Line #12 ComicBook/GenerationX


1	[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/origin_of_generation_x.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:250:A newer class of teen angst.]]
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4	One of the many 1990s spin-off books from ComicBook/XMen, ''Generation X'' told the story of the Franchise/MarvelUniverse's latest group of teenage mutant trainee superheroes. Created by writer Scott Lobdell and artist Chris Bachalo, it went through various authors and artists, but was popular for most of its six-and-a-half-year run, before being fairly abruptly cancelled in a deck-clearing exercise at the end of the 1990s.
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6	The book was set in ComicBook/EmmaFrost's Massachusetts Academy, which used to be the supervillainous equivalent of the Xavier School, before an incident with a time traveller, some giant killer robots, an accidental body-switch and an evil alien god turned Emma Frost into TheAtoner. Her formerly villainous past led to some friction with her students, and with her co-head teacher, reserve X-Man Banshee.
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8	The series was also the basis for a MadeForTVMovie (if you're curious, there's a full plot summary with screencaps [[http://spitonyourtaste.blogspot.com/2011/08/generation-x-review.html here]]).
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10	The team returned post-''ComicBook/SecretWars2015'', though in an alternate form, in ''ComicBook/Xmen92''.
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12	[[ComicBook/GenerationX2017 A new]] ''Generation X'' title was launched in 2017 as part of the X-Men/[[ComicBook/TheInhumans Inhumans]] event ''ComicBook/ResurrXion'', spawning from the fallout of ''ComicBook/InhumansVsXMen''. It followed Jubilee and a group of misfit mutants who are singled out for not being potential X-Men or ambassadors for mutantkind due to either being unreliable or having weak power sets.
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14	Not to be confused with people born between the mid-1960s and the early '80s, overlap or not (they ''are'' a product of the '90s, after all). Nor with Music/BillyIdol's first band.
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16	!!Tropes
17	* AlphaBitch: Monet St Croix.
18	* AndIMustScream: Johnston Coffin's "Special Children," who have been in such a state so long their bodies have ''started to rot''.
19	* ArtEvolution: Skin became increasingly attractive over the course of the book's run, going from downright ugly in his first appearances to basically becoming a grey-skinned Gambit with a goatee. This was probably just DependingOnTheArtist, but it's possible that learning to control his powers led to an increased self-image, subtly influencing his outer appearance over time.
20	* AsiansLoveTea: Jubilee and Monet go out for a trip together in New York city. Jubilee, who is Chinese-American, goes out of her way to introduce Monet to Bubble Tea, telling her it's going to be popular in coffee shops like Starbucks in the very near future. This was in the early 2000s.
21	* TheAtoner: Emma Frost's character arc throughout the series.
22	* AxCrazy: Adrienne Frost once she drops any pretenses and becomes obsessed with murdering Generation X simply to stick it to Emma.
23	* BeautyIsNeverTarnished:
24	** The girls were three different kinds of conventionally attractive, while two of the three boys were deformed by their powers.
25	** Penance wasn't conventionally attractive, although to be fair, it wasn't always easy to count her with the other students.
26	* BettyAndVeronica: One of many things Jubilee (Betty) and Monet (Veronica)) clashed over was Synch's affections.
27	* BlessedWithSuck: Chamber had telepathy, energy blasting, and no need to eat or breathe -- which was handy, since he no longer had a mouth, or lungs, or a heart.
28	** Also Penance, who had diamond-hard skin that was also diamond-sharp.
29	** Also Skin, who had... six feet of extra skin. That's it. It ''did'' have some utility--actually a whole hell of a lot--but most of the time it just made him look like a melted candle.
30	* CaptainEthnic: Played straight with Banshee and Jubilee (who might not seem like a stereotypical Asian girl until you realize her power is to create ''fireworks''), both of whom were created years before, but averted with all the characters new in this series. None of the other characters had stereotypical powers or personalities to match their ethnicities.
31	* DarkerAndEdgier: the arc closing out the series. It was part of a revamp and pruning of all the X-Books. The second-to-last story arc was a four-issue story after a TimeSkip past some unspecified trauma in which the team dynamics had already been shaken up, and then the final four issues were a flashback to a TonightSomeoneDies situation.
32	* DevastatingRemark: Jubilee and Monet are spending the day together in New York, and the subject of Everett's recent death came up. Jubilee, whose parents were murdered, tries to offer heartfelt advice to Monet on coping with loss, Monet tears into her, "The first and '''only''' person in my life I have ever felt that way about, and he was just ripped away from me in an instant! I will never '''ever''' see him again! You have no idea what that's like! You have no idea how I feel! Do you!?" Then she sees Jubilee, her face scrunched in silent agony, tears streaming from her eyes. Monet has a JerkassRealization and hugs Jubilee, saying, "Yes, of course you do, don't you."
33	* EvilCounterpart: Subverted. When a line of action figures of Generation X was made, the producers apperently thought Gene Nation, who had only shown up in 2 issues, would be this for the team and made figures of the two known members Marrow and Hemingway
34	* FiveTokenBand: Two white kids (the OfficialCouple), plus a Chinese-American, a Moroccan, an African-American and a tough-yet-sensitive Latino.
