Crossed Plus One Hundred 11

Crossed Plus One Hundred No.11 regular cover – art by Rafa Ortiz

Below are annotations for Crossed Plus One Hundred, No. 11 “The Forever War” (20 pages, cover date October 2015, released November 11, 2015)

Writer: Simon Spurrier, Artist: Rafa Ortiz, Series Outline: Alan Moore

>Go to CPOH annotations index
>Go to CPOH timeline
>Go to CPOH language/glossary
>Go to CPOH background, cast of characters

Note: some of this stuff is obvious, but you never know who’s reading this and what their exposure is to any given reference. If there’s anything I missed or got wrong, let me know in comments, or email linton.joe [at] gmail.com

WARNING: SPOILERS

General: Murfreesboro leaders interview refugees from settlements destroyed by Crossed. Taylor argues with Ima’am Fajr about the urgency of an impending Crossed attack, and meets with the albino Bailey. Crossed arrive at Murfreesboro announcing they will return in a week for the settle to “die or deal.”

Cover 

• The only recognizable character on this beautiful Rafa Ortiz cover is Future Taylor, center.
• The second person from the left wears a headband bearing a skull that resembles the Punisher’s skull costume/logo.

Page 1

panel 1

• The woman depicted is Ima’am Fajr.
• The location is the human settlement of Murfreesboro, TN.
• The date is August 11, 2109, or soon thereafter. For the first time so far in CPOH, there is no date specified this issue.
• The mixed-case captions are the journals of Future Taylor.
• The background words appear to be Fajr’s words spoken to Taylor earlier. (?)

panel 2

• The man in white appears to be Holy Mo (introduced CPOH10 P20,p2.)

Page 2

panel 1

• The scene is the burial of Bukrah, who was killed in CPOH10.
• On the right are Mustaqbal and Fajr.

panel 2

• “The faster you run, the slower time kicks” describes Einstein’s theory of time dilation, explained in this Twin Paradox video. Time dilation is a theme of the novel The Forever War – see P4,p1 below.

panel 3

• The foreground figures are Oneway McBlarney (wearing goggles) and Cautious Optimism Kriswyczki (wearing white poncho.)

Page 3

panel 3

• “My Encyclopedia” is The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction by John Clute and Peter Nicholls. Taylor acquired this in CPOH1 P7,p3.

Page 4

panel 1

• The issue’s title “The Forever War” refers to the 1974 science fiction novel The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. Each issue of CPOH has a title theme based on a sci-fi novel.
• First appearance of apparently-albino Bailey (on left.)
• The seated man wears a cap with an L.A. Dodgers logo.
• The logo is unclear on the red cap – appears to contain Saturn (and changes on next page.)

panel 2

• On the right, arms crossed is Future Taylor.
• The woman speaks with a rural midwestern accent.
• “Muska G… Okler home” is the first mention of the human settlement at Muskogee, Oklahoma.

Page 5

panel 3

• “Minding our biz” is “minding our own business.”
• “Odd Gapple loon” is “the odd Gapple balloon.” The balloon from Gapple (short for “The Big Apple” – New York City) was introduced in CPOH3 and featured prominently in CPOH8.
• “Annen” is “and then.”
• “Duncome” is “done come” (meaning “came.”)

panel 4

• “Real-eyes” is “realize.”
• “We ain’t dunopsy a crawss in years” means “we haven’t done opsy [seen] a Crossed in years.”

panel 5

• “Summbits” is “sons-of-bitches.”
• The Crossed extorting humans is the same practice that Taylor saw in Kingstenn (Kingston, TN) in CPOH8.

