X-Mutants ( The "all -things- X" topic)

[jjreason]

I hate everything, so of course I hate this. I have no idea what it is, but based on your comments I hate it. Fucking hate it.

[anarky]

Wow.

This is just sorta insane. It may wind up being something other than this, but it really feels like a retcon simply to get Wolverine into the picture from the beginning. How's he working with Sabretooth pre-Weapon X? Shouldn't they fucking hate each other, what with Sabretooth's bad habit of killing his girlfriends?

"One of the things that attracted me to jump at this project is that in those early X-Men, everyone hates and fears mutants, but nobody really knows why," said Lowe.

Uh, maybe because they're the next step in evolution and people are afraid of getting replaced? Also, they're born with powers. That's one thing about X-Men that didn't need to be explained.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

As well you should.


It's getting universally panned in the CBR forums. I wonder if Marvel is going "oh fuck. We missed the ball on this."

Sabretooth: The First Galactus cracked me up.

Ironically, normally I'd be sorta psyched about Neal Adams doing an X-project.

[anarky]

I guess the entire bit about Professor X thinking he was the first mutant until probably the 80s or 90s (publication time) is out the window, too?

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Nope. The whole X-Men thing was Sabretooth's idea. Charles Xavier could not have given less of a fuck about mutantkind until Victor showed up and convinced him that maybe starting a school for muties would be a keen idea. And then Chuck said "Fuck that!" Then Victor pointed out Chuck could recruit a sexy 13 year old redhead. Charles then went in the bathroom and fapped one out, then came out and said "I'll do it!!"

Yup. That's canon now.

[anarky]

Y'know what would be awesome, no shit?

If some really amazing creative team--I'm talking two or more guys who are known for excellent work they've done together, some team like Gaiman/McKean (though the style'd be wrong) or Grant/Breyfogle or, hell, one awesome guy like Steranko--were to make a mini-series that centered on Professor X and completely redeemed all the asshole douchebaggery he's been retconned with.

We always knew he had his issues and was far from perfect. But he wasn't a walking (well, rolling) cockring until about ten years or so ago.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Upon JJs recommendation, I started reading Generation X. The first ten issues were read and forgotten 18 years ago, so I'm starting at issue 11. And although I don't know the specifics, I kinda know where the characters all end up by the end of the series and beyond (For instance, I know Synch, Skin, etc will eventually be dead) and I kinda know the convoluted resolution of Monet's story. But it will be interesting to watch it unfurl. I'm not sure whether Lobdell knew M's secret from the beginning, or if he's winging it.
Looking at the writers over the course of the series, I never realized Larry Hama had such a long run on the book.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Here's what happened in issues 11-31.

11. Chamber fights with Omega Red.
12-14. Emplate returns. Monet is revealed as his sister.
15-16. As an after-effect of the Emplate battle, Synch turns evil and tries to kill his parents in St. Louis. Jubes, Husk, and M stop him.
17. Skin and Chamber fight the X-cutioner.
18-19. Onslaught tie in. Emma whisks the kids away to Canada to protect them from Onslaught.
20-21. Skin and Chamber hitchhike to LA and get picked up by Howard the Duck. Orphan Franklin Richards comes to the Academy.
22. Emma gets attacked by Nightmare in her dreams.
23. Thanksgiving. Husk takes Chamber back to Kentucky to meet her family.
24. Christmas. Monet, Jubes, Husk, and Emma all share the moment their mutant powers activated.
25. Double Size! Mondo turns out to be evil and working for Black Tom, who kidnaps all the kids. Eventually Banshee and Emma and Penance defeat Tom. Jubes gets abducted by Bastion.
26-27. Jubes is tortured by Bastion to try and find the X-Men. The rest of the kids are on a liferaft in the Pacific where Black Tom left them.
28. The DeusExMachina known as Glorian, Shaper of Dreams rescues the kids and plops them in LA. Remember Glorian? He's been in like 3 Marvel comics total. So naturally he'd be hanging out in the middle of the ocean waiting to save a bunch of kids floating on a raft made of grass. Lobdell's last issue.
29-31. Operation Zero Tolerance. Bastion's Sentinels attack the kids in LA and also drama with Skin's former gang buddies. Emma and Banshee fight over whether to give Penance back to Emplate. Jubes escapes from Bastion with the help of one of his little Schoolgirl clad bald robot girlie minions(wow, Bastion has some kink issues). Monet is revealed to actually be her own twin sisters, and so the convolutedness begins. These three issues by James Robinson.

