Come On, Vern. The Kids Haven’t Changed; You Have! – Review Of Generation Hope #15

Let me preface this entire review by saying: I know that it’s unconscionably wrong to hit a child. No matter how snot-nosed and entitled they may act, children are defenseless and we should not only protect them from harm, but behave as temperate role models so that they might understand how to conduct themselves in dealings with others as they make their way into the world. That being said, there is a moment in this issue where Emma Frost lays into Hope Summers with a queen bi-atch of a backhand (for being snot-nosed, entitled and mouthy – hat trick!) that will make any worn down adult with a recent weekend at the mall under hir or her belt and a fair sense of decency stand up offer writer James Asmus a hearty and heartfelt, “Well done, sir.”

Also, Hope Summers, the mutant messiah who will almost certainly become the embodiment of Earth’s next brush with the Phoenix Force, is far from defenseless. So, slap away, Emma – while you still can, anyway! Pretty soon she’s going to be able to apply her lipstick hands-free using her cleavage and level planets with a thought. God help you when she snarkily asks you if you get your wardrobe by raiding Barry Manilow’s RuPaul’s closet, then.

Generation Hope follows Hope and her team of young mutant super heroes, assembled from the first new mutants to arise on Earth since the events of M-Day decimated the Earth’s mutant population to a total of 198 remaining mutants. In their last outing, Hope and her gang of brains, athletes and basket cases round out their crew with a criminal – one Sebastian Shaw. Or is it?

Cha-cha-cha-changes…and spoilers…after the jump.

For those who may not remember 1980, Sebastian Shaw was a member of the inner circle of Hellfire Club – powerful elite mutants who sought to control, well, everything. The Hellfire Club elite were directly responsible for pushing Jean Grey over into Dark Phoenix mode, ultimately leading to her death. As you might imagine, this is a bit of a sore point for Scott Summers. So, when Hope arrives with Sebastian Shaw to Utopia, things go poorly:

I don't think I could make my leg do that if I dislocated it on purpose. I'm only human.

Hope doesn’t get the big deal. After all, Emma mind wiped Shaw. How much of a threat could he possibly be if he can’t remember who he is? More to the point, in typical teenage fashion, she decides that because Scott and Emma had the temerity to chastise her for who she wants to hang out with, she definitely wants to have Shaw on her new team.

Well, if she was looking to get back at Scott and Emma, hanging around with Sebastian Shaw would certainly be outstanding in that capacity.

Is Shaw truly a new and better man? Is Hope naive about the danger he presents to Utopia? Or, is she just plain stubborn? Hell, she’s just a kid, so it’s probably a little bit of columns B and C at least. Only time will tell for sure and I’m inclined to keep reading the series for now, if only because I would enjoy watching Hope get into a colossal train wreck. Damn know-it-all kids…

Say, if you were looking at that last panel of Psylocke and thinking, “Huh, why does that remind me of Aeon Flux so much”,

well, that’s because penciler Tim Green II was the artist on Dark Horse Comics comic book prequel to the Aeon Flux movie. Green’s art seems to continue to take its inspiration from Aeon Flux‘s creator Peter Chung here – and that’s not a bad thing. The cast of characters in this book seem to be heading into an uncertain, dystopian future and Green’s artwork certainly gives Utopia and its inhabitants a stylized, sci-fi kind of feel:

Yep. Drama, defiance, and psychological bullying. Friggin' teenagers...

I’ll be in for the long haul on this series if Sebastian Shaw can find it in his heart to call Cyclops a neo maxi zoom dweebie. After all what would Scott be doing if he wasn’t out making himself a better citizen by trying to keep Shaw away from society?