Listen to the episode here!
Art by David Wynne. Wanna buy the original? Drop him a line!
IT BEGINS! (Generation X #1)
Seriously, though, that is really gross. (Generation X #1)
I want to read a miniseries about this kid. (Generation X #1)
They are so very, very parents. (Generation X #1)
Sean Cassidy, OF ALL PEOPLE, should know EXACTLY how dangerous trees can be. (Generation X #1)
An old friend–of ours, and apparently of Monet’s. (Generation X #1)
Emplate is so cool and creepy! (Generation X #1)
Also cool and creepy: Chamber. (Generation X #1)
The covers of this series are so inviting. (Generation X #2)
For the record, HICK is worth 13 points to LOSER’s 5. (Generation X #2)
Penance is nothing if not efficient.
Ooh, Monet is GREAT. (Generation X #2)
That horror-movie framing! (Generation X #2)
DAMN, Paige! (Generation X #3)
Chamber is a neat dude. (Generation X #3)
Nanny X-plains puberty. (Generation X #3)
Mondo and Cordelia are… complicated. (Generation X #3)
If it weren’t for the two troubles in a row, this cover would be pretty darn near perfect, gradient and all. (Generation X #4)
Bachalo’s marginalia is WONDERFUL. (Generation X #4)
Seriously, so good. (Generation X #4)
Hi, Eliot. (Generation X #4)
Not all the images are gonna be of these guys, but it was tempting. (Generation X #4)
Fortunately, sometimes they intersect with plot. (Generation X #4)
And sometimes not. (Generation X #4)
I… I just love them so much. (Generation X #4)
Orphanmaker grew up! (Generation X #4)
Meanwhile, everything is terrible. (Generation X #4)
Well, maybe not everything. (Generation X #4)
This is one of my favorite scenes in any comic, ever. (Generation X #4)
And then, Legion Quest ended. (Generation X #4)
So, yeah, this is a thing, and you can watch it here should you find yourself so inclined.
NEXT WEEK: Jay & Miles on vacation!
NEXT EPISODE: Bishop goes solo!
LINKS & FURTHER FESTIVITY:
- Jay Smooth’s timeless “In Defense of Humbug” turns 10 years old this year!
- The movie with the hipster fuckghost is The Spirit of Christmas, which involves disappointingly little ghostfucking but surprisingly accurate 19th-century bartending.
- Tom Otterness’s “Life Underground” statues in NYC’s 14th St./8th Ave. Subway station have a lot in common with Bachalo’s marginalia.
- For more on the intersection of mutant and real-world politics, check out our 2017 RCCC special, Welcome to the Mutant Revolution!
- Follow Christina Strain on Twitter…
- …and check out her upcoming Netflix original movie, Finding Ohana!
The full list of winners of the 2019 Super Doctor Astronaut Peter Corbeau Awards for Excellence at X-Cellence will be posted separately on 12/30.
Hey Jay and Miles,
I get weekly reminders of how we were all born the same year, and pretty much intersect at the exact same point in X-fandom (I can’t believe anyone else remembers the Generation X Ashcan lol). Thank you for covering Generation X for your Winter Holiday special. It was one of my favorite X-books of the 90s. One of the most enjoyable aspects of the book was that almost every character was so mysterious, particularly M, and that each felt like they could have their own miniseries. The eventual revelation of said mysteries didn’t always stick the landing (again, particularly M), but in retrospect, are still pretty fun. I’ve been listening to the show since the very first episode, and it’s literally my favorite podcast. Please keep up the amazing work!!!
Hey there! Small correction—in the panel with Mondo and Cordelia Frost, she’s referred to as Adrienne instead (Emma’s other sister) 🙂
Good catch! Fixing.
I love this episode! Thanks for so many amazing podcasts! I had to stop halfway through and watch the Generation X movie. If you close your eyes while Matt Frewer is talking, and pretend he’s Mojo, it’s way better.
Hey Jay and Miles! Monet as her sisters wasnt exactly a retcon but something Lobdell planned from the beginning and hinted at in her first appearance. If you go back to it, the woman in the car with her mentioned that their father was upset bc of what happened with her brother and the twins. As you read more knowing the context of what will happen, you’ll see other seeds planted that make the reveal make more sense. Fun fact, the codename M was chosen bc it looks like two people holding hands which the sisters do when the Merge to become M.
