4 out of 5

It wanders, it plot-holes, it doesn’t do quite what it set out to do, and CrossGen went belly-up before the series could come to any conclusions.  But man, I would’ve kept reading Route 666.  The initial 6 issues which established the series actually ended up being fairly indicative of how things would shake out – monster-see-er Cassie on the run, the titular route just sort of a background fixture, not given too much importance, and the demons-disguised-as-monsters shtick getting a super gloss-over in favor of keeping the momentum going.  What kept this afloat was how thoroughly Bedard seemed to consider how his characters would respond in a given situation, and allowed his lead full use of her brain in approaching things.  So in a way, we’re zipping past the plot holes because regular Joe wouldn’t stop to question x, y, and z or check behind door number 3 with the bogeyman… they’d shoot and run, which is what Cassie frequently does, getting gutsier along the way as she stumbles into expansions of her power.  The main side character, Sheriff Cisco, isn’t developed quite as gracefully: he loses a son and adapts to monster hunting a bit too easily.  But his tone matches the scenes, and his dialogue and actions ring true, it’s just that Bedard seemed to realize that if he slowed down for some emotional turnpoint, he might lose us.  And it was frankly a wise decision.  In a world where Route went on for 50+ issues or something, I imagine that we would have slowly gotten the details that tell us how these characters are actually dealing with all of the insanity, but during the 22 issues that exist, there just wasn’t time.  The wisdom comes in not trying to jam this stuff in-between panels – some stupid wordy section that tries to explain all the pain away.  That’s dreck we didn’t need and didn’t get.

The series also takes a fairly nice stance on pacing, allowing events to vary between 2 to 3 issues before moving us on.  Occasionally, Bedard writes himself into a corner – he needs Carrie back home, so the issues following six take a backhanded way at getting there – and then he needs to reset the series status quo post that maneuver, and pulls some similar trickery.  But the tone of the series – hovering in a wonderful 80s Goonies-esque spook world – and Cassie’s strength as a character (gotta love a female lead who spends the whole series in a college jacket and jeans) – make this all workable.

As we get closer to some kind of destination (perhaps CrossGen writers suspected they needed to wrap things up when people started jumping ship from the company), Bedard pulls some further interesting plotting maneuvers: he sidesteps the CrossGen sigil thing pretty gracefully without ruining the logic of his own series, and then expands events to a globe-trotting adventure which, sadly, will never be concluded.

Karl Moline’s art along the way, and a small shuffle of inkers and colorists, sealed the deal.  For this type of series, you want something that can go fantastic without seeming cartoonish, and Moline always, always met the demands, tossing in fully realized spaces / backgrounds and smart paneling as well.  The in-house art team (everyone was in house, though, at CG) really did do some great work for the company – good production design; rich, bright, appropriately varied colors and solid inks.  The occasional fill-in artists were also all of quality – a one-shot with John McCrea was a particular surprise.  In that 50+ issue world, it would’ve been awesome to see such guests stopping by for a chance to draw up some ghouls.

So despite those grievances which I mentioned at the start – grievances which would absolutely sink most series – Bedard and Moline seemed to keep the core concept of Route 666 pure and trucking along for its entire run.  It was fun to read.  And good entertainment can overcome a lot of hurdles.