Gen¹³ (vol.2) #14 (November, 1996)
"Higher Learning"
Story - Brandon Choi, J. Scott Campbell & Jim Lee
Penciller - Luke Ross
Inker - Sandra Hope
Colors - Joe Chiodo & Martin Jimenez
Computer Colors - WildStorm FX
Assistant Editor - Gigi Barbes
Editor - Sarah Becker
Cover Price: #$2.50
Another pick informed by a twitter exchange with Andrew. Been a minute since we looked at Gen¹³... so why not?
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Wake up in the morning, feeling shy and lonely, gee they gotta go to school. It's a new day in La Jolla, California... and it just so happens to be the first day... of school?! C'mon, teams of superhero kids don't go to school, do they? Aren't they all just taught at whatever institute they're based out of? Well, I guess that's not exactly the way it works for our Gen-Actives. And so, while Caitlin's father Alex Fairchild does his... tai chi, or whatever... the kids all get ready for their big day.
Elsewhere, Burnout has done a rather poor job of shaving himself... having nicked himself several times over. Unfortunately, Rainmaker saunters by in her unmentionables... which causes our man to, uh... flare up... thereby cauterizing his wounds? Man, hope that doesn't scar.
Elsewhere again, Roxy does one of those in-room fashion shows, like we see on television. I've never been a teen-aged girl, so for all I know, these might happen in real life?
We then shift to Lynch's underground bunker... office... monitoring room... place. He's got a smattering of screens up, including a shot of Bobby's blistery face. Gotta wonder where else this creep's got cameras posted?! Also worth noting, that one newscaster from Spawn is on one of the screens. As he hears of a string of student abductions he checks in with Anna, the robo-maid about breakfast.
Turns out these finicky teen-agers don't really appreciate all the hard work the bot puts into making breakfast... you know how deez kids be. Grunge would rather have some cold pizza (brah!) and a Diet (?) Coke... Roxy's into fad dieting... Bobby's got his Powerbars... and Sarah's, well, Sarah's just annoying. Caitlin, however, does eat up... and even goes so far as to thank Anna!
Then... finally, it's off to school. No sooner do they step out of Anna's van than the cliche "As Seen on TV" school experience begins!
Roxy bumps into a dude and drops her books all over the place. Then... an artsy gentleman stops to help her pick them up. Wouldn'tcha know it... he's headed to the same Film Appreciation Class that she is!
Caitlin is targeted by a pair of... uh, is "mean girls" still a saying? Whatever we're calling them, they are a pair of Sorority girls, who are looking for a new pledge. Who betta than this six-foot redhead? Perhaps worth noting, they're from the Kappa Lambda Tau sorority... and I hope those letters don't mean anything. Considering another "creatively" named house we're going to meet, I can't help but imagine that they do.
Speaking of that other house... Grunge decides to pledge for Delta Iota Kappa. Yeah, DIK, see what I mean? He and another dude head inside... where they're threatened with... um, some bad touching?
We slide over to the Campus Kafeehaus (are there even classes today?) where Bobby is called over by a rocker chick. She calls him "Mr. Weiland"... which, yeah... I guess I can totally see that. They chat, flirt, the whole shebang.
We head over to the Quad where there's already a demonstration going on. The kids have organized to put a stop to inhumane treatment of animals by the Biology department. Of course, Rainmaker is right in the middle of all of this. Grunge strolls by to lend some "moral support"... which is to say, he stops long enough to razz her a bit.
Finally... a class! It's Neurology 301... which, I mean for Freshmen, that might be a bit advanced. Gotta wonder what the pre-reqs were if Grunge is here. Anyhoo... it's Grunge and Fairchild... and it's here that we learn that ol' Percival has himself some'a that photographic memory.
For something completely different, we pop over to the Isle of Gamorra... where some nogoodniks are trying to track down Alex Fairchild. They beat up some Rodney Dangerfield looking fool... and leave.
