GENERATION X #23 – #25 (January 1997 – March 1997)

#23 (Lobdell/Byrd/Martin/Story/Comicraft/Buccellato/GCW) – Shockingly enough, this is a quiet issue with no action that focuses on the characters. It’s unfortunate that the fill-in artist draws faces so inconsistently, since the entire issue consists of conversation scenes. I’m honestly surprised that at least half of these faces weren’t redrawn after the pages were sent in. Chamber goes home with Husk for Thanksgiving, which is the best thread in the issue. Chamber’s insecurities prevent him from getting close to her, and instead of Husk giving him an inspiring speech that convinces him that everything’s okay, she calls him a jerk and lets him walk away. There are also a few pages dedicated to M and Banshee, which set up a few ideas but don’t really go anywhere with them. Apparently, Banshee feels guilty about missing out on Siryn’s childhood and Emma believes that M is a potential threat to the team. The Daydreamers miniseries starring Franklin Richards, Artie, and Leech is teased for a few pages. Over the past few issues, they’ve discovered a “blue lady” named Tana Nile (who is colored green). Like the Banshee and M scenes, there’s not enough here to really invest in, but it manages to kill a few pages. The Husk/Chamber scenes are fine, but it feels like the rest of the issue is filler.

#24 (Lobdell/Leonardi/Byrd/LaRosa/Martin/Comicraft/Buccellato) – Husk, Jubilee, M, and Emma Frost spend Christmas in Monaco (the third holiday issue in a row), and proceed to talk for the entire issue. The issue has some plot significance, as each character recounts the day they discovered they were mutants. Jubilee accidentally blasted a pair of cops after getting caught shoplifting, Husk finally shed her skin after months of trying to prove that she was a mutant, and M tells a blatant lie about flying around her father’s estate like a storybook character. Frost claims that she was institutionalized by her wealthy parents, but eventually used her powers to escape (and then burn the building down). Some of the scenes are cute, and Rick Leonardi does a nice job with them. Emplate makes a brief cameo, making even more vague references to his origin. This wouldn’t be so bad, if so many of the preceding issues hadn’t been quiet character stories with vague hints about various mysteries.

#25 (Lobdell/Bachalo/Vey/Hanna/Comicraft/Vancata) – Chris Bachalo returns, as the series drastically departs from the slow pace of the earlier issues. This is the debut of the tree-monster version of Black Tom, who can send his consciousness across any plant life, and somehow mentally control people. Black Tom and his “version” of Mondo unite to attack the team. Everyone except Jubilee and Penance are kidnapped, as Bastion suddenly appears and takes Jubilee (and apparently kills Mondo), while Penance is presumably just forgotten. Black Tom hides the students in a secret location and taunts Banshee about becoming their new mentor. I like the idea that Tom is jealous of Banshee and wants to raise his students the same way he raised his daughter, but the idea isn’t fleshed out particularly well. Penance reemerges at the end of the issue and slices Black Tom in half, which ends the fight. After Penance rips him in two, the “bio-organic” transport he was controlling underneath the ocean falls apart. M, Skin, Synch, Husk, and Chamber emerge in the middle of nowhere. I like the cliffhanger, but the rest of the issue is a little too chaotic. Apparently, this Mondo isn’t the real one, which means we’ve been following a plant creation of Black Tom (even though “our” Mondo has his own consciousness, and was seen communicating with Tom as recently as the last issue). Ending the fight by having Penance rip Tom in two doesn’t work either, since it’s established just a few pages earlier that he can’t be hurt because he can shift his consciousness around. Bachalo’s redesign of Black Tom is impressive, but it veers so far away from the established character, you have to wonder why they didn’t just use the design on a new villain.