Bizarretrivia for the afternoon, “M” was also the name originally going to be given to the main character Jem, in the eponymous 80’s cartoon. It being an initial which could stand for; Music, Mystery, Magic, MTV and… I dunno, Marzipan? It was only when Hasbro discovered you couldn’t actually trademark an individual letter that they instead chose “Jem”.
Oh wow! This really takes me back. Generation X was my first real X-Book. Great Episode!
Regarding the Gen-X movie, I’ve got an old issue of Wizard (#54, Feb 96 cover date) that includes a Set visit article tat claims Marvel was hoping for to do more Generation X movies and maybe a TV show if the pilot had been a success. Apparently i was being shot in November for a January premiere but Fox pushed it back to February Sweeps because “Fox was so confident of the show’s strength.” Also, according the the executive producer Scott Lobdell worked as a script consultant and came up with the code names for Buff and Refrax and the actor who played Banshee carried around Banshee’s trading card during the shoot.
The European cut was released on VHS but the back of Blockbuster was too classy for it. I picked it up at a flea market for $2.99 (Canadian). The back cover reads “Meet GENERATION X. Six mutant teenagers who possess extra-ordinary mental and physical powers. The coolest, edgiest, teenage heroes, “Jubilee”, “Skin”,”Refrax”,”Buff”, Mondo”, and “M,” are brought together on the battlefields of a techno-superior society. As for GENERATION X, they wage a war against the powerful forces of evil and the villainous psychopathic mutant, Ruseell Tresh, who is bent on enslaving mankind through mind control. Harnessing the power of each individual’s awesome super human abilities, for the greater power of the team, GENERATION X stand united in their fight for peaceful coexistence between mutants and humankind through out the world.”
Thanks for the trip down memory lane, and all the other great episodes!
Apparently i was being shot in November for a January premiere but Fox pushed it back to February Sweeps because “Fox was so confident of the show’s strength.”
This made me curious, so I decided to look into the details of exactly when Fox showed it. I think I can cautiously say that the above was probably, ah, creative spin.
It’s true enough that Fox ran it during February sweeps, but it looks very much as if they threw it into the meat-grinder on a night that (Tuesday Feb 20) they knew they were going to lose badly no matter what.
Generation X was up against new sweepsy episodes of 3rd Rock from the Sun and Frasier on NBC (plus the less well-remembered Wings and John Larroquette Show), at the time when, famously, NBC sitcoms ruled Tuesday and Thursday night, at least as far as media attention and general buzz went. On ABC, you had new episodes of Roseanne, Coach, Home Improvement, and Ellen. (CBS did essentially what Fox did, conceding the evening by covering the NH primary and running its own godawful-sounding TV movie.)
This is not, I think, what Fox would have done if they were really excited by Generation X’s long-term possibilities.
Fun fact: In the back matter of Generation X #1, they state Jubilee is 13 and a half. In one of the earlier character profiles (reprinted in Essential X-Men Vol. 9 it lists her age as 15.
I did a Youtube review of the tv pilot way back in the day (I won’t link it because that seems a bit shameless and I did several years ago and I’m certain it’s full of cringe on my part), so I’ve seen this several times. One thing that struck me on top of all the other many, many problems the three of you discuss, is that the way the powers work out is that there is a LOT of overlap in super strength. Mondo, Buff and Monet basically all get to throw Matt Frewer around at the end. I admit it’s a pretty minor complaint compared to all of the other issues with it, but I just keep thinking that if this had become a series how boring it would be to have half of the kids doing the exact same thing in each episode (especially since this clearly didn’t have the fight choreographers that something like Buffy the Vampire slayer would have just a year later).
It’s an interesting failure. It’s not good, but I have a fondness for it. I watched it live when it aired on tv because by 1996 I was three years deep into my X-Men fandom and I was in it DEEP. I wanted to like it, and tried to justify it or think that if it became a series it would be better, but yeah it really is a stinker, but the cheesiness of it and Matt Frewer and the actors who play Emma and Sean were pretty solid (Sean’s accent aside). Like I said, an interesting failure.
I’m also pretty sure that at one point Lobdell teased introducing Buff and Refrax into the comic, but nothing ever came of that to my knowledge. I suspect that once it was released not with a bang but a whimper then any desire to tie the comic to the film quickly was brushed aside.