"Hi there. I'm Michael. And . . . I'm a 90's comics addict."
(Pssst...this is the part where you all say, "Hi, Michael!")
I've been spitballing out comic-themed posts here and there for years. Usually these are things I take my time with, they aren't just quickie read-and-review bits enhanced by my trademark sexy bod and stunning witticisms. I'm a geek who likes to get hyper-focused on something when I write about it, so my temptation is to research the ever-loving shit out of my topics. So whether I'm writing about one of the first manga to make its way to US shores in the 80's, or one of my favorite single comic issues of all time, or messing with @blewitt by using his NSFW face to review a NSFW comic book without actually using the 'NSFW' tag, or the forgotten history of Afrocentric comics publishing, or trying to sort out the ridiculously complicated chronology of Everette Hartsoe's Razor...I tend to drive myself down rabbit holes which I fear are too convoluted and of limited interest to all but the most hardcore lurkers of the #comics domain here.
This series is an opportunity to break myself of this habit and hopefully garner a few more interested readers by taking a series I've collected and loved for years, and re-reading it top to bottom, one issue at a time. Because it's nice to set goals, I'm going to avoid the urge to kill myself and shoot for one episode of this "Great Re-Read" per week. I'm going to focus on Gen 13 until I either die or run out of books--given how huge the Gen 13 library is and how frequently they crossed over with other titles, and how I'm not as young as I used to be, the former is a distinct possibility. If I somehow run out of Zorker before I run out of Gen 13, then I apologize in advance, but also no refunds. And yes, I'll still nerd out and show off all the fancy bits and bobs. I'll still dig up the trivia and variant covers and other minutia y'all know and love. These won't be shitposts with a cover scan, a @blewitt face rating, and a couple pithy sentences in the hopes of gaming upvotes from my followers. I'll put in the work.
But I'm going to try, try, mind you, not to go apeshit with this. I'm going to fail from time to time. I may go off on tangents, railing about Image comics, or geeking out when I finally put together some obscure plot point. But when I do, I hope you'll enjoy the trip down memory lane. And we'll discover the true treasure was the laughs we shared along the way.
Why Gen 13?
Why not? It's got everything a great comic series needs: babes, boobs, mutants, incest, philosophy, pop culture riffs and more, all dialed up to THE NINETIES EXTREME! with almost zero Liefeld! Plus, its launch in February of '94 means this is nearly the series' 30th anniversary (Christ, I'm old...), so let's pop the cork on some champagne!
What do you mean, "Almost zero Liefeld"?
Well . . . they mention "Team Youngblood" in the first issue, so . . .
Hold on, what do you mean, "Incest"?!
There's this brother and sister pair of Gen-Actives, see, and they--
No. NO! You are not going to drag me down this path! Not in my introductory post. If you're really that curious, hit that 'Follow' button and you'll learn all about Bliss and Threshold in due time. I promise.
Didn't you try this once already?
Yeah, that was almost five years ago on a different platform, then somebody suggested I run a D&D campaign IRL, and that derailed pretty much everything including this project. I'm not doing the D&D thing anymore, so I'm hoping if I give myself some serious leeway by setting up some reposts that I can get out in front of this and push through it. You don't have to upvote this if you don't want to, especially if you already supported me for these back in 2019.
This is getting weird, dude.
Look, I have a dozen long boxes' worth of comics stored in my basement, not to mention an entire bookshelf full of graphic novels, trade paperbacks, and manga. I had to pick something. I figure it's been long enough since I read Gen 13 that I could have some fun rediscovering a title from my youth. Especially since I rather obsessively collected it for the better part of a decade. I'm missing some issues, I know I don't have all the cross-overs and guest-starring appearances, and stuff like that, but at one post per issue per week, I have the better part of two years' worth of a regular feature just sitting here in front of me, and that's not even counting all the spin-offs and mini-series and one-shots and annuals and specials. Plus it's a lot faster to steamroll through a single issue of a comic book than it is to read a novel, or watch a feature-length film.
This is my 'trying to keep ModernZorker in honest work' project for the platform, something I can focus on when nothing's really lighting the fires of my creative self. I hope you'll join me on my journey, whether it's to judge me for colossally poor taste in comics as a teenager, or to smile along and remember when, even if you're too young to remember the 90's.
Or because you're just dying to know if Bliss and Threshold ever make the beast with two backs. I know you're out there, you scofflaws. Just give me your upvotes and don't send any fanfic demands. I learned my lesson the last time I capitulated to a 'shipping request. I'm not sorry -- you are sorry!
So that's that, folks. All systems are go, and I'm ready to start cranking on this. So some time within the next seven days (hashtag Ringu), we'll dig in to Gen 13 #1 from February 1994 by Jim Lee, Brandon Choi, Jeff Scott Campbell, Alex Gardner, Joe Chiodo, and the rest of the crazies at Wildstorm Productions. Until then, be somebody, or be somebody's fool!