FORGE #2

Rating:
Summary: CrossGen is impressive
Review: Based on the recommendation of a friend, I had decided to check out CrossGen's Ruse series (by Mark Waid and Butch Guice), seeing as how its storyline about a Sherlock Holmes-type character with a (secretly) magic-wielding woman sidekick was right up my alley. He also recommended that I take a look at CrossGen's other stuff, which I wanted to, however I didn't like the idea of jumping on-board for series that had already started. And then along come Forge and Edge. While some series still start partway through, there are nice synopses included to bring the reader up to speed. Here is a review of each comic included in the compendia:

Sojourn prequel and #1 (5 out of 5)
If you've wanted to see a Tolkien comic, here's your chance. It begins with a preview issue that sets up the world. The evil Mordath has the world of Quin in the grip of terror, but the Five Lands have united under the brave Ayden to end his reign. After Mordath's defeat, Ayden declines leadership but promises to return some day when he is most needed. In issue #1, Mordath has been resurrected and begins his conquest anew. During a raid by Mordath's troll army on the city of Gerrindor, the family of a young warrior woman named Arwyn is brutally murdered. She vows to avenge their deaths by destroying Mordath once and for all.

Negation prequel (4 out of 5)
A disparate group of beings are placed together on an alien world, and each person has been given strange powers. A man known as Kaine wishes to get to the bottom of the mystery and seeks to find the Negation, the mysterious overlords responsible for it all.

Meridian #15 (5 out of 5)
This is one of the best comics on the market right now. This continues the adventures of Sephie, a young girl who is the rightful ruler of Meridian after the death of her father, displaced by her evil uncle Ilahn. Like Ilahn, she has been gifted with a strange sigil that gives her extroardinary powers. After reading this, I immediate bought the two Meridian trades (ISBN: 1931484031 and 1931484090).

Crux #1-3 (3 out of 5)
This details the story of a group of super-powered Atlanteans who undergo a long period of sleep and wake up after the disappearance of humans from the Earth.

The Path preview (3 out of 5)
A collection of promotional and conceptual art for the upcoming Kurosawa-esque series.

Forge (along with Edge) makes the perfect sampler for the world of CrossGen. You can collect all of their series at a low price (with no compromise in quality). I am continually impressed at how they have been able to release comics that easily rival those put out by the big two. If you're a fan of genre fiction, don't pass these compendia up!

Rating:
Summary: Forge # 11
Review: Issue 11 of the monthly Forge collection contains comics originally released individually as The Path # 10, Negation # 13, Crux # 21, Meridian # 31, Sojourn # 18, and Route 666 # 6 & 7, collectively showcasing a nice combination of value, key story points and pleasing art.

Samurai flavored The Path, space war torn Negation, and medieval fantasy Sojourn provide quality installments. Greg Land's art for this issue of Sojourn is great. Some may not like the liberal use of black ink over Bart Sears' pencils on The Path, but the result is very satisfying.

Fantasy Meridian lacks Steve McNiven's art but contains some political events worth following.

Heroine Cassie's continued interaction with a murderer is good stuff in horror story Route 666, but I groaned a little at the peculiarities of the agents tracking her.

Happenings in Crux mostly provide transition to future tales.

Sensitive readers should be advised most of the stories contain violence.

Forge packages these issues in a format smaller than the original single issue releases, retaining image quality yet lowering cost significantly. Suitable for those on a budget, those exploring comics offerings, as story introductions are provided, and those regular readers who want a better way to preserve and display their comics. Collections dedicated to earlier issues of the ongoing comics included are also available, with these very stories likely to become part of future such collections as well.

Rating:
Summary: Forge # 11
Review: Issue 11 of the monthly Forge collection contains comics originally released individually as The Path # 10, Negation # 13, Crux # 21, Meridian # 31, Sojourn # 18, and Route 666 # 6 & 7, collectively showcasing a nice combination of value, key story points and pleasing art.

Samurai flavored The Path, space war torn Negation, and medieval fantasy Sojourn provide quality installments. Greg Land's art for this issue of Sojourn is great. Some may not like the liberal use of black ink over Bart Sears' pencils on The Path, but the result is very satisfying.

Fantasy Meridian lacks Steve McNiven's art but contains some political events worth following.

Heroine Cassie's continued interaction with a murderer is good stuff in horror story Route 666, but I groaned a little at the peculiarities of the agents tracking her.

Happenings in Crux mostly provide transition to future tales.

Sensitive readers should be advised most of the stories contain violence.

Forge packages these issues in a format smaller than the original single issue releases, retaining image quality yet lowering cost significantly. Suitable for those on a budget, those exploring comics offerings, as story introductions are provided, and those regular readers who want a better way to preserve and display their comics. Collections dedicated to earlier issues of the ongoing comics included are also available, with these very stories likely to become part of future such collections as well.

