Review: Crossed 3D Vol. 1

Crossed 3D Vol. 1 (Avatar Press, 2011; softcover)

3-D is in everything these days. Every movie worth it's salt is released in 3-D these days, there are 3-D TV sets out there, and even comic books are in 3-D. 3-D comic books are hardly a new idea, though. Like movies, they date back to the '50s. I remember the last 3-D resurgence in the '80s, buying the Gumby 3-D comics. The 3-D effects worked better in those old comics than they did here because the images were not colored. In Crossed 3D the images are in color, which makes them look funky. The 3-D effects work pretty well overall, but I would have preferred black and white comics in this case.

I love the original Crossed mini-series but have not read the second one (Family Values, due out in hardcover later this year) or the third one (Psychopath, being published "monthly" now), so I am not sure where this one-shot fits in in terms of continuity. I enjoyed this, but not as much as the original series. There is a different creative team involved, and while they do a competent job, it is not as gripping or disturbing as the original series. There's plenty of gore and many social taboos are violated, but it doesn't pack the punch that I was expecting it to. I am not writing off this guilty pleasure of mine just yet. Rather, I will consider this an appetizer to Vol. 2 and it is still worth a read for fans of the series.