5 out of 5

The comic-ized version of the webcomic, which I never would have known was a webcomic if not for an intriguing back cover blurb about DOA being something of a script for intended filmed episodes…?

Anyhow.

Back in Enny’s Preachery heydays, the majority of what he touched was a pleasant mix of bitterness and brotherhood; love and hate; nostalgia and cynicism.  Yes, it could tip toward cheesiness or over-gore or gross-out, but on the whole, his was a trustworthy name.  In the 00s, when his Avatar books started popping up, it was like a streamlined version of all that was good about Garth.  Perhaps years of work at a major on The Punisher – despite him writing what, to me, is a definitive version of that character (the MAX version, anyway) – had him bottling up whatever was released in the likes of Chronicles of Wormwood, and the first Crossed series (not to mention goodies like .303 and whatnot).  …And cork removed, when Mr. Ennis wanted to switch over to writing ongoings again, like The Boys, some of that reliable quality seemed missing, as though he’d spent his most weighty thoughts on those titles just mentioned and what remained was only a shade of all his usual themes.  I would buy, and find myself disappointed in what felt like forced attempts at commentary or Garthy crassness.  The dude got downright gabby, and all those words were justifications chasing their own tails.

But somehow:

Crossed survived.  There’s been one less-than-stellar Crossed series he’s worked on, but otherwise, Garth kicked off a twisted version of a zombie plague – a truly dark, Ennis version of it – and struck a nerve that has kept twinging well beyond the limits of what I think we all thought was possible.  The other writers who’ve shared in this world have employed their own version of this vision, but the tendency is to go gore with it, which is definitely a core element, but almost besides the point.  Your Romero zombie template is a societal commentary  on our cultural zombification; your Ennis zombie template – The Crossed – is about the end of everything.  And how that end is already contained within us, requiring but an excuse to be let out.

Garth returns now and then to remind the other writers how to exemplify that, exposing the wounds in humanity new and disturbing ways each time – with ‘disturbing’ not necessarily equaling blood and guts.  Dead or Alive is his most filtered variation on that theme.  Daniel Gete’s art is a good match, sharing Burrows’ sense of framing and pacing but with a dash of patheticness to his characters versus Jacen’s coldness that works incredibly well for this brief focus on Richie, and the group of survivors he soon plans to ditch.

This isn’t the best way to understand the depth of The Crossed – the first issues are still the best way to go on that – but Dead or Alive is absolutely an entry point, while also offering returning readers a hard punch in the gut.  You know where it’s going.  But its Ennis’ honed use of restraint that makes it so surprisingly goddamned haunting.