318. Gen 13 vol 1 #2 ... Image ...

The cover is a letdown with all that black lines at the background ... is it supposed to convey speed?

Anyway, we start the tale with a BANG as we see the kids make a break for it with someone slightly older. Naturally, the enemies give chase and it's a good exhibition of the kids abilities with some of them having nary a control. At this point, I have no idea what's the purpose of Grunge except to be the funny and cool semi-Asian looking guy ... and failing miserably at that (in my opinion that is should Grunge actually have fans out there!)

Naturally we need a bit of flashback in order to give us the lowdown on how they got free and on the run ... but then again, not everything is as it seems ... not the break for freedom but their current team and one of them is going to betray them

For me at this juncture, it reads like any super hero comic and the real let-down is the ending. Even the protagonist wondered why there is a mental connection between her and one other. I can tell you why, dear. It's a cop-out. The writer needs you to go somewhere and the easiest is to make it suddenly appear as if you have this mental connection. We see it in the New Mutants when Dani has a psychic link with Rahne even though both are from different countries and racial backgrounds. Again same with Kitty Pryde and room mate Illyana

Sigh!

Ratings: 5/10

297. Gen 13 vol 1 #1 ... Image ...

Can we make it four in a row? Yes, we can. And so for the fourth day, we jumped to yet another new title with a rotation of publishers and none Marvel (be patient all you Marvelites - you know a Marvel can never be far ahead, right?)

Well, this series when it was first launched featured a few notable facts and the first is that it was meant to be Gen X while simultaneously Marvel was coming out with Generation X. So the early ads for this title is actually different than what was finally launched. Not a surprise though as an Image character went from Bedrock to Badrock or vice versa (?)

Anyway, the next important fact is that it featured then unknown but now super popular artist, J Scott Campbell ... here his artwork is a wee bit cartoony with those large eyes and oft times overly proportioned ladies ... but hey even after 20 years, he still has the same characteristics except far more refine ... so you know he didn't waver much

What's the tale like? Well, it seems that the govt is setting up all these exam centers although some are disguised as more fun than serious all over the country in the hopes of locating teens with a special gene that may grant them super powers. Where did these genes come from? Experiment? Natural i.e. evolution? Read on then, eh?

Our main stars at this point are (no names intentionally):

1. Short chunky hairy guy with tattoos supposedly loser Asian American
2. Tall All American Girl with legs and geeky looks waiting to blossom into super bosom we mean super strong gal
3. A bleurgh average bloke who will look like  the human torch
4. A Jubilee wannabe gal who is insecure and will fall in love with 1
5. Another non-Caucasian gal whose sole purpose is to be less popular than the above and while her powers is kinda more powerful than some of them, yet she didn't make much impact here or throughout the remainder of the series

Who are the bad guys? Some government folks who managed to recruit the kids under the pre-text of good for the nation ... you just know that's full of shit, right? Hah!

Ratings: 6/10