Gen¹³

Gen¹³
Gen¹³ vol. 4, #1 (2006) cover by Talent Caldwell
Publication information
Publisher	Wildstorm
First appearance	Deathmate Black (1994)
Created by	Jim Lee, Brandon Choi
In-story information
Base(s)	La Jolla, California
Member(s)	Caitlin Fairchild Grunge Freefall Sarah Rainmaker Burnout John Lynch

Cover to Gen¹³ vol. 2 #6 by Jim Lee and Scott Williams

Gen¹³ is a fictional superhero team and comic book series originally written by Jim Lee and Brandon Choi and illustrated by J. Scott Campbell. It was published by Image Comics under the banner Wildstorm, which went on to become an imprint for DC Comics, who kept publishing the Gen¹³ title.

The comic features a loosely-organized team of super-powered beings composed of five teens and their mentor.

Publication history

The series takes place in Jim 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 series Danger Girl.

Following the run of Choi and Campbell were John Arcudi and Gary Frank. Their realistic style, both in writing and art, was a drastic change from the title's more fantastic elements. Following their run, Scott Lobdell returned the title to its less serious, more sexual roots, but still fans did not receive the title well.

After Lobdell's run, Adam Warren was assigned to the title. He had previously proven himself writing two stories using Gen¹³ characters (Grunge: The Movie, published in Gen¹³ Bootleg , and the stand-alone miniseries Magical Drama Queen Roxy) as well as a two issue fill-in piece featuring a pop idol who threatened to take over the world with a catchy song. Warren's run was well-received by fans and critics, but sales did not support the title.

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). This served as the catalyst to revamp the series with a new first issue written by Chris Claremont with pencils by Ale Garza. This title featured an all new team mentored by Caitlin Fairchild, and spawned a spin-off series 21 Down. However, this title was cancelled after barely a year. The final issue of the series revealed that the original team was, in fact, still alive, and that the new series had taken place in an alternate dimension which had in some fashion crossed over with the known continuity.

During the height of its popularity, Gen¹³ spawned two spinoff books, DV8 and Gen¹³ Bootleg as well as a number of specials and mini-series. The team also starred in crossovers with other comic book characters such as Superman, Spider-Man, the Maxx, Monkeyman and O'Brien, two crossovers with the Marvel Comics teen hero team Generation X and a crossover with The Fantastic Four. At one point in the early years, Wildstorm and DC were planning a teamup between the team and Batman. However, due to creative differences between creator J Scott Campbell and DC, the crossover never happened, though Campbell did create artwork showing Fairchild, Grunge, Roxy, and Batman in a promotional image.

The title was "rebooted" in October 2006; the current volume, Gen¹³ (vol. 4)initially written by Gail Simone with art from Talent Caldwell, at first had no continuity with earlier series.

The series was involved in the Armageddon crossover event and then taken over in 2008 with a new creative team, Scott Beatty and Mike Huddleston, as part of World's End.

Character history

The Original Gen¹³

International Operations started "government internship" for gifted youths, taking place in an isolated training facility. Following the manifestation of Caitlin Fairchild's powers, she fled the complex with Roxy Spaulding, Grunge, and Threshold in disguise. They were later joined by Sarah Rainmaker and Burnout. The project was revealed to be a gathering of the gen-active progeny of Team 7.

Threshold tricked the group, sans Fairchild, to return to base to help free the other kids, but upon their return they were apprehended for further testing. With the help of Pitt and John Lynch, the kids finally escaped. The group retreated to La Jolla, California, and officially formed as the group Gen¹³. They opposed IO and their violent counterpart DV8. (Gen¹³ loosely refers to the 13th generation of Americans. Team 7 had been part of a project called Gen 12.)

The team spent a lot of time delving into the past of Team 7 to learn more about themselves. Fairchild and Freefall learned they were half-sisters and Lynch was revealed to be Burnout's father. Also during this time, Freefall and Grunge began to date, while Rainmaker revealed herself to be bisexual.

The team was caught in an explosion of a 6-megaton bomb and believed to be dead. Fairchild was the only survivor and mentored a new Gen¹³ team, effectively taking Lynch's role. However, this team existed in what is later revealed to be an alternate reality which was similar to the mainstream Wildstorm universe except for its point of divergence, the last issue of Volume 2. At the end of volume 3, the rest of the original Gen¹³ team was revealed to be alive and, after a little time-travel to avoid the detonation that 'killed' them, the reunited group returned to the mainstream Wildstorm universe.

Worldstorm

In early 2006, Wildstorm brought all its in-continuity comics since WildC.A.T.s #1, to an end. The universe's finale came in the form of the crossover miniseries Captain Atom: Armageddon. Following the conclusion of this limited series, the entire Wildstorm line was relaunched with "Worldstorm." A new Gen¹³ series began. The entire world has had a "soft reset", the surroundings are mostly familiar, but there are changes throughout.

