REVIEW: Generation Hope #5

Hope Summers is the “Mutant Messiah” and is stuck with whatever responsibility that title represents, no one’s really sure just yet. Who does she trust, how does she cope and can she be a team leader? Find some answers after the jump.

GENERATION HOPE #5
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Jamie McKelvie
Colorist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Cover Artist: David Lafuente
Editor: Nick Lowe
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $2.99

Previously in Generation Hope: Hope Summers has collected the five lights and they’ve safely made it to Utopia. After some tests and discoveries they’ve learned who may be in trouble and who needs the most help, but have mostly started to settle in to the modern mutant lifestyle.

A DAY IN THE LIFE

With a title like “The Daddy Issue” this story should be pretty interesting, and it is. As the story progresses we get to see how Hope is interacting with the many of the adults on Utopia, most of which tend to be leaders in their own right. We open with Xavier and Magneto building a new Cerebra, hey with Hope around it’s gonna be necessary again, and discussing Magneto’s relationship with Hope. Charles is of course worried that Magneto’s influence may be a negative thing, so instead of arguing Erik takes a happy Charles to the volleyball court, where Hope is giving her “lights” gun lessons and target practice.

Here we have a good character display as the fact she was raised by Cable in very hostile environments has become obvious. She seems more drill sergeant than team leader and threatens to hold off on lunch until she sees some bulls at which point Teon, the primitive, takes the pistol he’s been chewing on and pops three rounds into the center of a target shouting “EAT!” and rushing off to get lunch. Really, this entire sequence is filled with decent character moments for all of them as Idie is still very subservient to Hope and Laurie stays to practice instead of going for lunch. Anyhow, Magneto and a very disappointed Charles, he was looking forward to some volleyball, show up to talk with Hope. The exchange is fantastic as she criticizes Charles “School for Gifted Youngsters” stating that the gifted makes mutants seem better and puts it in and “us and them” tone anyhow.

Her next adult is Miss Frost, teaching Ethics. This one is less entertaining as Hope merely complains about not wanting to be in class and how the person in the short skirt shouldn’t be teaching this class. So she leaves, with the lights following her, and when Emma tries to stop her, Hope threatens to leave Emma as a cinder. When she gets back to her room she finds a letter addressed to her telling her that Utopia is not what it seems, she will be manipulated at every turn, and that she should leave. The letter is from one Henry McCoy (PhD).

Hope then decides to confront the two people about how they are treating her, Wolverine and Cyclops. Logan has been avoiding her and when she asks why, he just tells her to go away, muttering “It’s for the best” as she leaves. Her talk with Scott is much more in depth and aggressive as she is telling him what she will do with her team go so far as to threaten leaving with question “could you stop me?” and phoenixes in her eyes. Scott then surprises her, and me really, by almost completely agreeing with her. His two main points of stay are, her team needs more training than she is specifically able to provide and don’t mess up. I found this to be a refreshing idea for Scott to be more lax than he has been as Hope starts showing that mutant-kind isn’t a lost cause anymore.

SUBTLETY IS KEY

Most everything in the book is muted. There is plenty of color and variance, but McKelvie plays more with the shadows than anything else and it looks good. There is also a fair amount of the character play done more with looks than words such as Magneto’s expression to Charles question of switching the Genosha disaster from mutants to humans and then later Charles own visual disappointment at what Hope had done with the volleyball field. There isn’t a wasted scene or movement and it all looks good.

BOTTOM LINE: DEFINITELY

Gillen is playing a lot of his cards close to his chest and I like it. He never comes out and says what the problem some of the adults have with Hope is but heavily implies both the Jean Grey and Phoenix connections and does so separately, Emma and Scott are more given to the Phoenix worries while Logan is too reminded of Jean to be near her. The dialogue feels very natural and the characters follow suit. My only real complaint is the comments about Emma’s clothes as the outfit she wears is quite conservative compared to most of what she normally is seen in. Either way, a decent, solid story and good looking art gives this a deserved 4.5 out of 5 stars.