35	** Monet has variously been described as from Morocco, Algeria, France, Bosnia, and even Monaco. This is partly due to a very wealthy, cosmopolitan family - one issue explained that her grandfather is a French nobleman, his son\|her father is a biracial French ambassador, her mother is Algerian and she was born on a badly-timed vacation in Bosnia - but some of the extra countries might just be examples of poor research or even DependingOnTheWriter.
36	*** Morocco is definitely a mistake. She ''did'' live in Monaco, when she was younger... and yes her dad is French (dunno if he has double nationality), her mom is Algerian, and she was born in Bosnia.
37	*** It's at least partially the result of an AuthorsSavingThrow when WordOfGod regarding Penance's nationality (Before they were retconned into being the same person) was applied in-universe to Monet. Also, the St. Croix who had previously shown as Monet's father was retconned into being one and the same as an extant character (although this was not a reveal, as the Penance issue was).
38	* TheGenericGuy: Synch, who never had very much focus or indeed much of a personality and tended to fade into the background. [[HeroicSacrifice Probably why he was killed near the end of the series]].
39	* GeniusDitz: To quote Jubilee...
40	-->'''Jubilee:''' They probably know we're coming, right? So we gotta do what they think we won't do.\
41	They know we know where they are. [[IKnowYouKnowIKnow We know they know we know that]]. So since they know we know what they probably know, we know what to do.
42	-->'''Monet:''' Perfect. This is all we need. Mission briefings by a spastic on a sugar high.
43	-->'''Banshee:''' Care to try that again, Jubilee?
44	-->'''Jubilee:''' Look, obviously we're going to look for a sneaky way in, because we know they know we're coming.\
45	We have to fool them. Do what they think we won't do.\
46	They probably got all their guys spread out, covering every bathroom window and ventilation shaft in the place, waiting for us.\
47	The one thing they aren't expecting us to do is walk right up to the front door and knock politely.\
48	So that's what we do. Except maybe instead of knocking, we just kick the door down and rush 'em!\
49	Something Logan said to me once, I think. Or maybe Cyclops.\
50	One of 'em. I dunno.
51	-->'''Banshee:''' ... The front, aye?
52	* GloryDays: The kids quickly tire of Jubilee constantly reminding them that she was once with the X-Men.
53	* IJustWantToBeNormal: Jono and Angelo, BlessedWithSuck. Most of the other characters are glad to be mutants (see IJustWantToBeSpecial) or at least are since long used to it, but these two can't ignore the weaknesses that come with their powers.
54	** Mostly averted in Angelo's case. There are times where it gets to him but for the most part he realizes that there's no use moaning about it. Chamber, on the other hand, goves into full blown {{Wangst}} territory quite a bit.
55	* HoldingInLaughter: Jubilee has been captured by Operation Zero Tolerance. She's been bound and is being forced to watch as Bastion tortures members of the X-Men. She watches tearfully as they electrocute Wolverine, who then begs them to stop. Bastion hears what he assumes is crying from Jubilee, but it's actually her trying to hold in her laughter, until she is flat out laughing in Bastion's face.
56	--> '''Jubilee:''' You almost had me there, huh. You almost convinced me it was the real Wolvie getting fried. But ya had to go and push it... too far. Too flamin', freakin', flappin' far.
57	--> '''Bastion:''' Oh really? How so?
58	--> '''Jubilee:''' It was the "Please Stop." Any Wolverine I know would die before he'd beg.
59	* IJustWantToBeSpecial: Husk was revealed as this. Her brother was already the super-hero Cannonball, and she tried everything she could to get mutant powers to develop, almost killing herself a few times. Finally she just about gave up, crying and clenching herself... when her skin started flaking off like old wallpaper. She ripped and shredded and tore herself up, which for anyone else would have been scary as hell, but for her, it was the happiest moment of her life.
60	* {{Jerkass}}: Jono comes off as one of these at times, especially when it comes to romantic relationships. We loved him anyway, because just often enough, we got to see he was a...
61	** JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Especially when it came to Penance, Artie, and Leech.
62	*** On the other hand, Monet is more or less just a general rude, arrogant, and self-absorbed bitch.
63	* LongBusTrip: Maggot is at the school for all of one issue before leaving to pursue an exotic big game hunter who had tried to take his two slugs. He promises that Generation X will see him again. They don't, mainly due to the series eventually getting cancelled and Maggot then showing up [[DroppedABridgeOnHim in a concentration camp where he's killed]].
64	* MamaBear: Emma Frost used to be evil. This tends to show whenever anyone threatens her children.
65	* ManipulativeBitch: Cordelia Frost, Emma's younger sister, which comes back to haunt her.
66	* MoodWhiplash: The Warren Ellis/Brian Wood co-written run is very much DarkerAndEdgier and comes directly after Jay Faerber's LighterAndSofter run.
67	* PowerCopying: Synch's power.
