Slugfest!

The first story arc titled Love Will Get You Killed comes to a close this week in
Jack Cross # 4. This series features characters written and created by Warren Ellis and artwork by Gary Erskine.

In the opening scene in the first issue, four-armed assailants, a girl, a mechanic, a mailman, and a shooter, steal a suitcase from a group of South African men in a Chicago tenement and blow up the building to cover their tracks. So the questions: what's in the briefcase? and who's gone to extremes to acquire it? form the basis for this four-issue thriller.

National Security Council operative Karen Huang calls in Cross to interrogate a Department of Homeland Security agent, James Wilkie, who has been captured after he turned on his own security team as they were intercepting the suitcase weapon from a South African terrorist outfit: PAGAD, or People Against Gangsterism and Drugs. In exchange for interrogating Wilkie, Cross gets "two million dollars and an additional three years of total freedom and official nonexistance"; presumably to continue with his political activism, like staging a protest march in San Francisco that includes "takes against the occupation, rights infringement, and the way the country's changing."

Under the watchful eyes of DHS assistant-director Tom Morden, Cross uses some unforgiving tactics on Wilkie and uncovers a CIA cell hidden within DHS. In the second issue, Wilkie explains that the weapon is a Neurological Derangement System device: a non-lethal psychotronic warfare unit which induces a specific kind of permanent brain damage, making its victims docile. Wilkie went rogue in an effort to acquire the weapon as a bargaining chip to free Yasamin Saad, an anti-Saddam activist he believes is wrongly interned at Guatanamo Bay...who he happens to be sweet on. (aww!) But as no good deed goes unpunished, a back-end PAGAD squad foils Wilkie's scheme and acquires the briefcase, leaving him alive to lie his way out of the mess he's created.

After a little more harsh treatment, Wilkie divulges the members of his cell: Paul Philip Pogue, Harry Gouvea, John N.J. Snow. Then Cross promptly shoots him in the head. Assistant-director Morden immediately confronts Cross, who responds by putting him in his place saying, "You don't get to question me. I have sold my sanity for the last ten years in defense of this country. Real defense. Real threats. Including the ones we made ourselves."

When Jack flies to Miami for a rendezvous at Guatanamo Bay, Cuba, he is met by Lauren Charlton, a DHS agent assigned by Morden as a "handler" for Cross. While Charlton drives Cross to his hotel, they exchange stories and find they have a bit in common, as they both grew up as military brats. Cross soon realizes they are being tailed and pulls some high powered slugfest! action to stop his assailants. Artist Gary Erskine uses some Sam Pekinpah style techinques as he slows the action down to a frame by frame pace to develop nuances of this graphic sequence. Cross and Charlton bring their vehicle to a stop and approach the dying men who mumble, "...killed my people..blew up the whole house...and you call us terrorists...." Cross recognizes the accent as South African. Back at the hotel, Cross contacts Huang as news reports of the Chicago tenement bombing are hitting the TV airwaves. Jack surmises the device Wilke was trying to acquire is still at play.

Issue three begins the next day, as Cross and Charlton arrive at Guantanamo to meet with Yasamin Saad to learn more about the Neurological Derangement System, or NDS device. A chaplin accompanies Saad and remains in the interrogation room along with Charlton as Saad explains that DHS agents contacted her two weeks prior. But when Cross asks for the names of the DHS agents, all-out action cuts loose as the not-so-holy chaplin pulls out a high-powered weapon to prevent Saad from talking! After 6 pulse-pounding pages of slugfest! action, Cross uses more of his convincing techniques to get the vicar to reveal that he's actually CIA. And not only that, he recognizes Cross and calls him by his real name, John Craske. Saad then reveals the names of the visitors: Snow, Pogue, and Gouvea....the CIA operatives in Wilkie's cell planted in the Department of Homeland Security!

Cross hustles it out of Guantanamo, contacts Huang to prepare a jet in anticipation of their arrival, and along with Charlton, boards a helicopter to return to the mainland. But it's out of the frying pan and into the fire as an aggressive Apache helicopter targets them and shoots to kill! This time it's 7 pages of slugfest! action in the air! Agent Charlton reminds Cross he is in an unarmed helicopter, and Jack tells her: "Guns make you stupid. Guns make you forget that anything can be a weapon." Then he directs the helicopter toward the side of the Apache resulting in a collision that spells the end for the instigators.

Later, back at the FBI office in Miami, issue three concludes as Cross posits that the National Security Council should have enough evidence to make the CIA "come clean." Karen Huang shows up by surprise and informs them that on the guarantee of agency immunity, the CIA director revealed that the device is in San Francisco and is going to be used on the protestors in order to quell civil disobedience in the bay area for a generation. Huang says, "The CIA doesn't have to guarantee free speech to anyone. Protestors aid the terrorists. Heard that one before?"

So as issue four begins, Warren Ellis completely blurs the line between comicbook reality, current events, and his own personal agenda.

Cross now has a personal stake in the matter since he organized the protest march. Ellis reveals his entire plot: In our post-911 world, the Department of Homeland Security is comprised of sixteen agencies including the FBI. DHS does not include the CIA. Ellis proposes that DHS was created to snub the CIA for their failure on 9-11, and the FBI was included in DHS to allow them "to make good."



