After a rather longer than expected holiday hiatus, the Zork-man is back with some more 90s nostalgia as he returns to the project which is always threatening to kill him before completion:
The Great Gen 13 Re-Read!
Sure took my sweet time getting here, didn't I? After a couple of in-between stories, we finally get to the second issue of the regular series, which hit stands two months after #1. It's nice to have some semblance of chronological order.
Unless, that is, you were trying to follow the ten-chapter Wildstorm Rising crossover arc, of which this issue of Gen 13 serves as chapter four. Since this is a re-read of Gen 13 and not Wildstorm Rising, and because the various inter- and intra-studio crossovers deserve their own articles a-la Deathmate, that's all I'm going to say about it here. The story in this issue stands alone even if you aren't keeping up with what's happening in Stormwatch, Team 7, Grifter, Wetworks, and the rest of the Wildstorm universe.
We open to a CNN reporter on location at Ellisberg Air Force Base in White Sands, New Mexico. Ellisberg is only the most recent US military base to be attacked by an unknown entity who arrives without warning, stuffs a metric shit-ton of heavy weaponry into his pockets, sets the munitions depot on fire, and escapes in the chaos. The only evidence they have to go on is this image caught by the base's security cameras:
Our Caught on Camera armored armadillo is a villain named 'Helmut'. How do we know that? Because Lynch would know that silhouette anywhere:
Helmut swore he'd take revenge on Lynch if he ever got out of prison, and twenty-five years later, here we are. Anna inquires if he thinks the kids are in any danger, to which Lynch replies he always expects the unexpected.
After that Debbie Downer of an opening, we shift gears to a totally excellent outdoor skate park where Percival Edmund "Grunge" Chang and Bobby "Burnout" Lane are schooling the local tweens in the radical art of skateboarding:
The trash talk is coming loud and hard between these two best buds, when suddenly--
Hang on, hang on. I'm sorry. Back up.
Did you see that?
These girls have the same face!
Well, that's OK. They're probably twins. It's California, you get that sometimes.
Anyway, the trash talk is coming loud and hard between these two best buds, when suddenly--
Nope. Nope. Wait. Hold everything. Back it up.
Did you see that?
Burnout's smile is so bright, it spawns lens flare!
Sorry, sorry. I'll stop. Anyway, the trash talk is coming loud and hard between these two best buds, when suddenly...!
...the groupies get up to leave, making space for some deep bro-versation between our two resident bros. Burnout's down in the dumps: he can attract the attention of the Skater Girls, but he just can't get Rainmaker to give him the time of day. Don't worry . . . in a few pages, we'll learn why. Bobby won't, but some other member of the team sure will!
Is the suspense killing you yet, dear reader?
Grunge totally feels his pain, since Fairchild's not exactly breaking down his door either, through Burnout notes that literally melding himself into Fairchild's bed was probably not the best way to get on her good side.
Bobby grouses that Lynch and Anna are always on his case for playing his guitar, but without his music he'd go nuts. Grunge, for once, is the sensible one: "We're all still getting used to each other. But, hey, we've got the sun, the waves, our boards, and some Skate Bettys. Just don't rock the boat, and we're in for some smooth sailing." Oddly wise words from a guy whose code-name doubles as a Seattle musical style.
The next three pages all have to do with the "Wildstorm Rising" arc: main villain Lord Defile is bitching up a storm to his underlings that he can't find John Lynch. See, one member of Team 7 knows where to find the other half of an artifact he's looking for, and Lynch is the only one unaccounted for. Cue the entrance of a mysterious stranger who claims to have the info Defile wants. It's been a little while since issue #1, but this mysterious stranger is actually Trance, the guy from the nightclub with whom Freefall nearly ended up sucking face before the brawl broke out.
How do I know that when he's named in neither this book or the previous one? Easy! I read it in this issue's letter column. Remember, physical issues rule!
In exchange for disclosing Lynch's whereabouts, Trance wants to know more about Miles Kraven, a name which will mean nothing to you unless you're a regular reader of other Wildstorm titles, and which isn't important for the purposes of this review. If need be, I'll tackle "Wildstorm Rising" as its own little story arc in a different article, but right now, I just want to write about some Gen 13. So.
Lord Defile accepts this trade and contacts Helmut via the kind of painful telepathic connection used by Unicron to bend Galvatron to his will in Transformers: The Movie:
"Just tell me where the bastard is," Helmut requests.
Defile obliges. They're in a place called La Jolla. Helmut is so there, y'all.
Zipping back to the house, we see Fairchild, Rainmaker, and Freefall hanging out by the mansion's pool, catching serious rays. Rainmaker has deigned to wear a bikini this time. So has Roxy, who's hoping her new two-piece will drag Grunge's attention away from Caitlin. Sadly for her, the boys are skateboarding in Palm Beach, which shoots Roxy's plan full of holes.
While Fairchild continues her exercise routine, Roxy and Sarah continue their conversation. Roxy bitches that she can't compete with Fairchild, given her Gen-Factor gifted her with the body of an amazon. What's worse to Roxy is that Fairchild doesn't seem to realize she's turned into a statuesque hottie:
Totally not pandering for upvotes here, y'all.
