived for five years. As the chapters go by, however, he increasingly reveals himself to be this as it is revealed that [[spoiler: he hoarded vital supplies from the other members of his group, was always a sociopath who viewed other people as objects, always intended to abandon his group and leave them to the Crossed the moment they were no longer useful to him, and it is also heavily implied that he has gotten other people killed this way.]]
* SnowMeansDeath: Most of the first ''Badlands'' arc, ''Of the World in Its Becoming'', takes place during winter in the highlands, and [[spoiler:Ian's entire group eventually ends up dead or infected]].
* SoleSurvivingScientist: Generally averted or played with due to the grim and/or deconstruction nature of the series, but not entirely absent.
** Dr. Chopra in ''Thin Red Line'' is arguably the most prominent example, as she and her team arguably learned more about the Crossed virus than anyone else [[spoiler: before they were all infected or killed]].
** Jackson kills a bunker of these in Iceland who'd previously worked on a serum to cause psychosis which he is convinced was used on him in the first Annual. [[spoiler: It wasn't. He was already mad to begin with, but the harmless steam that Magda sprayed on him made him ''think'' he had been turned insane, and his mind did the rest]].
** Jack from ''Shrink'' is an interesting version of this: a psychologist trying to study Crossed and find a cure through their mental workings (interestingly, it wasn't his idea, but that of his brother, who voluntarily infected himself and locked himself upstairs in Jack's house after describing the plan). [[spoiler:After it's revealed Jack had molested his brother during childhood, he willingly gets himself infected.]]
** Oliver (an anthropologist studying Crossed and their behavior and taking notes) and Cody (an architect who built survival bunkers) could have been these if not for their FaceHeelTurn.
** Harold Lorre claims to know of a convoy of these but it’s quickly revealed to the readers that he’s lying to make sure the people who found him, injured and alone, will take him with them.
** Denise Tang from ''Crossed 3D'' checks a lot of this in that she’s a highly qualified researcher who survived with a few assistants and is on a quest to recover some stuff important to her work, needing to be saved by a hunch of ragtag misfits led by a SWAT veteran, but she subverts this given that her field was pediatrics, she’s trying to get medicine that will save the lives of her patients and has no knowledge or affect on the big picture stuff related to the Crossed infection that this trope would imply.
** Professor Nelson looks like an example of this given his research into an ancient Crossed-like virus and how he’s hiding in a bunker after C-Day, with people looking for him and his work, but he didn’t survive uninfected. It’s never revealed if he was actually right with his theory, and even if he was, it had few if any practical applications for people fighting the Crossed (Washington just let the others think that to have protectors in his search for Amy).
** In ''Wish You Were Here'' Shaky lampshades the absence of these after the first few years, noting that when they actually do find someone who might be TheImmune, if there was a movie they’d rush him to some bunker to make a vaccine out of his blood but there’s nowhere left to do that anymore.
* SourOutsideSadInside: Lance can act a bit bratty and self-assured at times, but Shaky suspects that he's putting on a facade, trying to "copy his Dad's cool", noting that Lance cries in his sleep most nights, and he's occasionally caught him sucking his thumb.
* SpitefulSpit: In the first arc, the current group of survivors come across a cop who's been keeping a Crossed locked in the back of his police car. The Crossed manages to anger him to get close enough to spit on him, infecting him.
* SpoiledSweet:
** Hazuki Yamada. Although through her father she has more money than she knows what to do with it, and is constantly spoiled and pampered by her father due to her life-style induced by her father's wealth, she is cheerful, friendly and fervently loyal to her friends (who by and large are considered losers by society at large).
** Unknown to her friend Miku, who goes on "compensated dates" with men and steals their money, Hazuki had her father use his connections with the police to protect Miku from her clients.
** This is taken further because even [[spoiler:becoming Crossed doesn't fully remove her sweetness. When Crossed and having the opportunity to kill her friends who she sees as her real family, she refuses to. She does convince them to give up trying to survive against a giant horde of Crossed and join her as a group of Crossed, then go out having tons of violence and sex though, all while they value their friendship. So even when she's a cannibalistic, sadomasochistic, violent Crossed, she still can value people close to her in a way; which is more than most Crossed can say.]]
** Cody in ''Gore Angels'' is one of the nicest characters in the arc and had enough money to buy three plane tickets to Japan for himself, Ryan and Nathalie.
** Peter from '' Grave New World'' was the son of a construction magnate who take pride in how many of his family's buildings are still standing but carries his weight in the group and shows horror at many of Barnes' darker actions.
** [[ShelteredAristocrat The Thackerys]] come across as adult versions of this, especially early on.
* SpoilerCover: Not often (normally CoversAlwaysLie for this series) but Badlands issue 3 is accurate showing [[spoiler: a surrounded Ian going for a grenade to kill himself]] and and Badlands #93 features Smokey on the front cover even though his appearance near the end is built up as more of a WhamShot and/or a CruelTwistEnding for that issue. The twins are also on that cover, foreshadowing how Smokey will join up with them in that arc even though they aren’t mentioned for another two issues and he doesn’t find them until a couple of issues after that.
* SpoilerTitle: ''Quisling'' given how the first issue builds up like a quest to reach Wyoming using Oliver's PretendWereDead strategy, with hints that Smokey will chase them like Horsecock did Cindy’s group. ''Psychopath'' and ''Breakdown'' to some extent but we get a feel of Harold and later Amanda’s craziness quickly enough anyway. In ''Yellow Belly'' we’re told Edmund’s nickname fairly early but it also foreshadows how he’ll live up to it as time goes by.
