srca1941 wrote:
I don't know all of the details. but it sounds like Crossgen failed because of financial mismanagement, not on a creative or sales level. That being the case, I'm not sure it's fair to label the universe "failed." Unlike some other revivals (which have usually been decades later), there hasn't been all that much time go by since Crossgen's collapse, and it might be easier to recapture the what was lost when the company went belly-up, and draw the original creators back.
I think it was more a matter of bad sales resulting in financial problems.  Instead of trying to build around a handful of strong books, they gambled on flooding the market with dozens of mostly mediocre books and, when they didn't meet their sales goals, they went into the red.  I believe the final nail in the coffin were books sold into the book trade on a returnable basis that went unsold and were returned.  Creatively, I don't think Alessi's idea of a cohesive universe a la Marvel was very effective, but they had a couple of books that strayed away from the core CrossGen universe that were OK (but that's a purely subjective opinion).  Regarding revivals, three of the nineties "universes" have now been revived in the last year, including Red Circle (which was Impact Comics), the new Dark Horse Gold Key books (which was the nucleus of Valiant) and now CrossGen, so once more unto the breach, as they say...!