Michael's Long Box: The Great Gen13 Re-Read, Part 7 - Gen13 #0 (September 1994, Image Comics)

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In case you missed the announcement, I'm undertaking a goal of re-reading every issue of Gen13 for the purpose of blogging about it now that we're celebrating the 25th anniversary of its publication! Yes, I am crazy. No, I am not going to share--dig up your own insanity.

For the background of how this issue ties into the series, go check out Part 5A of this re-read.

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Gen13 #0 ties in with Gen13 #1/2 as an interim episode to bridge the gap between the end of the limited series and the start of the monthly run. But while issue zero-point-five was farmed out to a different team of writers and artists in conjunction with Wizard magazine, this zero-issue has regular writer Brandon Choi helming all four of the vignettes told within the book's scant 32 pages. Each story focuses on a different set of characters tying up loose ends before they all converge on La Jolla, California so the monthly series can hit the ground running.

Part One: Coming Home

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Jim Lee pencils and Alex Garner inks the introductory short story, which focuses on Fairchild, and opens with a nice full-page layout of Caitlin walking off the bus and explaining what happened in 1/2 for anyone lucky enough to skip over it:

Choi takes a minute to recap Fairchild's adventures, then explains Rainmaker's absence in 1/2, and further explains why Caitlin's arriving in Portland by bus when last we saw, everybody was crammed into the van they procured using Ivana's credit card, as well as why the rest of the group split up and where they're all heading.

Caitlin's headed into Portland to attend a welcome home party being thrown for her by her parents. Her cousin Karen is there to pick her up at the terminal, along with Karen's husband Brad, and their toddler. Along the way, Caitlin realizes how much she misses the simple life of not being a super hero, and wonders if she'd have been better off forgetting college, settling down, and getting married like her cousin did. Of course, Karen married her high school sweetheart, something Caitlin never had, so the point's moot.

Plus, it turns out Brad isn't exactly the greatest of catches:

Karen and Caitlin exchange hugs and greetings, and Karen starts to tell Caitlin about some men who wanted to meet her when Brad takes notice of Caitlin's growth spurt and starts hitting on her and insulting his wife. As if that's not enough, Caitlin sees the guys Karen was talking about and makes them for I.O. goons immediately. Caitlin isn't about to talk to them, but 'Roid Rage explains he was promised money to take them to talk to Caitlin, and by gawd, she's going to talk to them:

Or maybe not. After Brad threatens Karen with the back of his hand, Caitlin nearly snaps his wrist, then tells him she'll do a lot worse the next time as she shoves him away like a busted trash bag. Unfortunately, confronting Brad instead of running off gave time for the I.O. goons to catch up to her. They politely order Karen to step aside, then draw tasers:

Neanderthal boy takes one for the team, and goes down for the count. Fairchild, on the other hand, takes the brunt of two tasers at maximum level and remains standing, then staggers away as the trio prepare to move to close range and pull out their stun guns. Caitlin, however, has wandered off the platform and on to the train tracks, so what happens next should come as no--

Yep. Called it.

I.O. goon #1 gets on the phone to request an ambulance, but he's a bit premature. Getting smacked by the train has cleared Caitlin's head from the taser shots she took. Now unconcerned with who sees her hulking out, she upends the entire train engine and dumps it between herself and her pursuers, buying herself some time while they radio their commanding officer, a guy named Shepherd, for orders about what to do next.

Caitlin, of course, now realizes that not only did dozens of people witness what just went down, but she's got no method of transportation for escape. Fortunately for her, a guy in a beautiful bright red sports car zips up, introduces himself as Wesley, tells her Lynch sent him to keep an eye on her, and tells her to get in the car before it's too late. Having no other viable option at the moment, she decides to trust him and hops aboard.

Wesley races away with her, while the three I.O. goons speculate among themselves as to why Shepherd always gets the hot babes and the hot cars. Rank, it appears, has its privileges, and Caitlin's still in danger!

...or is she? Shepherd drops Caitlin off at the airport to secure a flight back to California, and phones Lynch to tell him the operation went like clockwork, the "package" is at the airport, and headed home.

There are two ways to look at this story: one is that Ivana's goons really did track Caitlin to the bus terminal and were trying to secure her for transport, but were double-crossed by Shepherd who is loyal to Lynch and who got Caitlin to safety. The other way to look at it didn't dawn on me until years later, but it's my favorite of the two.

Lynch knew if he let Caitlin get back to her old life, she'd get settled in and never want to leave. Master manipulator that he is, Lynch himself hires four goons to track down Caitlin: Shepherd and the three nameless taser-jockeys. While the taser jockeys do their thing (bring Caitlin back, a task Lynch knows they cannot possibly succeed at), Shepherd oversees the operation and swoops in to "save the day". With Caitlin now reminded that I.O. will never stop searching for her and that she isn't safe anywhere related to her old life, she's more than willing to hop on the plane to San Diego and get back to Lynch and the safehouse he told her about.

