The X-Men weren’t the first team to branch beyond one book, but they’ve been by far the most successful. The first ancillary X-team was the New Mutants, a group of young mutants learning to use their powers and dealing with the life of a superhero. The teen team was a venerable institution at this point, starting with groups like the Young Allies in the Golden Age to the X-Men themselves and the Teen Titans in the Silver Age. New Mutants became a fan favorite book, and was the first in a long time of teen mutant books, even birthing the next one, X-Force. The paramilitary team wasn’t a training team though, and in 1994, Marvel decided to create a new version for the ’90s.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Generation X came at the tail end of the height of the X-Men’s powers. 1994 was three years after the bestselling 1991 reboot; fans weren’t as rabid for mutants, but they were still there. While it’s easy to call this book just the ’90s version of the New Mutants, it was something more than that. There have been some tremendous X-teams over the years, and Generation X was always one of the most underrated. The team is one that Marvel has dropped the ball with numerous times, despite creating some brilliant characters and one of the most underrated X-Men stories ever, Generation Next.
Generation X Introduced Classic Characters and Gave Readers Something Special
Generation X was an interesting book from the start. It was written by Scott Lobdell, who had been working on Uncanny X-Men as lead writer since the Image founders left in 1992. Lobdell is a controversial figure in the ’90s X-Men history; there were times when he was fantastic, but there were also times when he wasn’t great. Generation X was one of the fantastic times, and he was joined by a very unique art team: Chris Bachalo and Mark Buckingham, who had been working together at DC, notably on Shade the Changing Man, Death: The High Cost of Living, and Death: The Time of Your Life.
Bachalo and Buckingham’s artwork was perfect for what Lobdell was doing with the book. Generation X leaned into the “freak” aspect of mutants, which resonated well in the grunge/goth/punk/alternative ruled ’90s. Sure, there were pretty young mutants like Jubilee, Synch, and Monet but then there was also Chamber, whose psionic powers blasted his jaw and chest apart with energy, Skin, who had six extra feet of skin and looked like a melting flesh candle, and Penance, the quiet, feral girl with red diamond skin. Add in the body horror powers of Husk, who pulled off her flesh to change shape, to later member Mondo, who was basically living soil, and it was the “ugliest” mutant team ever.
Lobdell played up the teen drama, as the team had to deal with their powers and the changes to their body in the most dangerous circumstances imaginable, while Bachalo and Buckingham gave the book a unique visual style on the issues they worked on. The book was dark and grungy, fitting the moody teen culture of the day. Emma Frost and Banshee were in charge of everything, the book playing into Emma’s history as a teacher and her desire to make sure mutant children could have the lives they wanted. The cast gelled together well, and villains like Emplate, who would return several times over the run, even possessing Synch for a time, and the most horrific version of Black Tom Cassidy ever, Dark Beast, and Toad challenged them in interesting ways. Lobdell was always good at character interaction, and he did a fantastic job of creating a book that felt real to a ’90s teen like myself. These kids felt like they were part of my generation and it was great.
Bachalo left and was replaced by former Teen Titans and Superman artist Tom Grummet, but he would return for the end of Lobdell’s run and star when James Robinson took over the book. The Robinson run wasn’t as great as the series’ beginning, but it still did what the book did best — brilliantly weird character interaction. Franklin Richards, Artie, and Leech joined the cast, and the book was still great. However, the “Counter X” reboot tried to make an entirely different book, with writers Warren Ellis and Brian Wood teaming with artist Terry Dodson for a book that was too superhero, and not weird enough. This would end the team, though they would return for a vastly underrated run in 2017 from Christina Sprain and Amilcar Pinna, which brought back Jubilee, Chamber, and Husk with a group of new young mutants that felt like a modern version of the ’90s team.
Unlike the success of the New Mutants with the X-Men, the only member of Generation X who is popular is Jubilee. Marvel tried to push characters like Chamber and Husk in the early ’00s, but Uncanny X-Men underperformed with readers, and both pushes died. Monet has had her chances at stardom, but no one ever takes advantage of that. For whatever reason, they haven’t thrived outside the world of weird that was Generation X. It did its own thing, in its own time, and is amazing.
Generation X Was a Moment that Will Never Be Replicated
Generation X immediately made a splash. The first issue’s shiny chromium cover jumped off the stands, the cool red and gold costumes grabbing the eye and never letting go. That first issue was grand, introducing its cast and setting the stakes, and it just got better from there. It wasn’t New Mutants or X-Force, it was its own thing, and it felt right for its era. It was Lobdell trying to a character heavy, almost Vertigo-ish horror mutant title, and it worked brilliantly. The characters were amazing, the art was gorgeous, and the team felt like the ’90s.
Maybe that’s why the characters never caught on; this book really only could have worked in the ’90s. It was weird and kind of ugly in the way youth culture was back then (it had the feel of a Nine Inch Nails video), and its cast of characters worked best together. Marvel tried again with it in the ’10s and it failed to find a readership (well, I read it and loved it) despite doing much the same as the original book. Generation X was always too beautiful for this world, but we’ll always have that brilliant ’90s run.
What did you think about Generation X? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
Most Viewed
-
Image courtesy of Hulu -
Image courtesy of DC Comics