Rating:
Summary: Forge #1
Review: This is a very convenient way to enter a fascinating and beautiful world of Crossgen Comics. This anthology contains 5 stories of different fiction genres with varied styles of art and great storytelling. Three of the five series center on strong and fascinating female charactors which is quite unusual in the comic world. These gals are real characters not just eye candy as is often the case in comics (Its okay guys, by some quirk of fate, these gals also happen to be attractive.)

Another nice thing about this Forge anothology is that 4 of the 5 anthologized stories start from the beginning. The Meridan series starts with comic 15, just over year into the story, and is the only where the reader needs to play catch up. You can purchase the two preious graphic novels on Amazon...

The Meridan series is about an older teenage girl who recieves mysterious powers when her father dies. She inherits leadership of the floating island of Meridan and must fight her similarly powered but evil uncle to liberate her home. This comic is designed to appeal to young women but older folks and many males have found them selves enjoying the series. The artists have done a wonderful job portraying this fantastic world where wooden ships sale the skys and people have no knowledge that life exists beyond their worlds.

The Negation is a grimmer series that introduces a previously unknown Universe ruled by an all powerful, god-like evil emperor. He orders 100 beings from the original universe captured and placed on a prison world for study. Kane, a human with no special powers except those developed through extensive military training, is the hero of the Negation series. It starts out as a prison drama but some of the prisoners escape and they begin their flight across the Negation universe. Several of Kane's companions have special powers that they are do not work as they used to back in their former universe. Of special interest is a female character, Evenlea, one of the god-like First. Unfortunately for Kane, Evenlea is a member of House Sinister, home for self-centered and self-absorbed First. Kane has to figure out a way to manipulate Evenlea to get her to use her powers for the good of the group. There is also a mysterious infant who survives for no good reason, leading us to believe that there is a lot more to this infant than meets the eye.

The Path is a samurai/bushido themed story with exquisite asian style art. A monk of noble family recieves one of the most powerful weapons of the First and refuses to give it to his boyhood friend who is now emperor of a land similar to Japan. The emperor is also quite insane so the monk and his 2 companions, a displaced Viking and a woman warrior, flee and the series appears to be about their adventures. We also learn of the Emperior of a Shinocea, a country inspired by China. Shinocea is very powerful politically and its Emperor also appears to have some magical type powers.

Sojurn is a traditional epic fantasy about a women archer, Arwyn who is sent a quest to liberate her world. The Sojurn artwork is probably the most beautiful that I have ever seen in a comic. The storyline grabs you from the start and the interplay between Arwyn and her companion, Gareth, a one-eyed male archer is very well done. We know little about Gareth so having the tale presented as a naration by a sader but wiser Gareth is a great touch!

Crux is a very unusual science fiction story about very powerful beings from Atlantis who awake to find them selves on an abandoned Earth overrun by invaders from the Negation Universe. It is almost a mystery action series as the Atlanteans try to figure out what went wrong and where are all the humans! The comic features a strong female lead, Capricia, a shape changer but the other main characters are well formed and interesting in their own right. The story line is quite unusual and their are times when this series does seem to struggle. The most recent issues of Crux have new writer who is starting things off with a bang so I think it is worth continuing with the story.

Rating:
Summary: Forge # 10
Review: This second issue in the more compact format of this monthly collection contains comics originally released individually as The Path # 9, Negation # 12, Meridian # 30, Crux # 20, Route 666 # 5, and Sojourn # 16 & 17. These are stories of samurai, fantasy, sci-fi and horror, with lead characters well balanced between males and females, presented in color, including cover images, as well as previous story recaps for new readers, costing approximately one third what you would pay for the individual issues in a comic shop. It's an opportunity to sample the comics in question or to read more issues than you normally might while staying on a budget.

Meridian # 30 and Sojourn # 16 are the standouts here with their stunning art. Route 666 # 5 is well done. The Negation and The Path installments are decent. Crux is non-essential reading this time out, though it looks good, as usual.

The smaller size format is indeed effective and sturdy. The smaller comics pages retain their image quality while gaining an ease of handling that normal comics and trade collections cannot rival. At times the lettering gets a little small, but that is a minor quibble. It is a model for other comics publishers to try.

However, some aspects of this particular issue merit criticism. Three of the included stories involve guest artists; two of those suffer somewhat. Generally, for me, the strength of the art outweighs the strength of the stories in this series, so that's a drawback. Space enough for an eighth comic issue is instead devoted to propaganda for other CrossGen offerings. Some of the stories lack that elusive "I must read this now" quality.

While there are depictions of intense action, explosions, violence, and dead bodies, foul language is absent, as are gruesome images and explicit sexual situations, though parents might want to judge that for themselves regarding certain pages.

If you want to go outside the realm of super hero and crime comics stories, you might find what you want here. Never read a comic book and want to try one? Is CrossGen doing anything you would like? Forge is a cost effective solution to addressing these questions as well as a way to continue reading, collecting and storing on a bookshelf if the answers are positive.