Back at school, the day is winding to a close. The gang all heads back to where they were set to be picked up in the Anna-Van, and they have a few new additions. It's also here that the art starts to go a bit "ca-ca"... or is that "cock-eyed".
Some friendly razzing between partners changes into heated debate... which, I'd imagine makes their new pals wonder just what the hell they've gotten themselves into. Before push turns to shove, however, the Anna-Van arrives to take the Gen-Actives home.
We rejoin the gang at the dinner table... where Anna has decided she's had enough of their crap. She forces them to eat the meal she's prepared... and since she's a robot, I'm sure she actually could just jam it down their throats. The "animals are people too" debate heats up again... with all sides actually making cogent points. Lynch basically tells them that this level of discourse is what becoming educated is all about... they don't have to agree... but all opinions ought to be heard and respected. Grunge punctuates the sentiment with a belch.
That night, the kids unwind in front of the television set... and it's not long before the razzing begins again. At least it's friendly this time around. Lynch tries to break it up by suggesting they all do their homework... to which, Grunge informs the gang that his is done, thanks in no small part to his photographic memory. Wonk wonk.
We close out with... another student being abducted from the college. Thought for a moment, it was the Anna-bot... but it turns out they just have the same hairstylist. She wakes up to find herself strapped to a table... and being approached by some odd Kokopelli looking individual.
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Well... as silly and cliche as this was, I can't say I didn't have fun reading it.
This is like... every TV show "first day of school". Being a dude whose had a bunch'a "first days of school" himself... I gotta just assume I was missing out, because I never had one like I saw on television.
This issue served as a pretty neat diversion from the usual fighty-fight superhero fare... and allowed us to explore these characters outside of the Gen-Active dynamic. Of course, it's still kiiinda cliche... Roxy and the Artsy dude... Bobby and the slacker/rocker chick. Grunge, despite being a goofball actually being a super-secret genius... all sorta contrived deals. Fun, but contrived.
The art here is... uneven? There are panels that look as though they could've been J. Scott Campbell... and then others that look like they're straight outta OEL manga. Who knows, maybe there was a time-crunch toward the end... it wouldn't be out of character for a book of this vintage. The cover is quite striking, and would likely jump off the shelf atcha... which kinda does leave the inside a bit more disappointing.
Overall... I think there's a lot of fun to have here. It might be worth your time to check it out.
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Letters Page... kinda?
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Gen¹³ (vol.2) #-1 (January, 1997)
Story - Jim Lee & Brandon Choi
Script - H.K. Proger
Penciller - Ryan Benjamin
Inkers - Frank Percy, Dev Madan, J.D., & Richard Johnson
Letterer - Chris Eliopoulos
Colorist - Joe Chiodo
Color Assists - Wendy Fouts, Paige Apfelbaum, & Monica Bennett
Editor - Sarah Becker
Editor in Chief - Mike Heisler
Cover Price: $1.95
While on the subject of oddly-numbered issues of Gen¹³... today we're going to look at a "minus one" issue. Ya see, this was originally part of the Wizard Magazine mail-away Gen¹³ #½ in 1995... which they then reprinted as sort of a bridge between the Gen¹³ mini-series (1994) and ongoing series (1995)... even though all of the editorial captions inside still reference the mini-series. If that stinks of a quick 'n easy cash grab to you... I'd say you were on to something.
Anyhoo... I almost certainly did more research on this issue for it's "placement" than for anything between the covers. As far as what all of my usual haunts say... this issue is recognized as part of the ongoing volume (vol.2 - 1995)... so, that's what we're going to call it.
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We open with the Gen¹³ kids driving a van through Oregon in search of Milwaukee... which might sound ridiculous, until you realize that there is a Milwaukee, Oregon. The first time I looked at this I was ready to start yanking at that thread. Anyhoo, Fairchild is at the wheel, and is insistent that she hasn't gotten them lost. Burnout's riding shotgun, and he's not so sure. They pull over at a gas station to find out exactly where they are. Turns out they're more than a little bit off-track.
