Monday, July 19, 2021

Comics Review: Crossgen Forge #6


This one I bought at Coas Used Bookstore about a month ago.  After I’d read it, I wasn’t quite sure what my opinion of it was and then I forgot about it.  Conception-wise, I’ve never seen a format like this to compare it to.  Essentially, it’s a collection of Crossgen’s monthly comics.  It’s sort of a sampler of their ongoing titles, but in an ongoing series of trades. 

 

For eight issues at $12, I’d guess it would be a pretty good deal if you were interested in collecting all of the titles. (I don’t know what Crossgen was charging for individual titles at the time.)  Otherwise, I’m sure this would be a big waste of money.  This seems like way too much of a niche product.  It’s basically for collectors really into Crossgen titles.  I’ll go over the individual titles.

 

Chronicles #3  


This title is about the pre-Sigil history of the Crossgen universe.  (What does that mean?  I don’t really know.)  This issues features the How I Met Your Mother story of Meridian, which is the sort of steam-punk-ish fantasy title.  It’s very fanciful in conception.  The main draw here is George Perez’s artwork.  (Just kill me for that pun.  I didn’t even realize I’d done it until I reread the line.)  The story is just the backstory for Meridian.  I don’t know the main story enough to really rate this.



 

Meridian #25 and #26

As I said, this is a fantasy story.  #25 has the climax of the fight between the girl that’s the main character and the main villain.  #26 was the aftermath of the conflict and a new direction for the story.  It’s hard to pick up a story at the end and the next part seemed too long and unnecessary.  Steve McNiven’s artwork is tremendous though.



The Negation #7

This is sort of the science fiction one with sort of superheroes.  It seems to be the linchpin in the Crossgen universe and setting up the big villain.  Unfortunately, this issue was just a pointless fight between two groups of people who should be allies.  The artwork was pretty good.


 

The Path #5

Okay, here’s something I don’t have an easy analogue for.  It involves a Viking in feudal Japan that’s friends with a samurai.  Walt Simonson does the artwork.  While he does a great job, unfortunately most of this issue’s art was a highly stylized Medieval depiction of the Viking’s backstory.

 


Sojourn #11

I’ve read some of this one before.  I have one of the trades.  It’s the traditional fantasy entry.  I’ve drawn a bunch of Greg Land’s artwork.  Here though, some of it is a little rough.  He gets better in later issues.  This is another concluding chapter, but leads easily into the next storyline.  This one is probably my favorite, but again, that was because I was more familiar with it. 



 

Crux #14 and #15

With the new MCU sure-failure The Eternals about to come out, I can see an easy comparison here.  It’s the Eternals/Inhumans, but in a far future setting.  They are already in conflict with The Negation.  The artwork is again good, but the large ensemble cast in these two issues is scattered and on separate story tracks.  It was too confusing for me for my first exposure.

 

In the back was a large promotion for a horror-themed comic, Route 666.  I’d remembered there being more Crossgen titles and there were.  There was an ad for Edge, which collected the other six titles from the company.

 

I’m still not sure what to make of all this.  It’s a bit pricey for a sampler.  It might intrigue a new reader into trying certain titles to their taste.  If all of the titles were more interconnected (given the breath of genres and settings, that would be difficult), this sort of trade would make more sense.  At least, I’ve gotten some good future drawing material from this. 

 

As I’ve said before, I think these comics would have worked pretty well as a Wal-Mart exclusives, rather than the Allegiance comics they’re carrying now.  The great artwork and action-oriented titles would have had a broader appeal.  Timing is everything.  I think there’s a lot of disdain for Crossgen (I don’t know the whole company story and don’t want to), but I think it could have worked in the right venue. 

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