The rumors and whispering in dark corners of the internet were right – GENERATION HOPE is ending in MARCH with issue #17. {sad face emoticon}
If you’re interested to know more, I talk about it all over at ComicBookResources.
From the get-go, they asked me to write 5 issues leading up to April’s big cross-over event (Avengers vs. X-Men). I approached the gig as a chance to wrap up the major stories of the series’ first year (while also tossing in some new elements I was interested in playing with).
This did not blindside me in the least. We’ve talked sales numbers and the fate of the book for months, so I knew this was coming before the first issue came out in shops. I got to tell the stories that I wanted to tell as I wanted to tell them (my editors Jordan White and Nick Lowe were AWESOME collaborators). So I am nothing but grateful!
ANYWAY – the final two issues pack a TON of pay-off into their pages! Not just of my issues, but for folks who have been reading the whole way through. So I hope you’ll stay on board till the end (or grab the trade). And page 16 of the final issue is maybe the single comic moment I’m most proud of so far. {happy face emoticon}
^ Some preview art from GENERATION HOPE #16 with pencils by Takeshi Miyazawa! It’s out mid-February with the final issue (#17) out mid-March. And they are CRAZY-COOL comics.
THANK YOU! to all the folks who have been so kind an enthused from the moment I took over through the announcement today. Since I’m not working in live theater anymore, it’s really nice to still hear people’s responses to this stuff and know that I’m connecting.
I’ll be back SOON with some VERY BIG non-Marvel related comics news!!! So hang tight, cool cats. {kissy face emoticon}
This saddens me. Comic book cancellations make me feel bad usually, but in this case, I’m actually sad. I’ve loved GENERATION HOPE from the outset, when Gillen started it and when you took over, James. It was a new kind of teen hero book, filled with characters who didn’t have the powers we thought they did. It dared to be laugh-out-loud funny, though the more I think about it, those scenes were often the most disturbing.
James, you carried those ideas forward when you took over, but you also gave The Lights significance. You added to their numbers, you made them interact with the Marvel Universe and not just the world as most people know it. You made me care about Martha, which I thought would never, ever happen. You proved, in X-Men tradition, why the new kids often knock the old guys off their perch.
Take a bow, sir. You’ve done fine work and have earned every bit of praise imaginable for it.