GENERATION X-23 #6
“Mutant Generation”
Writer: Jody Houser
Artist: Emilio Laiso
Colour artist: Erick Arciniega
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Editors: Mark Basso & Alanna Smith

COVER: Wolverine and Scout leading the Generated into action. Presumably to avoid spoilers, the cover shows not only X-74, X-92 and X-99, who are in this issue, but also X-66, who isn’t. (She’s the bird-like one.) Following the end of the previous issue, she’s with X-Infinite.

WOLVERINE (Laura):

After defeating the Facility last issue, Laura and Gabby have brought the three remaining Generated back to the Turtle Bay safehouse that Laura was living in during the previous run, Laura Kinney: Wolverine. Somehow, she’s rustled up costumes for the Generated – or at least for X-99 and X-74. X-99’s is a modified X-Men uniform mostly in black and yellow, though with elements in red; X-74 wears a version in black and green. She tries to encourage a sense of mutant identity in the Generated by taking them to see the burned-out Treehouse in Central Park, still serving as a memorial and a target of anti-mutant graffiti. She’s also still checking it for messages left by mutants in need of aid, as she was doing in the previous run

When X-99 and X-74 turn out to be completely useless in a real world fight (and they were indeed sidelined in the climax of the previous arc), Laura gives them a pep talk recapping her origin and explaining how she escaped her creation at the hands of the Facility. She accepts that she’s also a Generated, but argues that she only felt safe for the first time once she was among mutants. X-99 seems to come round to this way of looking at it, but there are obvious differences between Laura and the other Generated: they clearly haven’t undergone anything like the level of psychological abuse that she did, and they form a mutually supportive group united by their Generated identities and experiences.

She and Gabby are still ordering number 25 with chicken, from back in All-New Wolverine.

SUPPORTING CAST:

Scout. As in issue #3, she’s sharing a room with X-99 and claiming that it’s a “slumber party”. Jonathan, the pet wolverine, is also hanging around with them. She’s clearly figured out that she’s the mature one in this friendship, who needs to stop X-99 from getting carried away.

X-99. Having been exposed to the wider internet, X-99 has instantly become obsessed with irritating and slightly out of date memes. She proposes renaming herself X-6-7, seemingly oblivious to the fact that there would have been an actual X-67, who apparently died before her creation. X-74 remembers her, though, and isn’t particularly thrilled about this joke. X-99 is rather upset at the reaction she gets.

To start with, she doesn’t identify as a mutant and has no particular interest in doing so. She doesn’t see the Treehouse as interesting and is baffled by the idea that she might want to claim such an unpopular identity. But Laura’s pep talk about why she embraced a mutant identity wins her round – she seems to swing erratically between new enthusiasms. She agrees to be a mutant, but insists on a codename, and chooses Surprise! (complete with the exclamation mark).

Faced with a fight against anti-mutant thugs, she has no idea how to use her powers to help, and dithers uselessly.

X-74. As in the previous issue, X-74 has a lot of suppressed anger beneath her more-or-less responsible surface. She tends to cause property damage by losing control of her powers or simply misjudging them. While she tries to be helpful against the thugs, she doesn’t know her own strength. She’s understandably upset about her inept performance.

When asked to choose a codename, she opts for “Time Bomb”, which she specifically says was a name that X-Infinite had come up with. “Time Bomb” was also an early codename for Boom-Boom back in Secret Wars II – presumably Boom-Boom is meant to be the source of the power that X-74 has been given.

X-92. The one with the portals. Laura refers to X-92 as “they” in this story, though the book has also used “he” in the past. X-92 seems to be using their powers to quietly watch ordinary people going about their business. It seems like simple curiosity from someone with no concept of how voyeurism would be seen in the outside world.

Laura isn’t sure whether X-92 can’t speak or won’t; however, at the end of the issue, when everyone is choosing codenames, they do speak quietly to claim the name “Port”. This immediately follows X-74 mentioning that X-Infinite liked the name “Semi”, which might have related to X-92 given their tendency to appear leaning out of a portal – possibly, X-92 only speaks up to avoid being saddled with X-Infinite’s preferred name.

Unlike the other Generated, X-92’s “costume” seems to be street clothes with a hood and (real-world) face mask. It’s not clear whether it’s meant to be a costume at all. X-92 is the only one of the Generated who performs well in action, admittedly with a simple remit of teleporting people to safety.

Wolverine (Logan) shows up unconscious on the last panel. He has the broken claws from current issues of his own series.

VILLAINS

An anti-mutant group in Jackson Heights who are terrorising people with visible mutations. They’re just a bunch of thugs who are here to provide the Generated with a very easy target to screw up against.