I picked up the next generation-X from the comic store [I own #1-3], and so far I really like this series. It's neat to read what was coming out the year I was born. The highlight for me is the Chris Bachalo art. He is the same artist who is working on Wolverine and the X-men. The writing by Scott Lobdell isn't too bad most of the time, and overall this is a neat series to read if not just for the art.
I keep forgetting to pick up issue -1! It's a bit harder to find.
I'll start with the cover. This issue is the so-called “Holiday Spectacular” and the cover is kinda lame compared to the last 3. It is arrangement of snapshots and previews for events in the comic. Even though it's simple and fun, I still think this cover is a 3.5/5. It doesn’t live up to the other awesome covers that I loved, and it's boring overall.
Page 1/inner cover:
oh my god! The inner cover is an ad for the live-action street fighter movie! :D that's funny.
Anyway, focus...
there's a little elf hanging above the page narrating the story. It names all the mutants, and I’ll talk about them here.
M has a whole bunch of powers from flight to super-strength, a grab-bag pretty much. Similar to Captain Marvel, I think.
Skin has the mutant power of...having a ton of extra skin, gross...Skin was also known as Angelo. Angelo was actually killed in that one issue of x-men that Linkara reviewed from Chuck Austin’s X-men, and that’s where I remember him from.
Sync has the power to “sync” up and mimic other people's superpowers, it seems to be based on an aura.
Finally, Jubilee...who really needs no introduction. For reference, her power is creating firework-like energy bursts. After Curse of the Mutants, jubilee got turned into a vampire [yes, really] and is currently working on her own personal life.
The leaders of the young mutant team are Banshee and Emma Frost.
Back to the plot: The mutants are hidden inside a truck headed towards Maine as a man with a gun approaches. I really like the way the snow effects are done here. The page edges are also decorated with colorful bells, very cool!
Page 2-5: For some reason the page is labeled as “page 4” by an elf holding a sign at the bottom of the page. It's still a cool page marker. Banshee [AKA Sean Cassidy] is greeted by a group of armed policeman as he drives into a roadblock. He says the students from the Massachusetts Xavier School are on a field trip.
Turns out that the sign at the bottom is leading to page 4, not actually page 4. Also, the credits are given here with a cool Christmas time as well as labeling it “Generation X-mas”. Nice touch.
The police are also aiming a gun at a local school. They are ordering a mutant to come out.
Inside you see Eliot, someone who actually looks like a realistic type of mutant hunchback. He just wants the police to leave him alone and learn at the school. The public doesn’t seem too willing to help him though.
Page 6: The story shifts to the Xavier School, and I'd like to add that the narration boxes are a bit weird. I think the narrator is supposed to be an elf or something. Overall they don't really ruin the issue. Also this page has a decorative border...I guess since it's a different place? Anyway, Penance is sitting in a bio-chamber hanging out with butterflies. Penance isn't really a person, it's actually some kind of armor that is being possessed. She uses sharp claws and spikes and has diamond hard skin. She is apparently present at Avengers Academy nowadays.
Page 7-8: Chamber arrives to greet Penance using psychic communication [seems like he wouldn't be able to talk since his face is full of energy stuff]. Chamber's power is that he basically has psionic energy engulfing his chest and face. It also seems to change color with mood, since it is purplish-blue in this panel while it is normally orange. Also in the base is husk and emma, who I know enough about already. It should be known that when the x-men broke apart husk and chamber both joined wolverine at his school, while emma went with cyclops. He was most recently shown in the new X-men Legacy.
Emma mentions that Paige [Husk] is very similar to her when she was young.
Page 9-10: Back to the bell-like page borders! As the police talk about Eliot the monster, a bad guy of some type is hiding in an ice cream truck and plotting something. The truck was in the background for a few scenes. Meanwhile, Banshee knocks a patrolman out with a sonic frequency and watches the scene from the rooftop with Sync. I like how the comic mixes these elves into the panel layout. One moment they're holding a panel and in another they're sleeping off one panel. Banshee has Sync try to copy Elliot’s power to see what his abilities are.
Page 11-14: The next page shows that Skin and M have disabled the police SWAT team. Speaking of the police, the officer explains how he doesn’t want anyone to be “contaminated” by the mutant inside the school. What a jerk. Jubilee acts as a scout, hiding in the crowd. Eliot yells back at the police that he isn't being treated fairly. Sync locks unto an aura, but he reports that it is not coming from the school...it's coming from the ice cream truck.
Page 15-18: This villain in really heavy armor bursts out of the truck in a full page shot. He is the “Orphan Maker”.
Apparently, he makes orphans out of mutants because he thinks that parents who abandon their mutant children should be killed. As the armed attacker shoots at Elliot’s parents, banshee unleashes a sonic blast! He stops the bullets, which seem to be made out of the villain’s bones. M then smashes into the attacker with super-strength. M says that according to the records, this guy is a mutant hunter. Skin then jumps on top of the orphan maker, making it hard for him to see.
Page 19-23:
Meanwhile, Jubilee sneaks into the school and tries to force Eliot to calm down with her tiny fireworks.
In a moment ripped straight from Of Mice and Men, it seems that the massive Eliot has already crushed his teacher after holding him. Well technically all the commotion gave him a heart attack...but whatever. Skin's uh, skin ends up jamming the orphan maker's armor and banshee actually lets him GET AWAY. Let it also be noted that Angelo has problems using his powers since it gives him headaches controlling the extra skin.
Oh and guess what! Eliot isn't even a mutant [in the x-men sense], he's just deformed. Looks like I was right on that one.
Page 24:Jubilee chimes in with a promo for Generation neXt, part of the Age of Apocalypse crossover. It replaced this title for four issues. Apparently all the X-titles were replaced like this, and I collected some examples like X-Man and Gambit and the Xternals, ect..
The issue gets a 5/10 for me. The narration and strange borders are more distracting than interesting, and half the characters are only given 2 pages of screen time. Plus the villain gets away and a civilian is dead. Don't forget that the main focus of the issue is barely a mutant (I'll forgive that). Anyway, the idea is that this issue is totally pointless overall. Nothing really went down and besides the art and snow effects. Plus strange page borders and annoying elf narrators. I didn't really find anything good in it compared to the other issues.
I'm going to be reading generation neXt digitally, just to see what's up.
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