Negation is a Comic Book published by CrossGen. It tells the story of a group of mismatched characters who suddenly themselves transported to another universe.
The series lasted 27 issues, with four trade paperbacks being released.
This series contains examples of the following tropes:
- Alien Landmass: The prequel issue begins with one hundred abductees waking up on a strange planet where everything feels "wrong". The sun comes and goes as it pleases, the rocks have ribbed surfaces, hook in crescent shapes topped off by horns, and some are covered in odd sludge and are filled with bones. The only edible plants grow eyeballs as fruit. The finale to the prequel reveals that the planet is a testing ground within a parallel universe, and the enemies conducting the experiment are invaders testing the limits of people from our universe.
- Arc Symbol: The Sigil, eponymous sign from Sigil, is a red-and-yellow mark which serves as both the CrossGen company logo, and is the source of supernatural power for many of its characters, being imprinted on their body.
- Badass Normal: Obregon Kaine is a human with no superhuman qualities who manages to successfully challenge the plans of the Negation time and time again. Deconstructed in that, when the Sigil-empowered Atlantean Gammid joins the group, a schism occurs, with many being drawn to Gammid as their leader instead.
- Cannibalism Superpower: As a Saurian, Khylstek can absorb memories and useful genetic material by consuming flesh from other creatures. Early on, she gains webbed hands and crimson skin by eating one of the walrus-like guards of an icy water-world. Later on, she gains small, round, beast-like ears by consuming the weasel-like inhabitants of another world, which also gives her the ability to see into a unique spectrum. Finally, in issue #26, she eats one of Zaida's hairs to determine who she really is, which also gives her orange eyes.
- Death World: Karakorum is one of roughly five worlds in the Negation universe that've been sealed off by Charon's decree. Its residents, the Karaki, shapeshift between peaceful-seeming bipeds and monstrous quadrupedal predators, and use any living being that lands on their world as a living gateway to the species' homeworld, where they devour the entire species and then return.
- Destructo-Nookie: Evinlea and Charon engage in this in issue #26, resulting in the population of an entire planet being wiped out.
- Expecting Someone Taller: When Kaine and his allies first meet High Castellan Komptin on the prison world, they are visibly dumbfounded when their tormentor turns out to be a short, squat humanoid who barely comes up to Kaine's chest, which irritates Komptin greatly as they ultimately burst out laughing.
- God Couple: Charon and Evinlea, after they hook up in issue #26.
- God-Emperor: Charon, the Emperor of the Negation, is regarded as a god for his sheer power.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: After Gammid kills Javi, one of Javi's Ligis-bearer teammates, a teleporter, uses one of her portals to cut Gammid in half. He dies.
- Hot God: Evinlea is quite beautiful.
- Improbable Piloting Skills: Westin has this as an aspect of his Sigil powers, which he ultimately clarifies are actually a form of postcognition that allows him to learn how to operate any machine.
- Improbable Infant Survival: Justified; baby Memi is Nigh-Invulnerable to the point that Charon has her placed at ground zero for detonating a nuke and she's unscathed. Her mother Zaida has the same ability, but she insists that the're both perfectly normal humans.
- Jerkass Goddess: Evinlea is arrogant and concerned only with her own affairs. It earns her the dislike of her own party, which is ultimately proven justified when she betrays them all and hooks up with Charon for power.
- Kick the Dog: Komptin betrays his loyal Kaliman Retriever, Gullit, by leaving him the Karaki. Soon afterwards, he kills his own mother and little brother to regain his place in the Negation military.
- Killer Rabbit: Kaliman Retrievers look like bear-sized hairless bulldogs. They are, in fact, extremely intelligent (they can memorize a thousand verbal commands, speak to other Retrievers in a language of scents with basic grammar and syntax, and can even read simple words in the Kaliman native language) and prodigiously strong, with multiple Nested Mouths and a savage temperament. Komptin's pet, Gullit, actually kills several dozen of the dreaded Karaki on its own.
- Lizard Folk: Khylstek the female Saurian, who refuses to reveal her name during the story; her identity is revealed in a brief character guide in the second Negation paperback.
- Mystical White Hair: Khlystek has this, which seems to be a common trait for female Saurians.
- Physical God:
- Evinlea, who is a member of the First.
- Charon, the ruler of the Negation.
- Prehensile Hair: Kalima's native humanoids sport two long tentacles coming from their head in lieu of hair. These are powerful prehensile limbs which can be used as deadly weapons, as Komptin demonstrates.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The heroes of the series are a random assortment of beings taken from various worlds throughout the Crossgen universe. They include an evil member of the First, an Atlantean woman who spends the first half of the series convinced she's dreaming everything, a female Lizard Folk alien with Cannibalism Superpower, a wizard, a pair of Sigil-marked thieves, and one ordinary human soldier.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Evinlea has bright crimson eyes, and ultimately betrays her own universe for personal power.
- Transplanted Humans: After joining the group, Gammid the Atlantean asserts that the various humans in the group, despite coming from different homeworlds, must all be descended from colonies of the original humans of his world, Earth.
- Trapped in Another World: The basic plot of the series; our protagonists were plucked from various worlds in the "Bright Universe" to serve as guinea pigs to