Page 6 – no specific annotations

Page 7

panel 1-2

• As Fajr states, the “scarred man” is Crossed leader Robbie Greer or Jokemercy, prominent in CPOH1-6.

panel 3

• “Big’N’Low, Arkansas” is the first mention of this human settlement presumably at Bigelow, Arkansas.
• “Lubbock” is likely the city of Lubbock, Texas. Taylor met a tatoo-faced woman in CPOH8 (P7) who stated she was from Lubbock.
• “They noo bout th’ tunnels unnersettle. Came right up mung us.” is “they knew about the tunnels under the settle[ment]. Came right up among us.”

panel 4

• The clerical collar (clearer on P4,p1) and mention of “believer-camp” mean that this man is likely a catholic priest.
• “Sugar Tree” is the first mention of this human settlement, presumably at Sugar Tree, TN.
• “Fayetteville” is the city in southern Tennessee, about 50 miles south of Murfreesboro, TN. Taylor visited Fayetteville, TN, in CPOH8.

panel 5

• “Crawss” are “Crossed.”
• “Gone to church” perhaps means “infected by Crossed” who are called “church-face.”

Page 8

panel 1

• Taylor “was there last m-” (presumably “month”) refers to the first half of CPOH8. Taylor visited Fayetteville on July 29, 2109; the current date is August 11, 2109.

panel 3

• “Resista-” is “resistance.”

panel 5

• “Crossing the sippy, North Memphis.” is “crossing the Mississippi [River].” North Memphis is not a city or a human settlement, but apparently the northern part of the city of Memphis, which Taylor and crew visited in CPOH2.
• “Inhaled on a firesploder. Analled my talk.” is perhaps something like “Inhaled on a grenade (a fire-exploder.) Screwed up my voice.” “Sploder” is consistent with CPOH10 (P11-12) where Future mentions “splosives” and a rejex says “splodotime.”
• “No-mads” are “nomads.”

Page 9

panel 3

• This continues from the food-line incident shown on P2-3 above.

Page 10

panels 3-4

• These form a fixed-camera sequence.

Page 11

panel 1

• For The Forever War and The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, see notes above for P4,p1 and P3,p3 respectively.

panel 2

• “Bukrah’s ground-in” (ie: burial) is shown on P2,p1 above.

panel 4

• “Beau Salt” is the serial killer Crossed leader, see CPOH5.

Page 12 – no specific annotations

Page 13

panel 1

• Given the cross necklace, this appears to be Christian-Muslim conflict.

Page 14 – no specific annotations

Page 15

panel 1

• “[Rejex] were a fun, virtual.” probably uses “a fun” to just mean that the rejex-humans were not a threat. (Thanks commenter dearoldblighty)

panel 4

• “Merge” repeats the statement by one of the rejex humans in CPOH10 P6,p4. The meaning is not entirely clear. Perhaps the species of humans would somehow merge with the Crossed “species”?
  Commenter Peter suggests a plausible explanation: “Merge” likely means that Salt-Crossed see both the original uncivilized Crossed and ordinary not-Crossed humans as in eternal conflict. Salt’s tribe wants the best of both worlds. The honesty and directness of the crossed, tempered with the self-control of the not-crossed. Basically, they want a single new ‘race’ to evolve.

panel 5

• Bailey is outside the door listening.

Page 16 – no specific annotations

Page 17

panels 1-2

• These form a fixed-camera sequence. The conversation has been interrupted by the alarm shown in the next panel. Spurrier and Moore have not used sound effects in CPOH.

panel 6

• This panel sets up a page-turn reveal.

Page 18

panel 1

• The central Crossed woman appeared earlier in CPOH7 P16,p1 where she recognized Taylor. She has one breast (likely a reference to the myth that Amazon warrior women were said to cut off a breast to practice archery more effectively) and wears a human vagina hat and necklace strung with human penises.

panel 2

• “Kingstenn” through “Sugar Tree” are human settlements mentioned on P4-7 above.

Page 19 – no specific annotations

Page 20

panel 3

• Taylor is catching up on her journal entries.
• There are two names (?) written to the right of Taylor’s foot: Fapool(?) Ortiz and Sergio Marjes(?). It is not clear who these people are – perhaps they assisted Rafa Ortiz with the artwork?

THE END

>Go to Crossed Plus One Hundred No. 12 annotations
>Go to Crossed Plus One Hundred Annotation Index