It was during the 90s that for the first time I heard the term Generation X a class of people made of rumbling young-adults who listened to Nirvana, made California Rolls popular, made TV-show Friends a hit, first to use internet as a daily thing of their life, but most importantly they were the last generation to land stable and secure jobs in the West.
Generation XYZ because after the X which stood for incognito, the rest of the letters would follow anyhow but with less of a certainty onto what would define them. Television with its pay-per-view and the radical skater scene the West cost provided became a huge social influence worldwide. After the hefty 80s experience of Reaganomics with all its perks and consequence, the 90s would upset everything that came before it because that’s what they wanted to do in the first place. From the get-go, Generation X meant to be the rebellious slice of a transitioning era which wanted to forget the post- Vietnam period and the fear of the Cold War.
After the X comes the Y and this is not a set of chromosomes defining a future newborn, but rather the inevitable outcome of a generation which had to fill even bigger shoes. The Y generation is a 80s-born niche of those who are in their thirties that have been awfully identified as Millennials for practical journalistic reasons. Here we have that discrepancy which comes to separate two generational ridges: the X managed to capitalized on the Baby Boomer Legacy, while the Y couldn’t because by the time they graduated the world already changed drastically.
That Generation Y is today squeezed by the success of its previous batch and the Millennials wondering into the unknown. The remarkable event that separates the Y from the rest it the technological transformation that happened when communication went from hand-written letters to fax machines to emails. In between you can throw telex and experimental video call attempts.
Wikipedia won’t display Generation Y as an official page yet; its alphabet skips to the Z identifying the post- Millennial crowd of those born in the 21 century as the current poster child of the lettering sequence. They will be those who had already a Facebook page before they came to light, those who will have a 50/50 chance of taking their driving license because by the time they reach their late teen years cars will be fully autonomous.
My remark in this post is about the experience my own Y generation came to witness and exists in a world that changed fast and without the opportunities of the past. If the Baby Boomers became wealthy in a post World War 2 reality, surely their Gen X kids managed to grasp that last breath of chances the late 20th century had to offer.
Those born in the 80s have grown educationally and professionally across the September 11 2001 momentum, trying to overcome that depression until the 2008 financial crisis gave them the ultimate kick in the teeth. They are the ones who were told that a degree was necessary while in school, but got told they where overqualified during their job interviews. They where the ones who had to reinvent their professional status with new solutions because the economy had no clue how to deliver the many promises the markets made them.
“The age of the Iron Bowl has long gone…”- this is the new philosophy for the 21st century. The Iron Bowl is the analogy for the safe bowl of rice Chinese people know to receive for their meal time each day, meaning that nothing is certain anymore today and nothing is safe: from your work place to our salary there are no solid pillars, and everything changed to the point ‘where piece of mind’ has become a bargaining chip into your stability and future.
Sorry for the long post but I had a lot to write!!! Also, I’m having a hard time tagging some of you, for some reason, it’s not picking up on your names. :( Sorry about that!
Because, unfortunately for us, not enough people were reading it. So go tell all your friends to buy both of the trades, and then get their friends to buy the trades, and their friends, and their friends, and show Marvel with your money that we should get another shot. ;)
Do you have anything GenX like coming? Marvel is refreshing things … Again
I do not. I need to take some time to hang out with my own little Shogo and then get back to writing a TV pilot. BUT, I am working on some new comic ideas, but they won’t be for Marvel. I don’t want to say too much about either of them yet, but one’s about a bunch of teens and the other’s a queer romance. And that’s all I’m going to say for now.
Which couple that you wrote for this series, or wanted to write for it, would have the weirdest date?
Oh, Trevor and Lin, for sure. Lin doesn’t quite understand the concept/point and Trevor would probably be so stressed that he’d pop a bunch of vessels in all of his eyes or something. And they’d probably end up canceling the date to help some doe find her missing fawn who was deernapped by some evil zoo keeper— you get the point.
