What is Gen13?

[sflowersj]

Gen13 has popped up a couple times recently! I've tried the DC wiki. I'm not getting enough information to satisfy my brain...or is that all there is to them!?

[ThiefHookUps]

Gen 13 was an Image comic originally until DC bought Jim Lee's characters. They're a group of five teenagers who had their latent powers triggered by a shady branch of the government. All (or almost all) of their fathers were part of Gen(eration) 12, a military squad called Team 7, and also had latent-then-realized powers triggered by the government. One of the Team 7 members still with the government breaks ranks and helps free the Gen 13 teenagers. Lots of sex and boner jokes would soon follow.

[catbatfan]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gen%C2%B9%C2%B3

Still wondering how they'll make a character called Grunge relevant in 2014.

[catbatfan]

Gen13 has popped up a couple times recently! I've tried the DC wiki. I'm not getting enough information to satisfy my brain...or is that all there is to them!?

That's because they are primarily a Wildstorm team, not DC. Only a few Gen13 characters have appeared in the New 52 up until recently.

[Dizzy D]

Gen13 was a fun team, Adam Warren's run is probably the best the team ever was and there was a bootleg series that had some interesting issues.

ThiefHookups pretty much explained the backstory of the team (they were indeed all children of Team 7 members, unlike their counterparts DV8, who had various backgrounds.), the members where

Caitlin Fairchild: Very intelligent, bit of a wallflower. When she receives her powers (superstrength, invulnerability), she also became very attractive, but was unaware of that for quite some time. Tends to be a bit naieve sometimes.

Roxy Spaulding aka Freefall: turned out to be Caitlin's half-sister. Has some self-esteem issues (mostly due to Grunge being interested in Caitlin instead of her). Controls gravity, so is one of the more powerful members of the team.

Eddie Chang aka Grunge: Horny teenager (the Gail Simone run had him as quite intelligent who just pretended to be stupid while the other runs had him as actually stupid and insensitive.) Knows a bit of Kung-Fu and has powers like Marvel's Absorbing Man. Not a bad guy, but has some very bad decisionmaking skills. He has a photographic memory though.

Sarah Rainmaker: Either a lesbian or bisexual (depending on writer and she's a teenager so she might still be figuring things out for herself.) Also very politically involved and does a lot of volunteer work. Controls the weather and wears metal bracelets to store and focus the lightning bolts that she generates. Occasionally has a crush on Caitlin.

Bobby Lane aka Burnout: Plays guitar.. badly, but is a music elitist. Has a big crush on Sarah (which works out as well as you'd expect), but had about 3 girlfriends in 20 issues, so we shouldn't feel bad for him. Can fly and generate heat/fire.

Anna: Housemaid, also killer android.

John Lynch: Was the leader of Team 7. Career military man, betrayed his superiors to free the Gen13 kids (because he believes his longlost son is among them).

[Alan2099]

Gen13 was a fun team, Adam Warren's run is probably the best the team ever was and there was a bootleg series that had some interesting issues.

ThiefHookups pretty much explained the backstory of the team (they were indeed all children of Team 7 members, unlike their counterparts DV8, who had various backgrounds.), the members where

Caitlin Fairchild: Very intelligent, bit of a wallflower. When she receives her powers (superstrength, invulnerability), she also became very attractive, but was unaware of that for quite some time. Tends to be a bit naieve sometimes.

Roxy Spaulding aka Freefall: turned out to be Caitlin's half-sister. Has some self-esteem issues (mostly due to Grunge being interested in Caitlin instead of her). Controls gravity, so is one of the more powerful members of the team.

Eddie Chang aka Grunge: Horny teenager (the Gail Simone run had him as quite intelligent who just pretended to be stupid while the other runs had him as actually stupid and insensitive.) Knows a bit of Kung-Fu and has powers like Marvel's Absorbing Man. Not a bad guy, but has some very bad decisionmaking skills. He has a photographic memory though.

Sarah Rainmaker: Either a lesbian or bisexual (depending on writer and she's a teenager so she might still be figuring things out for herself.) Also very politically involved and does a lot of volunteer work. Controls the weather and wears metal bracelets to store and focus the lightning bolts that she generates. Occasionally has a crush on Caitlin.

