Comic Book Review: Gen 13 #1

Gen 13 is another of new title by Wildstorm in that company’s effort to revive numerous failed Image titles from the mid 1990’s. However, unlike in the 1990’s, this time Wildstorm has promised quality writing to go along with the traditional “hot” Image style artwork. So far, that remains to be seen. Gen 13 was first appeared in 1994 and was written by Jim Lee and Brandon Choi (There is your typical poor Image writing) and illustrated by J. Scott Campbell (There is your typical “hot” Image art). Needless to say, no one would have confused Gen 13 for a literary masterpiece. Its big draw was Campbell’s artwork.

This current version of Gen 13 has nothing to do with the previous versions. We have undergone a hard reboot and are starting from scratch. With that in mind, let’s go ahead and do this review.

Creative Team
Writer: Gail Simone
Penciler: Talent Caldwell
Inker: Matt Banning

Art Rating: 6 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 4 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 5 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: This issue begins with several customers of Tabula Rasa chatting in an internet chat room while watching a live video feed. Tabula Rasa is some secret hi-tech organization that is run by Dr. Cross. The video feed is of a teenage girl and guy in a sweet looking import tuner. (It looks like a Skyline_GT-R, which, unfortunately, we don’t get in America.) Anyway, we find out that the guy is a serial rapist. We are lead to believe that this is some kinky sex video in which the customers watch a girl getting raped. Wrong. The guy attempts to force himself on the girl and she responds by transforming her arms into silver blades and she kills the rapist.

Dr. Cross tells his customers that this is the type of weapon that they can deliver to their customers. Dr. Cross then instructs his assistant Megan that Molly (the girl with the blade arms) was only part of the control group and that he doesn’t sell used good to clients. Cross tells Megan to dispose of Molly. We see Tabula Rasa soldiers surround the car and the girl and then proceed to kill the girl.

We shift to Caitlin Fairchild getting picked on at school. We then shift to Bobby Lane who has blonde dreadlocks. Some white dudes beat him up for “forgetting what color” Bobby is and they say how they hate a gut who forgets his color. (Ah, yes. If you see a racist in a comic book, you can bet it will be a blanco.) We cut to Percival Edmund Chang trying to impress a girl with his skateboarding skills and totally wrecking himself. We shift to Roxanne Spaulding who is a slut and everyone around her calls her a slut. We see her mom picking her up from the police department. Roxy was arrested for stealing cigarettes. We cut over to Sarah Rainmaker, who is a total hottie, and she is ordering coffee at a bookstore she regularly goes to. The cashier who knows Sarah tells Sarah that she gets the feeling that Sarah is attracted to her. The cashier tells Sarah that she has a boyfriend and doesn’t swing that way. Sarah is embarrassed and leaves. As Sarah leaves a couple of white guys comment on what a pretty “squaw” she is and how she must be on her way to get drunk or buy a casino. (Of course. Clearly, white = racist. And here we have another lipstick lesbian. I think that is the new trend over in DC for 2006. To be fair, Sarah was a bisexual in the original Gen 13 and that only made her hotter.)

We shift to Dr. Cross talking to his assistant Megan. Megan reminds Dr. Cross that if IO ever finds out what Tabula Rasa really does then he might be in some serious trouble. Dr. Cross then tells Megan that in order for the kids to fulfill their true potential that they need to be orphans. We cut to shots of all the kids waking up with wicked headaches. We see Bobby’s “mother” getting shot and killed. We see Sarah’s “parents” washing down rat poison with alcohol deciding to kill themselves before Tabula Rasa kills them. We see Caitlin’s parents shot and killed by Tabula Rasa soldiers. We then see Dr. Cross telling Megan to initiate a seizure in all of the kids so that the soldiers can capture them. The kids suddenly pass out and drop to the ground.

We zip forward four hours later. The kids all wake up in a locked metal cell. They are all in shock. Their parents were never really their parents. They were just agents of Tabula Rasa and now they are all dead. The kids then engage in a group hug as Caitlin says that all they have is each other and they are going to need each other and that they are going to escape.

Comments
The Good: Gen 13 #1 was a rather unimpressive read. What did I like about this issue? Not much, but I must follow the Revolution’s Rule of Positivity. I did like Dr. Cross’ character. For the bad guy, he was pretty funny and likeable. I thought that the dialogue between Dr. Cross and Megan was by far the funniest and best written dialogue in this issue. These two characters had instant chemistry with each other.

Talent Caldwell’s art was all right. It is definitely “Image Comics” style artwork and that doesn’t really appeal to me. However, if you dig that style of art then you will certainly enjoy Caldwell’s work on this issue.

The Bad: Honestly, while reading Gen 13 #1 I thought I was transported back in time to 1994. This issue read like an original Image comic, and that is most definitely not a compliment. This issue had the trademark “hot” Image art and that trademark weak ass Image writing. Simone is a talented writer and she has done good work over on Birds of Prey and has started to hit her stride over on the Atom. However, Gen 13 #1 was certainly not some of her best stuff. This issue was poorly written and came across about as generic as possible.

I thought this issue was oddly paced. This issue jumped from scene to scene clumsily and created a bit of a schizophrenic feel to the story. The story lacked a nice natural flow when reading it. Outside of Dr. Cross and Megan, I found the dialogue to be rather stiff and pedestrian.

The kids themselves are pretty much devoid of any real personality. Right now, they are just walking clichés of the various types of teenagers that you will find in America. Now, it is only the first issue and Simone has plenty of time to try and flesh out and develop their personalities, however, it would have been nice to see something a bit more creative and original in this first issue.

The storyline itself isn’t all that novel or exciting. We have some covert secret organization with more money than most nations in the world secretly creating metahumans to be used as weapons for the organization’s high priced clients. There was nothing about this storyline that captured my imagination and hooked me into buying the next issue. Maybe I’m just not the target for this comic book. I’m not sixteen and angry at the world for not accepting me for who I am.

And I don’t know what the deal was with all the blanco dudes making racist comments in this issue. It was just weird. They really didn’t need to be in the story and had no real purpose or point to them. Especially the ones in the scene with Sarah. They just seemed inserted at the very end for no particular reason. It was extremely odd and I’m not too sure why Simone felt the need to inject these comments into her story. If there is one thing that I have been taught by comic books it is that only white people are racist.

Overall: Well, Wildstorm is now 0-2 with their efforts to get me to pick up their new Wildstorm titles. Wetworks failed to hook me and now Gen 13 has failed to earn a spot on the Revolution’s pull list. I usually give new titles 6 issues to hook me. However, with Wildstorm, since they are flooding the market with so many new titles and I already have a full pull list and limited funds I have decided to give these Wildstorm titles just one issue to hook me. Am I being too harsh on Gen 13 #1? Should I give it another chance? Does anyone think that Gen 13 deserves another issue or two to try and earn a spot on my pull list?