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Review: Generation Hope #5

By | March 18th, 2011
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Written by Kieron Gillen
Illustrated by Jamie McKelvie

There was an upside to rushing from nation to nation, saving suicidal or homicidal mutants from themselves. It was a distraction. Cable is still dead. Hope has lost her father. Now, with a moment to breathe, she has time to think… and HAS to think. Not least because everyone else wants to mold her in their image. In this issue, Generation Hope’s future is decided.

Hold on a minute here. Let’s look at this solicit again for a minute. Kieron Gillen… Jamie McKelvie… didn’t they do that com- wait. This isn’t… is it? Pho-

Oh, wait! Nope. It’s Generation Hope #5. That’s right – Team Phonogram have reunited to tell the issue that bridges the opening arc to the next storyline in the title. Considering the creative team behind the title, you’d think that the issue would get an automatic A+.

But does it? Find the full review after the cut.

Generation Hope was, in it’s first arc, not entirely what everyone assumed it would be. The Five Lights had been introduced within the pages of Uncanny (except for Kenji), so while many figured that the book might ease into itself at a lighter pace Gillen instead threw the readers into the middle of a rather apropos tale about the power of art within the mindset of a younger character. Where most expected immediate character development establishing these characters and their existence within the mutant community, Gillen instead took the time to show an example of what the book will be like in the future – the story of a rescue team discovering new mutants in a post-Hope world. However, with the fifth issue (which acts as an epilogue to both that and the Uncanny story), the book slows down and, in many ways, finally gets it’s kick off point.

The fifth issue features all of the team attempting to fit into the Utopia community. For Hope, a 17 year old girl from a war torn future, this really isn’t the easiest of items on the menu. In fact, this element is rather perfectly illustrated when Magneto offers Xavier to meet Hope, telling him that she and her friends are playing volleyball when they are instead having target practice. The issue allows Hope to fully interact with some of the major players in the X-World, including Cyclops, Emma Frost, and Wolverine as Hope attempts to understand where her group of ragtag miscreants can seek a purpose. Of course, in doing so she ends up being a rather abrasive character, to the point that Hope is no longer that sweet girl raised by Cable, but she is really Cable’s daughter. It’s interesting for those that followed the story post-Messiah CompleX in the pages of Cable, because those who did saw that her beginnings as a character was rather different than who she has become. What began as a confused girl put in an impossible situation has evolved into a character whose purpose is both exciting and dangerous, and her conversation with Scott illuminates this more than anything.

In many ways, this issue actually stands as a statement of purpose from Gillen with his run not only in this title, but also in Uncanny. The entire premise is laid out right in the beginning with a conversation between Xavier and Magneto, as Xavier asks Magneto rather point blank,

Imagine a switch. Flipping it brings back those sixteen million mutants who died on Genosha, but kills an equal number of humans. What would you do?

Not only does this line feel infinitely quotable, but it lays the groundwork for what Hope means. The classic X-rivalry has always been Xavier’s ideals versus Magneto’s, and as much as the future rumors to this conflict switching to be between Cyclops and Wolverine those words still ring true to one of the hooks about this title. Who is Hope really? There is a brief hint as to her power towards the end of the issue, but beyond that we (the reader) are left in the dark about if she really is a boon for mutant kind or the next great curse. Opening the issue with a conversation between the past two figure heads of the mutant v. human conflict is essentially Gillen’s way of saying, “Look – here is the stakes, and here are the issues. Let’s go from here.”

Continued below

And go from there he does. The first four issues of the series were hardly something that I would call Gillen-esque, assuming that the term Gillen-esque refers to a style that appeared in that book we love to consistently bring up: Phonogram. While Phonogram certainly reviled in the realm of pop culture, it also regularly featured heavy exposition in a very recognizable ton . The opening arc tended to stay away from this formula a tad, instead offering up a rather gigantic action sequence in a newer way for those accustomed to Gillen’s writing. However, the slow pace of issue #5, which takes place entirely on Utopia, allows for more diatribes from the characters, which in turn leads to dialogues/monologues from characters that feel very Gillen-esque. Hope herself has a few monologues, allowing her to put several characters in their respective places throughout the issue with a touch of brutal honesty and snark (while continuing the debate of “what is her purpose” rather thoroughly), and Gillen even uses a few moments to inject a sunnier vibe to what is kind of a bleak story through Teon and Gabe, who in their own way represent classic X-Men archetypes for the younger cast members. The dialogue is really the selling point of the issue, since there is no action taking place and we are at last giving Hope a chance to be herself – whoever that may be.

Gillen’s past collaborator Jamie McKelvie takes the art duties of this issue, and in an odd way becomes a bit of a polarizing element for the story. While I hate to once again bring up that comic, it is ostensibly what lingers in the back of my mind as I read the issue, thus influencing (both accidentally and I suppose a tad bit intentionally) the way I see this current issue. McKelvie has a wonderful artistic style that belongs in many more books, specifically with characters of the age bracket of Generation Hope. In fact, it’s those characters that really look fantastic within the issue. McKelvie gets young characters, and that’s a fact, as the main cast of the title truly pops. However, it’s the regular X-Men that seem a tad off with this issue. Perhaps it’s from years and years of “traditional” artistic interpretations of the characters, but McKelvie’s approach to characters like Xavier and Magneto seem a tad too … well, good looking. As odd of a comment as that is to make as all characters in comics are typically “beautiful”, it’s almost as if the characters look too good. McKelvie’s Logan (combined with Gillen’s rather pitch-perfect scene for the character, including a self designed bar) is the best looking of the typical bunch, but something stands off about the rest of the cast. This isn’t something that’s even normal for an artist like McKelvie, as those that saw his work in Ultimate Spider-Man will note that his Cap looked fantastic, and his previous work with Fraction during Iron Man back-ups and Heroic Age: Uncanny X-Men can also note how good the book has looked. Yet for some reason, something just seems a tad off here with Magneto, Xavier, and even Emma Frost.

That doesn’t stop this from definitively being the best issue of Generation Hope so far, however. Part of this I suppose is a biased opinion coming from a fan of “that other book,” but as a fan of good storytelling the book soars as well. I have no problem with kick ass first arcs, but the fifth issue feels like the story we needed here. The cast is assembled, and their future is still only partially determined. They’re the rescue team, but we’re still getting used to the group as a functioning whole. The last two pages are probably the most telling about the future of the title, as the team walks off in their new uniforms to unheard victory music. With a heavy set of exposition which really begins to reveal Hope’s place within the X-Community under Gillen’s pen, I think you’d be hard pressed to find any X-Fan not ready to fully take the leap with Generation Hope.

Final Verdict: 9.6 – Buy


Matthew Meylikhov

Once upon a time, Matthew Meylikhov became the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Multiversity Comics, where he was known for his beard and fondness for cats. Then he became only one of those things. Now, if you listen really carefully at night, you may still hear from whispers on the wind a faint voice saying, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine is not as bad as everyone says it issss."

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