OK, so you know how every other week, some celebrity manages to "break the internet" by doing something newsworthy? Well, if the internet had been anywhere near what it is today back in 1995, Rainmaker's response to Roxy's diatribe would have been the trope codifier:
If I may digress for a moment:
This may not seem like a big deal at all in the twenty-first century, but in 1995 there were very few canonical, openly gay or lesbian characters in mainstream comics. Frequently this was due to studio editorial policy (Marvel's Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter, for instance, had a long-standing rejection of stories depicting openly homosexual characters), or the Comics Code Authority which likewise frowned on such relationships. With DC and Marvel both counting on CCA approval for their issues, this severely limited their ability to publish stories where such relationships were recognized. Image followed the path of other indie studios like Antarctic Press and Dark Horse, and did not seek the CCA's stamp for their books. While Image kept the violence and sexual antics to a PG-13 level, ignoring the CCA meant they had the freedom to explore beyond the fences erected by the big two.
The history of queer representation in mainstream comics is beyond the scope of this article or series, though not something I'm opposed to exploring in the future. Sarah Rainmaker wasn't the first openly queer character in comics history, but given Gen 13's target demographic of teenage-to-early-twenty-something readers, she was groundbreaking in this regard, and the first explicitly non-heterosexual woman many readers encountered.
The reaction from a great many readers mirrored that of Freefall herself:
Hoooo boy. Just wait 'til we get to the letter columns of future issues, fellow fart-knockers.
Grunge and Bobby choose that moment to come back home, startling Roxy and earning Grunge an involuntary dip in the pool.
Lynch joins the kids pool-side, asking Caitlin to have a word. Having seen the news and put two and two together from the picture in Lynch's office which we saw last issue, she already knows Helmut is the guy ripping off military bases. Given Lynch's mood, she's also deduced Helmut's interested in revenge, which puts all of them in danger.
Caitlin, do you ever get sick of being right all the time?
Naturally, Helmut's found just where in La Jolla the Gen 13 crew has taken up residence. What follows is a beach blanket beat-down as the startled swimsuit-clad and skateboard-attired teenagers lock horns with a large, hairy dude in an armadillo costume (a tradition in @blewitt's house which is known simply as 'Thursday evening').
With their powers, a six-against-one dust-up should be over in less time than it takes you to read this sentence. But this is a comic book, and Lynch's focus for the past few days has been on getting them to live together under the same roof, not teaching them how to fight. Thus:
Armadillo Boy's got enough strength to knock Fairchild into the next panel. What's more, Rainmaker left her power-enhancing wristbands in her dresser, Burnout's plasma blasts can't scratch his armor, Freefall can't maintain her concentration enough to use her powers, and the only thing around for Grunge to meld with is sand.
While Fairchild plays punching bag, Lynch knows just what to do. Ordering Bobby to grab his guitar and amps, the rest of the team holds Helmut at bay while Burnout and Grunge set up the stage. Helmut, you see, is weak to sonic power which his suit amplifies to an absurd degree. And while Burnout's not the best guitar player in the world . . . you can see where this is going. Paralyzed by Burnout's amp-shredding, feedback-ridden chords, Helmut can't defend himself as Grunge gets close enough to smack the release switch on his armor, and . . . .
Well, I think that speaks for itself. Thoroughly humiliated at having lost to a bunch of children, Helmut asks what they're going to do with him. Naturally, the answer is to re-enact the photograph Caitlin saw hanging on Lynch's wall last issue:
Final Score:
out of
This may be a simple story that doesn't break new ground, included as part of a brand-wide crossover event, but still stands alone well enough. The kids are still figuring out how to fight as a team, and right now they're working on coming back after making mistakes. Taking Helmut one-on-one, even with the nigh-invulnerable Fairchild tanking, is much less sensible than formulating a plan, but that's part of the team's growth arc. Working together doesn't come naturally to most people, and this will be a common theme as the book goes forward.
Most of what makes this story work so well is the humorous script (Grunge, especially gets some great one-liners), but it's Rainmaker's out-of-left-field revelation about her sexuality that everyone remembered back in the day. The only irritating thing about it is Sarah asking Roxy, "You didn't know?", as if anything Rainmaker had done in the previous several issues had pointed towards her being about to burst out of the closet. Unlike many other revelations the series would pull down the road, there's been exactly zero foreshadowing that Rainmaker might, at the very least, be bisexual. That's a strike against the writers, but one that allows Roxy's shock (and no doubt the reaction of most readers) to feel genuine.
The letter column this issue is filled with some great missives too: fans balking at comic shops marking the prices of some of those variant covers up to absurd levels ($45 for the Lin-Gen-Re issue!), fans expressing their pleasure with this or that member of the team (Freefall has a huge number of female fans), and requests for official fan clubs and merchandise. A list of the least-liked elements of that first issue includes "Anna's Arm", "the towel", and "the branch": all ways Campbell used to cover up the bits of Rainmaker's body they weren't allowed to fully display during her skinny dipping scene.
As a side note, this issue has two covers, but Image was kind enough to give them to everybody who bought an issue. The image at the top is actually the back cover of the book. The front cover was drawn by Barry Windsor-Smith, and shows Lord Defile doing a little sneaky-peeky spying:
Finally, a complete issue of #2 includes a sample pack of Wildstorm trading cards bound into the book. I've no idea what they look like, since I never opened mine, but if they're missing, then don't pay full price for that issue.
No matter how you look at it, Rainmaker's revelation this issue was a keg of dynamite, and there will be repercussions for months to come. I look forward to sharing and exploring them with you in future installments, so make sure you're following. Trust me, just like Aerosmith in Michael Bay's Armageddon, you won't want to miss a thing!
'Til next time, krunk-heads, remember that if you eat the leftover chili for breakfast, keep downwind from Burnout to avoid potential disasters.