Oh. My. God. This was truly a one of a kind comic! Longtime reader will know that I get excited when I see cool super powers in young adult context, but I promise I’ll do my best to control myself and write honestly about this first issue.
The story seems pretty similar to the main ideas in that old cartoon “KND: Kids Next Door” and “Teen Titans”: A group of young people that have wild and powerful abilities to fight evil and darkness. It’s nothing new, but the books pace is so fast and entertaining that you’ll want to re-read it a few times after you finish it.
Getting to know Keisha’s story and what happened to her was amazing. It was something really nice without getting convoluted with needless extras, and she’s an interesting character that I’m looking to get to know better; when was the last time you saw an African American gothic girl in a comic? This is my first time seeing it!
There’s a good concept in Generation Zero #1 and I can see there will be a direct influence from modern dystopias, from both books and movies, and a little (very little) part of the X-Men’s influence because of the nature of the powers in this universe.
Talking more about this, and since both series started recently, maybe we can see Faith and Generation Zero working together in a story arc or a new comic, sooner or later. This shared universe has the right ingredients to do a cool event or maybe just a crossover.
The only thing I disliked in this first issue was the introduction in the credits’ page. I would have preferred something into Keisha’s life, not Generation’s Zero background since I feel Valiant spoiled some of the mystique; seriously, why, people, why? I suggest readers skip over intro page and discover their origin as the series develops.
Looking at the art, I can only say that I really fell in love with it. As this was Keisha’s story, it was simple, with a nice level of detail that doesn’t bother the eye while you read. It also has a sort of cinematic look thanks to how the panels are distributed and what we see in them.
It has a clean, dynamic look, with the best shadows I’ve seen so far, alongside some really cool inking work. Honestly, it felt like I was looking at a TV show in my mind, and while I wait for issue #2 I wouldn’t mind going through it one more time to see if I find anything new (I hope so!)
If I needed to say anything negative about this first issue it has to do with the art. The style on page one and the last page feels completely different to the rest of the issue, like it belongs to another book, but that doesn’t really bother me, but it is something to note.
Original, creative, and with an interesting main character Generation Zero is a book you need to be reading. I’m definitely reading the next issues and have high expectations for this story. By the way, can I give it 6 of 5 stars? No? Okay then…
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