X-amining Generation X #-1

"The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship!"

July 1997

In a Nutshell

A young Emma Frost and NYPD officer Sean Cassidy cross paths with Dark Beast!

Writer: James Robinson
Penciler: Chris Bachalo
Inker: Al Vey
Letterer: Comicraft
Colorist: Marie Javins

Associate Editor: Mark Powers

Editor: Bob Harras

Plot

Hoping to use her nascent telepathic abilities to glean stock market tips from the wealthy elite, Emma Frost gatecrashes a party at the Hellfire Club. Overuse of her power exhausts her, however, leading to an encounter with Harry Leland, who offers to give her a ride home. But after passing out in the bathroom, Emma awakens and sneaks away on her own. Outside the club, she's accosted by a group of men, an encounter observed by NYPD detective Sean Cassidy and his partner, who are surveilling the club to watch for Leland. As the men chase Emma into an alley, Sean rushes to help. Cornered, Emma is knocked out by one of the men, at which point they're attacked from the shadows by a savage beast. Emma awakens in the sewer lair of the Dark Beast, and the two agree to help each other. Just then Sean arrives, having followed them, and believes Dark Beast to be threatening Emma. He attacks, and Dark Beast responds in kind, almost killing Sean. He is saved by a telepathic burst from Emma, at which point Sean's partner, as well as Leland, arrive. Rather than be arrested long with Dark Beast, Emma uses her telepathy to alter their minds, directing them to take Sean to the hospital. Then she and Dark Beast part, their alliance secure.  

Firsts and Other Notables

With most of the Generation X kids relatively young (in terms of flashing back to their pasts), the teachers take the spotlight in this issue. This marks the earliest chronological appearance of Emma to date, depicting her (relatively) down on her luck, with her telepathy in a nascent state. The later Emma Frost series in the early 2000s (the one with the horrible Greg Horn covers) will develop that status quo further. 

Banshee pops up as an NYPD detective, technically paying off an offhand remark from X-Men #94 in which he referred to himself as an "ex-cop" (depending on whether or not you think an Interpol agents who refer to themselves as a cop). There's not really an explanation here for how Sean went from Interpol to the NYPD, and I don't think it ever gets established (though there's some speculation that it's part of some kind of exchange program). 

And then we have Dark Beast, whose mind is still scrambled in the wake of his arrival on Earth-616 from Earth-295 (the "Age of Apocalypse" reality). Its generally considered that Emma is responsible for fixing his memory loss here, though that's not really explicit on the page. He and Emma strike up an alliance, but nothing ever really comes of that (their encounter here gets referenced in the later Generation X/X-Man crossover between each series' 50th issues). 

Harry Leland, the Orson Welles-inspired Black Bishop of the Hellfire Club who eventually dies of a heart attack battling Nimrod alongside the X-Men while wearing a hideous costume, crosses paths with young Emma here. I like the decision to have her bump into Leland versus, say, Shaw, both because it makes the club feel slightly bigger and because Leland never really got much to do.

Stan Lee appears in his "master of ceremonies" bookends in the guise of Chamber. 

He also makes a joke about how Jubilee (aka Jubilation Lee) isn't his daughter. 

Chronology Corner

Per the Marvel Chronology Project, Emma appears here after her self-titled 18 issue series from 2003.

This is Banshee's last chronological appearance before his debut in X-Men #28, following a bunch of flashbacks scattered across a handful of issues (including the flashbacks in Generation X #10-11). 

This is Harry Leland's first chronological appearance to date. 

Dark Beast's appearance here is considered to take place after his arrival on Earth-616 but before his appearance in X-Men: Prime. 

A Work in Progress

While using her telepathy to scan the minds of the guests at the Hellfire Club, Emma overhears thoughts about the SHIELD helicarrier and Reed Richard's unstable molecules.

Emma wiping everyone's memories at the end conveniently prevents any continuity issues (though Sean is unconscious at the time, so it's possible he retains his memories). 

The Reference Section

As noted in the issue, the cover is an homage to X-Men #29 (the issue after Banshee's first appearance), for whatever reason. 

Austin's Analysis
Let's start with the positive: Chris Bachalo is here, so this looks great. We're edging ever closer to late period Bachalo (with Emma occasionally looking like she's all of twelve), but Bachalo is still one of the best artists on the X-Books, with his layouts and panel construction second to none. That said, this is a case of one of these Flashback Months arguably having a detrimental effect on the present. Having Sean and Emma meet years before the become the adult stars of the book is cute enough (though it does beg the question of whether they've discussed it as adults), and Emma's early encounter with Harry Leland is genuinely fun, and of a piece with her established backstory as a self-made woman who clawed her to the Inner Circle.

But the Dark Beast of it all is more or less nonsense. Whereas having young Emma cross paths with Leland (and even Sean) has some narrative oomph thanks to their future histories together, nothing is gained from giving Emma and Dark Beast a past together. It also doesn't help that their alliance here ultimately, leads nowhere; if Robinson had plans to use it as seeds for future stories, they never come to fruition. The characters will cross paths again, and this encounter is referenced (and used to fuel Emma's anger in that story), but that comes well after Robinson has left the book, and is by no means a critical element of that future story. The whole thing feels like a very "oh, let's say...Moe" kind of pairing, the result of someone spinning a wheel of characters for who to shoehorn into Emma's past and it landing on "Dark Beast" rather than being born of a natural desire to explore or establish a specific dynamic between the two. 

Next Issue

Journey into Nightcrawler's past for some wholesome Szardos family drama in Excalibur #-1.

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