In the first arc, the future Gen¹³ are taken away from their home lives. It is revealed that their parents have been assigned to raise the children to encourage the emergence of specific personality traits. In different areas of the country, Caitlin Fairchild, Roxy Spaulding, Grunge, Bobby Lane, and Sarah Rainmaker wake up, each wearing a uniform recognized by their parents. Strike teams immediately attempt to capture the kids; many of their foster parents are terminated.

In the course of the series, it is eventually revealed that (in contrast to the previous iterations) these Gen¹³'s were manipulated and formulated from birth by an unscrupulous biogenetics firm from I.O. called Tabula Rasa. Furthermore, the 'souls' of the previous iterations of the Gen¹³s, previous collected by the Authority's Doctor have settled into these bodies and when the five of them are together, they cause people to forget their previous history, even those who knew them.

As a result of these new origins, the personalities, histories and abilities of each character have displayed mild to massive differences from previous canon. For instance, Burnout is now a former juvenile hall resident turned reggae loving pacifist, and John Lynch is a young grunt in I.O's employ. Rainmaker is firmly established as a lesbian, Fairchild is suspicious and unhappy about her excessive beauty, and Grunge is portrayed as being secretly more intelligent than even Caitlin. Outside of her newfound origins, the character of Freefall remains mostly consistent to previous iterations, save for a slightly greater level of confidence and self-reliance.

World's End

Main article: World's End (comics)

The series resumes following Number of the Beast, as part of the World's End storyline with the group coming out of a teleportation system in which they had been held (due to power loss) into a devastated New York approximately 6 months following the events of Number of the Beast.

Once they reach the surface from the underground lair the group is shocked to see what has happened in New York (aside from Burnout who is blind at this point). While Grunge is quick to claim that an asteroid, global warming and other natural disasters were responsible for the destruction, Rainmaker blames terrorists. After a confrontation with several crazed metahuman-hunters the group finally manages to escape New York.

Once outside of New York the group finds themselves trapped in a mall with several mutated monsters, one which seemingly infects Fairchild. While the group is holding together tensions have begun to rise between Fairchild and Rainmaker with the later being attracted to the first, Burnout while still blind gains some semblance of vision with the ability to sense heat patterns.

During their stay at a skater park run by teens Grunge is crowned king. He is originally thrilled about it, but later finds out that his predecessor is to be eaten in a soup. Rainmaker, having witnessed Caitlin and Bobby kiss in a tent, grabs her gear and leaves the group without saying goodbye to anybody.

The other teens are confronted by the cloned scientist Dr. Cross, who created them after their original deaths; however, he and his assistant Megan are both stuck at ages 5 and 9 respectively due to the loss of electricity caused by the cataclysm, while retaining their memories and intellects. They manage to save Grunge and to overpower the heavily armed children-scientists due to the intervention of Goo, a Gen14. As they flee it's revealed that Caitlin's power has failed, most probably due to the infection, and she suffers a serious knife injury.

Having nowhere else to go, they join the children-scientists who promise to heal Caitlin. They arrive in a small town which is under the "protection" of a WWII supervillain team, the Fearsmiths (the imprisoned villains from Number of the Beast). The two groups clash, with Gen¹³ being easily beaten. Following another defeat they are separated from Fairchild and the scientists as they are abducted by the Paladins who offer to train them.

Unknown to any them, Goo was sent by the remnants of the U.S. military - specifically a branch who specialized in fighting metahumans. The squad was designed to apprehend Gen13 and have accordingly been practicing on a small group of Gen14's, of which Goo is a member. Naturally their practice sessions ended up with the Gen14's being killed, cloned, their minds transferred and later modified so that they don't remember their ordeal. Oddly enough Goo seems to be regaining some of her memories.

Currently on orders from the general in charge of the military squad Gen14 have invaded the Paladins' headquarters and are ready to confront Gen13 who currently consist only of Burnout, Grunge and Freefall.

The fight between the Gen actives and the military branch is over quickly with the Gen14 and military winning. Once they have been captured Gen¹³ are offered an ultimatum: either join the military and serve them or be executed. In order to prove his point the general shoots and kills Gen14's Windsprint. His plans however are crossed by Roxy who levitates the Paladin base into space knocking them all out due to oxygen deprivation.

In the meantime Caitlin has fully mutated due to the Warhol virus she was exposed to and is rampaging across town in a Hulk-like fashion. Her rampage is cut short as the Paladin base crash lands next to her. The gen-actives band together and take on Caitlin hoping to calm her down but they don't succeed. Seeing no alternative Goo sacrifices herself in order to short-circuit the virus thus reverting Caitlin to her former self.

