In Crossed it rare to find an arc where at least one good character isn't underused at least once, often combined with Dropped a Bridge on Him.
- A major example is Richie. after his great Character Development, and role as Shaky's ally in the second volume of Wish You Were Here, being meaningless killed when the death of Viceroy alone would have satisfied that plot requirement.
- Elisa, despite being one of the best-developed and most interesting Cavaites for the first three volumes of Wish You Were Here, gets killed by Dora for aiding Don in his Moral Event Horizon, by escorting the baby and her mother over to Don when there was no real reason Don couldn't have done that himself, this action feels inconsistent with her prior characterization and her presence is sorely missed in Volume Four.
- Mr. Masoud is one of the most prominent Cavaites in the First volume of Wish You Were Here, but has no really plot relevant scenes or lines for the remainder of the series until his Death in the Limelight.
- The Drift Fleet in general gets an incredibly sympathetic and impressive build-up which makes it frustrating how not a single one of them appears to have even put up a good fight against the Crossed, let alone survived. While the destruction of the group as a whole was necessary for the plot, some of its members surviving could have spiced up the final volume of Wish You Were Here. The same can be said about Black Watch soldiers, who get an even shorter end of the stick.
- Oliver's group from Quisling are all competent, interesting characters (except for Tina, but she gets killed pretty fast anyway) who would have been worth following for their own arc, trying to make it to Wyoming while successfully using an inventive Pretend We're Dead method instead of all becoming victims of Oliver's betrayal.
- Edmund's classmates from Yellow Belly start changing their opinion about him once his words about the Crossed turn out to be true, which gives the protagonist a small amount of self-confidence and in turn would have provided some further Character Development for both him and his peers. Unfortunately, Edmund goes back to his old ways the second the Crossed burst into the gun store, whereas his classmates are all massacred or turned shortly afterwards without any fanfare.
- 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 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 One and the fate of the rest of his team is not revealed.
- Mateo in Grave New World initially seems like an enemy and Good Counterpart to Barnes, which makes his own gradual descent into villainy quite a disappointment.
- Speaking of Grave New World, many people from Barnes's crew in his flashback (like Gerry, Leo, and Kimo) had tons of potential, but sadly they get killed off and/or infected early on. Peter Bingham in particular is a genuine Nice Guy with particular hatred of Barnes' regime and Frank's Parental Incest hobby. Unfortunately, he gets left to his fate by Barnes once his purpose is served, and only shows up at the end to lead the Crossed pirates into taking down Barnes's island fortress.
- Craig and the rest of the supply runners from The Lesser of 2 Evils manage to figure out that Morgan and Olivia set them up and display some good survival skills, but none of them make it back to the bridge alive or uninfected.
- Washington's group in Homo Tortor is set up as a real Badass Crew on an impressive quest (even if most of them are being misled about it's nature) but manage to firmly grab hold of the Idiot Ball and the group of survivors puts up a pretty unimpressive showing while none of them besides Washington and Warren get much bonding time or characterization (or make it past the bunker door alive).
- Curtis in particular is described as a daredevil and an archer but gets killed in one of the most random and pointless manners in the entire series in his second issue.
- Lewis, who is described as a Crazy-Prepared hermit and also The Smart Guy, gets incapaciated in the second issue and then dies in the next one without much fanfare.
- Ronnie, who, like Kitrick from the original run, has some shades of a Death Seeker (at least this is what Washington himself speculates), yet commits an extremely rash and pointless decision to sacrifice Curtis to a Crossed horde during the bunker siege before dying himself not too long afterwards.
- Even worse, all these deaths are rendered almost meaningless when Warren later reveals that he found another entrance to the bunker, which has been already opened (though whether it was opened from the inside before or after Washington's group entered the bunker is left unclear).
- Homo Tortor itself has an interesting look in the past which describes the Blood Men and their Crossed-like festivities which wouldn't be out of place in the prehistoric era, but they get pushed aside by the actual Crossed outbreak that starts in their camp, giving only First Brother, First Sister and First Child enough spotlight.
- Cody’s group of fairly well-written doomsday peppers surviving in the bunker had a lot of potential, so seeing all of them sans Cody either die or turn Crossed in an attempt to escape Smokey had soured the taste in the mouths of many and turned the story in a rehash of Quisling.
- The bandaged soldier from Ian's group in the first Badlands arc claims to be Prince Harry and is a fairly memorable character overall, but sadly we never find out if he was speaking the truth about his identity, not even when he gets abruptly killed near the end. Even Ian himself lampshades this.
- Similarly to the above, we never find out anything about the allegedly immune Barry from Jasper's group in Wish You Were Here because he is killed barely an issue after his proper introduction.
- Commander Chief Nathan in Mimic can come across as this due to being too blatantly evil to inspire any emotional investment (or belief that he will survive) from the moment he first appears. If he had any redeeming qualities, he could've caused a good Gray-and-Gray Morality struggle otherwise, given his efforts to liberate the Compound from the Salt Clan.
- Scott, the paramedic of Cindy's group, getting more time to show how his skills transferred to an environment with such limited medical supplies could have been an interesting subplot throughout that volume but He's gone less than a third of the way through it.
- Shirley (who could have had some or all of Haley's role with few changes) and Soaks (whose following Wentz through his Heel–Face Turn doesn't get much focus, and who could have at least lasted for part of the mission to San Diego) in the Gavin Land arc.
- Uncle Eli Pratt had some interesting dynamics within the Pratt family to either support or oppose his brother as Joseph's abuses became harder to ignore, and his nature as a "nutter" possibly being related to something Joseph had done would have been interesting. Instead he dies in his first issue with pretty much no dialogue or plot significance, and before Joseph stops hiding who he is.
- Sutter's motivation to take as many Crossed (and uninfected humans) with his camp as possible before he dies ultimately comes down to his own nihilistic views without as much of a logical explanation of what exactly could have caused him to go on Roaring Rampage of Revenge of such proportions, turning him into a generic villain. While this does make him quite a Hate Sink, the reason behind his destructive behavior could have been explained a bit further.
- Remy Cowell and the people of her North Carolina colony in the first Mimic interquel (set in 2060) story attract a decent bit of interest due to having a lot of the culture of the +100 era, but without as much of the infamous Future Slang, as well as the novelty of being led by James, a Cool Old Guy who survived C-Day. Having a community with the same kind of atmosphere and characters as +100 and a living survivor of the original outbreak could have been a decent long-running story arc, and some fans lament the We Hardly Knew Ye "Shaggy Dog" Story treatment Janes, Remy, and their neighbors get instead.
- The Thin Red Line features characters not holding the Idiot Ball and working diligently to try to prevent the spread of the virus. While Harry and his friends do reappear, the deaths of some of the other characters (Tom and Jackie in particular) feel like a lot of missed potential as it could have been interesting to see how they fare as the plague gets worse and worse.