If the series continued, would Monet have stuck around? Also, this one’s kinda silly but are there specific hobbies that you headcanon Roxy as having? And most importantly, is there a chance you’ll be writing another series for Marvel anytime soon?? Thank you so so so much for generation x, it was literally the perfect X-men book to me!!!!!
Awww! Thanks! I’m so glad you liked it! Yes, Monet would’ve stuck around. I really wanted to make her a mentor figure for Quentin, but we ran out of issues. :( Hobbies for Roxy, I see her as someone who enjoys reading, playing Overwatch, and dreams about traveling around the world. And as I mentioned in the above question, I’m not planning on writing somethign for Marvel for a while.
@lesbianlaurakinney
Can you tell us what the storyline you had planned for Lin if the book had continued was? Was it about the rats?
Oh yeah, it was basically that Lin would’ve agreed to marry the Rat King. And then Trevor would’ve had to “stop the wedding—“ which, would never actually happen. I probably would’ve done something with Lin being like “I don’t understand what the big deal is. It’s just a title.” And then Trevor would’ve been like “But marriage is important and YOU’RE TOO YOUNG?!?!” And then I’m sure I would’ve done something sympathetic with the Rat King and had the marriage be some sort of sham wedding to get him out of some sort of trouble he’s in with some pigeon mobsters (like the Goodfeathers Adrian drew from Runaways) so then Lin and Trevor together would’ve actually flipped the script and rescued the Rat King. Yeah. That sounds like an issue. There you go.
What were some of your plans/ideas for Nathaniel and for Jono? Thank you for giving fans a great read.
No problem! Thanks for reading!!! Oh man, I JUST had a conversation with someone else about what I would’ve done with Nathaniel and Benjamin. Let me just copy and paste that here. PREPARE FOR A LONG ANSWER!
“Oh man. If I could’ve kept writing them for a while, I had a lot of material. Like, they’re both college kids, so what’s it like for these two as they get progressively more intimate? At first it’s probably pretty great, cause Nathaniel literally knows how Ben likes it, but then when Ben realizes “oh wait. He knows what I don’t like too—OH SHIT, he’s in my head right now—oh god!” It’d obviously get reaaaaal awkward. Also, what happens if Ben thinks someone else is hot? Even if Nathaniel doesn’t care, I could see Ben freaking out, especially after he finds out Nathaniel dumped his ex boyfriend for having serious feelings for a mutual friend of theirs. Also, what if Ben has to lie to Nathaniel about something? Suddenly, they can’t touch, which is IMMEDIATELY suspicious. And what would happen then?
And the biggest one I’ve always wondered is how does a relationship like theirs actually work? Ben can’t hide anything from Nathaniel, so he has no choice but to be as open as possible. But Nathaniel doesn’t have to tell Ben anything/everything. And he’s a pretty private person. So how does that hurt them after a while? It’s all sort of one-sided if Nathaniel doesn’t work on opening himself up to Benjamin more.”
Ben and Nathaniel were basically supposed to be my personal observations on intimacy in relationships. What works and what doesn’t. So I’m super sad that I don’t get to explore more of that with them. I’m going to miss them.
Beyond Ben, I would’ve loved to write a story where Nathaniel accidentally discovered some massive secret that put him in a morally difficult position. Like if he discovered/uncovered something that was a morally grey/damning action for another character within the X-Men, how would he handle that? Something along those lines.
As for Jono… That’s a good question. I had briefly considered doing a one shot with him and Roxy, something like a one-on-one training mission between them, so I probably would’ve liked to pursue that. I also had a loose idea about Jono having to baby sit Shogo while Jubilee and some of the kids were away, and then there would be some sort of attack and Jono and whatever kids were still at the school would have to survive/keep Shogo alive, but that never panned out either. Could’ve been fun though. :)
You mention a lot in interviews that you did a lot of research for the characters you were using (THANK YOU FOR THAT *feeling blessed by your continuity use*), particularly for Quentin? Out of curiosity, what was your favourite Quentin moment you found in your research? Alternatively, a moment that had the biggest effect on how you wrote him? Thanks so much for a spectacular series!
