A Housewife and a Hitman Switch Lives in Gail Simone’s Crosswind

Yes, it’s an odd concept, but Simone is the writer who created a Big Giant Head as part of the supporting cast of her Ryan Choi Atom series, and often used Ragdoll—a villain who responsible for his own physical deformities—to ponder the mysteries of life and the universe in her Secret Six run.
And it works, largely because Juniper’s emotional pain is taken as seriously as the life-and-death decisions Bennett must make. Juniper has to deal with the disdain of her teenage step-daughter; sexual harassment by local teenagers that stands as one of the more terrifying, yet realistic segments of sexual abuse that I’ve read; and, worst of all, the disdain of her husband, who addresses Juniper as “Empty-Head.” Is this empathy to Juniper’s situation due to the female creators? It’s hard to say. But these sequences definitely read as if the creators have an insight into female emotional pain.
Meanwhile, Bennett has had to kill someone who was a friend but is suspected of betraying the family. It’s more of a sacrifice than a murder, and it clearly haunts Bennett. He’s the go-to fix-it guy for a mob boss, but instead of being able to breathe easy for a bit, he’s soon pulled into another mess.

The series also works because of the brilliant artwork by Cat Staggs, who handles all the pencils, inks, and colors—an incredible achievement (Simon Bowland handles the lettering). The opening sequence features black against the white of actual snow, and so the blood red comes across as even more chilling. The colors are paralleled in Juniper’s open sequence, which is more ordinary, but no less of a trap for Juniper as Bennett’s job was for him.
By the time you reach the next to last page—where the switch happens—the colors and stories both feature the same shade of green; when the crossover occurs, the background to each character reflects the other.
Image has published a number of noir, science fiction, and fantasy comics with female leads—including the intense Black Magick by Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott and Lazarus, also by Rucka, with art by Michael Lark—but Crosswind strikes me as something unique. First, there’s the choice of Juniper as a lead. There are simply not that many comics that cover the emotional abuse some women undergo in marriage. (The Jennifer Blood series from Dynamite Comics hits some of the same notes, but that lead is definitely not trapped in an abusive marriage, unless she’s the one who’s emotionally abusive.)

I find myself more interested, at this point, in why Juniper choose this jerk that she married, how Bennett will handle the teenage step-daughter, and just what havoc Bennett might create while trapped inside her body, because he doesn’t seem a person tolerant of being called empty-headed, nor does he seem beaten down enough to allow it. Issue #1 teases “The Dinner Party,” which the husband ordered to impress his boss. It’s a gathering that has the opportunity to go south fast but also be darkly hilarious.
As for Juniper, trapped in a hitman’s body, I wonder what she’ll make of her life now that she has greater physical power and a firearm. At what point she’ll realize this life also contains traps?
I’ve seen some concern from the trans community on social media about how the gender-switch will be handled, given the frustrating history of the portrayal of trans characters in comics. Since the switch happens at the end of the first issue, the jury is out, but Simone has consulted members of the trans community in an effort to get it right. Given Bennett has a girlfriend, and Juniper a husband, the gender-switch will have to be confronted, and soon. I have hopes it’ll be as well done as the story in the first issue.