In April of 2011, IGN Comics began allowing MyIGN users to submit articles for their weekly review roundup. Any that live up to IGN’s editorial standards are be published alongside IGN’s staff reviews. Any that I write, I’ll post here, whether they get published or not.
This review was published, and included in the April 20th IGN Comics review roundup.
Story by Kieron Gillen
Art by Salvador Espin
After the first story arc in Generation Hope, I was struggling to find a reason to continue reading. The characters at the story’s foundation were sidelined, none of them defined well enough to develop any attachment. If I had begun to find a connection to the book, issue #5 killed it, beginning with McKelvie’s simplistic and repetitive art and ending with Kieron Gillen’s rambling and overly angsty script.
The latest issue is a mixed bag for me. The first third of the book flips between Hope and her five newly-rescued Lights, giving us little snippets of each as individuals. This section is unfocused, never allowing time for the dialogue or story to develop enough for us to get to know any of the characters. It would have been better housed in issue 5, which was clearly a filler issue to bridge the first and second story arcs.
The last two-thirds of the book, however, make solid strides toward finding the story’s voice. Hope and her new unit are given a purpose, and thus more of the spotlight than they’ve seen so far. We see more of their interaction as a team and delve into Hope’s role as their leader, giving us clear looks at both her strengths and her very obvious failings. Gillen seems to have finally hooked into a direction for Generation Hope, and more of this type of dialogue and interaction would be very welcome. Salvador Espin’s artistic return was also a pleasant surprise; his lines are cleaner and his style more clear than in previous outings, giving the book a more defined personality.
It’s a shame that it’s taken 5½ issues to get here, but if the last half of this issue is a glimpse of the future, Generation Hope could find a solid place amongst a sea of X-books.
