So, we reach the penultimate episode of Crossed. After the shocking, terrible events of #7, this issue is more reflective, gives more detail on the wider consequences of the infection, and brillaintly shows how tensions are resolved amongst the survivors in this tragic, devastated world of the Crossed.
There are attempts to try and attempt closure, to allow some to grieve. There are moral choices that make sense in this altered world, where the summary execution of a human because of their treatment of an animal is logical, believable, even justifiable.
Short on the shocking imagery that has made this title somewhat notorious, this issue actually goes a lot deeper in exploring how people survive in this post-Crossed world. It is probably the finest issue to date – immensely readable, sensitive in its portrayal of the choices people make, and how people deal with loss – and it seems to be hitting its stride just as the curtain is about to fall. Maybe Ennis will consider a volume 2 of this title. Maybe Ennis will end the upcoming finale on an unremittingly bleak note (there is certainly a lack of hope throughout the series’ run). I am just glad that Crossed has become more than a one-trick pony, because despite some imagery that is so shocking it is not easy to forget (or even to justify), this title has matured into a terrifying, gripping tale of survival in a world where joy and hope are all but extinguished.
those we left behind 