This fits Lynch's image as a guy who prepares for everything, and it's far cooler than the original idea I had going, but the way Choi wrote it means either one could be right and it's up to the reader to make his or her own decision about Shepherd, Lynch, and everything else. Perfectly executed.

Except...how did Fairchild know the woman from 1/2 called herself "The Traveller"? She's literally never identified. Ever. Oh well...

Part Two: Desert Bloom

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The action segues to Burnout, as he drives the van through the Arizona desert to meet up with Sarah Rainmaker, who's flown home to re-join her tribe. This is actually the second time Sarah's returned to the San Carlos Reservation, since the first time she was kidnapped and brought back was Stormwatch #8. Now, after being taken under threat by I.O. to the Genesis facility, Rainmaker's back to say her goodbyes for real this time.

Bobby's monologue to himself here is well written. It's obviously meant to fill us in on why he's doing what he's doing, but it's also a way for us to get inside Burnout's head. That's important because, as of this issue, he's the cast member we know the least about.

I love the little touches Richard Johnson and Gary Martin give to the scenes in this vignette. The dog in the lower-left part of the bottom panel, for instance, may be attached to his doghouse, but he's also got a food bowl and a water dish, and both are full. This tells us immediately that though this is a hard environment, the people living there care enough to make sure their pets' needs are taken care of, and it does so without anyone having to remark on it.

Also, if you don't smile at the image of Rainmaker in her more native attire, then you don't have a soul:

Bobby puts his foot in his mouth a few times, asking different things about Sarah's tribe and why they stay in such a remote place, consigning themselves to such a hardscrabble life, but in all honesty, these are questions the reader probably has as well. Rainmaker decides to educate Bobby, and to open his eyes, she offers him a bird's eye view of her homeland. Along the flight, she explains how being raised as an Apache allowed her to survive and thrive even after the deaths of her parents. The tribe is her family, and they've taught her that interdependence is vital to her life, that no one makes it on her own out there.

Burnout apologizes as he finally gets it, and we learn some more about his life too in this great scene:

Rainmaker reminds him that while they've faced some hard times, they've faced them together, which makes them (and the rest of the Gen13 kids) a family of sorts too. Before she can change her mind, Sarah hugs her uncle goodbye and tells Bobby to start driving. We learn Bobby left Grunge and Roxy in Las Vegas so Roxy could find her step-mom, and so we kick over there for part three of the story.

Of the four stories in here, this one is my favorite. Rainmaker and Burnout haven't gotten nearly as much page time as the other kids, and Choi uses every panel of its six pages to let us glimpse into both of them and see what makes them tick. At the conclusion, we understand why Bobby's got such a chip on his shoulder, and why Sarah's so attached to her tribal lands. Breaking away from all that is hard as hell for her, but as she points out, if she stayed she'd only be endangering the rest of the tribe, so leaving is the best option. It's short, it's sweet, and it uses the visual medium of comics to enhance the story being told with the words.

Part Three: The Big Deal

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As pointed out above, we're now in Sin City, with Grunge and Roxy having searched every bar and casino up and down the strip for signs of Roxy's step-mom. Having finally arrived at Nero's Palace, the last place to look, the pair are certain they'll find what they're looking for: if not Roxy's step-mom, than maybe some food for the ol' Grunge-meister:

Grunge hatches a plan to win big at the Roulette tables, using Roxy's power to influence gravity to affect which slot the ball lands in on the wheel. After a huge opening win, a gentleman in a snakeskin jacket and shades saunters up to Grunge and introduces himself in Cantonese. Grunge says he's sorry, but only speaks American. The man apologizes for the mistake, saying he looks like someone he knew from Hong Kong. Grunge replies that he was born in Hong Kong, but grew up in Seattle, then compliments the man's jacket.

The man doffs the jacket and offers it to Grunge, saying he hopes it will give better luck to him, and departs with his female companion. Grunge is delighted to accept the offering, and dons it immediately, finding a pair of slick shades in the pocket as well. He's now chilling in style, while Roxy is...less than enthused:

She's also disappointed, since her step-mom apparently just quit working there within the past couple of weeks and headed off to New York. Grunge says that's no problem, since they can win enough money to buy tickets out to the Big Apple and find her, and they get back to rigging the game. Since Grunge is winning every spin and racking up literal mountain of chips, the casino boss takes notice. Grunge is mistaken for a hitman for the Chinese Triad named Liu Won Yu, and boss Spinelli sends his goon squad to break a few heads. Quick thinking on Roxy's part offers up a distraction...

...and the pair spend the next page outrunning and outwitting the casino goons. They get outside the casino just in time for Bobby and Sarah to pull up in the van, and the pair jump inside, telling Bobby, "JUST DRIVE!" Off into the night they roar towards California, as Bobby takes one opportunity to diss Grunge before the fade-out:

This story's more comedy-focused than background-focused, but that's OK. Jeff Scott Campbell's artwork and Brandon Choi's script compliment one another perfectly, and it's nice to see Roxy back to looking like her youthful self (at one point Grunge assumes the goons are on them because they figured out neither one of them is eighteen yet) after her abominable depiction in the last issue. We also learn Grunge can use his Gen-Factor powers to affect another person, since he uses them to have both himself and Roxy assume the form of statues to fool their pursuers.

