Credits: Written by Brandon Choi, pencilled by J. Scott Campbell, inked by Alex Garner and I think edited by Sarah Becker as she edited several around this issue.
Cast: Gen-13 (Grunge, Fairchild, Burnout, Rainmaker& Freefall) Deathblow, StormWatch (Flashpoint, Cannon & Fahrenheit) Sigma, Dr. Simon Tsung, Kaizen Gamorra, LeGauche, The Sword, The Sword’s creatures (Rake, Hardball, Jade and One Eyed Jack) Alicia Turner, Grifter, Alex Fairchild, Lucius, Pigmy, Ivana Baiul, DV-8 (Sublime, Frostbite, Powerhouse, Evo, Copycat & Threshold) Crimson, Aries, Jack Lynch & Gen Omega/Miles Craven.
Plot: On the beach, Cannon, Fahrenheit and Flashpoint of StormWatch have Grifter, Alicia, Grunge & Fairchild at their mercy, until Deathblow, Sigma, Rainmaker and Lynch appear from the side to turn the tables. The StormWatch officers down, the Team-7 related people make their way off the beach. Grifter asks if they should kill the downed trio, but Lynch vetoes that idea, they are just people doing their job. As the StormWatch people get back up, an earthquake happens. Cannon and Flashpoint are swallowed up by a tidal wave caused by the quake, but Fahrenheit flies out of the way.
Sub-plot time and we are at the nearby islands known as the Kahunas where Alex Fairchild and his friends Lucius meet with Pygmy and ask about what’s going on in Gamorra, they learn that Craven is dead and Kaizen has captured one of Gen-13 and Alex (who like Caitlin Fairchild of Gen-13 is a tall ginger person) wants to know where that kid is.
Speaking of, at Kaizen’s compound Kaizen is monologuing in front of Sword, his creatures and their captives Simon Tsung and Roxy ‘Freefall’ Spaulding. Kaizen wants more info on Sigma and tortures Roxy for it. Sword and his creatures talk amongst their selves, simply waiting for the arrival of Damocles before they move against Kaizen. Someone who is moving against Kaizen is Ivanna Baiul who is leading her own Gen-Active team know as DV-8. Kaizen believes she is looking for his creation Gen-Omega and Tsung tells him to destroy it. Kaizen thinks that he’s trying to take the Gen-Omega’s power for himself/ Bored with all this, Sword and his entourage leave via a portal and arrive on the Moon, killing the StormWatch personnel that are there.
DV-8 are tearing through Kaizen’s cyborgs with little trouble. Kaizen is unconcerned, but is keen to activate his new creation. Roxy tells Tsung that if DV8 are here, the rest of her team aren’t too far away and asks Simon what’s going on. Simon tells her that Damocles is coming and Earth won’t long survive that. The only thing that can save them is Ethan, the Sigma.
Sigma is with Grifter, Alicia, Deathblow and the rest of that team who have now arrived at the same compound from underground and make their way up to where Tsung and Roxy are. They deal with the cyborgs and free the captives, but from elsewhere , Kaizen Gamorra taunts them on a big screen as Deathblow starts to lose it, DV8 arrive and face off against the arriving heroes.
Elsewhere, Burnout and Crimson ‘convince’ Aries to take them to Kaizen’s compound as well. Back in Berkley Ah Yee and Celia watch the TV as the IO staff who have been with them are called off. One of them is Alicia Turner (whom I’m convinced is with the Team-7 guys on Gamorra) and I don’t know what this scene does, other than remind us that Ah Yee and Celia exist. DV8 and the reunited Gen-13 clash with Sigma, Lynch and Deathblow adding to Gen-13’s numbers. As the tide begins to turn, Kaizen Gamorra activates the Gen-Omega and Sigma, reunited with Tsung, come face to face with this new threat. Before them is the clone of Gen-Omega, imprinted with the mind of Miles Craven.
Notes: What was that all about. A lot of it was as expected, the teams start moving towards one another (with the exception of 3, Backlash, Taboo and Jackson Dane) and more of Kaizen’s plan starts coming together. But then there’s an earthquake that causes a tidal wave, then a clone with a dead man’s brain in it and DV8 arrive, for like no reason. What purpose do they serve in this story?
Gen-13 was an interesting title. They were the children of Team-7 members who had been exposed to Gen-Factor and so had this sort of mutant-gene in them which gave them a sort of super-power set as they hit mid-puberty. We had Grunge (it was the 90’s okay?) who could change he body like Marvel’s Absorbing Man, Burnout who was poundland Johnny Storm, Native American box ticker Rainmaker who could manipulate weather, gravity defying Freefall and ginger teen She-Hulk Fairchild) it was an interesting mix of powers and personalities and they were matched against Jack Lynch (Nick Fury from Wish) and on the run. It was of it’s time, but it was a fun and exciting time in comics with the push/pull of art v writing and in many ways, Gen-13 came off well. We’re still in the early stages of the crossover, but we’re heading in the right direction.
Verdict: Writing 3 out of 5 – The plot moves at a brisk clip and individual groups come together to bring the protagonists into the same place to move the story towards the next twist. Admittedly, I didn’t see the twist being a clone of one of the heroes with the brain of the nebulous bad guy that had been killed before the crossover. It felt like a bad chapter, but told really well and while I didn’t have enough background to know who everyone was, I was pulled in regardless. This could have been a mess, but honestly I was enjoying myself.
Art: 4 out of 5 – J. Scott Campbell is an excellent cover artists, it’s mostly what he’s known for now and he has a cheesecake style that works a lot of the time, so it’s been a while since I’ve seen his more sequential stuff and here it worked really well. The character designs were sold, the pacing was excellent and it fit the world it was in, while still being a breath of fresh air. At times some characters moved towards cartoony, but this worked and worked well.
Overall: 7 out of 10 – While the last page reveal kind of took me out of the story, I am still loving where this story is going and looking forward more and more to each new chapter.
Next Time: An icon falls and a marketing plan hits it’s apex.
My Marvel Life 
One thought on “Chapter 3: Gen-13 10 – No seriously, why are DV-8 there?”