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Why Hasn't DC Revived Gen 13? Wizard 1/2 Issue CGC 9.8 At Auction

Published Sun, 26 Sep 2021 10:57:13 -0500

by Rich Johnston

Last updated Sun, 26 Sep 2021 14:01:13 -0500

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Why hasn't DC Comics revived Gen-13? Created by Jim Lee, Brandon Choi, and J Scott Campbell for WildStorm Comics back in 1994, it teamed a bunch of super-powered and irresponsible teenagers, Caitlin Fairchild, Burnout, Freefall, Grunge, and Rainmaker had mixed ethnicity and sexual orientation, and was the best-selling comic book in the direct market for some time. WildStorm was bought by DC, the series had a number of attempted revivals but nothing stuck. The last we saw was Grunge's back appearing on a cover of a comic celebrating East Asian characters and creators, and a brief appearance in the Flash Forward epilogue that was pulped from Free Comic Book Day.

Well, with everything getting revived from the nineties, it can only be a matter of time. Gen-13 was also notable in many marketing ways, from having eleven variant covers of the eleventh issue – at the time no comic book had had anywhere near that many variant covers, now it seems a little on the low side. And it has a half issue, exclusive to people sending away copies from Wizard Magazine, which also happened to be crucial to the ongoing plot. and was quite the palaver for someone in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in the North of England to get ten US dollars, let alone send it away by air-mail with crossed fingers.

It was written by Stormwatch writer H.K. Proger, pseudonym of Bill Kapler, and drawn by Ryan Benjamin with interviews with Jim Lee, J. Scott Campbell, and Alex Garner. Lee talks about his motivation to move away from the gear-laden extreme violence look of X-Men and WildCATS and intentionally created Caitlin Fairchild as a super-smart antidote to that.

With the team driving along in Oregon, attacked by a woman in high tech armour, chasing after someone called Langston, who is apparently threatening to destroy the whole timestream, until they take her down. The plotline was never picked up on, maybe a few decades later, with everyone at DC running through the time-stream, it could be a role for Man-Bat? Anyway, twenty-eight years, it's up for auction today from Heritage Auctions, in CGC 9.8. Incredibly, there are only six copies in CGC 9.8. I am sure I have my copy somewhere in the back of a longbox…

Gen 13 #1/2 Wizard Authentic Edition (Image, 1994) CGC NM/MT 9.8 White pages. Wizard mail-away exclusive. Holographic sticker. Jim Lee cover. Overstreet 2021 NM- 9.2 value = $7. CGC census 9/21: 6 in 9.8, none higher.