Let us return to the 90’s, a time in comics where publishers were in an arms race to see who could fit the biggest guns, biggest muscles, and the tightest-fitting clothes into a single comic. During this time, Gen13 tried to introduce a new team of super-powered young adults. Did it work out? Let’s take a look and see.
Written by Jim Lee and Brandon Choi
Illustrated by Jim Lee, Richard Johnson, J. Scott Campbell, and Travis Charest
Colored by Wendy Fouts, Monica Bennett, and Joe Chiodo
Lettered by Richard Starkings, Comicraft, Chris Eliopoulos, and Ken LopezThey’re the slacker super-heroes who’ve taken the world by storm! Created by science, this team of super-powered teenagers battles for survival in a world seemingly set against them.
What can be said about “Gen13?” I suppose the first thing is that it’s aggressively 90’s. From the gritty art style to the character designs to the dialogue to the excessively large laser guns, this comic is peak 90’s era comic book. As such, it doesn’t exactly hold up when viewed at by today’s standards, but everything should be looked at through a lens of “That’s what was selling back then.”
The story of “Gen13” is not exactly told in chronological order. It begins with a zero issue, which shows the team regrouping after escaping Project Genesis. This gives us an introduction to each of the characters, where we learn a little bit about their powers, personalities and history.
Even within the zero issue, the qualities of the stories varies. For instance, Caitlin Fairchild’s story includes no shortage of characters being blatant a-holes, cheesy dialogue, and ridiculously transparent clothing. On the other hand, the story focusing on Burnout and Rainmaker is more character-driven and even features cleaner, less line-covered artwork.
I expected the last part of issue zero, focusing on Roxy and Grunge, to be the most painful. Given that it takes place in a Las Vegas casino and features a character named “Grunge” whose muscles would put “Fist of the North Star” characters to shame, you can understand my apprehension. While the art is somewhat cleaner in terms of linework and coloration, the character designs are still somewhat inconsistent and occasionally misshapen. Yet in spite of my concerns, it was a fun chapter, featuring mistaken identities, a chase through the casino, and occasionally decent banter with a good amount of character voice.
With that introduction, it seemed like the story would pick up with a team of powered teens and young adults on the run. Instead, the first issue takes us back to how the team first met and discovered their powers. Again, this isn’t necessarily bad storytelling; in media res introductions can work just fine, letting the story bridge the gap between where the story begins and where they came in.
When we get into the story itself, the introduction is passable. It begins in a bloody manner, but the gratuitous violence does still help establish the story and drops key phrases like “gen-active” and “gen-12.” We get to meet Caitlin as a college student and follow her as she meets other future members of her team, albeit in a program that is clearly far more “secret government military” than “summer internship.” The story drops bits and pieces of information about the shadowy organization, including background information to help establish the background.
In fact, even when the characters are running through battlefields, the comic still manages to pace out the plot details nicely. If the comic is to be given credit for one thing, it would be the pacing. Things keep moving while giving us enough of a breather to get more plot at a good pace.
Most of the characters still have distinct personalities and voices to them, so we can get a feel for them fast enough. There’s still no shortage of cheesy dialogue, but it helps to remember that most of these characters are teens and young adults. Of course, it’s more noticeable when adult characters spew the same corny lines.
When Threshold is introduced, things get even more gratuitous. He’s a character whose power appears to be making heads explode, a power that he utilizes frequently. Then we meet his sister, Nicole, who seems to enjoy lounging about in a swimsuit that pulls her breasts in different directions while being waited on by shirtless men.
Continued belowI’m not even sure what the point of that is other than complete 90’s era cheese. If anything, this raises so many questions. Does she always lounge around in a bikini and high-heeled boots? Was she just flirting with her brother? Who designed that swimsuit? Did they allocate the budget to hire shirtless men to wait on her? But I feel like all these questions can be answered with: that’s what sold comics back then.
Of course, the comic does not limit the excessive fanservice just to her. When bookish Caitlin awakens her super powers, she grows about two feet taller, complete with clothing damage, and apparently loses the need for glasses. Later on she gets a uniform that’s basically a leotard with arm bands, and when we see the uniform before she puts it on, it’s clearly designed with breast cups. (I checked to confirm, and leotards are not normally designed that way.)
J. Scott Campbell does the artwork for issues 1 and 2, so the artwork does tend to feature a certain style of character design. The women are all tall and curvy, the men varying sizes of muscular. The generally style and coloration has the rough, heavily shaded artwork that 90’s comics are known for, including some rather over the top designs. Special credit goes to what is presumably a security guard, except an excessively violent one clad in full body armor, armed to the teeth, and wearing an X-shaped helmet that completely masks his face. Liefeld himself couldn’t have added more grenades, bullet clips, or pouches to that suit.
The character designs themselves are at least distinctive, but oddly proportioned. The size and positioning of the eyes doesn’t always feel right, and I’ve spoken at length about the body types. Everything is drawn to be over-the-top, but credit must be given for the amount of detail that Campbell puts into everything.
When issue 2 ends with Caitlin picking up an unnecessarily large laser gun, one must pause and absorb exactly how quintessentially 90’s it is. There’s even a second cartridge taped to the bottom of the first in a way that is utterly impractical.
If I seem to be repeating the fact that everything about “Gen13” is representative of how comics were in the 90’s, that’s because it keeps finding new ways to remind me of that. From the art and character designs to the gratuitous, head-exploding violence to the cheesy dialogue, “Gen13” captures a very specific era in comic book history.
Whether or not that’s a good thing is entirely up to you.
Final Verdict: ???? – Are we judging a comic that’s clearly a product of its time by today’s standards, or within the context of the 90’s? While it actually does a passable job at introducing characters and the storyline, everything from the exploding heads to the inexplicable swimsuits is so gratuitous it detracts from everything.