Story by Kieron Gillen
Art by Salvador Espin
Seven issues in, and Generation Hope finally finds its voice. After a shaky start that unfortunately may have lost the book what following it could have garnered, allowing Hope and her team to find their purpose seems to have taken the book around a positive bend.
After returning to Utopia in the aftermath of Kenji’s destructive turn, and Hope willing the team into cohesion through sheer force of personality, they are immediately called to help deal with the pre-natal emergence of a very powerful telepath. With the entire population of a hospital under its control, the fetus fatale is able only to express the most base of emotions, and is powered by the fear of change – namely birth.
Kieron Gillen has finally settled into his characters and is able to play to his strengths here: his dialogue and interactions. The young team shares an interesting bond, and their personalities play off of one another to chuckle-inducing effect. We’re seeing glimpses of individual personalities which, for the most part, come across well without the need for excessive explanation. The only exception to the rule is Idie, who is still the most one-dimensional character in the book.
Espin has found a rhythm with his art as well, and is a nice compliment to Gillen’s characters. I was especially taken with his renderings of the baby-mutie, whose almost whimsical expression was simultaneously funny (on the surface) and frightening (when the situation’s implications set in). It seems that the creative team for the book is starting to gel much like Hope’s Lights. I hope that Gillen and Espin can keep this up as the book goes on. If left to its own devices, Generation Hope has the potential to become an interesting slice of Marvel’s X-verse.
