Quesada confirms Marvel will be publishing CrossGen comics

News

Following on reports that Marvel will be publishing CrossGen comics since Disney, their parent company, owns the rights to them, in a CBR video interview Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada confirmed that as fact. The current status appears to be Marvel editorial improving, updating, and “Marvelizing” some of the properties where warranted to make them more accessible.

Disney + Marvel = more CrossGen

Quesada feels that the CrossGen characters will allow Marvel to do more genre work away from super-heroes. In acknowledging the need for more genre work from Marvel, Quesada noted that DC’s Vertigo line is a great example of genre stories whereas while Marvel’s MAX line is edgy, it is still more related to super-heroes than other genres.

The interview opens with a Joe Quesada / CBR comedy sketch, but overall Joe seemed prertty classy and excited about what CrossGen brings Marvel in terms of opportunities. For more, check out the CBR video interview here.

While an early quote made it seem like Marvel was bringing CrossGen into the Marvel fold, sounding like they would interact and exist in Marvel’s super-heroverse, later quotes make it sound like CrossGen will be a genre imprint. However, what is clear is that we’re in early days and this is all subject to some change.

No timetable for release was announced. As folks may recall, Marvel announced their acquistion of Marvel/Miracle-Man last year at this time and new material of that property remains scarce. The CrossGen work seems to be at an early stage as well so we may be a fair way away from new books, but the hope for trade paperbacks of some of the CrossGen seems more likely in the short and medium terms.

The industry needs stronger genre work and this should be seen as going in that direction. Kudos to Marvel.

John is a long-time pop culture fan, comics historian, and blogger. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief at Comics Nexus. Prior to being EIC he has produced several column series including DEMYTHIFY, NEAR MINT MEMORIES and the ONE FAN'S TRIALS at the Nexus plus a stint at Bleeding Cool producing the COMICS REALISM column. As BabosScribe, John is active on his twitter account, his facebook page, his instagram feed and welcomes any and all feedback. Bring it on!