Random Happenstance

I'm writing this the Sunday before Election Day, and if time has moved forward at all since then, it's only because I took a three-day weekend that was somehow over before it started even though every day is like a bad month. But to distract from the horrible, I picked up Gail Simone's entire Gen 13 run from the quarter bins! Let's check an issue: from 2007, Gen 13 #7, "When Caitlin Ruled the Lizards" Written by Gail Simone, pencils by Alvin Lee, inks by M3th.

This is a slightly-less-cheesecakey callback to the original series Gen 13 #5, as the kids' rebooted origin had just ended, and they were making their escape from the Tabula Rasa headquarters in an experimental teleporter. Caitlin is separated from the group, and finds herself seemingly in the Savage Land--er, dinosaur times. She's attacked by a sabretooth tiger early on, and since her Gen 13 lab-issued clothes were too hot (and "designed by perverts," without underwear) she uses its hide for an outfit.

Caitlin was worried her friends, or at least "friends to be" would get eaten without her; since unlike her they weren't strong enough to punch it up with a tyrannosaur. They would probably as surprised as her, though, when the tyrannosaur talks! Not well, but still impressive. Its brains are then blown out by a very stereotypical "great white hunter," as Caitlin realizes this was another Tabula Rasa experiment turned hunting ground. She takes his guns away and leaves him to be eaten.

Finding her friends, Caitlin is more than ready to head out: the issue closes with the little green thing that was Roxy's pet in the original series, but it's not invited on the road trip. Simone would stay on the series, appropriately enough, until the 13th issue: it was a fun read, albeit surprisingly dark on occasion: if genetic engineering reached the point it could make the Gen 13 kids, that would probably the least creepy thing that would be made.