The Series
Many members of Generation X debuted during the "Phalanx Covenant" storyline, a crossover spanning across every X-Men-related comic book in the summer of 1994. The Phalanx, an extraterrestrial collective intelligence attempted to absorb many of Earth's mutants into its matrix and captured several of the young mutants who would make up Generation X as "practice" before moving on to the X-Men.
In September of that year, Generation X #1 was published, establishing the team at Frost's Massachusetts Academy. It also introduced their arch-nemesis Emplate, a vampire-like mutant who sucked the bone marrow of young mutants. As the series continued, fans and critics raved about Bachalo's quirky, complex artwork and Lobdell's realistic teenage characters. The series soon became one of the most popular X-Books.
Lobdell and Bachalo departed in 1997, leaving writer Larry Hama and artist Terry Dodson to reveal the long-standing mysteries behind M, Penance and Emplate. Hama revealed that M was in fact an amalgamation of Monet St. Croix's two younger sisters, who could merge as part of their mutant powers (one was autistic, explaining the trances); Emplate was their brother who, after experimenting with black magic, was caught in a strange limbo and needed mutant bone marrow to escape; and Penance was the actual Monet St. Croix, transformed under one of Emplate's spells. All of this was revealed in a surreal, mystic epic in Generation X #35-40 (1997–1998) that was greeted with disapproval by most fans (Lobdell's original plan had involved the twins, but did not include a "real" Monet).
The saga ended with the actual Monet St. Croix taking on the role of M, but fans' reactions did not get much better and sales began to dip. Hama's successor, Jay Faerber, attempted to revive the title, bringing in a regular human student population at the school and making Emma's sister Adrienne Frost another headmistress in Generation X #50 (1999).
In 2000, writer Warren Ellis, known for his dark, sarcastic style, was hired to revamp Generation X, as part of the Counter-X rebranding of several second-tier X-titles (the others being X-Force and X-Man). Ellis acted as 'plotmaster', while Brian Wood handled the actual scripting chores and later acted as sole writer of the series. Fan response was positive, largely because Ellis and Wood dealt with the teenaged cast without resorting to cliché. However, in early 2001, Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada cancelled Generation X, in addition to five other X-Books, arguing that so many mutant superhero books had become redundant. Also, X-Men writer Grant Morrison wanted to add a new cast of teenage mutants to the Xavier Institute in New York. In Generation X #75, the team disbanded and the Massachusetts Academy closed.
Read more about this topic: Generation X (comics)
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