It's been quite a while since the X-books had such a busy week.  That's especially odd, since two of this week's titles are one-shots which could quite happily have gone somewhere quieter.  Regardless, we've got a lot to get through, so let's get down to business.

GeNext has been in the pipeline for ages.  Some time ago, Marvel ran an online poll to decide what Chris Claremont's next project should be.  Fans voted for a book called Next, with a rather convoluted premise: set in a Marvel Universe where the characters aged in real time, it would be about a new generation of X-Men taking over as the founders came up for retirement.  And they're literally a "new generation", as most (if not all) of the characters here are supposed to be the X-Men's descendents.

This is potentially complicated premise to start with, so I was faintly alarmed to see Claremont explaining, in interviews, that this is also a sequel to X-Men: The End.  Not only is that a weird idea to begin with, but X-Men: The End was something of a mess, as Claremont diligently threw in everything including the kitchen sink.  It's not a story that I particularly want to revisit.

Fortunately, GeNext is a lot more focussed.  It has a core cast of five teenage mutants, pressganged into training as the next generation of X-Men even though some of them have no particular desire to follow in the family business.  So it's a story about teenagers trying to find their own identity, presumably, and deciding how much of their inheritance they want to embrace.

It's quite pleasant.  The cast are likeable enough, and Claremont seems to have put some thought into making them distinctive.  Yes, there are some curious logical glitches - I really don't understand how any of these characters could keep their identity secret from the others, given that they're all being trained by the X-Men - but Claremont's usual stylistic tics are kept under control, and it's all quite readable.

Artist Patrick Scherberger has spent the last few years on Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man.  There's a slight Humberto Ramos influence, particularly on his character designs, and his costumes are maybe a shade too busy.  But he can tell a story well enough, and he makes a decent fist of a seven-page sparring sequence.

Perhaps most importantly, Claremont and Scherberger both seem to be genuinely more interested in their new characters as individuals, as opposed to playing up their links with the past.  I suspect the whole thing will vanish into the ether once the five issues are up, but it does feel like the creators have a story they want to tell with in this series.

A solid start.  The book does what it promised to do, but without the weight of continuity and tradition that you might have expected.

Rating: B

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