Bobby Lane aka Burnout: Plays guitar.. badly, but is a music elitist. Has a big crush on Sarah (which works out as well as you'd expect), but had about 3 girlfriends in 20 issues, so we shouldn't feel bad for him. Can fly and generate heat/fire.

Anna: Housemaid, also killer android.

John Lynch: Was the leader of Team 7. Career military man, betrayed his superiors to free the Gen13 kids (because he believes his longlost son is among them).

Adding to that ...

John Lynch is basically Clint Eastwood as Nick Fury.

You know how some characters like Wolverine or Batman are seen as cool no matter what they actually do? Burnout is the opposite of that. He's easily the most ignored least interesting member the team has. Supposedly the early plans of the book had him as the point of view character, and the rest of the weirdos where seen from his view points, however everybody liked the rest of the weirdos more and ignored him.

Rainmaker is also a huge pervert and a hypocrite. She's slap, roll her eyes, or otherwise insult Grunge or Burnout whenever they show any interest in females at all, but she's all of her (straight) terammate Freefall and often hooks up with other girls and openly flirts with them right in front of everyone.

[DaveEB]

I hope Scott Lobdel stays far away from them whatever they are this time around. He's already screwed them up twice. Adam Warren's run was the best the book got but John Arcudi and Gary Frank's run was underappreciated.

Gen 13 was the only Wildstorm book to make it past 50 issues so it was fairly popular.

[DaveEB]

Y'know, I'm surprised more DC fans aren't into Gen13 considering at least two of DC's bigger current artists first cut their teeth on this book...Ed Benes and Gary Frank.

[ReverseReverseFlash]

Gen13 has popped up a couple times recently! I've tried the DC wiki. I'm not getting enough information to satisfy my brain...or is that all there is to them!?

They're one of those dead 90's concepts that these 90's hangover creators can't seem to let go of. This is one of the biggest problems with the corporately-headed New 52 project. These suits have only heard of guys like Jim Lee and their temporary successes in the early 90's and they don't seem to understand that the market is different now and that readers don't want the 90's back.

By their logic, AOL should be the top competition for Google.

[Joe Kalicki]

Y'know, I'm surprised more DC fans aren't into Gen13 considering at least two of DC's bigger current artists first cut their teeth on this book...Ed Benes and Gary Frank.

I wouldn't say Gary Frank cut his teeth on Gen13. He'd already had a successful Hulk run by then and was pretty established.

They're one of those dead 90's concepts that these 90's hangover creators can't seem to let go of. This is one of the biggest problems with the corporately-headed New 52 project. These suits have only heard of guys like Jim Lee and their temporary successes in the early 90's and they don't seem to understand that the market is different now and that readers don't want the 90's back.

By their logic, AOL should be the top competition for Google.

Gen13 has its fans. I'm one of them. They deserve as much love as any other property.

[lorec]

I started collecting comics in the early 90s, as a teenager, so I kind of get where some of these corporate types are coming from. At least from my point of view, it was a great time for comics. I don't know what the actual sales numbers show.

As for Gen 13, I'm fairly interested in them myself but have been a little disappointed that more of those characters (and Milestone characters for that matter) have not been explored in greater detail.

[Blacksun]

They're one of those dead 90's concepts that these 90's hangover creators can't seem to let go of. This is one of the biggest problems with the corporately-headed New 52 project. These suits have only heard of guys like Jim Lee and their temporary successes in the early 90's and they don't seem to understand that the market is different now and that readers don't want the 90's back.

By their logic, AOL should be the top competition for Google.

wildstorm characters and concepts need some update. the 90s are gone, this is what writers have to think when writing these characters.

[Joe Kalicki]

wildstorm characters and concepts need some update. the 90s are gone, this is what writers have to think when writing these characters.

They have been written for over a decade since the 90s ended, to various degrees of success. I don't think anyone's interested in recreating the 90s with them.

[stephens2177]

This was from Supergirl 33 in the back of the book,this is Gen 13 DC style,and with Superboy.

The 90's were a great time to be a comic fan,no one wants to "go back",but we do want the characters and ideas to be modernized.

[Zoom]

I quite enjoyed Gen13 & DV8 in the 90's. They weren't particularly innovative but the book were generally fun.