While the boys are inside, Caitlin heads off to a mailbox to send in a check for the van they stole. Roxy is confused... and surprised at Fairchild's fat-walletedness. Turns out she just drew the funds from big-bad Ivana's bank account. Then... an explosion!
Here we meet a woman in some armor that makes her look like a reject from the Mutant Liberation Front... garish purple, hoses everywhere... just a real sight to behold. Still... better than generic dudes in suits! Burnout "flames on" and Grunge... er, throws a soda can at her. Sadly, Grunge's assault yields the better result.
The battle continues, and the girls get involved. Fairchild hits her from behind... the woman strikes back, which causes... uh... Fairchild to... well, give birth to a bolt of lightning? I mean, here, just look at it...
Then Roxy jumps in, causing enough of a distraction for Grunge and Burnout to recover. Grunge grabs the woman... and throws her into a nearby fuel truck. That's probably not the best idea... even in the best of times.
As if that wasn't bad enough, Roxy then lights up a cigarette... and tosses it into the eruption of fuel! This is the sort of hyper-violence that I'd have written when I was like 11.
Get this, though... the explosion... which, in reality should have destroyed the entire neighborhood... doesn't even make this mysterious armored woman flinch. And so, Fairchild once again sneaks up behind her... and starts yanking at those hoses that all the villains had attached to their armor back in the 90's. I thought they were just for show... but I guess not!
We wrap up with the Gen¹³ kids tying the baddie up and splitting town before the police arrive. All the while, the mysterious armored woman warns them that someone called Langston is trying to destroy the time stream. Our "blurb" suggests we check out the Gen¹³ miniseries... which, by the time this issue came out was already three years old.
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Woof.
This was kiiiiiiiinda brutal.
Let's get the confusing production out of the way first. This is Gen¹³ #minus-one... which came out the same month as Gen¹³ (vol.2) #16. It looks like it's supposed to be the bridge between the Gen¹³ mini-series (1994) and the Gen¹³ ongoing series (1995)... however, they couldn't even be bothered to update the editorial captions inside the book to reflect that. I couldn't imagine trying to make sense of this had I picked it up off the racks in 1996/1997. Like, where does this go? When do I read it? Why is it even a thing that exists... when we already got the story in Gen¹³ #½ (as if that's not confusing enough as it is!)?
Ay yai yai.
Onto the story... well, first the art. The characters come across as off-model for most of this story. Fella who pencilled it is competent, however, the storytelling here was pretty weak. Let's just look at Roxy... her look completely changes from panel to panel. She has a different face and hairstyle (length and color) on different panels on the same page! I don't think that was one of her Gen-Active Powers! I'd excuse it if this was some long epic story... but, it's 13 freaking pages. 13... get it?
In reading this issue immediately after the Claremont one from yesterday, it's pretty clear that what WildStorm needed was someone to help calibrate. Here we have fuel-tankers exploding... leaving little damage, and since it isn't mentioned, we're going to guess no loss of life. In the Claremont issue we have kids being chased by a shadowy organization of dudes in suits. There's just gotta be a "happy medium" somewhere in there, right? Ehh, what do I know?
Overall... I didn't enjoy this. The uneven art was pretty distracting, and the story... what there was of it, was pretty nonsensical. I suppose if you happen across this in the cheap-o bins, it might be worth a flip through... but I wouldn't suggest breaking your back or bank for it, unless you're a Gen¹³ completionist.
