Writer: Paul Jenkins
Pencils: Ramon Bachs
Inks: John Lucas
Colors: Art Lyon
Lettering: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Editor: Nick Lowe
Publisher: Dan Buckley
There are a million untold tales in New York City.
One of them is that of Sally Floyd, a reporter for ‘The Alternative’ which is probably the real world equivalent of ‘The Village Voice’ except with more actual content and fewer ads for ‘REAL ASIAN MASSAGE!’ Probably not, but I can imagine it any way I would like.
So Sally is a woman who is fraught with pain. A husband who bailed. A daughter who died. A liver that is currently pickling. Nobody to cry to, and an enraging hope that nobody will bother her on her way to the top.
So if this woman is so damned sad, why is she doing something that is revealing the stories of the unspoken mutants? Why is she the voice of a hundred other unspoken tales, when she herself just wants to be left alone?
Mainly because Paul Jenkins is an awesome writer.
STORY!
There is a man out there killing former mutants. There are millions of them out in the world now that we are past M-Day. A million people who used to be able to shoot beams from their feet and had tentacles pouring from their chest that now are just sad normal people that are ripe for the picking.
The murder story is seemingly more a subplot though to trying to unfold Sally Floyd herself. All while we learn the fate of mutant after mutant, we see her story unfold. She’s gaining popularity every week with each article that comes out discussing various aspects of the former mutanity. Yet each month of Generation M it is reinforced to us that she is nothing but a drunk, sad, sad person who can’t seem to let go of her past.
This month she discovers the fate of Fred Dukes, aka the Blob, as well as the internal workings of a crazy house known as ‘The Asylum’.
This issue is easily the slump story. That in and of itself is pretty interesting, as it’s still a great read. I don’t mind that i feel that all of these facts are just restated from the last two, and added a level of viciousness at the very end. It developed the character of Sally, but didn’t in fact, motivate the story. See how that is confusing as to whether this makes this a good book or a bad book? I do! Jenkins gives us nothing more than a filler book, but still does it in such a way for me to feel a defined urge to want to continue reading… that is good storytelling.
ART!
When I first read through the book, I thought to myself how dark this book was, and was ready to make a commentary about how it felt overinked. Then during my second read of it, I realized that a book like this needs a darker feel. The colors are perfect even when they are bright, and the inking is ideal.
The color palette chosen for the book is very muted throughout most of the story, but when introduced to Fred Dukes again we see a brief shine in the color. Intriguing since he’s the cursed mutant of the story, but yet he gets the ‘spotlight’. Sorry, babbling on about neat nuances in story here.
OVERALL!
I could prattle on an entire article about how Generation M is one of the most depthful stories to come out of the mutant Marvelverse since House of M. As you can see, not only is this the vehicle to get Sally Floyd into our minds, as she is going to be taking over the Pulse, but it is also an amazing story that takes layer upon layer of a need to be received by the world, noticed as unique, and give this book a decent score solely on those merits alone.
And I will.
