Crosswind is published by Image Comics. It is written by Gail Simone with art by Cat Staggs.
Alright, I’m starting to really like Cason as a mom. He doesn’t even know Kelley, and Cason is a pretty bad dude…I mean, he kills people and sleeps with co-workers fiancees. He doesn’t seem like the type who would just accept being a woman and dealing with a stepson. But here he is. Granted, he’s being very reckless, but he went after these boys who bully Juniper’s stepson without hesitation.
He could have ignored Kelley or even berated him, but he didn’t. The man may be a murderer, but he is all about class and respect. He smacked the kids who harass Juniper with a frying pan AND insulted their mothers. Then, then he kneed Juniper’s husband in the balls for cheating on her. Every issue he does something cooler. I feel like I shouldn’t like him as much as I do.
On the other hand, I’m still slow to fall in love with Juniper as Cason. She is so timid, so beat down by pretty much everyone in her life that she can barely even function. I’m sure it’d be hard to suddenly be in a man’s body, let alone a man who works for the mob and is potentially a rat, but get your shit together, woman. You don’t have a choice. Like you said before, this is survival. You don’t have time to waste with “let’s just talk it out.” She’s also incredibly, almost painfully, naive. Again, I know she’s in a man’s body, new experience and stuff, but Cruz says to you “stop messing with my fiancee” and you IMMEDIATELY go out with his fiancee because you want to treat yourself? Yeah. That’s totally not going to backfire.
I really like the addition of Maizy, a trans (and clearly badass) woman, who definitely hates Juniper (Cason) at first but when he comes to her for advice on how to be more womanly, she helps. Well, at least it didn’t click for me until that line. There was also Mika, Cruz’s fiancee. I wish she would have had more face time, she seemed pretty cool too but we only got to see her for like four pages. There’s also Mr. Randolph, who is old but is also terrifying because he killed his assistant with gardening shears just because he was worried about his heart.
The best part though was Cason (Juniper) and Juniper (Cason) finally talking to one another. Even though it was just on the phone, we can glean so much from them talking to each other because they are the only person who knows what the other is dealing with. However, while Juniper (Cason) seems like he is actually giving Cason (Juniper) some new insight and understanding regarding her family, she doesn’t really provide him with anything except Cruz knows about him and Mika and that’s honestly more her problem than his right now.
But let’s talk about what I didn’t like. I am having a really hard time with the style of this comic. I like how the characters are drawn but not how they….look? I guess? It seems like it’s supposed to be almost 3D looking but also water colors but also really bold and detailed. It’s just a lot going on and it seems overly complicated. It’s also honestly hard to tell who someone is sometimes. Which brings me to another concern, everyone looks the same.
I love Gail Simone because of how she writes women and because of how diverse she is with characters. But in this series, so far, there is a major lack of diversity. There’s one African American character (who I don’t think is long for this world) and one trans woman…everyone else is white (though it’s hard to tell with the crazy coloring style) and straight (from what I can tell).
OVERALL SCORE: 8 / 10
I was not as enthralled by this issue as I have been with the previous three, but I still liked it and I’m still excited to read this story.
Make sure you pick up Crosswind #4 from your local comic store!
Happy reading!
