Negation #9
writer: Tony Bedard
artists: Paul Pelletier and Dave Meikis
In a direct continuation of last month's story, Kaine and
the others suffer Lawbringer Qztr's attack. The Lawbringer
had been slaughtering the group, and just blasted a hole through
Javi's chest at the end of #8. Though Javi seemed to be dead,
Bedard doesn't explicitly confirm or deny his fate.
Realizing that his group is overmatched, Kaine tries to
organize a retreat. He even seems willing to sacrifice himself
so that the others might escape.
Events take a sudden unexpected turn, and the battle ends.
Qztr reports to his "father" Charon, the supreme ruler of
the Negation universe. Charon has been torturing an unidentified
man for the past two months, and the identity of this man
is confirmed as Gammid from Crux, no real surprise
to close readers of the CrossGen books.
Clearly intelligent and powerful, Charon is being built
up as the ultimate villain of the CrossGen universe. An intriguing
character, he makes a connection between the orange sigil
on Gammid's chest and the mentor characters that appear in
all CrossGen books. It all makes for interesting reading for
CrossGen fans.
Rating: 
Sigil #27
writer: Chuck Dixon
artists: Andy Smith and Brad Vancata
As Zanniati leads an attack on the Saurian homeworld, Sam
tries to prevent the destruction of the planet Gaia. The pacing
has been bad on this book lately, but after a slow start Dixon
manages to turn things around. Zanniati and her troops join
forces with Tchlusarud to try and remove Khyradon from power,
with the action building throughout the issue.
Dixon drops a few more hints that Sam's popularity might
soon abandon him. Under the circumstances, this doesn't seem
like a good direction to go. Also, after building up Gaia's
peril for the past four months, it was a mistake to resolve
the situation off-panel.
Just when it looks like things will drag out even further,
Sam makes excellent use of his teleportation power to set
up an endgame to the war.
In the process, Sam teleports randomly around the CrossGen
universe, getting glimpses of other sigil-bearers from other
titles, and a few characters that we haven't seen before that
may starring in their own comics in the future.
Rating: 
Sojourn #14
writer: Ron Marz
artists: Greg Land and Jay Leisten
Arwyn and Gareth have come to Ankhara, the home of a race
of winged people with a relatively advanced civilization,
in search of the second fragment of Ayden's arrow. Enslaved
by Mordath, the Ankharans are but a shadow of their former
greatness.
Gareth leads them into some tunnels in the cliffs of Ankhara
in an effort to sneak past the trolls guarding the main entrance.
They eventually end up in a harem of Ankharan woman, much
to Gareth's delight.
This shoots down my theory that he was secretly gay.
Much of this issue is a set up for the next few months.
Another solid story and excellent art by Land make this one
of CrossGen's most consistent series.
Rating: 
