History ComicBook / Crossed

** 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 contemptful of him behind his back, looks down on Harry and engineers Gordon Brown's arrival at the government facility where [[WhatAnIdiot Patient Zero is being kept]], [[spoiler: thereby causing John Duff's entire security team to become infected/killed.]]

* CreatorCameo: An issue of Ennis's book ''Stitched'' is the only comic identified by name in the "Anti-Crossed" arc. It's apparently the last comic he put out before C-Day. Interestingly enough, [[RecursiveCanon some Crossed comics are also seen in the background, even those who had been released after 2008]].

** The Anti-Crossed arc set at the comic-book store is set post-C-Day but relegates the Crossed to the background, aside from a few Crossed shown outside the store in the present and flashbacks to C-Day, the majority of the Crossed appearing in the arc appear in the in-universe comic book as enemies of the titular hero. The main focus is on the store owners' abuse of Leigha and her escape from their captivity with the help of a gay couple who stumbles on the store and thematically centers on the topic of misogyny. It's an arc that could have easily been set in any AfterTheEnd setting with only tweaks to the in-universe comic book's subject matter.

** Captain Juneaux and his team could easily have been at the center of an arc of their own, as they were a unit of special forces personnel acting under the orders of the remnants of the US government to ensure that all nuclear power plants were shut off before they could melt down, and [[spoiler: kill the scientists and technicians helping them so that they couldn't turn them back on and blow them up Chernobyl-style if they got Crossed]]. However, instead Juneaux's journal is read by Stan in one issue of volume 1 and the fate of the rest of his team is not revealed.

** Alternatively, he was right, but overestimated the weakness. He had seen a violent reaction to physical contact with salt...and thus concluded that putting an [[WhatAnIdiot easily reached-across thin ring of salt around himself, his wife, and his child would keep them safe.]]

* CreatorCameo: An issue of Ennis's book ''Stitched'' is the only comic identified by name in the "Anti-Crossed" arc. It's apparently the last comic he put out before C-Day.

* FalloutShelterFail: The final ''Badlands'' arc shows that just because you can book a place in the apocalypse bunker does not mean that you might make it alive to said bunker when shit does hit the fan. Many of Cody's clients were in city centers when the C-Day hit and thus were all slaughtered by the Crossed, with only those who had convenient means of transportation making it out alive, like Bobby Lee in his helicopter. Cody himself made it a point to purchase a house close to the apocalypse bunker he had designed (without telling his clients to do so as well), meaning that when C-Day hit he was the first to arrive at the bunker on his motorcycle. The stuff in the bunker itself averts CozyCatastrophe, even before Smoky finds them.

* CallBack: The final arc of Badlands is full of them. In addition to the return of Smokey from ''Quisling,'' his relationship with Cody parallels that with Oliver. Ashlee and Ashlynn from ''Homo Superior'' also return as Crossed and make reference to their original plans from the end of that arc. The ship captain Smokey talks to brings up his destruction of Cheyenne Mountain and makes a passing reference to Aoilean from ''Wish You Were Here'' as a rumored intelligent Crossed. The rumor the captain mentions about George W. Bush being an intelligent Crossed may also be a reference to [[spoiler: the phone call to the White House in ''The Thin Red Line'']] and the fact he dismisses this rumor likely means he is aware of the destruction of Air Force One over Oklahoma mentioned in Volume One and Smokey's travel to find the girls shows the Texas oil fields burning as depicted in the same volume. A rival tribe of Crossed Smokey and his band fight are red and resemble the depictions of Homo Tortor in, well, ''Homo Tortor'' though they could the band of Crossed from ''Psychopath'' that soak themselves in the blood of their victims. The presence of an intelligent Crossed in Tennessee is referring to [[spoiler: Beuregard Salt's clan that sets the groundwork for ''Crossed +100.'']]

[[caption-width-right:350:''This fucking world, it finds a way to damn us all...'']]