[arnaky]

32. Jubilee is forced to reveal her torrid affair with Lady Gaga. Hilarity ensues when her hillbilly mom visits.
33. Garry Shandling guest stars. There's not really much of a point, aside from that weird trend in the 90s where sticking Garry Shandling in a comic would make it break sales records. Also Jean Grey dies again.
34-5. Rob Liefeld's stint on the book. He left because he wanted to move on to more literary self-published works (and, having read Youngmaus a few dozen times, I'm glad he did!), but his tale of Skin coming to grips with not feeding the class gerbil over Christmas break is heartwrenching. These are the two issues that people remember even if they forget the rest of the series.
36. A fill-in issue by Batman. I love his Alan Grant Adventures comic book, but, damn, his Generation X sucks.
37. The kids go to the mall and, while shopping at Old Navy, discover that Husk is a Sith Lord. Hilarity ensues when her hillbilly mom visits.
38. Future Professor X journeys into his past to find out where he left his keys.
39-43. Days of Presents Unwrapped. I know this is considered one of those landmark stories, but I really find it quite tedious. The scene where Gwen Stacy kills the Hobgoblin is so ridiculous, it makes me vomit every time I think of it. Damn, thought of it again. I need a new keyboard.
44. A rather odd adaptation of Oedipus Rex by Ray Bradbury, starring ninjas. Quite good, but everyone knew before Marvel admitted it that they'd mixed up the art with Classics Illustrated at the printer. Sure, Generation X just rolled with it and said that the Gen-X kids were watching it on TV, but that bizarre retcon that Classics Illustrated did, where they said that Professor X and Banshee were secretly Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and they were trying to kidnap Tom Sawyer, that shit was just wacked.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Hyuk. Hyuk. Hyuk. Very funny.

Anyway, next up; the Larry Hama issues from 33-44. Hama's run is way more 'miss' than 'hit'.

32. Transition issue written by DeFalco. GenX vs the Circus of Crime. Banshee visits Moira, who is infected with the Legacy Virus(remember that subplot that never ended?)
33-34. Some local hooligans break into the school and steal some personal items from Jubes, Husk, and Skin.
35-39. A huge mess of a storyline involving Elmore the Pooka(a giant talking ferret) and Rat named Dirtnap, and the Monet twins combining with their brother Emplate to become M-Plate. Who then kidnaps Synch and takes his to a fairy tale alternate dimension to try and "combine all the souls of the multiverse into a single consciousness". Serious shroom trip from Hama. Terry Dodson becomes the regular artist with 38 after several fill ins.
40. The secret of Penance is finally revealed. It turns out Penance is really the real Monet and was cursed by her brother Emplate. Money is restored to normal and the twins become the new Penance. One of the most jackass convoluted families in all of comics.
41. The kids rent a bunch of horror films and Jubes has nightmares.
42-43. Some D-list villain named Bianca LaNiege returns from space to give Emma shit for a hostile takeover of her company years ago. Forgettable.
44. Husk leaves the team to take care of her sick mother. She reconciles her love with Chamber. Banshee does the same with his daughter who is the new leader of X-Force.

Jay Faerber's run is up next. He's never struck me a memorable writer, but damn he's got to be better than Hama on this title.

[anarky]

Is his Generation-X worse than his Batman?

[RoIIo Tomassi]

It's been awhile since I read his Batman run. All I can say is that Lobdell's GenX was loads better than Larry's.

[anarky]

I remember squee-ing in delight when I read Hama would be writing Batman.

Yeah, that lasted for about five pages.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Jay Faerber wrote GenX from issue 45-62. Faerber pretty much tossed out all the supporting characters Hama had developed, like the local sheriff, his daughter, and the local kids.

45. Emma comes to terms with her power loss and return and decides to get serious about the Academy being an actual school(because it wasn't for the last 45 issues?)
46. A Schoolboard assessor is going to close the school down, but then had a heart attack and the kids use their powers to get her to the hospital quickly. So she gives the Academy accreditation.
47. Forge arrives and builds the Academy a new Danger Room. Which immediately turns sentient and tries to kill the kids. Like Danger Rooms always do. You'd think they'd learn after awhile.
48. Facing bankruptcy, Emma goes to her sister for help to keep the school open. Monet fights Jubes. Maggot arrives.
49. A mutant bounty hunter tries to steal Maggot's..erm maggots. The kids stop them. Emma's sister Adrienne arrives as new co-headmaster.
50. Crossover with X-Man. Adrienne Frost opens up the Academy to regular students as a money maker. Dark Beast attacks the kids.
51. A normal student gets 'kidnapped' by his grandfather. Banshee tries to stop him and gets trapped. The kids have to go rescue him.
52. The GenX kids acclimate to all their new 'normal' fellow students while keeping their powers a secret.
53-54. Paladin shows up. The kids up and decide to go to Madripoor to help him recover a sword from some criminals and their super powered enforcers called the Rising Sons. Semi interesting new villain team that never shows up ever again.
55-56. The kids are trapped in a Danger Room scenario where they are dressed as the original Hellions on the night they all died. Adrienne is evil!(shocker).
57. 5th Anniversary Double sized issue! Emplate returns during a school dance. The twins get separated from the Penance shell. Emplate is defeated.
58. Penance escapes. Everybody thinks she's attacking people in the forest, but it's really a Sasquatch.
59. Class Trip to Manhattan! Monet's father pulls her out of the Academy.
60-61. Black Tom, Juggernaut, and Mondo attack.
62. Monet kills a vampire at her new school.