My favorite version of Quentin is basically Jason Aaron’s version of him in Wolverine and the X-Men. That dude… is way funnier than anyone should be allowed to be. And I think my favorite Quentin moment might be… him graduating? I dunno, it was just the right amount of “I HATE YOU ALL” *heart/dagger eyes* for me and I dug it real hard.
The moment that had the biggest effect on how I wrote him… I’ve mentioned this before but definitely the moment when his parents called him to tell him that he was adopted over the phone. As a parent of an adopted child, that is some COLD shit. And then the other thing is that, collectively, over the several books I’ve read with Quentin in them, I’ve realized that Quentin works best (for me) when he refuses to admit what he wants— even to himself. It’s a version of him that’s kind of a pain in the ass to write (because he’s a little shit) but I don’t think an overly earnest version of Quentin works quite as well. This is a kid who’s never really fully processed the massive rug that was pulled out from under him, so I don’t think he’s emotionally capable of being honest about how he feels because it’s much easier for him to lie and convince himself that he’s fine— he’s better than fine— he’s a fucking omega mutant.
Or at least he was. Until I pulled the rug out from under him. :o
@itsthursdayschildtoyou
Regarding Quentin’s powers: were you planning on bringing them back? I know they’ve been gone/messed up for like 2 seconds but I’m still curious. And how does Jono feel about Shogo? Were there any plans or thoughts about him being more than the cool uncle figure if the series would’ve run for longer than planned?
Well, if we’d had the full 16 issues, I probably would’ve brought Jubilee’s powers back in a different way. Quentin sacrificing his phoenix shard was a course correction when we realized that we’d have to change Jubilee by issue 12.
But if I were able to keep writing Generation X, of course I would bring Quentin’s powers back! And in all honesty, whoever writes him next may just have him wake up and be all, “I’m good, they’re back!” But I’d make him suffer for a while first. He’s got a bit of an ego I’d (and Nathaniel) like to bruise a bit before restoring him. AND I’d make a whole fun story arc out of it where he has to count on everyone else in a way he’s never had to before, because that’d be really fun and insane. But as Quentin says in the comic, he’s destined to be the Phoenix, he’ll get his powers back, it’s just a question of HOW.
And with Jono, I hadn’t really thought past 16 issues so I hadn’t considered that. But I do think that if we’d kept going, I definitely would’ve done something with how surreal it is for Jono to become a “sudden father figure” for Shogo and the complications that come with that. My own mom was a single mother, so I have some experience with that.
Not as of now. It’s more like she’s a bit rusty using them so they’re a bit big. BUT, I would love to eventually write a story with Jubilee fully exploring/realizing the full extent of her powers. And who knows, maybe in the future, I will?
Thanks for reading, guys! If you have any other questions, feel free to ask!
A playlist for Benjamin Deeds and Nathaniel Carver Congratulations on being canon!
i. Hounds of Love (cover) - The Futureheads || ii. Technicolor Beat - Oh Wonder || iii. Cool Kids/Riptide - Less is More & The King and Queen || iv. There for You - Martin Garrix & Troye Sivan ||v. Faded Heart - BØRNS || vi. Hey Now - The Regrettes || vii. Wildfire - Seafret|| viii. 10am Gare du Nord - Keaton Henson|| ix. Dreaming of You - Cigarettes After Sex ||x. YOUTH- Troye Sivan || xi. Hostage - Billie Eilish || xii. I Found - Amber Run || xiii. Venus - Sleeping at Least || xiv. Love - Lana del Rey
Publisher: Marvel Comics (W) Christina Strain (A) Amilcar Pinna (CA) Terry Dodson
Survival of the Fittest Part 3 • It’s JUBILEE vs. M-PLATE…vampire vs. vampire! • Will the GEN X class be able to defeat MONET/EMPLATE and save the school? • All this, plus: Witness a major milestone for Jubilee!