** Washington may be a contrasting character to Harry from ''The Fatal Englishman''. Both men have their respective teams supplied with firearms and have at least one person with an actual military training, and also lead their men into an underground facility in hopes of achieving their goal (for Harry it is to unleash bio-weapon on the entire United Kingdom, while Washington desires to learn about the first Crossed outbreak and also locate his ex-girlfriend), even if they are going to die in consequence. However, unlike Harry, Washington lacks proper combat training and instead relies on anthropology knowledge, ancient weaponry and his skills at being a ConsummateLiar. Washington also keeps the true reason behind his mission from his companions, while Harry is honest about his intentions to everyone. Harry and his crew are TrueCompanions, while Washington sees certain members of his group as expendable. Finally, [[spoiler:Harry decides to not go through his quest and chooses to go out on his terms, while Washington manages to reach the goal, but suffers AFateWorseThanDeath afterwards.]]
** Washington is also one (and arguably a GoodCounterpart) to Harold Lorre. Both tell lies about a quest related to a SoleSurvivingScientist to get allies and protectors while really on a quest involving a woman they loved but who didn’t love them. Washington’s is more rescue-oriented and Harold’s is described under InsaneTrollLogic, and also has elements of RoaringRampageOfRevenge. Washington is aware of what he’s doing, Harold is self-deluding. Washington’s story has some basis in truth and might not be a complete lie, while Harold’s is utter bullsh*t. Harold kills most of his companions and Washington does try to keep them alive (though he does sacrifice a couple members of his group to get into the professor's bunker alive). Harold is a middle-aged white man, Washington is a college-aged black man.

* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: [[spoiler: Edmund "Yellowbelly" Wickenthorpe is a deconstruction of [[DirtyCoward dirty cowards]] and [[CowardlyLion cowardly lions]]. While Edmund's cowardice does result in the deaths of Nicole and Sweeney, he survives the Crossed and he comes across as way more rational and sensible than his peers, who insisted on fighting against hopeless odds.]]
** First of all, Edmund is only a teenager (16-18) as he had just left high school before C-Day and he has no life experiences that would make him brave in the face of danger. He's old enough to understand what's happening, too young to be independent, and too old to depend on others. He was also the sole survivor of the carnival massacre, he saw his town and family get brutally murdered by the Crossed, and everyone else calls him a coward for being understandably scared in the face of danger.
** [[spoiler: Sweeney refused to leave the gun store and tried to make Edmund fight to the last breath, despite the Crossed already winning the battle and running away being more sensible. Shooting Sweeney might have been unncessary, but since the building was already swarming with Crossed, Sweeney couldn't be reasoned with (due to Crossed killing his father) and Edmund had to think fast before they were both overwhelmed.]]
---> '''Sweeney''': You're goddamn right. We're all gonna die. [[TakingYouWithMe Including you, Yellow Belly]]. Turn your ass around. You're gonna die like a man.
** [[spoiler: During the battle against the Crossed, Edmund falls the bike and hides in the bushes as the battle continues. The rider, Nico, was killed in the crash and Edmund was underprepared to fight the Crossed so he made the smart decision of hiding in the bushes so he can survive another day.]]
** [[spoiler: Nicole's death wasn't a result of cowardice, she lunged forward as Edmund was checking if she was ok and he instinctively pulled the trigger in response under the belief she had turned. The only true act of cowardice was when he defiled Nicole's corpse and desecrated it to cover the [[AccidentalMurder accidental murder]].]]
** [[spoiler: While Edmund did eventually redeem himself by saving Donna, she still kills him by brutally staving his head with a rock as punishment for killing Nicole. Ironically, had Edmund abandoned Donna to save himself then his death could have been avoided.]]

** CowardlyLion: In ''Yellow Belly'' Edmund's [[DirtyCoward tendency to abandon his friends and family]] is more often than not completely justified and is overall pretty realistic in nature. And even though he does try to brave himself up several times through the story, it does not stay for long - just because you decide to change does not mean that you will carry out your decision without problems.
** EasilyForgiven: Related to the above, by the end of the "Yellow Belly" arc [[spoiler:Edmund finally braces himself and saves Donna the biker chick whose sister he killed by accident (and whose corpse he raped when told so by Harold Lorre). At the end, while he is making out with her after saving her from the Crossed cops, it seems that his risk has paid off... Until Donna smashes his head with a stone, still angry over him killing Nicole. Had Edmund kept his cowardly way, he would have made out of the whole chore alive.]]
** LastStand: Earlier on, Edmund's classmates stock up in a hunting/fishing shop after the Crossed invade their small town. Hank Smith (described by Edmund as [[TheAce the coolest kid in the school]]) seems like a ReasonableAuthorityFigure to others, and Edmund himself is praised for giving his friends an advantage over the incoming enemy. Does it mean that they will be able to repel the Crossed attack? Nope! The second the infected "geeks" attack the store, they overrun it and kill or infect almost everyone in a matter of minutes. A large group of amateurs with guns going up against a gang of madmen who outnumber them greatly ''and'' are capable of turning them goes as well as you'd expect.

