Gen 13

Gen 13 is a comic book originally written by Jim Lee and Brandon Choi and illustrated by J. Scott Campbell. It was published by Wildstorm Productions. Later writers have included John Arcudi and Adam Warren. The comic features a loosely-organized team of super-powered beings composed of five teens (three girls and two boys) and their mentor.

History

The series takes place in Lee's Wildstorm universe, and Gen13's stories and history intertwine with those from his own works, such as Wildcats and Team 7 (in fact, each of the main characters in Gen13 was the child of a Team 7 member). The title featured flashy graphics and was noticeably more risque than other titles of the time, such as X-Men, so it quickly grabbed the attention of a loyal audience.

The teens were originally invited to take part in a government project, but when they learned that the project was actually a prison-like testing ground on "Gen-active" teens, they made their escape, but not before they "manifested" superhuman powers, and they were labelled dangerous fugitives. Their only hope was to rely on each other to fight their foes and unveil the personal secrets that linked them to Team 7 and International Operations.

After a very successful run, co-creator and illustrator J. Scott Campbell handed the reins of Gen13 over to other creative teams, and moved onto his own new mega-hit series Danger Girl.

Despite outrageous story arcs and many artist collaborations, the popularity of the book dwindled to the point where Wildstorm decided to blow up the entire team with a 6 megaton bomb (#76, July 2002). Surprisingly, the title was not cancelled at the time, and was continued for a few numbers more, but featuring a totally different set of characters.

Characters

The original line up of Gen 13 was:

• Caitlin Fairchild: Once an ordinary girl, Caitlin's muscles spontaneously increased in density, granting her superhuman strength, agility, speed, and endurance. The manifestation of her "Gen-active" status caused her body mass to increase, shredding her clothing at the time. Fairchild is by far the most intelligent of the group.

• Bobby "Burnout" Lane: Son of John Lynch (Gen13's mentor), Bobby manifested the ability to generate and manipulate high-energy coherent plasma, which ignites on exposure to oxygen. He later developed the ability to fly, as well as certain psychic abilities.

• Roxanne "Freefall" Spaulding: "Roxy" is the youngest Gen-active teen, with the ability to nullify the effect of gravity on herself. Has a crush on Grunge and is jealous of Fairchild's physique. Keeps Queelocke as a "pet". It was later revealed that Spaulding and Fairchild were half-sisters.

• Sarah Rainmaker: Rainmaker can influence local weather systems, manipulating air currents to grant herself flight and direct water with a gesture. Amplifier bands on her wrists allow her to project lightning. Rainmaker is Apache, and a lesbian.

• Percival Edmund "Grunge" Chang: Able to mimic the molecular structure of any material he touches (and partially bestow this effect on others), Grunge is a surf rat who enjoys sleeping in. He possesses brown belts in five martial arts styles, and has few if any redeeming characteristics – though he does possess a photographic memory that allowed him to take the same classes as Fairchild does (much to her surprise) during the period that the team went to college.

• Anna: a heavily-armed covert-assassination android programmed to serve Gen13 as a maid, and to love them as her own children.

Trivia

The original working title of Gen X was changed to Gen 13 after Marvel threatened legal action against Wildstorm for use of their "X" trademark which they wanted to use on a X-men spinoff curiously named Generation X right after Gen 13 debuted to blockbuster sales. It didn't help that Wildstorm founder Jim Lee had recently left Marvel as their all-time best-selling X-men creator to start up a competing company. However, the hard feelings did not last long as Lee helped Marvel revamp some of their characters (Iron Man, Fantastic Four) through Heroes Reborn and a Gen13/Generation X crossover followed afterwards.

Other media

Kevin Altieri (Batman: Mask of the Phantasm) directed a Gen 13 animated feature for Buena Vista Pictures, a Disney company. This title was seen by very few people because it was shelved by Disney soon after Wildstorm was bought by DC Comics, a Time Warner company — presumably due to awkward studio politics.

External links

• Gen 13 at the Internet Movie Database
• Wildstorm Productions