The ‘X’ in Generation X (those born roughly between the early 1960s and late 70s/ early 80s) must surely refer to the X certificate formerly bestowed upon horror movies or ‘X’ as in X Files in relating to spooky paranormal mysteries. The other title bestowed by writer and broadcaster Bob Fischer upon the folk born of these times – ‘The Haunted Generation’ would seemingly confirm this. Maclean’s…
More X-men Doodles A little AU with Wolverine and Storm Chamber desing ideas And More Jubilee . . #xmen #xmen92 #xmen90s #wolverine #loganhowlett #jameshowlett #storm #ororomunroe #jubilee #jubilationlee #chamber #jonothonstarsmore #jonostarsmore #generationx https://www.instagram.com/p/CVI0_NYqYP5/?utm_medium=tumblr
1971 - 1983: Generation Libra (Generation X - 2.0)
Pluto was mostly in Libra
The Pluto Libra generation is on a mission to save the world through beauty, as Dostoyevsky wrote. They do the commitment thing in powerfully re-imagined ways. Their obsessions about others’ reactions can lead to impulsive people-pleasing. The Ancient Greeks celebrated the purity of consciousness and thought as the origins of all that’s created. Pluto Libras have an instinct for this, and through the power of will, really can re-imagine their world, on their terms. The dark side would be resisting the loss of control that Pluto demands so that the deeper alchemy can happen. Pluto Libras seek balance but could fall into compulsive habits of avoiding anything that feels emotionally dirty or raw. With this generation, the whole sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll took a step back and there came out the bubble-gum pop divas, heartthrobs, and boy bands. Everything was more sugar-coated but was it really like this behind the scenes? Of course not, it was all playing pretend but they for sure believed their sugary facade themselves. Keep it in mind, it was also with them that R&B and Rap became the new Rock & Roll. It was the best outlet to utter the words they kept closeted. Some Pluto Libras were latch-key kids of divorce, and seeing that, are doubling down on the power of relationships, and re-defining what that means. Many Pluto Libras have parents of the sixties and seventies, a time when divorce spiked. Notably, these parents have Neptune in Libra (1943 to 1955) and dealt with merging and un-merging. With them, there could be a swamping of the Self, and also disillusionment that made them lose faith. This generation puts a big emphasis on presentation. Libra, after all, is ruled by Venus, and it’s all to do with style, grace, artfulness, etc. but what is art when it is deprived of deep emotions? And there’s a lot of power in the image, or the lifestyle itself, but it can appear airy, or unrooted in reality or even cut off from who they really are. A lot of what we think is organic culture has been intentionally seeded, to divert attention away from roots of power. The idea of focusing only on the positive—or even changing yourself before you can change the world—is another version of the mantra, “tune in, turn on, drop out."
(source: liveabout)
(-1968) 1971 - 1974: Children of Libra Progress in Peace (Uranus in Libra)
1974 - 1981: Children of Scorpio Progress in Ultimate Transformation (Uranus in Scorpio)
Generation X v1 is problematic. I love it, deeply. I still think the book is great. I would suggest it to anyone who is interested in X-Men. But Scott Lobdell’s M, specifically Claudette St. Croix, was a horrible sort of depiction of autistic people. It’s tough when a characterization in comics ages this poorly, especially for a character so unique and so full of possibility. The media has been terrible about depictions of autistic women and this particular mismanagement has never been rectified. Despite their older sister retaining her powers through M-Day the St. Croix Twins, Claudette and Nicole, have not been seen since Generation X v1 #58. That, itself, would be poor, but Claudette isn’t alone in being lost like this. It’s worth asking for more from the X-Men Franchise when it comes to representing autism.
