The other monthly collection of comics from CrossGen, Edge is the companion to Forge.  I always think of Edge as secondary or lesser, even though they started at pretty much the same time (maybe off by a week or two?).  I think it stems more from the fact that I was less invested in the comics contained within.  With one exception, these were mostly lower tier series.

Contained within:

The first issue of Ruse introduces a sort of faux Sherlock Holmes in Simon Archard, solving crimes in a Victorian-esque world.  His right hand is Emma Bishop, who serves as his Watson.  She also seems to be this world’s champion of…whatever CrossGen’s version of the Eternal Champion is.  At least, I think that’s what’s going on.  I don’t think she’s actually marked with a sigil, which makes me wonder if she’s actually a member of the First who has lost her memory.  I can’t remember how it all plays out.  Archard is quite the prick, amping up Holmes’s odd personality to the point of almost robotic levels.  Anyway, this series was the one from Edge that I especially enjoyed.  It’s also one of the only ones Marvel actually resurrected when they acquired the rights to the CrossGen lines.

Mystic was another series that had been running for quite a while before Forge and Edge started up.  However, I didn’t like the series enough to go back and get the first two trades.  There’s a quick synopsis, followed by issues 15 and 16.  It’s a high-weirdness magical series, like Harry Potter mixed with Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon or something.  You’ve got two sisters, one serious, one flighty.  Something happens and the flighty one gets the sigil, prompting some sisterly tension and personal growth.  Or something.  My very vague memory of reading these 20 years ago is that I did eventually start to invest in this series.  However, reading these two issues again, it makes sense that I didn’t get into it from the start.

There’s a synopsis of the first two trades worth of Sigil, then issue 15.  I think I enjoyed Sigil much more back in the early 2000s than reading it this time around.  This issue does make it seem like things are about to get kicked into high gear, so perhaps the series got better around this point and was good enough for me to go back and buy the first two trades.  This is big Space Opera stuff, but because of the sigil worn by the lead character, it takes on a bit of a Green Lantern meets Halo vibe, with essentially a superhero flying around in space battles.

Scion is another series I have mixed feelings about.  There are some cool images, but I don’t care for the anime vibe of the character designs.  The story is OK, but I’m not invested in the young, whiny prince or his brooding moron of an enemy.  There’s only a synopsis of the first two trades and issue 15 here.  It’s another one where I seem to remember enjoying it more as it went along.  We’ll see.

Finally we have a synopsis of the first trade’s worth of issues, plus issues 8, 9, and 10 of The First.  This is a series that is obviously very important to the greater lore of CrossGen Comics’s overall multiverse.  Afterall, members of The First appear in most (all?) of the other lines, and they’re clearly playing some grand games.  They’ve got a very Olympian Gods kind of thing going on.  However, I just don’t care for this.  I don’t particularly like any of the characters.  I really don’t like the very 90s look on all the characters.  I normally don’t mind cheesecake or beefcake in comics.  But it all seems rather awkward and goofy here.  I think maybe the First, as characters, work better as guests in other comics, rather than having one all to themselves.

So, that was all for the first volume of Edge.  No previews for upcoming titles.  I think some do arrive at some point.  I’m probably going to take a break from reading CrossGen stuff for a bit, but I’ll pick these up again sometime soonish and see if the various series get better. 

If you like what I do, you can buy me a coffee. Check out my Facebook, Twitter (for now), YouTube, or Goodreads.  And take a look at my Patreon page, where I’m working on a novel and developing a tabletop RPG setting. I’m proud to be an affiliate of DriveThru RPG. I’m an independent author. You can also read my fiction over on Amazon. A rating & review would make a world of difference. I now have an Amazon Wishlist.