So, back in comicbook reality, the CIA has infiltrated the DHS with two cells: 1) Wilkie, Snow, Pogue, and Gouvea ; and 2) the backup cell of assailants who blew up the tenement at the beginning of the story: the girl, the mechanic, the mailman, and the shooter. All in an effort to use the weapon on protestors undermining governmental authority by expressing free speech, and to pin it on the DHS. On the jet ride to Chicago, Warren Ellis again uses Cross to prostelitize, proposing that since there was no terrorist activity on the Millennium, the intelligence community did their job....without the aid of DHS or "without impacting the rights of the American people or our visitors. Free speech is not a terrorist activity."

As they land in Chicago, they are met by the FBI and board a helicopter. Cross and Charlton continue their conversation, and Charlton questions how protesting will change anything. Jack responds with another question: "What did taxation without representation change?" Charlton responds, "Not a lot without the revolutionary war." And Cross gets the last word in: "Then maybe that's next."

Pretty heavy handed stuff for a comic book, if you ask me! So where the slugfest!?! action??? Why, on the next page! It's practically non-stop slugfest! action for the rest of the book!

With photo IDs of Snow, Gouvea, and Pogue in hand, the FBI spots Pogue. Cross wastes no time. As he directs the helicopter pilot to decend, he grabs a rope until he low enough to drop onto the roof of a car....glass flying in every direction from the impact. He targets and assaults Pogue with a direct hit! But Snow is close by, and although he arrives too late to provide back-up, he engages Cross in a fire-fight while they use parked cars for cover. Next, Jack uses his marksman skills to puncture the gas tank of the car Snow is hiding behind. He then lights his lighter and sends it toward the puddle of gasoline spilling onto the street, engulfing Snow in a ball of fire as the vehicle erupts into flames!

The protestors march on and we see single panels of the surviving members of the cells. Time ticks by as the Neurological Derangement System device is primed for detonation. Gouvea spots Cross and fires a slug that hits him in the gut! But Cross' training supercedes the pain and he puts a bullet in Gouvea's brain and keeps moving.

Meanwhile, Agent Charlton has the helicopter land and proceeds on foot in search of Jack. Amidst the protest march, Cross fires his gun into the air causing the crowd to disperse. Well, that is everybody except the man with the briefcase! In the final confrontation, Jack points his gun and directs him to give up. Then the shocker! He hears the voice behind him instruct him to do the same; it's Lauren Charlton....revealed as "the girl" in the second deep-cover cell! She tells him, "...there has to be limits to freedom. Because dissent scares people. Jack you kill him. I kill you." Cross responds, "See? Guns make people stupid."

Then Jack fires a direct hit at the briefcase device which bursts into flames. Charlton fires the bullet, which Cross has anticipated. It strikes Jack in upper left arm as he turns and fires a bullet through Agent Charlton's heart, then turns to the man engulfed in flames and does the same. Before Cross blacks out, he see Karen Huang standing over him, reassuring him that help is on the way.

The story closes with BBC news reports stating the tenement explosion was a result of a "gas leak" and CIA director George Tarrant was found dead at home in an apparent "burglary gone wrong."

In the end, Jack is back at home recovering from his wounds. And adding a little cross-shaped cutting to his body in memory of Lauren Charlton, as he does for every person he sends to the grave.

Warren Ellis gives a whole new meaning to the old adage: Just because you think you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you. Even if you not a huge fan of his work, you have to admit he is certainly one comicdom's most prolific modern writers. But from my own perspective, he seem to be one who's work shines when under close editorial scrutiny. I say this because some of his stories published independently seem to lack the focus of work he has generated through mainstream publishers. However, I enjoy reading stories featuring characters he has created rather than see him redefine or remain constrained to previous continuity.

Jack Cross, like many of Ellis' other characters, is a tough-as-nails maverick, whose single-mindedness plays out in dead ahead storytelling. With Cross, Ellis gambles blending elements of science-fiction and the dangers of jingoism, into a character with questionable moral idealism. Ellis liberally uses Cross as a platform for his personal opinions; much of it bordering on didacticism....in other word, sometimes Ellis seems to take himself a little too seriously! For example, when in the FBI offices in Miami, Cross lectures Charlton on the definition of a conspiracy by saying, "When someone is ordering an operation, and others are tasked to perform it, that's not a conspiracy." Or when on route to the protest, Charlton says, "It's not a global village we're in. It's a global city. And people who live in the city don't leave their doors unlocked." C'mon Ellis! Lighten up a bit!

DC seems to be taking a chance publishing this book sporting a DC logo, as it seems it would more logically fit under the Vertigo imprint. I seriously doubt that Batman or Superman will be showing up within the pages of this book....ever. But more and more, DC seems to be including titles like Jack Cross or the upcoming return of Steve Gerber's Hard Time under the DC umbrella. Perhaps they are considering collapsing the Vertigo imprint post-Infinite Crisis.

Although the indicia states this is a monthly title, anyone who reads Planetary knows Warren Ellis won't be held to a timeline! So it's no surprise that the next issue blurb says, "Stay tuned, in a few months, for the next chapter in the Jack Cross saga!" And those of you who enjoyed it....will. Hey, I'd rather wait and see a complete story released in a timely manner than have to wait months for them to finish it. Wouldn't you?