“Gen13 : Ordinary Heroes” issues 1 & 2

This entry covers “Gen13 : Ordinary Heroes” issues 1 and 2 by Adam Hughes and Mark Farmer.

This story starts off with Caitlin finally picking up her stuff that she left at Princeton, from before she going to the Gen13 Program. She runs into the boyfriend of her former roommate, and he doesn’t really recognize tall, buff, confident Caitlin at all. She manages to shame him in the most hilarious way as she boards an airship meeting back up with the rest of the Gen13 crew. Something’s off and Lynch is acting like a dick, well more than usual anyway.

Rainmaker fills Caitlin in on what happened while she was away as the team is flying into action. See, Lynch gets a call, and this call leaves Lynch frightened. He tells the kids to suit up, something very bad has happened and he needs to make sure it is set right. Lynch is taking this job as personally as he is angry.

I/O’s Black Hammers are all about this town and the blast the Gen13 aircraft out of the sky. Roxy and Bobby save Grunge and Rainmaker while Caitlin and Lynch are left to fend for themselves. Caitlin survives the long fall, and just as she’s thinking that good luck is shining upon her, she encounters a Black Hammer. There isn’t too much time to fight as soon enough the real threat rears its… head?

It’s a giant silly putty monster that is devouring everything in its path! Even the Black Hammer that Caitlin was just in battle with. The other kids manage to save Caitlin while they assess the situation. They all decide that they need to find Lynch and get the bottom of this all. Oh, and Rebecca Hawkins of the Black Hammers shows up and is all “Hey, help me find Lynch so we can stop this, mmm-kay?” I mean she’s not wrong, but she’s also holding back a lot of information she knows from the kids, because, you know, I/O and all that.

They find Lynch, broken ankle and all, and he fills them in on the history of the flesh colored blob monster. See, it is the child of Gen12s that I/O captured. Why? Well, come on, this is I/O and a super powered being, of course Craven wants to get his filthy hands all over it! It was just a baby and they all did such horrible experiments on it.

As the kids go to do battle with the putty monster, Grunge gets a look in his eye and dives into monster voluntarily. This catches everybody off guard and they all watch in horror as the goop recedes to leave a dead looking Grunge laying on the pavement. But hey, guess what? He’s not dead! Woohoo! You see, old Eddie did some thinking, and figured out that this poor little dude didn’t know anything save for being poked and prodded and experimented on. Hell on Earth since birth. Grunge figured that if he merges with the creature and shows him nothing but love and happiness it could change the crazy puddle’s mind. Yes, Grunge beat the gum creature with the power of positivism and friendship. It’s the kind of plan that only Grunge could have and only Grunge would enact. I think there’s a real reason why he didn’t run it past the team, none of them would’ve let him try it.

What is left of the goopy-goo-killy-poo is what looks like a baby with electrodes all over its body. The Gen13 kids consider it as one of their own because much like them, they are all children of Gen12 parents. Caitlin alone buries the poor little guy in a secret location, they all thought it best if hardly anyone knew where it was, as some crazy I/O spook would dig it up if it was more public for “research” and such. While they did the right thing and saved the city, Caitlin can’t help but feel bittersweet at the loss of life that was caused by and to the “monster” she was just fighting hours ago.

Continuity Corner:

• Look, it’s Rebecca Hawkins back from “Gen13” volume one issue 5! Never thought I’d see her again!
• Lil Angry Slime Baby was held on I/O’s level 9, with all the other I/O misfits.
• In this story we start seeing Caitlin doubt the motivations and trustworthyness of Lynch. When we start “Gen13” volume two issue 3 we see Caitlin very much still in the mindset of doubt. I see “Ordinary Heroes” leading to that paranoia in issue 3 quite seamlessly, one of the reasons why I place this mini-series here.
• Because Caitlin and the kids are based in La Jolla we know this issue has to take place after “Gen13” issue 0.
• Honestly, I just want to see Gen13 going on more adventures before the next big crossover. From volume two issue 3, until “Fire from Heaven” has either the kids separated from Lynch or is related to the Team 7 drama that kicks off “Fire from Heaven” so there’s no time for this book much later.
• Lynch doesn’t seem to know that Bobby is his son yet, and vice-versa, so that puts it firmly before “Fire From Heaven” (issues 10 & 11 of volume two) as well.
• Oh, and Grunge still has his long hair, so it had to happen before “Gen13” volume two issue 8.

NEXT: “Wetworks” Vol. 1 issues 9 – 11 by Whilce Portacio, Francis Takenaga, Steven Grant, Dan Norton, Mark Pacella, Tom Raney, Mike S. Miller, Dan Panosian, Sal Regla, Scott Williams and Sandra Hope

“Gen13” issue 1/2 and 0

this entry covers “Gen13” 1/2 and issue 0. “Gen13” 1/2 was reprinted at one time as “Gen13” issue -1, and was also in the “WildStorm Rarities” book

An alternate name for this entry could be “Five Short Stories Featuring Gen13.” As both issues are shorts that are chronicling what the Gen13 members were up to between the first volume and the second. They’re mostly small and fun stories, and they’re done by a variety of artists. I imagine one of the many reasons they were done was to give more lead time for J. Scott Campbell for the series proper and keep the “Gen13” name alive and out in front of the comic buying and reading audience.