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WildC.A.T.S: Covert Action Teams #1 (August, 1992)
"Resurrection Day"
Co-Creators/Co-Writers - Jim Lee & Brandon Choi
Penciller - Jim Lee
Inker - Scott Williams
Letterer - Mike Heisler
Colorist - Joe Rosas
Color Separator - Digital Chameleon
Editor - Ruth Grice
Cover Price: $1.95
Before we got all Christmassy, we dipped our toes into the WildWorld of WildStorm... today we're going to return there to discuss the very first WildStorm book... that even predates the imprint itself! WildC.A.T.S #1 was part of Jim Lee's Image Comics "fiefdom", however... that fiefdom was called Homage Studios! Soooo, maybe we're covering this one on a technicality... but, ehh... whattayagonnado, right? This is where the WildStorm "lore" begins... er, began... er, whatever... so let's just get to it.
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We open in "the past"... 1980. Two Antarctic researchers are hoofing it through a snowstorm to follow up on a spike in their sensor readings. What they come across is a metallic sphere... which starts to glow. In a glow of pink light, a metallic and angelic woman appears with a warning... she needs the sphere... before it's too late.
We then hop to "the future"... 1992. There has been an explosion in Georgetown... neighborhoods have been vaporized! One of the bodies was identified as a dwarf by the name of Jacob Mar--. The same metallic woman arrives, but only for an instant before blinking out of sight.
Next up, "the present"... 1990. Here we meet Jacob Marlowe, a diminutive homeless man, who is sleeping among the refuse of the city... including a flyer for Rob Liefeld's Extreme Studios, and a box of X-Men (vol.2) #1's (the Magneto cover variant). He is awakened by a pair of sad looking gangbangers, who rough him up a bit... before our metallic friend, who we learn is called Void, arrives to pull his fat out of the fire. She informs him that he is in actuality one of the Lords of Power... and his real name is Lord Emp.
We now move to "today"... which means we're somehow back in 1992. Marlowe again wakes up in an alley... but this time it's due to drunkenness, not homelessness. He stumbles out of the refuse and after getting hit by a cab, walks into his high-rise office building. On the elevator ride up, his attendants clean him up a bit, and inform him that the company stock is on the rise.
In his penthouse office, he meets Void who tells him about a recurring nightmare she's been having. She is in combat with a masked man who wields the glowing Antarctic orb. Somehow this affects the fabric of time and reality.
The pair take a special elevator to the Danger Room Combat Training Room, where WildC.A.T.S team-leader Spartan is training with Maul and Warblade. We learn that they are training for a battle with "the Cabal"... and due to a goof-up in their drills, a disappointed Marlowe wonders aloud if he might be able to "afford a Youngblood or two". Psst, hey Marlowe... check the quarter-bins!
We shift scenes to a giant aircraft called the Behemoth. On board are several movers and shakers of the Cabal... including their leader, the head-flaming Helspont (who I think actually battled the New-52! Superman at some point!). To show what a bad-ass the Cabal are (as if the dude with both an eyepatch and a monocle wasn't enough!), we get a first-hand example of what happens to folks that cross them. Poor Alberto Cassini never saw it coming...
After their traitor is dealt with, 'Spont turns his attention toward a woman called Providence (oy). She warns that "the one he seeks" is close... which perfectly segues into our next Marlowe bit, where he meets with a character called "Gnome" about, well... the same exact thing.
This brings us to Georgetown, where we meet Cole Cash. He bellies up to the bar, and it seems like he's old pals with the bartender. He watches as the "night's entertainment" commences. On stage there is a beautiful dancer only known as Voodoo (hey, we know her!). Cash lights up a smoke, and we can see that he's not the only person paying attention to the dancer.
A blonde man in sunglasses approaches the stage... and we pop into Voodoo-vision. It seems as though she has the power to see things, well, differently than others. It's as though she's always wearing Roddy Piper's sunglasses in They Live... because she sees the blonde fella as a horrifying monster.
Just as "business" picks up, Cash rolls down his bandanna revealing himself to be the guy we all know as Grifter! In a humorous panel, he is mistaken for Shaft (Hey, watchure mou-- nonono, the one from Youngblood). He keeps mentioning a "Sister Zealot"... but, we'll get to her.
