Gen¹³
By creators Jim Lee, Brendon Choi and J. Scott Campbell... ideally.

It's all too easy to date -- or even carbon date -- any modern series in which they try to make the language of the hip young happenin' kids on the street come out of their heroes' mouths. Where things are still "rad" or "gnarly," or whatever, and not in that retro, I-used-to-watch-the-Ninja-Turtles-and-I'm-proud-of-it way. Where the gang wear falling-off-baggy jeans, hotpants and have technicolour hair, and seem to want to be mistaken for extras from Brenda-era Beverly Hills 90210.

Such is the case with Gen¹³, a comic book that desperately wants to be cooler than cool with it's use of the verbiage bandied about by Generations X through Next, and it's stylin' wardrobe of The Real World cast-offs, and yet is somehow so 1994.

But that's okay. I happen to have liked 1994.

So, here's the scoop. There were these kids, right? Ordinary, everyday kids -- Princeton honor student, flakey runaway, displaced lesbian Native American, taciturn rebel, ox-like class clown -- who just happen to be "Gen-active," which means they ain't like us poor mortals. No, when stimulated, these kids discover within themselves special, and extremely unpredictable, powers. They have been captured by the mysterious I.O. (International Operations), and are being drugged via the food in order to release these powers. They are the newest recruits in an army of Gen-actives, assembled by the even more mysterious Ivana, who isn't any too popular with some of I.O's other operatives, and seems to be in league with some evil Gen-actives whose parents were killed at the beginning... and that's just the first issue.

Moving on, turns out that these captive teens are destined to become a tightly knit group of superheroes, descendants of a bunch of military-types who underwent tests in the murky I.O. history. Yes, twelve Gens have come before, but this bunch is lucky Gen¹³. Their mission -- which they choose to accept -- is to shut down nefarious Ivana and her wicked henchmen... and locate the truth of their parentage along the way.

Since the mini-series that launched the book back in -- yes, you guessed it -- 1994, their mission has largely remained the same. Though some have discovered their origins, and others have had those wily evil-doers in their grasp, there are still unanswered questions by the score... and that's just how I like it. Of course, no book as youth-orientated as Gen¹³ could have gotten through fifty some issues without some dramatic changes to their raison d'etre along the way. The most telling recent example is the case of Fairchild, leader of the Gen-ers and Amazonian babe of the millennium, who lost her powers on her 21st birthday -- which had me experiencing "Helpless" flashbacks -- but, unlike our Slayer, Caitlin has yet to find out what caused such weirdness. It seems doubtful that a milestone such as a birthdate would do the job... and, really, hasn't poor Caitlin suffered enough? Although, at least without her powers she won't have to wear that ultra-tight leotard, which has to be giving her the most painful wedgie this side of an Aerobics competition.

Which brings me to the outfits. A friend recently referred to this title as a "major T&A book", and that it certainly is. Cleavage is a big theme here, and Rainmaker's one-legged catsuit, Roxy's hotpants and the aforementioned Fairchild wedgie definitely contribute the "A" factor (and there are a lot of shower scenes. A lot.) But, comfortingly, the boys actually don't come off all that much better in the wardrobe department. Bobby Lane (a.k.a. Burnout) has a tight suit that is nothing if not revealing, and at some point along the way it was decided that Grunge had to look like a reject from WWF and have a huge skull with wings tattooed across his abnormally large pecs, which he would then expose to the world at all times. (The few times we see Grunge with a shirt on it's like we've entered the Twilight Zone.)

Another thing counting in Gen¹³'s favour, equality-of-the-sexes-non-Vampirella-wise, is the fact that the girls outnumber -- and can usually outfight -- the guys. Gen¹³ has also launched some intriguing characters onto the comic scene (the gang from DV8 for a start), and keeps the mysteries coming with the conspiracy theories, the questions about just what experiments were done to whom, and at who's order. Oh, and the obligatory romance among the core group is extremely teen soap opera-y, and is really the reason that I keep reading, to be perfectly honest about it.

But the best thing about Gen¹³, to my mind, is that it's just fun. It's like catching a re-run of Saved by the Bell in that post-hard night, pre-aspirin haze on a Saturday morning -- but without the Screech factor. Oh, and it's much more entertaining. And the guys are cuter. Okay, so it's nothing like Saved by the Bell. Maybe it's a little bit like The New Class... whatever. The wit is quick (if a little obvious at times), the art is impressive, and the way they mock everything that is "hot," like the clothes, the movies, and the puerile songs sung by pre-teen prima donnas in clothing even more revealing than the Gen-ers, is clever, amusing and observant. And, to paraphrase the profundity of the Gen¹³ universe's Candi Bentar, it just makes me happy from my nose to my toes.

-- Rachel Hyland

Gen13, published by WildStorm Comics, is currently available through newsstands and comic retailers.

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