 The
Void Approaches
The grim reaper has called to inform us when he will arrive to rip Generation X from our loving grasp. His voice had a hint of enjoyment in it when he rasped: “Over #75, I shall loom.
To make his call even worse is the day many of us heard the news. Good ol’ American Turkey Day. I was inconsolable when I heard. Not even the last half of the X-Files marathon could cheer me up, nor could my mother’s promises of an entire pie to myself. It took my denial defense to kick in before I could even begin to be semi-coherant is my anger venting. Dani was not a happy girl on Thursday. I was actually feeling good this morning when I got up to head in to town. Thoughts of ways to torture people at Marvel were reduced to a mere fanfic idea. I was heading in to my nail place to for my appointment when the realization hit me like a brick to the head. The space in the shopping center that the nail place currently occupies use to be on of the comic shops I went to. The shop where I bought my first issue of Gen X. My sadness was renewed. Now, we all knew that Gen X would be canceled one day. I personally was hoping for a good half century run at least, but I’m always too optimistic. Why cancel the book now, just when it’s really starting to get good? I would have completely understood if the book was canceled back around issue #40. I was only buying it out of loyalty then, and it would have been a mercy killing. Canceling it now is like shooting a guy who just got out of heart transplant surgery. The patient might reject the heart, but you didn’t let him live long enough to find out. I’m in total agreement that the X-titles need to be reduced, and some sacrifices need to be made. I just can’t seem to find the logic Marvel is using to decided what must go. I know we’re talking about Marvel here, there has to be some coherent reasoning behind it. They’re shooting themselves in the foot this time, what ever method they used. Some of the titles they kept should have been gone years ago. The future is uncertain. How many of our beloved Gen X characters will fade into comic limbo? How many books a month will we have to buy just to keep up with the characters who end up in other books? Will Gen X’s farewell be a bang or whimper? How many plot lines will be left dangling? In my first column here at the Academy, I said we could never go back to the way things were. That we should look forward, and not back. I never dreamed that so soon after I wrote those words, we’d have no Generation X to look forward to. I can only hope Marvel can do something good with this. Like I said, I’m usually optimistic, but even I have my bounds. They damn well better impress me.
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