A History of CrossGen Comics (kinda Abridged)

So it has been a while since I last posted something here, but now that I have finally begun to really settle into being back at school I will hopefully update once a week. Anyway, I have been thinking about possible topics to write about here and I have now come to a conclusion about what to write about: CrossGen Comics.

CrossGen Comics was a comic publishing company in the late 90s and early 00s. The company was founded with the idea that they would publish non-superhero comics that were connected by a theme, but not by characters, stories or worlds. When the company launched, their first wave of comics were only connected by a symbol that was located in different locations on each of the main characters' bodies. Depending on the character's setting, the symbol, or as they called it the Sigil, would manifest different powers. The only other shared trait of the comics was that each comic had a orange-eyed mentor who would help guide the sigil-bearers.

CrossGen launched with four monthly titles and a bi-monthly title that helped to fill in the history of the characters in the CrossGen universe. The four launch titles had a lot of variety, but equal amounts of story. There was Sigil, a sci-fi space opera, Mystic, a fantasy story set on a world full of magic, Meridian, the closest thing to a soap opera in comic book form, and Scion, a Arthurian-style fantasy adventure set on a world that utilizes sci-fi technology. My personal experience with CrossGen's comics is that they tell a similar story to what one would find in a book, but without relying on one's imagination (super-hero comics don't do that).

Eventually, CrossGen began adding more titles to their prime universe that ranged from mythological stories to some not so down to earth detective stories. Soon after that, the company began to publish licensed comics (that would be comics based off of books, TV shows, etc.) at which point they changed their name to CrossGen Entertainment. Shortly after the name change, the company went against their original mandate and began to build to a company wide story that would take place in a six issue mini-series. Before beginning this story, all of the original, and several of the later, titles were canceled so that the company was not making their readers pay more to get this story. However, the company ended up filing for bankruptcy before the mini-series was finished which also resulted in several of their other comics being canceled mid-story.

That would have been the end of CrossGen except that Disney had an interest in one of their properties and decided to buy up all of CrossGen's intellectual properties. However, in the six years since Disney bought the properties nothing has been done with them other than there being a few collections released by Checker Books. Well, nothing until this past summer. At this year's San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel Comic's editor-in-chief Joe Quesada teased the possibility of a revival for the properties at Marvel (this is a real possibility since Disney now owns Marvel). So far nothing has been announced, but all of the original CrossGen creators seem to be behind this idea so I will remain optimistic that there will be new life for these characters.