On March 13, 2013, Avatar announced a series of ''Crossed'' "webisodes" written and directed by Ennis, with supplemental webcomics. This apparently got stuck in development hell, as no further word has been said about them. There were also rumors of the sequel to "The Fatal Englishman" being developed, though these appear to have died down as well.

* CoolPet: Boss Yamada has a lion named Usama which he trained to act as his attack dog. [[spoiler:He turns out to be more loyal to his master's daughter Hazuki when she stops him from killing Satoshi and has him feed on her father's body]].

* AmusementParkOfDoom: The first issue of ''Yellow Belly'' takes a place at the carnival, complete with Crossed clowns and performers.

* AnAxeToGrind: Smokey's main weapon is a firefighter's axe.

** Zigzagged in the first Badlands arc, where the group has nine members and they lose none in the first issue, but in the second issue [[spoiler: one is left for dead and the other one dies from childbirth. And then the third opens with another one being sawed in half, and things go downhill from there to the point of [[KillEmAll no survivors]]]].

* KillEmAll: Don't expect any more then a handful of the characters to survive.
** ''Badlands's'' first arc [[spoiler: is the first to completely kill off or infect its cast]].
** [[spoiler:Same thing with the second arc]].
** This is also the solution that the remnants of the US government resort to during the outbreak with regard to the country's nuclear physicists and technicians. This means that virtually all knowledge about nuclear power and its operation is wiped out; however, it also means that the Crossed are unable to blow up more than a couple of nuclear power plants Chernobyl-style.

* ArcherArchetype: Subverted. Washington's group from ''Homo Tortor'' has a daredevil named Curtis whose weapon of choice is a composite bow... yet when the four are ambushed while trying to open up the bunker door, Washington's voiceover puts it best in discussing the usability of bows. Sure, it has certain perks, but it nonetheless puts you at disadvantage against a Crossed, someone who can and ''will'' NoSell certain attacks that might be lethal to a usual human (like an arrow to the eye). It fares even worse against a whole crowd of them. Also, firing a modern bow is also very difficult and it is awfully easy to fire too early and lose the killing power. Soon enough Curtis switches to a pistol during the bunker siege, [[spoiler:but Washington chooses to indirectly sacrifice him anyway.]]

** 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.

** ArcherArchetype: Washintgon's group from ''Homo Tortor'' has a daredevil named Curtis whose weapon of choice is a composite bow... yet when the four are ambushed while trying to open up the bunker door, Washington's voiceover puts it best in discussing the usability of bows. Sure, it has certain perks, but it nonetheless puts you at disadvantage against a Crossed, someone who can and ''will'' NoSell certain attacks that might be lethal to a usual human (like an arrow to the eye). It fares even worse against a whole crowd of them. Also, firing a modern bow is also very difficult and it is awfully easy to fire too early and lose the killing power. Soon enough Curtis switches to a pistol during the bunker siege, [[spoiler:but Washington chooses to indirectly sacrifice him anyway.]]

** ''Homo Tortor'' has Washintgon 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, Washintgon opens the electrical box... and finds three simple tumblers inside which do not require any skills to flip whatsoever.

-->'''Rab''': You are a crawling manipulative ''snake'' wi'oot a spot ay trust for ''anyone''.

** Harold is also a contrasting character to Richie, the VillainProtagonist of ''DOA''. Both had serious issues even before C-Day, have plenty of UnreliableNarrator moments, and paint the members of their group as being weak or flawed to justify turning on them. Yet Harold’s driven by a twisted sense of love and a desire to strike out at the Crossed, while Richie is incapable of love and focuses on avoiding the Crossed. Harold is far more sadistic and better at hiding what he is, while Richie is poor at disguising his nature, but is more selfish than cruel. Harold also comes a lot closer to achieving his goals than Richie does.

