Gen 13 0 follows the events of *Gen 13 1/2 as a bridge between the end of the limited series and the start of its 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 in their lives before they take up residence in La Jolla, California so issue #1 of the monthly series can hit the ground running.
Part One: Coming Home
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 miss it:
Choi takes a single page to recap Fairchild's adventures, explain Rainmaker's absence in 1/2, and further show 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. Remember when I said you could safely skip 1/2 and miss nothing? This single page is why.
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 catch:
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 makes the guys Karen met for Ivana's Keepers. She moves to cut out, but 'Roid Boy explains he was promised money if he got Caitlin to talk to them, so by god, she's going to talk to them:
Or maybe not. After Brad threatens Karen with his pimp hand, Caitlin nearly snaps his wrist, and shoves his ass to the curb like a busted trash bag. Unfortunately, confronting Brad 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, absorbs two tasers at maximum settings and remains standing as the trio prepare to move in. 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. Now unconcerned with who sees her hulk out, she upends the entire 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 she's got no method of escape. Fortunately for her, a guy in a gorgeous sports car zips up, introduces himself as Wesley, tells her Lynch sent him to keep an eye on her, and to get in the car before it's too late. Having no other viable options, she decides to trust him and hops aboard.
Wesley zips away with her, while the three I.O. goons speculate among themselves as to why Shepherd always gets the babes and 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.
Lynch knew if he let Caitlin get back to her old life, she'd get settled in and never want to leave. He hired Shepherd and the three nameless thugs. 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 reminded that I.O. will never stop searching for her, and that there's no safety to be found in running back to her old life, she's willing to hop on the plane and head to the safehouse Lynch told her about.
Is this a dick move? Absolutely. Lynch, as long-time readers of WildC.A.T.s and Stormwatch would already know, is a manipulative bastard who has only just started to listen to his conscience after decades of black-ops work for the government. As dickish as it is though, it's still the lesser of two evils as Caitlin might be virtually invulnerable but her friends and family are not. The less they know about what happened to her, the better. Of course, poor Karen and not-so-poor Brad are going to have some explaining to do, but there are literally dozens of witnesses to confirm Caitlin was last seen speeding away in a convertible driven by some guy sporting a military-style high and tight crewcut and sunglasses. Not even Bliss or Threshold could pull anything beyond that out of them.
Lynch is very much an ends-justify-the-means, break-a-few-eggs sort of anti-hero, and that's not going to change any time soon.
Part Two: Desert Bloom
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 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 happily greeting Bobby in her native attire, then you don't have a soul:
Bobby puts his foot in his mouth a few times, asking 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, and 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 Gen 13 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 her family, so leaving now is the only option. It's short, it's sweet, and it uses the visual medium to enhance the story being told with the words. You can't ask for more from a comic story.
Part Three: The Big Deal
As pointed out above, we're now in Sin City, with Grunge and Roxy searching 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 either Roxy's step-mom, or at the very least, some food for the ol' Grunge-meister:
Grunge hatches a plan to win big at the Roulette wheel, using Roxy's gravity manipulation to affect which slot the ball lands in. 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: they can win enough money to buy tickets to the Big Apple and find her, and they get back to rigging the game. Since Grunge is winning every spin and racking up a literal mountain of chips, the casino boss takes notice. Grunge is mistaken for a Triad hitman 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, yelling, "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 issue 1/2. 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 actually know Grunge's father, Philip Chang, or is this simply a case of mistaken identity? Grunge is the one character whose background is best established. We know his parents are both still alive, that Lynch worked with Grunge's dad as an operative in I.O.'s Team 7 back in the day, and that Philip was one of the Gen 12. Other than that, we know Burnout, Freefall, Rainmaker, and Fairchild are all the children of Gen 12, but aside from Caitlin's dad being Alex Fairchild who also worked with Lynch in Team 7 and is presumed dead, everyone else's background is unclear. Rainmaker never knew her father. Burnout was dumped into the foster system as a child and has no idea who his parents are. Freefall was raised by her step-mom, but has no idea who her biological parents are or if either of them are still alive.
Questions, questions, but no time for answers 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! 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 been up to while his five young charges are taking care of their own problems.
Part Four: Things Change
We open on a 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'. Just in case.
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 to keep anyone from blundering in, and sneaks through the relatively quiet hallways.
He has to hurry, since the batteries on the suit don't last long, so he darts around, 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 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 earlier. Seems she brought reinforcements too, in the form of Frank Colby. If that name may sound familiar, it's because Colby's the guy who wasted Threshold and Bliss's parents back in issue #1.
Fortunately, while Colby points out that turning Lynch in to Craven could get him virtually any posting he wanted at I.O., he and Lynch have too much history for him to end things that way. As far as he's concerned, letting Lynch go this time pays off any outstanding debts, and after this, there will be no more favors to cash in.
Taken down a notch, Lynch departs the way he came in. Mission accomplished, sure, but not without cost. Lynch isn't through paying the price for going rogue. And maybe, he now realizes, 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 the gloves will be off. 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
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 hopes they've all enjoyed their little vacation, because playtime is over, and school is officially in session.
See ya in early 1995 for Gen13 #1, fellow krunk-heads!
Final Rating
out of
It should be obvious from my words earlier just how much I like this issue. The difference in quality between this and issue 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 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 regular monthly title. Choi has a solid handle on what makes each of these characters tick, while the artwork by Richard Johnson and Travis Charest proves Wildstorm employs a stable of artists who can all lend their talents to the book in case Campbell and Lee need a break.
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 more time to make sure it's that much better. I can't wait to dig in to Gen 13 #1 next time we do this, and I hope you're as excited as I am to begin the next leg of our comic book voyage together!