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Wednesday, January 15, 2025

X-amining Generation X #27

May 1997

In a Nutshell
Bastion tries to convince Jubilee she is the last X-Man to get intel on the team. 

Writer: Scott Lobdell
Penciler: Chris Bachalo & Pop Mhan
Inker: Al Vey & Scott Hanna
Letterer: Richard Starkings & Comicraft
Colorist: Marie Javins & Doctor Martin
Editor: Bob Harras

Plot
Bastion interrogates a captive Jubilee, trying to extract information about the X-Men and their location by weakening her psychic defenses by claiming the X-Men are dead or captured. Meanwhile, Emma probes Banshee's subconscious mind hoping to find clues as to the whereabouts of their students; something she sees reveals to Banshee where they are, and he flies off. Back at the headquarters of Operation: Zero Tolerance, Daria, Bastion's aid, grows concerned over Bastion's treatment of Jubilee. However, Jubilee continues to rebuff his efforts, even infuriating him to the point that he inadvertently reveals information about himself. Enraged, he drops the charade and simply beats Jubilee, leaving her alone to ponder her decisions. As he walks out, a bloodied Jubilee declares that she sure showed him...  

Firsts and Other Notables
The title of this story comes from Bishop's declaration, upon meeting her in X-Men (vol. 2) #8, that Jubilee is the "last X-Man", a scene which Bastion recreates for Jubilee as part of his interrogation (though the footnote to the story is wildly incorrect).  


The last page of Generation X #28 is a one page "Cookin' with Jubilee" humor story from Jim Mahfood, a precursor of sorts to the later Generation X: Underground one-shot. It is not included with the issue on Marvel Unlimited. 


The upcoming Daydreamers miniseries starring the lil' Gen X kids gets teased. 


Emma's trip through Banshee's memory makes him realize something Krakoa-related in conjunction with the kids' capture; ultimately, we'll find out he realizes Black Tom dumped the kids on Krakoa. 


Bastion's origin is briefly teased; there's not much to it, but what is there more or less fits with the later reveal that he's a fusion of Nimrod and Master Mold created by the Siege Perilous


Creator Central 
James Robinson's upcoming four issue fill-in stint (including the -1 flashback issue) as writer is mentioned in a response to a letter; it is said that Lobdell is simply taking a break from the book, but while Robinson will leave after #31, next issue is Lobdell's last issue. 

A Work in Progress
Bastion's plan is to make Jubilee emotional, thereby making it harder for her to resist Operation: Zero Tolerance's psychic probes (something their other captive — Professor X — is much better at). 


The memory Cyclops' reported "death" triggers in Jubilee is set during Illyana's funeral, after her death from the Legacy Virus in Uncanny X-Men #303


It also involves Cyclops telling Jubilee about Amiko, Wolverine's oft-forgotten foster daughter.  


Daria, Bastion's aide-de-camp, grows increasingly uncomfortable with Bastion's actions throughout the issue. 


The end of Generation X #27 synchs up with the end of X-Men #64, with Bastion ordering Operation: Zero Tolerance to move on the X-Men once they leave Hong Kong airspace. 


Austin's Analysis
Jubilee has always been one of Lobdell's stronger characters, and Generation X #27 is another standout issue for her. This is essentially a variation of Star Trek The Next Generation's "Future Imperfect" (in which Romulans use a holodeck to try and trick Riker into giving up intel, only it turns out to actually be an insect boy using a holodeck to make Riker think the Romulans are trying to trick him because the insect boy is lonely), with Bastion trying to convince Jubilee the X-Men are dead in order to get information on them from her. The issue works — particularly as a showcase for Jubilee — because she is so devoutly steadfast in her belief that everything Bastion is showing or telling her is (correctly) utter BS. Nothing he says or does shakes her belief that a loser like him could take down her friends and former teammates. Even the attempt that hits her the hardest — seeing Wolverine allegedly tortured — fails, because the thing that makes it hits the hardest is also the thing that tells her it's fake: she is closest to Wolverine of everyone, and thus can spot the tell in Bastion's illusion with ease. 

The impact of Bastion's efforts also hit harder because of their impact on Daria. She remains more or less a cipher of a character — we still don't know much about her, where she came from, why she's working with Bastion, etc., and largely never will — but the way she reacts to Bastion's torture of Jubilee does add weight to those actions. If what Bastion is doing is so bad that his effective Gal Friday is pushed to rebellion as a result, then we don't need to know a lot else about Darla to know Bastion's actions are bad. Combine all that with the novelty of seeing Chris Bachalo (and, occasionally, Pop Mhan, doing Bachalo-aping fill-in work) draw a bunch of different X-Men and recreate some scenes from X-Men history, and Generation X #27 stands out as a particularly strong issue for the time. 

Next Issue
X-Force hunts down Risque in X-Force #66!

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3 comments:

  1. What? You don’t remember Bishop disguising himself as the Mimic and telling the Super-Adaptoid, while using Jubilee’s powers, that Jubilee would be the “last X-Man”?

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  2. Not much to say about this one. It's not too bad for this era, but I do think this is when Bachalo starts drawing all his characters as looking a bit too youngish. It's not bad here, but if I remember correctly, it gets to the point where you can't even tell Emma and Husk apart unless they are in costume.

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  3. I know she’s hardly the first character in comics to look like another but it was really distracting to keep in mind that despite appearances Daria is not Moondragon. Which is especially amusing because the art style has Cyclops and Banshee, in particular, so far off-model.

    // Marie Javins & Doctor Martin //

    That’s essentially a joke as the penciling, inking, and lettering credits all had “with” in them and so the credit for coloring follows suit by name-checking the brand of watercolor dyes popularly used by colorists on photostats of the line art before guides and separations were done on the computer.

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