ROUTE 666 #1

By: Tony Whitt
Review Date: Thursday, July 11, 2002

Despite my admiration for the CrossGen project and the enjoyment I got out of the first two monthly collected volumes of other CrossGen titles in FORGE and EDGE, I've wondered whether there would ever be a CrossGen title that didn't feel like it needed a set of Cliffs Notes. Even for relatively straightforward series like RUSE, it's necessary to know that there's a great overreaching plan(TM) that involves two forces in direct conflict with one another. It seemed as if there would never be a book from this company that simply told a story. You'd think I'd know by now never to say "never."

ROUTE 666 may still accrue every bit of the backstory that the other CrossGen titles have amassed, mind you, but if this first issue is anything to go by, it may take a while before we see any connection to that aforementioned, trademarked plan - and thank goodness for it. The series focuses on Cassie Starkweather, a young woman in her first year away at college whose parents have long been worried about her. Seems that when Cassie was young (read this next bit in a whisper) she saw dead people. After she saw her grandfather right after his death, Cassie was taken to counseling, and soon the apparitions vanished. But following a gruesome accident involving her roommate, Cassie has begun to see dead people again - namely, the roommate, who is begging Cassie for help. When two horrific creatures come out of the darkness to drag her roommate away, Cassie figures it's time for help - mental help - but as she continues to see them, and they continue to be aware of her seeing them, she realizes she may be in danger of more than simple insanity.


Tony Bedard's script for this first issue is a compelling and terrifying ride from start to finish - THE SIXTH SENSE can only wish it had been this creepy. Bedard also gets around the difficulties inherent in presenting a character's backstory in a series' first issue in a much more inventive way than most: we hear about Cassie at the same time her new therapist does, when she is committed after her first vision. The result is a script that manages to present all the necessaries without sounding talky or overly expository, aided no doubt by Bedard's careful attention to the pacing of the story. This story really moves, and it's far more interesting than the lurid and somewhat silly cover would have you think.

Odd, that, because the cover is the only misstep artists Karl Modine and John Dell make - it seems to have nothing to do with the story inside. The internal art, by contrast, is far more poised and masterly, with nary a panel out of place. It's also some of the most sinister looking imagery this side of a DC-Vertigo title, and it's by far the darkest thing CrossGen has thus far produced. I've often criticized the CrossGen books for looking too polished and too ornate when the material being illustrated wasn't as distracting as the artwork. In ROUTE 666, Modine and Dell's artwork is a perfect fit with Bedard's script - you won't be sitting around wishing such a "pretty" comic had a story befitting it, nosiree.

And amazingly, there's not a single instance of the famous "sigil" imagery running through the CrossGen line, nor is it even referenced. If there's a higher purpose behind this story, there's no indication of what it is yet, making this one of the company's most forthright titles yet. It also makes for a damn good story.

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