Crossed: Family Values, what did you think of it? [Spoilers]

[abysslord]

I don't know if my post has spoilers really but someone might discuss specifics so I put it in the thread title anyway.

Well the last issue came out this week, just finished it. I felt this series tried to push boundaries just for the sake of it sometimes, as opposed to the first mini. I also felt it ended a bit flat, but maybe they'll come back to this storyline, as well as the first one, sometimes in the future.

I'm looking forward to the new mini coming out though, so far this series has been a really good read.

[BobBretall]

Won't get #7 until next week, I can post about it then.

Up thru #6, I don't think Family Values has been as strong as the 1st Crossed series in general.

[Frank Castle]

I enjoyed David Lapham's series, it was dark and depressing and fits well into the Crossed world that Ennis created. My big complaint is that it felt like he was throwing in a lot of the shocking moments for the sake of being shocking. And because Avatar lets them do whatever they want!!

Where Ennis excelled in series one is that he showed you in the first issue that he could go there any time he wanted but instead implied the rest of the way. That is one reason the first series was stronger IMO.

but I'm on board for series 3 and OGN that is coming out too. Then I hear Ennis going back to the series at some point too. Turning into a nice little franchise.

[mikemclarty]

I don't know if my post has spoilers really but someone might discuss specifics so I put it in the thread title anyway.

Well the last issue came out this week, just finished it. I felt this series tried to push boundaries just for the sake of it sometimes, as opposed to the first mini. I also felt it ended a bit flat, but maybe they'll come back to this storyline, as well as the first one, sometimes in the future.

I'm looking forward to the new mini coming out though, so far this series has been a really good read.

I rather liked it. I did a pretty comprehensive review for it over at Major Spoilers:
http://www.majorspoilers.com/review-cro ... y-values-7

As you can probably imagine, the review does contain some light spoilers.

[comicm]

I must be in the minority here because I thought Family Values was a lot better than the Ennis series.

[BobBretall]

I'm not a big fan of the "whacked-out Mormon guy is really a child molester and goes crazy" kind of story themes....... I've seen that story trope too many times & didn't need to see it shoe-horned into a Crossed story.

Sure, they eventually became crossed, but the whole "Mommy's coming for you" thing was weird (even for crossed).

Just my own opinion. I liked the Horsec**k guy as a bad-guy better.

[abysslord]

My biggest gripe was the family wasn't distinct enough to care. You have the lead person, but her brothers/sisters were interchangeable and I never knew who was who, and turns out it didn't matter.

I also think a lot of the violence shown was more of a "What is the sickest thing we can think of?" thing than following the story necessarily.....but maybe there was some of that in the first series too.

[comicm]

I find the survivors much more interesting in Laphams Crossed. The first Crossed I could care less about the survivors. I think the strong daughter that turned against her corrupt father was more interesting. Lapham has always been over the top so I expected some of this. Some of the scenes in Family Values made me very uncomfortable but I expect no less from Crossed.

[BobBretall]

My biggest gripe was the family wasn't distinct enough to care. You have the lead person, but her brothers/sisters were interchangeable and I never knew who was who, and turns out it didn't matter.

I'm in agreement with what Abysslord writes. I liked the lead female, very strong character but all the other siblings just seemed to "be there". When the brother lost the leg in the sewer battle, it had zero impact on me, I really didn't care about him at all.

As to the violence, I think dreaming up the most twisted stuff imaginable is kind of the "Crossed thing". They could probably dial that back a couple of notches and still be as effective, because some of the crazy stuff is just there for shock value as opposed to making story sense.