ROUTE 666
COMIC BOOK REVIEW

		Review by Jimmy Z
FIGHT CENSORSHIP SUPPORT CBLDF ROUTE 666 - 2003 Writer: Tony Bedard Artist: Karl Moline CrossGen $2.95

The current issue of this is #12. ROUTE 666 takes place in a place called Empyrean. Empyrean seems an awful lot like 1950's era USA. Even down to the paranoia of Communists coming and taking over. The thing about Empyrean though, Communists are the least of their troubles. Seems there are evil shapeshifters inundating their population. The shapeshifters aren't that bad, except that they like to eat the regular folks (and usually refer to them as cattle.)

Along comes the heroine of the story. Cassandra Starkweather. She has discovered that she can see the true faces of these shapeshifters. Their true faces aren't that cute. Not to mention that their true faces are a dead giveaway that they aren't really human. The problem Cassie has is that when she mentions these creatures she sees it doesn't go over well. Her first stop is an insane asylum. After being falsely accused of murder she manages to go on the run from the authorities. The bad guys have long since discovered that being in the positions of power makes their lives much easier.

In the early issues of this series we see her coming to terms with not just the new view of the world she can see: Also there is the ghost of her grandfather that keeps popping up and helping to guide her in times of difficulty. She hooked up briefly with a serial killer (which didn't help her too much when dealing with the "human" authorities.) And in the most recently completed story arc she got mixed up with a carnival.

The current story arc has Cassie in a position of helplessness. She was given a gift from some carnival folk that backfired tremendously. She no longer remembers the events since she discovered the shapeshifters. She can no longer see them for what they are. The last thing she remembers was the math assignment she had to do for school. But the bad guys are still looking for her.

This is a very fun and well written series. Even though Cassie is living a life that would best be seen on the silver screen, the creators keep it going. They manage to make it into a real life scenario. For all we know, it could be. Just because we can't see the monsters amongst us doesn't mean they aren't there.

This is one of the many, many comics I get each month. When I get home with ROUTE 666 it goes immediately to the top of the reading pile (in fairness, most CrossGen material goes to the top, but ROUTE 666 is above the other CrossGen titles.)

I give the series as a whole a strong 4 rabid fanboys. Issue 12 is slightly below par for the series, but it is starting off what looks to be an interesting new story arc.

One of the wonderful things that CrossGen as a company does is collections. Every comic they print they put into a collection. "Highway of Horror" is the first collection for ROUTE 666. It contains the first 6 issues for $15.95 (hmm…let's see here. I bought every issue as it came out at $2.95. That makes the first 6 $17.70. That means that the collections are a darn good deal.)

This review copyright 2003 E.C.McMullen Jr.

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