Generation Zero #6 Review

Written by: Fred Van Lente
Art by: Diego Bernard, Javier Pulido and Andrew Dalhouse
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: January 18, 2017
Review by: Repairman Jack

Coming off the last issue I’m really interested in where this book is going. It’s been a good mix of creepy, unsettling and weird while at the same time having a bit of whimsy and levity thrown in from time to time. The book seems to have no issues with covering wide swaths of genre and styles while telling what seems to be a general super-team book. I’ve really dug into Valiant and my quick acceptance of it has been due, in large part, to Generation Zero. So I head into this issue not really knowing what I will get. Join me below to read my thoughts and see just what we get into this time...

It starts off with some grade-a creepiness and I’m all the more for it. Gamete, the fetus-psiot extraordinar, is tasked with scoring some supplies for the Zeroes in medical need with Keisha, assuming her role to this point, as getaway driver. Now to think of a super-powered fetus inside of a woman that telekinetically controls their bearer is creepy enough, but to have the controlled have what can only be described as a Joker-toxin induced smile just adds an extra level of creep to the whole mix that I absolutely love. But hey the baby likes Settlers of Catan so it can’t be all bad right?

We then get some semi-forced catch up on the situation between the sheriff and Poole as he prepares for a statement with the media. What we get from this is that the Sheriff, Keisha’s father, and Poole have some sort of history that eventually lead to Keisha’s father getting the job in the first place. I only say it is semi-forced in that it seems more like set-up for future story than it does the current happenings. As I’ve said previously though, this could easily be undone as it seems with Valiant we are working on a different paradigm than I am usually accustomed with.

After this we have Keisha’s father walking into his home to a house filled with the ailing Generation Zero. After quickly being incapacitated it seems to lead to an overall run down of the teams abilities. We get Telic with precognition, the Zygos twins with their genius psychic link, Cloud with her mind reading, Cronus with his energy manipulation and the aforementioned Gamete. This part ends up leading to the team laying out their plans for what's to come, but overall it came across as a team rundown and little more. While I said this issue broke expectations of writing for a trade it also seemed to be written for a catch-up spot.

What came next was something I looked forward to after getting our first glimpse of the Heroscape. Previously our heroes entered the heroscape of Adele Poole, the daughter of previously seen Rook CEO, and it led them to an Archie style world. This time around, when entering the mind of young Anamalia, they are faced with what I would describe as a “Sunday Funny’s” style or maybe a general cartoon kind of look.

It also ends up being filled with large robots, pirates, samurai and superheroes. Which goes a long way to contradict what Anamalia has spent most of the series so far contesting against in the fact that she is just a young girl with an amazing power. Even though it’s a small bit I really like what we get out of this little glimpse of another Heroscape and look forward to seeing more.

Overall I was a little let down by the issue due to it coming off as a catch up issue, but with the strong start and finish along with some nice art conveying the creep factor I came out a little more positive than I had initially thought I’d be.

Bits and Pieces:

I feel like I can’t say much negative about this issue, but at the same time I felt like we didn’t really get much from it. Even though it's touted as a new arc it never really felt like there was an end to what we previously had. It does end up having a few positive moments I really enjoyed though. I was just let down that we have to wait until the next issue for what I was hoping to get to in this issue, but instead of getting something meaningful out of it, it’s mostly just rehash and rundown of the events so far.

7.0/10