Aside from that, the scene with Liu Won Yu posits something interesting as well: did this man who works for the Triads actually know Grunge's father, and if so, how? Grunge is one of the few characters for whom we not only know at least one of his parents, but also that they are alive, as Lynch worked with him in Team 7 back in the day, and he's one of the surviving members of Gen12. Questions, questions as we shift to the fourth part of our quadrilogy.

"But wait," I hear you say, "We've covered Fairchild, Burnout, Rainmaker, Freefall, and Grunge...whose story is left to tell?"

Don't tell me y'all forgot about The Main Man John Lynch already, have you? This guy's got business to finish up with I.O. before he sets up shop too, and the last story in the issue explains what he's up to while his five proteges are away.

Part Four: Things Change

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We open on a daring nighttime assault on I.O.'s central headquarters in McLean, Virginia:

In a sequence pre-dating Metal Gear Solid by several years, Lynch rides a paraglider to touch down on the roof, rappels his way down the side of the building, and cuts his way into the secure compound via the one section of wall which had no sensor covers installed. We learn through his thoughts that he was in charge of the architecture and design of the Tower, and because he plans for everything, he altered the plans to allow this little 'back door' in case he ever needed to get inside for some reason.

The hole he cuts in the wall is small enough to escape detection for several hours, but large enough for him to wiggle through and end up in a bathroom stall. Exiting the room, he activates a stealth camouflage suit (again, it will be several years before Solid Snake dons the light-bending uniform designed by Otacon), slaps an 'Out of Order' sign on the bathroom, and proceeds through the relatively quiet hallways.

He has to hurry, though, since the batteries on the suit don't last long, so he runs through the building, quietly bypassing the few people at work, including a woman named Alicia with whom he has some history. Lynch arrives at his destination, a restricted room containing I.O.'s central database, the I-CORE, and Lynch gets to work:

Mission accomplished, he re-activates his camouflage and heads back to the bathroom, only to discover...

Whoops. Seems like while his stealth suit kept anyone from seeing him, Alicia's a telepath and she read his thoughts when he passed by her earlier. Seems she brought reinforcements too, in the form of Frank Colby. If you've paid attention during this read-through, that name may sound familiar: he's the guy who wasted Threshold and Bliss's parents all the way back in issue #1.

Fortunately, while Colby points out that turning Lynch in to Craven could get him virtually any job he wanted at I.O., he and Lynch go back too far and have too much history for him to end things that way. But as far as he's concerned, letting Lynch go this time pays off any outstanding debts, and after this, there are no more favors to cash in. Lynch departs the way he came in, mission accomplished, but shaken at the loss of people he considered to be his friends. Seems he's not through paying the price for going rogue. And maybe he never will be.

This is my second-favorite story in the book. It demonstrates just how damn good of an operative Lynch is, despite being desk-bound for the last few years. Choi's script showcases Lynch's monstrous intelligence and desire to plan for everything, but reveals the guy's got some weaknesses he didn't account for. It's a short-but-sweet reminder that everybody on the run from Ivana and Craven has to stay two steps ahead of the game at all times, or else bad things happen. The mulligan given him by Colby is suitably menacing, setting up an opportunity for future conflict between the pair where there will be no kid gloves. Plus, it's nice to see Lynch humbled after his almost-too-perfect escape from Ivana and Genesis at the end of Issue #5. The guy may be super-human, but he's still human, and that counts for something.

Epilogue: Home Sweet Home

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The final page of the book sees the five teenagers arrive in La Jolla, California, at the safehouse procured by Lynch. They meet Anna, the housekeeper, and take a minute to admire their new digs. Lynch remarks he hopes they've all enjoyed their little vacation, because playtime is over, and school is officially now in session.

See ya in early 1995 for Gen13 #1, fellow krunk-heads!

Final Rating

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out of

It should be obvious from my words earlier just how much I like this issue. The difference in quality between Gen13 #0 and Gen13 #1/2 is enormous, and unlike that other fill-in issue, #0 reads like an important part of the story instead of some lame cash-grab. It's a phenomenal chance to take a breather, learn a bit more about not just the kids but also Lynch. More than that, it shows the creative team is firing on all cylinders, knows where they're going, and proves they have what it takes to turn the sometimes-messy action of the five-issue miniseries into something worthy of a long-running regular series. Choi's script proves he has a solid handle on what makes each of these characters tick, while the artwork by Richard Johnson and Travis Charest proves there's a solid stable of artists who can all lend their talents to the book in case Campbell and/or Lee get burnt out.

If 1/2 made you wonder how they were going to make this monthly book work, 0 should prove it's in good hands, and the delay until March 1995 for issue 1 only gives them time to make sure it's that much better. I can't wait to dig in to Gen13 #1 next time we do this, and I hope you're just as excited as I am to begin the next leg of our comic book voyage together!