* AnyoneCanDie: Given the setting, it's hard to get attached to many characters, knowing that they will most likely meet a horrible end.

** At the end of ''Quisling'' [[spoiler:Smokey finally gets Oliver after the latter had been trying to destroy the military files. After no-selling the shot from the Glock, he promptly knocks it out of Oliver's hands and throws it down. But since the adjacent room has caught on fire which manages to reach the discharged gun (that has landed in an oil puddle to boot), making it explode, stun Smokey briefly and allow Oliver to break free.]]
** Even the hardened Crossed killer experts are very vulnerable to mundane wounds, and PlotArmor is rarely a thing, if at all. [[spoiler:During an unsuccessful attempt to kill Aoileann, Jackson gets shot and wounded by a Crossed with a handgun. Shaky is ''forced'' to give him a rifle to shoot himself before other Crossed get to him as a result.]]
** Bobby from the final ''Badlands'' story finds out the hard way that actively abusing someone who sold you a place in the bunker will not end well, especially if you lack proper skills required in keeping the bunker operational. [[spoiler: Cody kills him before he can even set foot underground because even he had enough sense to realize Bobby's action-oriented attitude could get the whole group wiped out.]] The same thing happens with Red Mitchell, who despite paying for three floors was still denied access and left to die outside because Crossed were right on his tail. Even Ben, who claimed to be a soldier, was briefly threatened by Cody himself, before being allowed to enter the shelter.

** PretendWeAreDead: The method of fooling the Crossed by painting a red cross on an uninfected humans' face sounds good on paper... Except, as Oliver from ''Quisling'' states, his group had been utilizing such strategy with extreme caution. Not only do they avoid standing in the Crossed's field of view for too long (because the Crossed would inevitably figure the trick out), but getting the ''uninfected'' blood from dead corpses is pretty risky too because most of these bodies would be infected. It would only be made harder if the corpse is headless or otherwise maimed beyond recognition. Similarly, ''The Fatal Englishman'' opens with Harry's crew rescuing Father Dennis and children he swore to protect, who tried the aforementioned trick with paint. Of course, Crossed did not buy it. Furthermore, Harry himself states that he had never ever seen the face paint trick working during the past five years.

** The method of fooling the Crossed by painting a red cross on an uninfected humans' face sounds good on paper... Except, as Oliver from ''Quisling'' states, his group had been utilizing such strategy with extreme caution. Not only do they avoid standing in the Crossed's field of view for too long (because the Crossed would inevitably figure the trick out), but getting the ''uninfected'' blood from dead corpses is pretty risky too because most of these bodies would be infected. It would only be made harder if the corpse is headless or otherwise maimed beyond recognition.
** Similarly, ''The Fatal Englishman'' opens with Harry's crew rescuing Father Dennis and children he swore to protect, who tried the aforementioned trick with paint. Of course, Crossed did not buy it. Furthermore, Harry himself states that he had never ever seen the face paint trick working during the past five years.

** In ''Yellow Belly'' Edmund's [[DirtyCoward tendency to abandon his friends and family]] is more often than not completely justified and is overall pretty realistic in nature. And even though he does try to brave himself up several times through the story, it does not stay for long - just because you decide to change does not mean that you will carry out your decision without problems.
** In the same story we have Edmund's classmates organizing a LastStand in a hunting/fishing shop. Hank Smith (described by Edmund as the coolest) seems like a ReasonableAuthorityFigure to others, and Edmund himself is praised for giving his friends an advantage over the incoming enemy. Does it mean that they will be able to repel the Crossed attack? Nope! The second the infected "geeks" attack the store, they overrun it and kill or infect almost everyone in a matter of minutes. A large group of amateurs with guns going up against a gang of madmen who outnumber them greatly ''and'' are capable of turning them goes as well as you'd expect.
** At the end of the same arc [[spoiler:Edmund finally braces himself and saves Donna the biker chick whose sister he killed by accident (and whose corpse he raped when told so by Harold Lorre). At the end, while he is making out with her after saving her from the Crossed cops, it seems that his risk has paid off... Until Donna smashes his head with a stone, still angry over him killing Nicole. Had Edmund kept his cowardly way, he would have made out of the whole chore alive.]]
** Curtis from ''Homo Tortor'' is a skilled archer yet, as Washington's voiceover puts it clearly, using a bow, despite it's certain perks, puts you at disadvantage against a Crossed, who can and ''will'' NoSell some attacks that might be lethal to a usual human (like an arrow to the eye), much less against a whole ''crowd'' of them. Firing a modern bow is also very difficult and it is awfully easy to fire too early and lose the killing power. Soon enough Curtis switches to a pistol during the bunker siege, [[spoiler:but Washington chooses to indirectly sacrifice him anyway.]]

