Gen 13 is sticking nicely to its monthly schedule, proving that Jim Lee's Wildstorm imprint can at least deliver their books on time, even if several other studios are still having difficulty doing so. This issue concludes a story arc begun in issue 6, so you'll probably want to catch up on current events before you dive in if you haven't been following along.
Also, I have to say, this is one busy cover that explains nothing while introducing a bunch of new faces and still featuring most of the main characters, although Burnout once again gets shafted by being left out. This is unfortunate since he's a significant part of the story, but as a fellow member of Generation X, I'm sure he's used to being overlooked by now.
Never mind that: crack open a nice Crystal Pepsi and let's get started!
Our prologue opens one month ago, with Caitlin Fairchild on the run:
Hunting her is a group called the Deviants, a second team of Gen Actives which we saw Ivana spiriting away from the old I.O. facility during Lynch's attack, and a couple of whom were briefly seen last issue when they were being thawed out from cryo-sleep. We've just met, from left to right on the hover platform, Copycat, Frostbite (who incapacitates Fairchild), and Powerhaus. Time to meet two more members as we flip the page:
Hold on, what?! We just saw Fairchild alive and well more recently than a month, so did Evo kill her and she just magically got better?
Nope. It was all a dream simulation!
While Evo gets in touch with his inner homicidal maniac, the rest of the team disconnects from the simulation. Copycat gets reacquainted with her lunch while Powerhaus tries to calm her down. Frostbite and Sublime don't seem put out at all.
Ivana isn't thrilled with Copycat's reaction. Threshold argues she just needs more time in the simulator, and Ivana threatens to "retire" her from the team if she doesn't shape up. A sixth team member, unnamed and unidentified, likewise needs assistance getting out of the VR gear. We won't learn until a year later, in issue 11 of the DV8 series which spins off from Gen 13, that this is Freestyle, whom Ivana dumped back into cold storage after being deemed a poor fit for the team, but if you collect first appearance books, this is hers.
While the Deviants get themselves sorted, Ivana and Threshold talk in the command center. After dipping out last issue, Bliss has been completely off Ivana's radar for the last three months. Ivana's worried she's fallen into Lynch's hands, while Threshold argues she's too strong and too dedicated to the cause to do them any harm.
From there, we time-skip back to the present, where Bliss has just saved Burnout from a beatdown by Domina: one of the Centurions, a Roman Gen-Active team, tasked with defending the Church. Rousing her Prince Charming with a smooch, Burnout's happy to still be alive, albeit upset that Bliss is the one who saved him. They make their way back to the scene of last issue's battle royal, learning that one of the team is believed to be buried in the rubble of a collapsed building. Bobby's convinced it's Rainmaker, and that she's in one of the tunnels below the streets, so he activates his powers to turn himself into a human excavator and digs into the ground. Unfortunately all this takes place in front of an Italian news crew covering the damage.
Burnout could care less about his public appearance, but Bliss recognizes the trouble it will bring, and uses her powers to create a wave of mass hysteria among the onlookers to keep them busy. She finds Burnout in the sewers, where Rainmaker, groggy but mostly undamaged, has survived a building falling on her. Reluctantly, she agrees to work with Bliss to find the rest of the team.
Cut to the Vatican, where Cardinal Rosetti is dressing down Volare for his team's piss-poor performance in last issue's brawl. We also learn Fairchild, Freefall, and Grunge have been taken to the detention center for interrogation by the Inquisition (which does not sound like fun). Every building needs a sewer system, and with the help of Bliss's Gen Active detector, the three of them navigate to Rosetti's base, and pop out...
...in the men's bathroom. After catching the guards with their pants literally down, the search continues, only thanks to Bliss and Rainmaker's constant bitching at one another, it isn't long before they're discovered and the alarm sounded.
Back in the detention center, Grunge and Freefall get into an argument over the safety of Grunge's butt while they're in the hands of a bunch of killer monks...
...which causes enough of a distraction that Fairchild can break her bonds and disable the rest of the guards. Rainmaker, Burnout, and Bliss find the group, but the Vatican forces are in hot pursuit as Caitlin desperately tries to get a message out to Lynch. She can't secure an outside channel, but Bliss comes through with the save:
Thanks to Bliss, Fairchild now has access to the Order of the Cross's whole system. Thus, when Cardinal Rosetti bursts in with his Centurions, Caitlin has the perfect bargaining chip to extend in exchange for their freedom: a project called Operation Lazarus, which Rosetti would very much like to remain a secret from the rest of the world.
Freedom thus secured and safely aboard one of the Vatican's private jets, the teammates share high-fives for overcoming the situation with brains as opposed to brawn for once. And while it seems like Bliss might have decided to fight for the good guys for a bit, she knows staying away from Ivana for too long will just cause more problems than it solves. After telling Burnout goodbye, the two share a brief lip lock before Bliss pops open an exit hatch and parachutes out into the wild blue yonder, leaving the Gen 13 bunch free to finally get back to La Jolla.
They're not going to like what they find when they get there though.
Final Score
out of
This is a solid conclusion to the story arc begun last issue, although I wish they'd given this one three issues so it could breathe a bit more. We never really see or learn more about the Order of the Cross, the Centurions, or Project Lazarus, which feels like a major missed opportunity for the series as a whole. It does portent a significant showdown between the Deviants and Gen 13 though, which is exciting even if we still don't know much about these characters just yet.
It looks like Bliss is starting to develop some character outside of the "psycho-nympho" persona she's been carrying around since the original mini-series, and the verbal barbs she and Rainmaker trade throughout this issue are entertaining--Brandon Choi and Jeff Scott Campbell are getting more confident with these scripts and it shows. It doesn't take long for her to get back to that original persona alas, which makes this issue's face turn seem out of place later on, but for right now, it's a nice change of pace. Likewise nice is seeing Caitlin's ability to think on her feet come to the forefront, as she manages to talk/bribe her way out of what would otherwise have been one hell of a brawl for once.
Scott Williams does a fine job inking Jim Lee's pencils, and I didn't note any issues with Joe Chiodo's coloring talents either. You can see some early computer enhancement work being done in this book, especially on the page showing the team's interrogation where one panel has been duplicated and a blur filter applied to different areas to alter the focal points, and the effect works well.
It's been a month, and holy cow does Rainmaker's little tryst with Burnout last issue have the fans lighting up the Gen 13 letter column! Lots of people writing in to give their take on the issue: one guy claims he's done with Image books all together, while another writer, a 30 year old lesbian, congratulates the team for illustrating what, for an awful lot of people is a pretty common theme when trying to find their place in the world. Also, a number of Italian fans fired off some praise for seeing an American comic depict a story set in their home country, with one especially excited to see the Centurions, as no Italian comic book features a fully Italian super-team. This is something my Ameri-centric youth would have entirely overlooked in 1996, but which is phenomenal to see looking back on almost thirty years later. Representation in comics matters, gang, and this here's the proof.
All in all, no major nitpicks or complaints. Next entry, we'll be taking a two-issue sidestep into another Wildstorm title to catch up with what's happened to Lynch while the kids have been galivanting all over Madagascar and Italy. Hope to see you back again whenever that happens, fellow krunk-heads!