The first story, as detailed in “Gen13” 1/2 has the kids pretty fresh out of the mini-series going on a bit of a road trip. Rainmaker has already left to be with her family in Arizona and the kids are now just driving around, supposedly they’re just killing some time before meeting up with Lynch down in San Diego, but they could just be being silly ass teens with no real direction. They have been told by Lynch to stick to the backroads to avoid altercations with local authorities or Ivana’s Keepers. They’re having some real problems with reading the map to said backroads, but that’s only the start of their troubles. When they pull over to ask directions and get some gas they also encounter Loran, a Traveler, or rather The Traveler, who shifted through time. She’s on the hunt for Langston, better known as Timespan who we’ve seen in a few issues of “StormWatch.” Loran has no time to deal with the primitives of this time, and in her little freak out bully time against some innocent bystanders, she catches the attention of Bobby, which in turn gets the rest of the kids to go after her. It’s a tough battle, but in the end, Loran gets tied up with a stop sign and left of the cops, as the kids continue their road trip to San Diego.

The next story is the first of four from issue 0, it stars Caitlin as she’s meeting up with her cousin and her family in Portland. Caitlin isn’t quite sure at this point if she really wants to go down to San Diego, and she might just stay in Portland with family. No sooner than she starts talking to her cousin (and her jerk husband) do some suited men start walking their way. Caitlin fears the worst, that they were sent by Ivana or by I/O and she does what she can to get away. This involves being hit by a train, then picking up said train and tossing it. That puts some distance between her and the rude boys, but she knows it’ll only slow them down for so long. Lucky for her a friend of Lynch’s pulls up and whisks her to the airport to catch a flight to San Diego. Did I say one of Lynch’s friends? Oh, turns out all these guys were pals of Lynch and it was all a set up to make sure Caitlin didn’t find a reason to stay in Portland and to make sure she joined the team. Oh, Lynch, it’s stuff like this that made so many Team 7 members dislike you.

We move on to Bobby picking up Sarah at the reservation she grew up at. Bobby act like a jerk, Sarah schools him and he gets all boo hoo emo boy. It’s all pretty uneventful, but a decent character moment for both. It’s nice seeing Rainmaker so excitable and enthused showing her world off to Bobby, as she pretty much becomes the cool level headed character of the book. I’m not saying it comes across as out of character either, it perfectly fits, but it’s a side we rarely see.

On to Las Vegas, where we find Roxy and Grunge trying to track down Roxy’s stepmom. Vegas was her stepmom’s last known whereabouts, but after hitting up all the major casinos they find out she’s already left and headed to New York City. Regardless of this Grunge and Roxy manage to stir up some trouble. We have some business with a hitman who looks a lot like Grunge, so much so that he gives him his jacket, in order to… I dunno, sneak out of the casino easier? Not sure what all that was about, but we do see Roxy using her power to win big at roulette. The casino notices this and sends goons out to stop the pair. Maybe Grunge had to be mistaken for the hitman so that we’ll see why the goons are using such extreme force, but come one, this is a fictional universe, where casinos always employ over the top goons as security. We’ve seen it a million times. What we see for the first time is Grunge using his power on Roxy as well as himself to evade said goons. Just as the pair is running out of the casino Bobby and Sarah pull up to help them get out of town in a hurry.

The final story concerns Lynch, breaking back into I/O to wipe records of Project Genesis and steal some files as well as some funds. Lynch knows all the secret ways in because he went over the plans when the I/O towers were build and made a few alterations. He gets all high-tech and uses a refraction suit, which basically makes him invisible. He almost gets away without being caught, but he just couldn’t shield his thoughts from Alicia Turner. We get reintroduced to Frank Colby and find that he took Lynch’s former position at I/O. Due to their past Colby and Alicia let Lynch go, but neither seem happy about it, and you can tell a bridge has been fully burned between them and John.

We get a single page wrap up, showing all the teens meeting up in La Jolla (which is a seaside community in San Diego) arriving at their new home. The kids meet Anna for the first time and Lynch lets them all know, it’s time to learn something, and he’s ready to teach! It’ll be at least a few months, comic time, before we catch back up with the Gen13 crew, heck, Rainmaker has to grow out her hair! But this was a pretty fun way to show us what the kids and Lynch get up to in their off time. Not to mention that it was a bonus for all of us to see Jim Lee and Travis Charest do some art for these stories!

Continuity Corner:

• I mentioned this up top, but when the “Gen13” 1/2 story was reprinted in the “Gen13 : Backlist” trade the art and dialogue are completely different. The penciling is still done by Ryan Benjamin, but it’s been a few years and he’s got a better sense of the characters. It’s paced a lot better too, but the original wasn’t bad to begin with. Choi took over the dialogue on this version from H. K. Proger and makes a few small changes. In his version Caitlin wasn’t lost, Bobby isn’t so angry, Caitlin is sending a letter to her family instead of sending a payment for the stolen VW bus, and Loran is calling everyone “devols” instead of “primitives.” Oh, and Loran is named, she wasn’t in the original version. It is interesting to see the pages side by side and note the differences! Also, big shout out to John Pannozzi for bringing the two different versions to my attention in the first place!
• The “StormWatch” and “Gen13” books have so little in common tone-wise, that it’s kind of jarring to see these books interact in any way outside of a line-wide crossover. This book is the only WildStorm book that even references The Traveler and Timespan outside of StormWatch, it wasn’t like we saw these two fighting their way through the background of “WildC.A.T.s” or “Union.”
• Roxy does eventually find her stepmom in “Gen13” Vol. 2 issue 27 when the team is in New York.
• Grunge says he was born in Hong Kong, but grew up in Seattle. Did he forget about all that time he spent on that Coda island?

Where to find these stories:

• the “Gen13 : Backlist” trade paperback had a version of Gen13 1/2 with different dialogue and all new art with the same story.
• the “Gen13 Archives” trade paperback has both stories, but is in black and white

NEXT : “Spartan : Warrior Spirit” issues 1 through 4 by Kurt Busiek, Mike McKone and Mark McKenna with Mick Gray