Story: "The Closer" (22 Pages)

Credits:

Christopher Priest (plot, script)
ChrisCross (pencils)
Tom Simmons (inks)
Willie Schubert (letters)
Gloria Vasquez (colors)
Dan Thorsland and Alisande Morales (edits)

Feature Character:

Xerø (Coltrane Walker; first appearance; last in flashback in issue #8)

Supporting Characters:

Trent Walker (first appearance; Coltrane's brother; last in flashback in issue #8)
Frank Decker (first appearance; Coltrane's boss; last in flashback in issue #8; next in issue #3)
Charles "Doc" Perry
Darius "Rev" Kirkwood
Eliot "Twig" Richards (first appearance of all three; friends and baseball teammates of Coltrane's)
Sheriff Emmett Lane (first appearance; a St. Claire County Sheriff; in television recording)

Villains:

Carl Maltaño (first appearance; a drug lord; dies)
Juan Emilio Louis Ortega (first appearance; one of Maltaño's bodyguards; dies)
Sid (first appearance)

Other Characters:

Rick (first appearance; a DEA agent; next in issue #5)
Kelli (first appearance; a 27-year-old single mother and waitress; dies)

Comment: The entire series is narrated by Trent Walker for a book he is writing 25 years into the future about the life of his brother Coltrane Walker's life as a Closer.