Crossed Plus One Hundred References in Earlier Crossed Comics

After reading the first few issues of Crossed Plus One Hundred (CPOH), I read the original Crossed comics arc, Volume 1 (CV1), by Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows. These comics came out in 2008. The first 10 issues (numbered 0-9) have been collected as a trade paperback.

There’s one very overt visual reference to CV1 on P1,p1 of CPOH4. There are also a handful of places where plot elements from CV1 show up in CPOH – detailed below.

WARNING: SPOILERS.

Crossed Volume 1 surprise reference, Crossed No.3, Page 13, panel 6, written by Garth Ennis, drawn by Jacen Burrows

1. Early Use of the Term “Surprise”

In 2108, the CPOH humans refer to the initial 2008 Crossed disease outbreak as “The Surprise.” In CV1, there’s no universal name for the outbreak, but there is one panel (Crossed No.3 P13,p6) where a character named Cindy is speaking to a character Stan, and refers to “a surprise you won’t come back from.”

2. Use of Profanity

There are lots of expletives in CV1. There is a mom (Cindy) and her child son, and the mother is frequently telling the other characters to watch their language around her son. When Stan and Thomas talk, they banter “f*** you” back and forth playfully. So… with swearing so common place in CPOH, it looks like Moore has taken Ennis’ initial fairly expletive-laden 2008 and projected it into a future where swearing becomes common place.

Crossed Volume 1 wolves detail of Crossed No. 5, Pages 20-21, written by Garth Ennis, drawn by Jacen Burrows

3. Wolves

There’s a double-page spread on Pages 18-19 of CPOH1 that shows a pack of wolves stampeding through Jackson, TN. There’s a peaceful double-page spread of wolves on Pages 20-21 of Crossed No. 5. It is also a page turn reveal, common in CPOH. On the final panels of page 19, Cindy points to something the reader can’t see, and Stan is looking surprised, then we turn the page to reveal the scene: wolves!

It’s not the same wolves or anything, but I think Moore and Andrade’s spread is sort of echoing this earlier scene.

Crossed Volume 1 salt reference, Crossed No. 1, P7, panel 3-4 detail, written by Garth Ennis, drawn by Jacen Burrows

4. Use of Salt

Early on in CV1 (Crossed No.1, P7 and onward in that issue) one human concludes that salt will kill the Crossed. He’s wrong, and pays the price for his error. In CPOH there are Crossed altars that have salt, ultimately tied to the Crossed leader Beau Salt. The 2108 salt stuff is unrelated to the salt incident 100 years earlier, but perhaps Moore is playing with similar plot elements.

5. Revealing the Presence of a Serial Killer

In Crossed No.6 (part 7 in the trade paperback) on P19, panels 1-2, an old man character Geoff speaks about his backstory revealing that he “used to pick up young men… torture them until they were dead and cut them up into pieces… bury them under [his] house.” The plot of CPOH1-6 hinges on serial killer Beau Salt. I think that these serial killers are foils for the Crossed, showing that a few depraved non-Crossed humans can be just as horrible as the Crossed are.

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