68	* PowerIncontinence: Jubilee, at the time, had very little control of her powers when she was emotional or agitated. She exploits this when Emplate has the team captive, goading him into feeding on her first by giving him a series of insults and a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech. Only after he's railing at her about how she doesn't know anything about him or his family, as he's siphoning her power, does she point out how being emotionally unbalanced affects her powers, and now his. Cue a big Boom.
69	* PubertySuperpower: Most of the cast, just like almost all mutants in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse.
70	* PutOnABus: Gaia, who joined during Larry Hama's run, leaves the school shortly into Jay Faerber's to experience the world and hasn't been seen in a comic of any sort since.
71	* ShooOutTheClowns: During the book's DarkerAndEdgier final year, Leech, Artie and Penance make precisely one appearance before being sent off panel to the home of Monet's father in Morocco.
72	* SiblingFusion: It is revealed in Issue #31 of ''Generation X'' that the Monet St. Croix we've been following is actually a gestalt being created by her younger twin sisters Claudette and Nicole merging together. The twins can also merge with their brother Emplate to form M-Plate.
73	* SignatureStyle: Scott Lobdell...? When he was writing ''Generation X''...? Rhetorical questions...? In truth...? He did a lot of those.
74	* SuperheroSchool: The entire premise.
75	* SuperPowerLottery: Monet St. Croix had flight, superstrength, superspeed, nigh-invulnerability, telepathy and genius-level intellect. Autism too, but it was treated as a [[DisabilitySuperpower superpower]] more often than not. She could also merge with her siblings (or her siblings could merge to form her), and the siblings had powers of their own. Over the course of comics Monet would develop telekinesis while a part of Storm's iteration of X-Men.
76	** Both Synch and Chamber approached this in some ways but ultimately averted it. Synch could copy anyone's mutant power and sometimes even use it better than them, as well as detecting other mutants, but he has to be close to them to use it. Chamber's biological processes had been replaced by a psychically-controlled nuclear furnace, which would make him ridiculously powerful if he would ever stop feeling sorry for himself and really try to learn to use his power, but he never did during the series.
77	* TakeThat: The "Corrections" arc is essentially a diatribe by Brit Creator/WarrenEllis against the anti-teenager moral panic that gripped the US following the UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} Massacre.
78	* TangledFamilyTree: The St. Croix family. Not ''that'' bad, as tangled family trees go, but it was revealed slowly with multiple reveals and a few retcons.
79	** Monet St. Croix is her younger sisters. [[spoiler: She had younger twin sisters, Claudette and Nicole, who among other things had the power to [[FusionDance combine into one being]] that was indistinguishable from Monet. When Monet mysteriously disappeared and they thought she was dead, they took her place because she was their father's favorite. That all took place before the series and this character is the one identified as Monet until around issue 30.]]
80	** Their brother Marius is a villain. [[spoiler: Specifically, Emplate, the mutant vampire who is the chief recurring villain of the series. It is eventually revealed that his freakish appearance is not the direct result of his mutation, but is caused by repeatedly feeding on one victim so much and for so long that he began to resemble her. That victim is]]...
81	** Penance, also part of the family. [[spoiler: Penance is the original Monet, magically transformed into that mute, diamond-sharp form [[DisproportionateRetribution as a punishment for being rude]] to Emplate]].
82	** The time-traveling X-Man Bishop also implied once that he was related to the St. Croix. Further development of his backstory made this very unlikely, but he ''was'' related to Gateway, the Aboriginal mutant with teleporting powers, and Gateway was a sort of mentor to the twins.
83	* TeamKids: Banshee and White Queen are the Parents to the team, including Jubilee, M, Chamber, Husk, Skin, Synch, and, initially, Penance. The team literally being kids helps. Some issues with Penance and M and their family cause a major revelation later, and Synch is later killed, causing a rift in the team. The group eventually disbands.
84	* TeamMercyVsTeamMurder: Played with. One story reveals that the grandfather of one of their wealthy classmates was responsible for ordering the murder of Jubilee's parents. Jubilee goes off to take the guy on, and the rest of Gen X fears she's firmly in the "Team Kill" category, being Wolverine's prodigy in their eyes, so they go off to stop her. But after all is done, the bad guy arrested, and the team explains their concerns to her, that Jubilee tells them that it's ''because'' of Wolverine that she ''[[ThouShallNotKill won't]]'' kill anyone.
85	* WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway: Oh Skin...
86	** As the series progresses, however, and he gains more control Skin's power winds up generally [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower having the most utility]].
87	** Synch as well. He was effectively powerless if no superpowered individual was around. At one point, he was unable to prevent a couple human bullies from beating him up. His aura's mutant-tracking ability went on to be much more useful and memorable than his ability to do whatever the guy next to him is doing. His mimic ablities got an upgrade when it was revealed that he could use grafted power to the best of its ability. Basically he used your power better then you in ways you never thought possible. Didn't help him [[DroppedABridgeOnHim regarding explosives however.]]

Context ComicBook / GenerationX