TThe Not-Many Adventures of Gen13

by Jordan Child, age 14

WHAT_? Is Gen13 writer John Arcudi trapped in a closet or something? I mean, when was the last time this book had a story line? For the last year (at least), Gen13 hasn't had a decent story line, let alone one that lasted more than one issue. So what has been happening in Gen13? Well, not much! Besides I.O.'s constant background sub-stories: nabbing gen-actives and building better-than ever battle suits for their keepers, the book tries to focus on each of the characters trying to be a team and what problems they have with each other.

The team has gone from Mexico to California to New York to a tropical island in Cuba, where they now reside, the team seems to move from place to place every ten issues or so. The main cast right now consists of the regular 5 youngsters, Caitlin Fairchild (Caitlin Fairchild), Grunge (Edmund Chang), Burnout (Bobby Lynch), Rainmaker (Sarah Rainmaker), and Freefall (Roxi Spaulding) , and thier leader, who is now Alex Fairchild, Catlin's father. Even though this book has a lot of down sides, they all contribute to the uniqueness of the book, which is why I like this book. Although I would like to see more action and depth in this book, I like Gen13 because the characters are vary REAL, with real powers: Caitlin has the powers of superhuman-strength and neigh-invulnerability, Grunge has the power to mimic his cellular structure to whatever substance he can touch, Burnout has the power to project high energy plasma that bursts into flame when in contact with oxygen, (he turns into something like the human torch and can shoot fire-blasts) Rainmaker can control air and water, and can shoot lighting blasts from her hands, and Freefall can control gravity (not just to fly but she can make things as light as a tooth pick fall so hard they can be as heavy as a ton of bricks.)

Real problems: Bobby dealing with his father, Roxi finding her mother, and finding out that her real father is actually none other than Alex Fairchild the teams leader, Sarah being a *lesbian* and Grunge being, um, horny.

One of the main reasons I like this book is because of the hi-jinks and general funniness of it: Grunge trying to catch Catlin or Sarah naked, Roxi and Sarah cheating at Lizard races, the team helping an old scientist that has turned himself into a ten foot tall baby while trying to find a solution to growing old, amongst a few of them. This is a great book but it needs a good long story plot and now that D.C. owns WildStorm, there can be some interesting crossovers like Gen13/Teen Titans or maybe even a guest shot from Superman. I think Mr. Myxsptlk would make quite an interesting tie in with the Gen13 titles.

-Jordan Child


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Copyright © 1999 Jordan Child

E-mail Jordan at: Dragnbarf@aol.com

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