** In ''Wish You Were Here'' when Shaky reveals his past as the writer when he meets the Gamekeeper the first time, the latter just bursts out cackling and says that having such talent is no longer useful, since there is "no one left to be impressed".
** When Shaky attemps to [[spoiler:sabotage the lottery]] in the first ''Wish You Were Here'' volume, he has Tabitha organise a drawing contest as a distraction [[spoiler:before trying to sneak to the chest with names of the Cava residents chosen for the sortie]]. Unfortunately, having a person organize such contests without much preparations will raise suspicions, and thus Shaky gets confronted by Rab, who realized that something was wrong. As result, Shaky gets a black eye and has to change the approach.
--> '''Rab''': Tabitha just ''decides'' tae ''draw'' us, eh? Ootae the ''blue?'' While youse go caperin' ''off?''. Gimme some ''credit'', lad. I'm no' ''stupid'', y'wee ''fuck!''
** Also 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 first volume of ''Wish You Were Here'' Shaky gets assigned to the sortie team by Rab, who was blackmailed into doing so and kept it a secret. But by the time Shaky returns with his crew, he finds out to his dismay that Rab told others what really happened back then. Did you really expect that Rab would forget the whole incident so easily?
** At the end of the second volume of the same story 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]].
** While the Drift Fleet is a very large and organized group, it lacks experience in fighting Crossed and is pretty vulnerable in general, a weakness that Rab points out. [[spoiler:This is exactly what leads to its downfall at the end of Volume 3.]]

** In the last ''Badlands'' arc [[ClosestThingWeGot the closest thing to a doctor]] the bunker survivors have is Karen the dermatologist, so when she has to perform appendectomy on a man, she fails to save his life exactly ''because'' she is NotThatKindOfDoctor and thus unfamiliar with surgery.
** The same arc shows that just because you can book a place in the apocalypse bunker does not mean that you might make it alive to said bunker when shit does hit the fan. Many of Cody's clients were in city centers when the C-Day hit and thus were all slaughtered by the Crossed, with only those who had convenient means of transportation making it out alive, like Bobby Lee in his helicopter. Cody himself made it a point to purchase a house close to the apocalypse bunker he had designed (without telling his clients to do so as well), meaning that when C-Day hit he was the first to arrive at the bunker on his motorcycle.
** Speaking of Bobby, he finds out the hard way that actively abusing someone who sold you a place in the bunker will not end well, especially if you lack proper skills required in keeping the bunker operational. [[spoiler: Cody kills him before he can even set foot underground because even he had enough sense to realize Bobby's action-oriented attitude could get the whole group wiped out.]] The same thing happens with Red Mitchell, who despite paying for three floors was still denied access and left to die outside because Crossed were right on his tail. Even Ben, who claimed to be a soldier, was briefly threatened by Cody himself, before being allowed to enter the shelter.

* MisplacedWildlife: The "Homo Tortor" arc features saber-toothed cats, mammoths, woolly rhinos, terror birds, and [[SeldomSeenSpecies a Diprotodon]] in Indonesia, as well as horses thousands of years before they were domesticated. [[spoiler: Possibly justified, in that the whole story is implied to be a fake written by a Crossed anthropologist]].

** While ''Shrink'' is set several weeks AfterTheEnd, it takes place in an isolated town where the few residents who haven't fled to the hills are stable enough to carry on normally and try to accomplish something as they wait for a horde of monsters to inevitably follow the roads to the town and rape or torture everyone to death.

* AristocratsAreEvil: Averted with the Thackerys.