We get a brief peek at Marlowe's office, where the WildC.A.T.S are... well, watching the news report about the goings-down in Georgetown. That's really about it. Spartan suggests they head in... Marlowe needs some time to think. Okay... Anyhoo, back at the bar, Grifter has snagged Voodoo and is protecting her from the Cabal horde... which is led by a woman he says is of "the Coda". He fires a "load" from his "magnum" into her gut... which, well... it slows her down.
Thankfully, the C.A.T.S have arrived on the scene... but the only thing they accomplish is getting a gun jammed up to Marlowe's head. Good job guys!
Thankfully (again), this is when "sister" Zealot chooses to make her appearance. I could'a sworn she had long hair... guess I misremembered that... anyhoo, she greets her "brother Grifter" and nails Marlowe's would-be abductor with a chakram... boomerang thing.
With the threat neutralized, the group gets cozy. This gives that Coda woman the opportunity to activate a detonator which... blows up Georgetown... which, er... is that from the opening pages of the book... or is it blowing up again? Well, nevermind all of that... before we wrap up, we see Helspont talking to his benefactor... Dan Quayle? And, wouldja lookit that... he misspells "potatoes" as "potatos"... wonk wonk wonkkkkk. Really, Jim... this is how you end your first issue?
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Decent enough first issue...
Reading it today, I couldn't imagine that I would've been all that compelled to come back for issue #2... but, back in 1992... I did! WildC.A.T.S was the Image Comics title I decided to "stick" with. This is very likely due to Jim Lee's art, which was part of the package when I got hooked on the X-Men. I think, based on art alone, my friends and I saw this as something of a spiritual successor to the X-Men... or at least the Image book most like the X-Men. Thinking about that now... it's fairly ridiculous.
I'd forgotten just how "universe buildy" these early Image books were. We get several mentions of Youngblood and Cyberforce stuffs... we see the news reporter from Spawn... just so strange, considering how all the founders kind of splintered their universes into their own things. Asamattafact, I was reading the first few issues of Spawn earlier today... and there are some other-Image-y name drops there as well! Such a weird time in comics.
Now, for the issue itself... like I said, it was decent enough. We get a bit of an info and character dump... but it flows quite well (minus the how-many-times-did-Georgetown-blow-up? thing). We don't have much of a reason to care about these folks yet... or any real reason to hate Helspont... other than the fact that he's clearly the villain. Grifter and Zealot are definitely primed to be the breakout stars here... and that's fine... they're really the only characters (outside of Marlow) that get the most screen time... and they're the ones that get to do the cool actiony stuff.
Can't say all that much about the story... because not all that much happened just yet. We get some nebulous warning about timelines converging and what-not... we learn that Marlow is really a Lord of Power called Emp... not too much to go on. Nothing wrong with it... but not much to go on, and to be honest... it's been at least 15 years since I last read these books, and I couldn't tell ya how any of it shakes out. I will say that the ending here... with Dan Quayle... lame. Layyyyyyme.
Now the art... it's Jim Lee, so yeah... it's preeeeeetty damn good. Okay, it's really damn good. I will say, and I do not mean for this to sound creepy... but the crotches are just line-filled shapeless masses... just check out the cover. The character designs overall are quite nice. When compared to something like Youngblood... this looks positively inspired. There is no "Wolverine with elf-ears" here, nor is there a "long-haired Cable". These characters all look original... though with some borrowed styles of the day. I'm not sure who thought that weird head-stocking was ever a good idea... but the early 1990's were full of 'em.
The breakout character design has gotta be Grifter. It's a look that, to me, became almost instantly iconic. It's really one of the coolest designs to come out of the 1990's. It's instantly recognizable, and doesn't look like anything I'd ever seen before. He was, to my small clique... the "Wolverine" of the team.
Overall... this is a tough one to give a "for" or "against" toward. It's interesting in that "Image opening salvo" kinda way... but, it's doubtful that any of these stories still matter anymore. The art is great, and the story is... fine. If you're down for some early 90's action, you could do far worse.
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