http://marvel.com/comic_books/issue/37692/ruse_2010_1

Unlike endlessly running series like X-men and Superman, which have no singular plot arc extending over the whole series, and which are constantly looking for new hooks and new directions, twisting and moving aimlessly in this direction, then in that one, CrossGen comics had a very definite arc from beginning to end, and towards the end, everything was really starting to come together.

I adore X-men and all the rest, but CrossGen comics give the impression of having a set idea, a set answer, to everything from the beginning, and being consistent in that through to the end. No retcons, no reinventing the origins of characters.. No little jiggly bits invented by one writer at one time which were then contradicted or ignored by other writers later. Everything explained in Negation War and Solus and the final issues of the series made sense going back to everything set up since issue 1.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=27574

An VERY interesting interview with Axel Alonso. He sais a lot of interesting thigs about Crossgen.

They should NOT be mixed with the MU, not one bit. If Marvel does bring some titles back, and depending what they are.

I will buy.

But no connection to the MU.

CrossGen relaunch of Marvel is a great idea because first of all, Marvel has most of the artists who drew the CrossGen comics.

To relaunch CrossGen is very easy in reality. It’s not necessary to finish the series so far remained incomplete. This can be done later.

The first thing have to do Marvel is finish Negation War, the series in which the Sigil-bearers were facing together to Charon and the Negation universe.
Naturally this must be counted by Tony Bedard and Paul Pelletier. All other series were directed towards what is counted in Negation War.

Having done this and have a new starting point to continue.
You can throw to start five or six series in which the story begins one year after the Negation War and so already have a new starting point to engage readers both old and new.

I also think it is important to try to have the maximum of writers who created Crossgar. It is important to try to reunite Barbara Kesel, Ron Marz, Tony Bedard, Mark Waid and Chuck Dixon. At least this five to keep the essence of the CrossGen histories, having people who knew the full plan.
From here you can already do CrossGen evolve in the new direction that Marvel decides, but always keeping its fantastic nature and taking it very clear that they are not superheroes.

The relaunch is very easy, you just need people to believe that it is possible

I do not agree with that. It’s much more than only that.
The Sigil was the essence of the CrossGen Universe.
A brand of power that had one or more persons in each world of this universe and as such was a great thing. Seeing people quite different, with different cultures living a million miles from each other, in different worlds and carry the same brand.

You could read it all for all the details or just the number that you choose to follow.

The Sigil was a great idea and Marvel has presented a new Sigil so I think we plan to maintain the idea but make it evolve.

As far as most of the books were concerned the sigils were just a maguffin to give a character powers.

I read several Cross-Gen books until the end and was completely unaware of all that backstory he spouted. I was aware that the Sigil powers were there to fight the Negation, but that was just from the publicity for that series.

I think you could do just about all the Sigil books without the interconnected continuity, and just leave it as a recurring motif.

I’d particularly love to see RUSE come back, and I liked both SOJOURN and MERIDIAN. I’d make a very strong caveat that the final volumes (especially of the first and last) which attempt to “wrap up” the storylines be canonically dismissed as a bad drream brought on by food poisoning or some such; they completely undercut what made the original series so appealing.

Ralf, thanks for the explanation, even if it makes me want to run away. Let’s hope the new books are a bit more stand-alone, even if that’s contrary to Marvel’s typical strategies.

I refreshed myself on the history a bit with wikipedia and I think it goes like this. Life starts on Earth with the Atlanteans. Some of them “transition” to a higher state and others stay behind to mentor the emerging humans. Stuff goes wrong, Atlantis sinks, and the mentors are in stasis. Humans evolve themselves and cyclicly attempt their own “transition”. This threw most of them into another dimension called Negation, with one named Charon given infinite power. He eventually decides to come back and conquer this dimension.

The transitioned Atlanteans include Danik and Solusandra, the most powerful. Solusandra creates the sigil-bearers to eventually help fight the Negation. Danik creates aspects of himself (the yellow-eyed character in each book) to mentor the sigil people. The plot of Negation War (2 of 6 issues published) was that the Negation were finally fully invading and the sigil folk were being gathered to oppose them.