* StarCrossedLovers: Shaky and the Nun provide a somewhat disturbing, or at least alarming, example of this, retaining feelings for each other even after her infection.
* StealthExpert: Pat (a lifelong hunter), Tommy and Daniel are this among Oliver's group. He doubts that he would be able to find them after selling out to Smokey, so instead, he makes a lot of noise to get them to find him.
* StepfordSmiler: Joyce Pratt. Generally, her forced smiles become wider the more screwed up the situation around her is. Eventually replaced by a permanent [[SlasherSmile slasher smile]] as a Crossed.
* TheStraightAndArrowPath: Downplayed with Curtis from ''Homo Tortor''. While he prefers to use bow in favor of firearms, he nonetheless has no problem with using guns as well.
* StrangeSyntaxSpeaker: In the future of "Crossed + 100", everyone speaks strangely to the point where even abbreviations and cuss words are a part of normal vocabulary.
* SuicideAttack: [[spoiler:Tom and Jackie do this in ''The Thin Red Line'', when the engine of their Tornado fighter (which is carrying the nuke) dies and they're forced to make a kamikaze attack on the incoming Russian nuclear bombers.]]
* SuppressedRage: A few of those who become Crossed turn out to have been this, with the infection taking away all their inhibitions and allowing them to really say what they feel about the person close to them. Notable examples include Joyce Pratt toward her husband Joseph and Hazuki Yamada toward her father.
* SurprisinglyEliteCannonFodder: Two of Boss Yamada's goons make it pretty far into ''Five Bloody Fingers''.
* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** In the very first ''Badlands'' arc, a band of survivors is trying to stay undetected while a large group of the infected psychopaths are in the area. One survivor asks a soldier in the group if he can just snipe them down from a distance. The soldier informs her that this isn't the movies where magazines are bottomless and shooters are uncannily accurate. He only has half a magazine left in his rifle, and even if every shot was a hit and every hit was a kill, he can't take them all out.
** In the last issue of the same arc, Ian gets to [[spoiler:Harry's rifle]] and begins to pick off the Crossed from a distance. In spite of firing single shots, he still empties the clip too early because he forgot how many shots had [[spoiler:Harry fired before the Crossed got him]].
** In the first volume [[spoiler: Geoff reveals that he used to be a serial killer that murdered and dismembered other young men until one of his victims, a Crossed individual, tried to rudely goad him to ravish him, something that [[HorrifyingTheHorror scared even Geoff himself]]. When he's done telling the story, ''every single member'' of the group turns away from him, and the next morning Kitrick takes him out for a walk in the woods and comes back by himself, having either killed Geoff or left him to his fate.]]
** While Crossed did start as intimidating force for survivors to deal with, their lack of self-preservation (with only a few of them being smart enough to plan things forward) became the main reason most of them have died out by the year 2108. This actually works in two ways, since there was a man named Beau Salt who had the foresight to realize how self-destructive the Crossed nature was and managed to preserve a tribe he led, making intelligent Crossed more dangerous than usual ones.
** From ''Wish You Were Here'', the Gamekeeper's group comes across an abandoned police van, and the majority of the crew decides to highjack it and leave the city faster. They ignore the Gamekeeper's warning that the Crossed will eventually catch them due to being "predictable" and drive away. Soon after that those who refused find the van crashed with everyone inside having suffered a gruesome death. The Gamekeeper only tells "tolja" when observing the carnage, and it is hard to argue with him in this situation.
** At the end of the second volume of ''Wish You Were Here'' we have [[spoiler:Jasper accidentally incapaciating himself courtesy of a gun exploding in his hands (and horribly maiming them). Given that his weapon is an ''antique rifle'', it is naturally more fragile than any modern firearm]].
** At the end of ''Quisling'' [[spoiler:Smokey finally gets Oliver after the latter tries to destroy as many military files as he can. After [[NoSell shrugging off]] the shot to the shoulder from the Glock, he promptly knocks it out of Oliver's hands. Because the recently discharged (and still smoking) pistol falls into a pool of oil that Oliver himself spilled earlier, it explodes and causes the whole room to catch on fire, stunning Smokey briefly and allowing Oliver to break free temporarily.]]
** ''Homo Tortor'' has Washington try to open up a fusebox while trapped near the professor Nelson's bunker door. With the full expectation of having to use the electrician skills he does not have much, Washington opens the electrical box... and finds three simple tumblers inside which he has no problem flipping back on.
** The same issue has Curtis try and shoot down the Crossed with a bow. While the Crossed no-selling the shot in the eye is fantastical, Curtis himself finds out the hard way that firing a modern bow is also very difficult. It is just awfully easy to fire too early and miss entirely which is exactly what happens shortly thereafter.
** Crossed +100 points out that the Crossed's habit of raping each other's families leads to inbred children, who die faster. And the most dangerous threat to their continued existence is AIDS, a common problem with inbreeding families in real life.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Luke from ''DOA'' feels eerily similar to Kitrick. They're both DarkAndTroubledPast black men who show little emotion after the trauma they've experienced, and even have that aspect of their personalities introduced with almost the exact same phrase (that what happened to him was worse than anything the narrator of the arc had heard of). The biggest difference between them is that [[spoiler: Luke lives and Kitrick doesn't]].
[[/folder]]
----
