Comics Cosmos – Talkin’ ‘Bout My Generations

Following on the heels of Secret Empire, and a mysterious twist on how that event storyline ended, Marvel has been releasing a series of one-shots dubbed Generations. Beginning in August, this 10-issue anthology series is a collection of team-ups of classic characters with their current versions. 

Each issue is written and drawn by a different creative team and the plots are pretty much standalone. You don’t even need to have read Secret Empire to enjoy the interactions that take place when the old guard meets the new. And because the modern heroes are being thrown into the storylines of classic heroes, the earlier incarnations don’t know who these new heroes are or even if they’re on the same side.

The team-ups cover the Marvel/Avengers characters you would expect: Iron (Tony/Riri), Spiders (Peter/Miles), Marvels (Carol/Kamala), Thunder (Odinson/Jane), Archers (Clint/Kate), Strongest (Bruce/Amadeus), Phoenix (Jean Grey), Best (Logan/X-23), Bravest (Mar-Vell/Carol) and Americas (Steve/Sam). Some of these could prove pretty interesting, with the Phoenix issue having an older Jean Grey meet her younger self (which would be a massive paradox in most time travel fandoms!) and the Bravest having the strong female character of Carol Danvers working with the close-minded, patriarchal alien Mar-Vell. Even more interesting is the fact that Carol gets to be both a classic hero (in Marvels) and a contemporary one (in Bravest).

Having read a couple of issues already, I think they’ve done a good job bringing back the “what if” style team-ups, even if it’s just for a short run. Plus, readers are able to pick and choose their favorite characters and just read those issues. The single issues are being released through the end of September, but a collected edition of Generations will be hitting shelves in November.

web analytics