Three weeks later Bobby, Roxy, Grunge, Caitlin and the surviving Gen14s Runt and Ditto arrive at Tranquility (a town of retired super-heroes) only to find a crater where the town had been. The group decides not to despair and to go on even if it means that are heading into trouble.

Characters

The original line up of Gen¹³ 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. Freefall's half-sister.
• 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 psionic abilities.
• Roxanne "Freefall" Spaulding: "Roxy" is the youngest gen-active teen, with the ability to control the effects of gravity on herself and on others. She can nullify gravity (and float) or multiply it (making objects ultraheavy). It is also suggested by some other characters, that if she thought about it and used her powers to their fullest advantage she could manipulate spacetime as this is related to gravity. She 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, both the daughters of Alex Fairchild from Team 7.
• 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 augment her ability to project lightning. Rainmaker is Apache, and was bisexual in her earliest incarnations, although in recent series she is confirmed as a lesbian. She is Stephen Callahan's daughter, and Threshold and Bliss's half sister.
• 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 late. 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. His father is Team 7 member Phillip Chang.
• John Lynch: The team's mentor and father of Robert "Burnout" Lane. Lynch was the leader of Team 7 and close friend of the children's parents. His eye has been replaced after he gouged it out as a result of a mental attack. Like all surviving members of Team 7, Lynch was granted powerful telepathic and telekinetic abilities that are highly unstable and dangerous. Because of this he avoids using his powers if at all possible.
• Anna: a heavily-armed covert-assassination android programmed to serve Gen¹³ as a maid, and to love them as her own children.

The team recently added newcomers:

• Holly "Breakdown" Denton: Occasionally known as Goo, Holly has the ability to disassemble molecules, seemingly causing objects to melt into goo. She was formerly a member of Gen 14. As of Gen¹³ #32 Holly has sacrificed her life to save Caitlin, and was once more seen as an incubating clone.

• Amber "Ditto" LeRoux: Not much is known about Amber, only that Holly refers to her as a typical airhead. A former Gen 14. Her power is infinite multiplicity which allows her to make an unlimited number of copies of herself.

• Guillermo "Runt" Sandoval: Not much is known about Guillermo. A former Gen 14. His powers allow him to grow and shrink.

• Lance "Hardbody" Wieder: The second-in-command of the former Gen14. Not much is known about him at this point; during a fight between him and Gen¹³ his face was scarred by Holly who was defending herself. He along with Windsprint was left behind in order to recover. His powers include augmented strength/stamina, increased dermal density which makes him super-strong and near-invulnerable. Doctor Cross (the maker of the current Gen program) expressed interest in potential offspring between him and Caitlin Fairchild.

• Shaqira "Windsprint" Johnson: The speedster of Gen14. She was shot in the head by a crazed general and believed to be dead. However it is revealed that her enhanced physiology also included a heightened metabolism allowing her to survive the gunshot. She and Hardbody had been originally left behind in order to recuperate.

Influences

Gen¹³’s most obvious influence is Marvel’s X-Men which originally featured five young friends who were trained in secret by an older man who tried to protect them from a dangerous world. Many of the more social aspects of the team were inspired by the second generation X-Men spin-off series: New Mutants. In fact, the original title of the book was to be Gen X, as seen in an early advertisement for the series in the second issue of StormWatch, but was later changed due to Marvel having an X-Men spinoff titled Generation X in development.

The character of Rainmaker highly resembled the X-Men’s Storm in that both characters had weather controlling powers. Marvel Comics' Spider-Man notes this similarity in a crossover issue.

Also, the character of Freefall had her direct parallel in the character of Jubilee, both of whom had similar attitudes and physical attributes, including being the youngest in their respective teams. Freefall also had an unearthly pet, Qeelocke, which parallels the baby dragon Lockheed belonging to Kitty Pryde of the X-Men. Conceptual similarities among the pyrokinetic Burnout and the Fantastic Four's Human Torch are also quite evident.

John Lynch was inspired by Clint Eastwood both in appearance and personality. Another influence is Marvel's character Nick Fury, who is also a one-eyed secret agent.

Many of the early Gen¹³ adventures also paralleled the X-Men. In issue #2 of the ongoing series, the team fought Helmut, a practically unbeatable armored opponent with a vendetta against the team’s mentor, similar to the X-Men’s Juggernaut. In the next five issues, the team went on an inadvertent world tour, similar to early adventures of the “All-New, All Different” X-Men of the 1970s. After their mansion was destroyed (a recurring element of the X-Men comics), the team went to a prehistoric island (similar to the X-Men’s Savage Land), before going into outer space (X-Men’s "Phoenix Saga"), and returning to a dark future (X-Men’s "Days of Future Past"). Most of the X-Men parallels faded after this point when Brandon Choi was replaced by John Arcudi as writer on the series. However, it is worth noting that when WildStorm decided to revamp the series, they hired perennial X-Men writer Chris Claremont to do the job.

