I try to keep my reviews relatively apolitical, but it's hard to read a comic about legal, crowdfunded murder and not immediately think of all the bullseyes lighting up across the world.
In Crowded, a crowdfunding platform called Reapr allows groups of people to pool money in an effort to get someone whacked, legally. Most campaigns don't accrue enough to take off, but Charlie Ellison is an unlucky exception. From an old lady's pistol to an army of devoted murder fans trying to run her into an ambush, Charlie's million-dollar-plus bounty has her squarely in the crosshairs of every bounty hunter, psychopath, and desperate housewife for the next thirty days.
The one thing she does right is hire Vita, the worst-rated bodyguard on Dfend. It looks hopeless, but as it turns out, Vita's poor ratings are because she doesn't like to kill anyone. They want to see her spill blood, and she's focused on keeping them alive. That's what Charlie needs, especially when she continuously undercuts Vita's efforts by finding ways to get them tracked. Of course, Vita's question is what Charlie did to earn such a massive bounty, to which she never quite receives an answer no matter how many times she asks...
Crowded toes a line of being perhaps too direct in its satire of the modern day, but never quite crosses it. Christopher Sebela does a good job of creating a world where everything that's going on is explained, and even that's done with a nice bit of self-aware expository dialogue. The end is reminiscent of Death and Glory, and not just because they're now the two most recent comics I've reviewed; both are designed with a story that blasts through the first six issues, then ends with the world opening up to the main characters and many more things becoming possible compared to what we've already seen.
The question, then, is where does the comic go from here? Almost all stories have to open up as they continue, especially if they're serialized like comics, but Image uses the expanding universe concept fairly consistently, and not always to the best effect. Even great comics like Saga and Low can struggle to maintain their energy as the characters roam into new parts of their worlds (or galaxies) and need time to see what's going on. Whether Crowded avoids this in part depends on how much we'll need explained going forward; presumably Charlie and Vita will at least be in the United States, and maybe the story remains strong throughout. For a first volume, though, it's good, definitely worth picking up, and especially so if you prefer a lot of women or queer characters in leading roles.
Score: 16 dead murder hobos out of 18 sitting outside your house.
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