This book had a few strikes against it going in. I never have liked the characters in general, and the only time I have liked them was under the pen of the previous writer, whose book was cancelled to make way for this one. As far as the creative team goes, Ale Garza's style doesn't really appeal to me, and I haven't enjoyed much of Claremont's stuff since the 1980s. So it was no surprise to me that I found the book to be a little dull, with a couple neat ideas but no characters or plot elements that drew me in and made me want to check out issue one. However, this also provides glimpses of the two non "Eye of the Storm" Wildstorm books 21 Down and The Resistance, and both of those show a lot more promise. If only the lead story had featured one of those two books, I might have been more enthusiastic about the whole package.
I'm about a month away from attending my fifth San Diego Comicon, so it was kind of neat to see that used as the backdrop for a story, and I have to give Claremont and Garza credit for steering clear of the in-jokey gags about geek culture that many writers can't resist when telling a story set near or around comic-book fans. However, while I appreciated the veracity of the background, I was less impressed with the depth of the lead characters. In fairness, Claremont only had thirteen pages to develop them, but when the first instinct of a couple young boys is to tackle government agents because they're hassling a cute girl, my first instinct is that our protagonists are either too stupid to live or acting more in interest of the plot than in good characterization. I was also disappointed to see super-hero codenames (especially bad ones like "Quickstep") rearing their ugly heads in a book that was previously following the post-Authority super-hero standards that fit the Wildstorm universe so much better.
Garza's work on Ninja Boy left me underwhelmed, because I often found the storytelling to be a little hard to follow, and I find his characters too similar in appearance to tell apart. I have the same problem with Gen 13 so far, as the characters aren't as distinctive in physical appearance as the previous incarnation of the team, and I thought the design on the faces was a little freakish, too stylized for my taste. In fairness, though, Garza and Hope (and Udon Studios) do a nifty job of showing off superspeed, almost as a form of teleportation, which was my favorite part of the story.
The other two installments of the book are both by co-writers Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray, and both are intriguing premises which only get four pages to show off. What that means is that it's hard to judge the writing quality on 21 Down and The Resistance. It's easier to judge the artwork, and the art teams on both are pretty impressive. Jesus Saiz and Palmiotti show off some terrific anatomy and interesting background design, as well as a really cool mechanic to show a jump-cut "origin" sequence, in 21 Down. And newcomers Juan Santacruz and Francis Portela serve up some incredible futuristic scenes in The Resistance, particularly when it comes to the well-armed government troops or the first shot of the equally well-armed resistance.
At thirteen pages, four pages and four pages respectively, Gen 13 #0 is more of a cheap promo book than an actual comic. I wasn't blown away by any of the promos here, but I think in the case of the last two features that was more due to the short space than the talents of the creative team, and there was enough of a teaser to get me interested in seeing the first issues of The Resistance and 21 Down. However, as a Gen 13 #0 issue, this one fails, because I'm no more interested in seeing the new Gen 13 now than I was when I heard that Adam Warren would no longer be writing the book.