Another similar comic series that preceded Gen¹³ is the Valiant Comics title Harbinger, written by Valiant Comics mastermind Jim Shooter. In the Harbinger series, a group of teenage superhumans rebel against the largest and most powerful organization of superhumans. The premise of the series resembles Gen¹³ in both the age and temperament of the main characters, with villain Toyo Harada's Harbinger Institute taking the place of WildStorm's I.O.

Gen¹³ also highly embraced the MTV Generation and built its sense of style on what was the contemporary fashion at the time including the name Grunge (which was a quickly dated reference), references to popular bands such as Soundgarden, and a youthful drama inspired by MTV’s The Real World. Not coincidentally, Gen¹³’s editor was Sarah Becker, a cast member on The Real World: Miami.

Collections

There have been a number of trade paperbacks collecting the Gen¹³ comic books, spin-off series/limited series/specials.

Title	Material collected	ISBN#
Collected Edition	Gen¹³ vol. 1,# 1-5 (1994 collection of original limited series)	ISBN 1-56389-496-3
Gen¹³ Archives	Gen¹³ vol. 1,# 1-5 (original miniseries) Gen¹³ vol. 2 # 1/2 Gen¹³ vol. 2 # 0-13c plus a variety of pinups and full covers including all 13 covers to issue one of v2	ISBN 7-92830-279-91-5
Who They Are and How They Came to Be	Gen¹³ vol. 1, #1-5 (2006 re-issue of original limited series)	ISBN 1-4012-1149-6
Starting Over	Gen¹³ vol. 2, #1-7	ISBN 1-56389-544-7
I Love New York	Gen¹³ vol. 2, #25-29	ISBN 1-56389-543-9
We'll Take Manhattan	Gen¹³ vol. 2, #45-50	ISBN 1-56389-662-1
Superhuman Like You	Gen¹³ vol. 2, #60-65	ISBN 1-56389-877-2
Meanwhile…	Gen¹³ vol. 2, #43-44, 66-70	ISBN 1-4012-0062-1
Gen¹³ Backlist	Gen¹³ vol. 1, #1/2 Gen¹³ vol. 1, #0 Gen¹³ vol. 2, #1 "Now Departing from Gate 37" short story from WildStorm! #1 Gen¹³ vol. 2, #1-A to 1-N covers Gen¹³: The Unreal World	ISBN 1-887279-41-5
Gen¹³ Interactive Plus!	Gen¹³ Interactive #1-3 Gen¹³ 3-D Special	ISBN 1-58240-005-9
Ordinary Heroes	Gen¹³: Ordinary Heroes #1-2 Gen¹³ Bootleg #1-2 "Wham" short story from The Wildstorm Thunderbook	ISBN 1-4012-0427-9
September Song	Gen¹³ vol. 3, #0, 1-6	ISBN 1-4012-0122-9
Best of a Bad Lot	Gen¹³ vol. 4, #1-6	ISBN 1-4012-1323-5
Road Trip	Gen¹³ vol. 4, #7-13	ISBN 1-4012-1649-8
15 Minutes	Gen¹³ vol. 4, #14-20	ISBN 1-4012-2002-9
World's End	Gen¹³ vol. 4, #21-26	ISBN 1-4012-2488-1

Other media

Kevin Altieri (Batman: Mask of the Phantasm) directed a Gen¹³ animated feature for Buena Vista Pictures, a Disney company. It was shelved by Disney soon after Wildstorm was bought by DC Comics, a Time Warner company, and never released in the U.S., but has seen a limited video release in Europe and Australia. Grunge was voiced by Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Lynch was voiced by John de Lancie.

Three Gen¹³ paperback novels were released:

• Time and Chance by Jeff Mariotte and Scott Ciencin features a criminal mastermind who enjoys gambling. He captures the formula for creating superpowered beings and plans to use it to increase his power.
• Netherwar is written by Jeff Marriote and Christopher Golden. It begins with an old ally of Lynch meeting with the group. International Operations has apparently made contact with the realm of Hell itself underneath a casino it secretly owns. Gen¹³ must infiltrate the already-affected building and close down the portal before all of humanity is doomed.
• "Version_2.0" was written by Sholly Fisch. It focuses on the diabolic plan of the teams old International Operations nemesis Ivana Baiul whom has fell from the good graces of the government.

Gen¹³: The Video Game was under development to be published by Electronic Arts for release on the Sony PlayStation and PC. A preview of the canceled game can be found at The PlayStation Museum.

References

• Gen¹³ at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
• Gen¹³ at the International Catalogue of Superheroes
• Gen¹³ at IMDb

External links

• Wildstorm Productions
• Gen¹³ Complete Cover Gallery
• Gen13 The Video Game preview at The PlayStation Museum