March 1, 2025

Carry The Xerø

Late again but I am going to continue donations until my next update on March 15th! That’s 20% of all sales in the shop donated to Critical Resistance, so have a look! There are numerous updates to the shop. I’ve been working hard to build out what is available and I’m updating that almost weekly.

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Xero is a comic book written by Christopher Priest, illustrated predominantly by the artist ChrisCross, and published by DC comics from 1997 to 1998. The story, told nonlinearly by an unreliable narrator concerns an elite super spy who has grown disillusioned with his work and wishes to escape the world of intense violence that he inhabits.

Xero is the blond haired blue eyed alter ego of Coltrane Walker, a professional basketball player living in St. Louis, and a Black man. This dichotomy caused some controversy in the lead up to the publication of the first issue, but any doubters to the quality of the story can rest easy. Priest and ChrisCross turned in a nuanced, entertaining, and oracular series that touched on the work of W.E.B. Du Bois and Frantz Fanon while simultaneously critiquing the concept of American Exceptionalism and the United States’ treatment of the rest of the world at the end of the 20th century.

Far from being a cheap and ill-informed marketing ploy, Priest directly foregrounds the twin subjects of race and power that the book brings up, especially as the series entered its final stretch before its premature cancellation with issue 12. In a two part flashback from issues 9 and 10 the audience learns the origins of Xero and Coltrane Walker. We see after a fatal injury Walker and his tech scientist brother recruited by a shadowy agency led by one Frank Decker to work as super spies empowered for assassination so long as it is not on United States soil.

Walker’s body is literally reconstructed with advanced technology and alien DNA (this is a DC comic after all) to make him the perfect super spy and it is during his training that the white “Xero” identity is first placed upon him by his superiors. As Marc Singer “the agency is attempting to program Xero’s loyalty by subsuming him into an artificial racial identity and then testing his devotion to it”.¹ In other words, Walker as Xero is forced to enrobe himself in whiteness at the behest of white superior officers in order to advance white American imperialism explicitly outside the confines of the United States. Written at a time before the usage of CIA black sites was widespread knowledge makes this last point particularly chilling.

As stated above, Xero was cancelled with issue 12 due to low sales. Priest does an admiral job compacting and wrapping up the story in the last two issues or so, but the pressure is evident in how quickly events take place. More jarring is the loss of ChrisCross on art for the final issue. Instead, that task is left to Eric Battle, who does a perfectly fine job. This lack of series co-creator ChrisCross is the only bad mark I can give this comic. Even the usage of Eduardo Barreto as fill in artist for the flashback episodes feels earned. Nevertheless, the fact remains that the book was dropped and since then has remained out of print. Due to a rare deal with DC, the rights for the character of Xero reverted to Priest in 2015 which is the point where most press coverage stops.

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And that is where this piece would stop were it not for a shard of a feeling I got reading the first issue and after. Something that stuck in my head and could not be dislodged until I figured it out. The feeling that I have read this story before. It turns out, the familiarity was staring me in the face.

From 2013 to 2015 Image Comics published a series written by Ales Kot and illustrated by a rotating group of artists titled Zero. The story, told nonlinearly by an unreliable narrator, concerns an elite super spy who has grown disillusioned with his work and wishes to escape the world of intense violence that he inhabits.

Zero by Ales Kot was a critical hit upon publication. I picked it up monthly from my LCS and considered it one of the best contemporary comics of its time. I am on record with this opinion. Many people are. If anything, Kot has suffered criticism for reading and plots that resemble the work of Warren Ellis (ugh) and Grant Morrison a little too much. Yet nowhere have I seen mention or acknowledgment of Priest and Cross’ earlier work Xero. This is especially galling considering how good Zero was when I read it (and reread it!). If anyone has any additional information to contradict me please reach out.

Given the treatment Xero, Priest, and ChrisCross received by DC, it is conceivable that no one caught the similarities. A 12 issue series from 1997 that is now out of print is easily lost afterall. But that argument does not hold much water in this house and misses the point. Xero is worthy of being THE Christopher Priest book. Or THE ChrisCross book. Instead, it’s barely a footnote in their bios, and I blame DC for this. The fact that 15 years later someone else can write a book with virtually the same title and high concept that they are also allowed to finish on their terms is insulting to the quality of work that came before. Furthermore, it calls into question how much of Zero I really liked. Now there will always be a question for me, which is a shame.

Immediately following the cancellation, Priest returned to Marvel to revamp Black Panther— the first Black man to ever write the character nearly 40 years after his first appearance. This take would become a defining version of the character and introduced several elements that made the jump to the silver screen. 50 Cent’s production company optioned Xero ten years ago in 2015—the same year that Zero concluded publication—but there have been no announcements since then.

In researching this subject, I came across two excellent essays that I want to highlight. The first by Marc Singer entitled “Black Skins” and White Masks: Comic Books and the Secret of Race, bears the distinction of being the only remotely longform consideration of Xero that I have been able to unearth. The second, Black Panther, Black Writers, White Audience: Christopher Priest and/vs Reginald Hudlin by Todd Steven Burroughs is an excellent consideration of Priest and Hudlin’s contributions to the character of Black Panther and how that fits into the overall history of comic books and race.² After reading these works I felt that anything I had to add would only dilute the message of the original authors. Instead I encourage you to seek out these publications (most libraries offer JSTOR access with a library card!) to read them for yourselves.

to purchase these books and more, visit me online at https://mostlyfrogs.bigcartel.com/