Next up is Warren Ellis and Brian Wood finishing up the series. I was like Brian Wood? THAT Brian Wood? So I looked it up, and sure enough, before he went Vertigo, he did a year of writing GenX over Ellis's plots.
Of the 12 remaining issues, I'm missing six of them. Also have a few annuals, oneshots, and the -1 issue to read.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

With my recent purchase, I have almost a complete run of GenX. Here's the final dozen issues, as well as some annuals and oneshots and such.

63-66. Part of the Revolution-X rebranding of the X-titles. The series jumps forward six months and we find the school in ruins and Synch is "gone". Tje kids decide to become a paramilitary unit funded by Emma's vast wealth. Their first target is a "Warden" who's been taking unruly kids into custody and then performing hideous experiments on them for decades. Supposedly under the aegis of the govt. GenX shuts him down and releases all the kids. It's a ridiculous notion that children would be taken into "custody" by Law Enforcement and NOBODY would say anything. Not the parents. Not the media. Stupid storyline.
67-70. We go back six months to find out what happened to Synch and the school. Apparently, some of the regular students get wise to the fact there are mutants in their prep school. So they start bullying the GenXers. Incredibly, Emma and Banshee don't nip this behavior in the bud. Instead they insist the GenXers just hide in their dorms and avoid the other students. Even after Jubilee's dormroom gets FIREBOMBED!! Turns out Emma's evil sister Adrienne is back and riling up kids and their parents. Eventually things escalate to the point where someone plants a bomb in the school and Synch ends up saving the bullies but dies in the explosion. Another stupid arc. (also, it seems like Emma and Banshee are the only two faculty members at a prep school with hundreds of students. How the hell--y'know what? Don't care. The books run is almost finished).
71-74. Four issues focusing on solo stories. Don't have 71 and 72. But in 73 Banshee finds out about Moira's death from the Legacy Virus. And in 74 Husk deals with the ghost of a little girl.
75. Final issue. Banshee has become a drunk since Moira died. We find out Emma killed her sister after the Synch incident and shes acting more erratic.
Chamber gets promoted to the X-Men and the other four remaining students decide there's no point in staying and go their separate ways.

Here are the other GenX books I read.
-1 "Flashback" issue Social Climber Emma and Police Officer Sean cross paths with Dark Beast years ago.
Special '96 The '96 "Annual" has the class in NYC just after Onslaught when anti mutant paranoia is at its highest. Then end up fighting the Fenris Strucker twins. Theres also a subplot about some guy imbezzling funds that has NOTHING to do with anything.
Annual '97. The kids fight D'Spayre.
GenX Holiday Special. Nanny and the OrphanMaker are trying to kidnap a young mutant child. Jubilee teams up with Santa to stop them.
GenX Underground Special. Jim Mahfood puts his indie hipster spin on the GenX crew. Mentioning Mahfood should tell you all you need to know. Some quirky silly stuff.
GenX/Gen13. Crossover with the Image Comic. The two teams get invited to a spooky castle and they fight vampires, werewolves and sea monsters. There was also a Gen13/GenX issue but I don't have it.


After 80+ issues I'm a little let down that there wasn't more character progress for the main characters. Skin remained a barrio stereotype the entire time. Jubilee was her same hyperactive attitude self. Chamber was sulky and brooding. Monet was a stuck up bitch. And Husk kinda started out as a bookworm, but then became even blander with no personality as the series progressed. And after the series ended, the character pretty much all got shuffled into X-obscurity.

Synch and Skin(and Banshee) are dead.
Husk started fucking Pedo-Angel for awhile.
Chamber got his own miniseries and was in X-Men for a time.
Jubilee and Chamber were depowered during M-Day. Then given powers in the hideous New Warriors revival.
Jubes is now a vampire.
Chamber and Husk are "teachers" at Wolverine's school but they've probably had about 10 Panels of exposure in the last year. Both of them. And Husk is part of an embarrassing subplot involving her and Toad in a quasi-romantic relationship played for chuckles.
Of the students, only Monet has thrived under Peter David's writing over in X-Factor.
And of course Emma has become a featured player thanks to Grant Morrison and Joss Whedon making her A-list.