In Your Face Jam - Dec 5, 2012

[Shawn Kane]

Generation X is a title that I missed when I skipped out on the 90's (for the most part). Fans of the book remind me of those of us who loved Uncanny X-Men, Teen Titans, and New Mutants in the 80's. There's something about being a teen or pre-teen and reading the adventures of younger characters that just creates such fan loyalty. I plan on checking the serie out one of these days. Alot of that has to do because I miss Banshee. Damn you Brubaker!!!

[Spidermaniac]

Gen X falls into the aging gap that traps a lot of 80's and 90's properties. With all the reversion to 60's/70's era characters, those that represented some kind of generational growth have to be brushed aside and forgotten: New Mutants/X-Force, Gen X, New Warriors, etc. (not to mention DC's youth wave of Wally West, Connor Hawk, Kyle Rayner, Young Justice).

It's a shame but as long as comic companies (and readers) demand a static product, most of the young and fresh characters are only going to stick around until the next wave of "young" characters is introduced so we don't have too many generations that might hint our classic heroes might be over 30.

Personally, I would have loved to see the X-Men age and evolve from X-Men to All new X-Men to new Mutants to Gen X to New/Young X-Men to whatever they are calling Hope and her peers. As a book that had an evolving cast for much of its life, I think X-Men was perfect for that sort of narrative.

[sberg1]

Generation X was and still is one of my absolute favorite comic books of all time. Those early issues are absolutely fantastic. This article was just delightful to read.

[semicyon]

While it was the punk X-Men and New Mutants of the 80s that hold the dearest spot in my heart-- they were what got me into the melodramatic world of the mutants-- Lobdell/Bachalo's Generation X is one of the superhero highlights of the 1990s for me. Lobdell's work is only ok otherwise for me but as Brett notes, he did a great job of developing a whole new set of players to the X-Men mythology, not just the individual personalities but the team as a whole was a different story than the New Mutants or the original team of teenage X-Men. So many of them were deformed/disabled by their powers or dealing with some pre-existing conditions (Skin, Chamber, M, Penance) and it set a different tone for the kind of stories told. Sometimes it does feel like the Saved By the Bell/Glee of the comicbook superhero set but I still loved it, in spite (or is that because?) of it.

And, yeah, as much as I like to look at Bachalo's current work... it is interesting imagery... his less distorted style of the 1990s was easier storytelling for me. I do miss seeing the general style he was using from the Death miniseries up through the Age of Apocalypse Generation Next stories.

[jawbreaker]

And then there's Chamber, who doesn't do all that much in the first four issues outside of looking cool, but that serves my next point; Bachalo's art and design sense manage to conjure up 1994 and "timeless" simultaneously. Only Chris Bachalo could take a character whose jaw, neck and chest have been replaced by a constantly raging fire-like energy and make it work. Bachalo created one of the most iconic-looking mutants ever, one who is just a starring role in a cartoon or film away from being up there with Cyclops and Wolverine in terms of recognizability

my fave part of the article. Of course Marvel would disagree. The character is probably too edgy looking for the more traditional & "new reader friendly" superhero style they are really pushing hard these days.

[Starleafgirl]

Secondly, those chumps need to suck it up, because what Slott did to Peter Parker in that comic is nothing compared to the soul-stomping mistreatment the Gen X kids have received from 1995 to present.

So true!! Still, we love Generation X in spite of all of that, so thanks for the article.

I didn't get up to the M twins switch. How is the actual M different from the way the twins "played" her? I really enjoyed her early on as played by the twins.

The "actual" Monet didn't seem quite as cerebral as the Twins M... it's possible the twins were playing her as the big sister they idolized, which the real Monet doesn't quite live up to, in terms of, say, using big words or solving problems with her mind, not her fists. Though, we can't forget that the "real" M we saw in late Generation X issues had just been through a trauma, and was probably acting out to cover up for that. I miss Twins M, though, she was cool.

[chakal]

It's always refreshing to see fair & intelligent article