From the relatively humble beginnings of Phalanx Covenant, which was not a very good crossover, a few moments were etched indelibly into my eyes. Never will I ever forget Blink’s sacrifice or the Phalanx spires of techno-organic flesh covered in soundless screaming human faces. I had read some of adjectiveless, X-Force, and Excalibur at the time and when a new book that had Jubilee AND a character named Everett in it came out? It was over for me. I couldn’t be torn away from the page. In Generation X’s introduction M was the powerhouse. Gifted with The Package (Super-Strength, Super-Speed, Invulnerability, and Flight) and a Telepath to boot she was the haughty and superior Veronica Lodge to Paige Guthrie’s Kentucky Betty Cooper. It would turn out that M was secretly the twins Claudette and Nicole St. Croix impersonating their older sister and that their occasional bouts of catatonic stupors were the result of Claudette’s autism.
My little sister was born in 1994, the same year Generation X debut, and she is autistic. But far from the stupor and idiot savantism demonstrated from Lobdell’s depiction of Claudette’s personality my sister Madisson provided me first-hand experience with the reality of an autistic child with pervasive developmental delay. In caring for my little sister I have learned a great deal and now that we are adults she never stops teaching me. I have had the fortune to meet more than a few members of the autistic community. If I could, please allow me to communicate one specific flaw with Generation X:
It is not okay to depict the autistic as wordless cyphers with magical abilities and no personality. Ever.
People with autism are People first and foremost. Sadly Generation X v1 at no point put in the time or effort into making Claudette a person. Where Nicole was the girl we saw as M for years, the one who got development and speaking lines, Claudette was a mystery and not a character. I cannot excuse that. It’s a damning mark against the book and hopefully one that people will only have dimmer views on in the future. With any luck someone who cares may bring these characters back into the fold but they haven’t been seen in years and there is precedence that they never will again.
Laura Dean is an Alpha Flight character who was autistic and also a twin. Her backstory involves her parents being mutantphobes and trying to abort Laura’s twin sister. That sister fled as a foetus into Liveworld where it would grow to become Goblyn, a blue skinned creature with sharp fangs and teeth. In their original incarnation they could swap places when Laura was endangered, but that was changed as Laura grew in her ability to control her portals to other worlds. We haven’t seen this character since 1994, or so says the Marvel Wikia. Not being on the autism spectrum myself I cannot speak to the original depiction being well handled or not, I would guess not, but either way the character is certainly unseen in just a little under 25 years. The similarities between Laura Dean and Claudette are stark. Both mutant twins of African descent, both pairs only allow limited expression of each member in their initial outing. Both have their problem of cohabitating with their sibling’s body resolved before vanishing from continuity.
There was no effort put into Claudette. Monet St. Croix is the Black Female X-Man with the second most appearances in the 616. That the St. Croix Twins have been missing for this long is curious to say the least. But then we don’t see much of Emma’s sisters either. But I, at least, ask that Marvel do better. Part of what makes the X-Men Franchise is that it embraces and espouses diversity. We need stories about autistic mutants. It doesn’t have to be any more complicated than that. Writing those stories ensures that mutants represent all minorities, as they should. Generation X Volume 1 suffers greatly in retrospect for not taking the opportunity to do something meaningful with the characters it had.
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Oh man anon, you reminded me I did Jono’s Hellfire Gala costume months ago. Was going for a mix between his goth look, with a bit of Adam and the Ants (and New wave fashion) in there XD Wanted to express in fashion the first thing that was said to describe him in his first ever design in Generation X.
“What’s left of an angry young man. Scarred, cultured. A ‘Psionic howl from the grave type’. Attitude problem.”
Didn’t get round to posting as I wanted to clean it up a bit. But, I may do a proper painting of it soon in time for the new Gala. I wasn’t very happy he didn’t appear last year. Fingers crossed for an appearance this year, aye!
![Generation X - Your Generation [1977, Chrysalis WWR-20353 │Japan] - 7"/45 vinyl record](https://64.media.tumblr.com/27c3301c01f67b345ddc0678de077c11/tumblr_o0h2f9NWZC1u6o1f8o1_1280.jpg "Generation X - Your Generation [1977, Chrysalis WWR-20353 │Japan] - 7\"/45 vinyl record")
