Comparing the Crossed to the Rage zombies
To summarize the Crossed comics, a supernatural virus turns humans into psychopathic sadomasochists with 0 impulse control. Their entirely focused on giving and receiving pain and will self-mutilate if they can't find any victims. The self-injury and lack of self-care meant the Crossed died by the millions from infection, injury, disease, hunger, and exposure to the elements. If a person had a mental or neurological disorder before becoming infected, they'll become a "super Crossed" or a Crossed with basic impulse control who can think beyond their next dose of pain. What makes them dangerous is that normal Crossed will rally around them and LEARN their behavior & to put aside their base urges for survival.
In the sequel series Crossed +100, a serial killer made a tribe of Crossed and taught them to delay gratification and plan for the long-term. While the other Crossed were eating their young plus dying from inbreeding and STDs, his Crossed passed their knowledge on to their children, allowing the strain to survive for almost a century. However, their main goal in life was still to torture, maim, and mutilate for pain's sake so they were smart enough to articulate how much they wanted to torture you and negotiate with their victims. Yikes.
Finally, I can analyze the rage zombies from 28 Days Later. Unlike the Crossed (which were an excuse for Ennis to make panels of torture, rape, and cannibalism), the rage zombies are only driven by rage and the desire to unleash it on others via infection or mauling them to death. Like the Crossed, their entirely driven by one urge and can starve to death or run blindly into traps. Great for healthy humans, not so much for the perpetuity of the virus. Enter 28 Years Later, which heavily implies that the rage virus evolved some anger management skills which translates to "yes I'm angry, but the longer I can stay alive, the more I can rage so I'm going to curb my enthusiasm." Both the first and second trailers featured a large infected who seemed to be leading an army of some kind and the bone temple implies there's enough organization among them for large-scale construction. It also looks like the rage zombies have foregone putting on clothes (too angry to get dressed!) but the large zombie looks to be wearing pants implying dexterity. It also seems capable of leading humans into traps (rip to those soldier dudes) so I wouldn't be surprised if it can read, speak, and do a bunch of other complex human things all while gouging out someone's eyes. Overall, as a casual fan of 28 days later and zombie media in general, I am stoked to see this movie.
