Christina Strain’s Generation X is one of the most anticipated titles of the upcoming ResureXtion line up. Christian was perviously a colorist before chaging gears and writing for SyFy’s THE MAGICIANS.
XF: X-Men means a lot of things to a lot of people but what is X-Men to you?
CS: The X-Men were probably, aside from Batman, the first superheroes that I really latched onto. It was like reading a book about a bunch of misfits in high school, which was exactly how I felt. So it was a book that was really easy to identify with. So for me, X-Men was the book the made me a little more OK about who I was. I think that’s pretty much what that book was made to do and I just want to keep that going.
XF: So let’s talk about Generation X specifically. You’ve got quite a cast. What made you go with such an out there cast?
CS: I love that you asked this question after the previous question. There’s a very specific reason we have loving referred to them as the lovable losers. In the beginning, I told Daniel [Ketchum, editor] right away that one of the things I noticed about comics recently is that they’ve become such a mainstream thing. You have all of these X-Men that are just so cool and they’re so spectacular. When I was growing up one of the things about comics was that only nerds read them. Nobody knew who Iron Man was, let alone Tony Stark. Now you have people that know exactly who that is. So what I wanted to do was go back to the root of what I loved about X-Men in general and work with characters who didn’t fit it. To go back to the thing I emotionally latched onto.
Quentin and Jubilee are everywhere for sure but at the same time, they are still misfits. Everybody else on the team is the same way. They’ve were created before I showed up, but they aren’t particularly well known or frequently used characters. I wanted to give them their moment to shine and highlight that even though they are different they are just as special as every other X-Men character.
It’s so funny, but every time I see someone negatively react to Gen X and say “Who the hell is this cast?” I’m like, “that’s the point!” I’m so excited about using characters that maybe we’ve all forgotten. You don’t expect it.
XF: You’re never gonna have a cast that satisfies everyone, but those 4 people who really love Nature Girl are going to be so pumped to see her in the spotlight.
CS: I am actually surprised that she isn’t more popular. First of all, she’s way more useful than I realized when I first started and secondly, her design is fantastic. Amilcar [Pinna, artist] has been adorable. He loves drawing her. I just feel like she is so easy to cosplay and at the same time fun to draw so I am kinda surprised she’s not bigger than she is. But good for me, I got her.
XF: On that same note, who have you been most excited to write in this whole thing.
CS: I gotta be honest, I love them all which is a terrible freaking answer. I do love Quentin; who I know is a very polarizing character. My favorite version of Quentin is the one who can’t admit what he really wants so he’s just dry and sarcastic. But deep down he’s like the Grinch, he’s got a tiny pink center somewhere in there. Which is fun to write because he’s so bad at being good.
I’ve also had a good time writing Nathaniel, who’s new. He’s kinda based on a friend of mine, who I love dearly. It’s kinda like I’ve been writing a love letter to my friend which starts with “hey buddy, guess what, you’re in a book!”
I’ve also really enjoyed Benjamin Deeds. He’s weird, a little bit of a marshmallow, but at the same time he’s the glue of the team which I didn’t see coming. He’s been a very good empathetic character— which I was expecting to be Trevor (Eye-Boy) but Trevor’s coming out a little goofier than I expected him to be.
XF: Wait, wait, wait, he’s a little goofier than a guy covered in eyeballs would be expected to be?
CS: [Laughs] The thing with Eye-Boy’s abilities is that he should be the most empathetic character that completely understands everybody, but the way that I’ve been writing him is that he is overly focused on certain things. Like, he’ll understand the motivations behind a character’s actions, but not that he shouldn’t say what those motivations are out loud. As I’m writing him, I’m realizing that he “sees all” but really understands very little. Which has been a lot of fun.
And then again Nature Girl, I’ve put a little spin on her that I don’t want to say too much about. They’ve all been a good time. And oh, Bling! Oh my god! I have a lot of feelings about Roxy but I won’t go into that. No spoilers.
XF: The Purifier’s are solicited as the antagonists of the first couple of issues. What got you thinking of using the Purifier’s again?
CS: So they’re not a huge threat in Generation X. We wanted a villain that the school’s prepared to deal with. This isn’t a group that they haven’t run across before. In Kitty’s mind (she’s now running the school) the future X-Men are prepared to deal with this group, so they should be fine. But this book isn’t about them. This book is about our lovable losers and how they maybe screw that up. We just wanted a starter villain to show the pros and cons of what our team could do and the Purifiers seemed like a pretty natural choice for that.
XF: You mentioned the future X-Men. Any hints of who that might be?
CS: To be honest I haven’t sat down and divided the whole school up yet, partially because I want the focus of this book to be on our kids. So the majority of what’s going on with the future X-Men and future ambassadors you’ll see in certain roles in the periphery and sometimes their paths will intertwine, but that’s about it.
I’ll straight up say Broo’s a future ambassador. Pixie, Greymalkin, they’re future X-Men. Shark-Girl also a future X-Man. These classes will kinda come in and out and there will be a few issues where you get more students than others.
XF: You previously were a colorist, pretty famously on Runaways, and now you’re writing. What has that transition been like?
CS: Oh it’s been weird! In a good way. I think the weirdest part about the whole thing is, if you told me at the beginning of my career “hey gurl you gonna be writing!” I’d be like “what dot dot dot huh?” It’s been crazy! And I’m one of those people who feel very compelled to work until they feel like they’ve “earned it,” so that’s a whole thing. Maybe it’s because my mom’s given me a complex about working in comics instead of being a doctor, so I’m just trying to prove a point to her? I don’t know. Anyway, transitioning’s been interesting because I know getting hired as a writer at Marvel is a very difficult thing to do, but I already sort of had an in, but I didn’t want to exploit it. But, because I landed staff writing job on THE MAGICIANS before I was offered the White Fox story I did with Sana Takeda for Civil War II: Choosing Sides, a lot of that pressure was alleviated. I felt like I had earned it.
When Gen X came up I was super excited because Daniel was like “do you wanna do something similar to Runaways?” and if you ask me that I will always say yes. Regardless of what I’m working on, if anything has a Runaways feel to it I am down to clown. I love me some teen drama. So I feel good about the environment, but the actually job itself? It’s great, but still a little foreign. Like, if you handed me some pages so color, I’d look at it and go “I know exactly what I’m doing with this,” because I was so comfortable with coloring. But with writing, I’m still felling some stuff out because I’ve still got a lot of room to grow as a writer.
XF: Speaking of Runaways, how is Molly Hayes not in this book?
CS: OK look, she was the first person on this list to put in this book. You know we’re internally calling these guys the lovable losers, to me Molly Hayes was kinda the star of Runaways. She was the best. I love her so dearly. It was funny because when we were talking about it, Jubilee was the first character we picked and the next person was definitely Molly. Daniel was like “really?” And I was like “you’ve got a good point, she might be too cool for this book.” I’m surprised she’s not the star of her own book in all honesty, Molly is just the best character. The only character in Runaways I was ever terrified of dying was Molly. I was just like, if she dies I’m rage quitting this book. So yeah, Molly is too cool for Generation X.
XF: Just to wrap it up, what do you want fans to be most excited about in this book?
CF: I think just get excited to have some fun. My goal is to have a Runaways tone to it. I wouldn’t say it takes itself overly seriously. It’s not a deep, dark, dramatic book. It’s a bunch of weirdos hanging out written by a human weirdo. So get ready for some weird fun.
Thanks again to Christina for talking with us about Generation X. Make sure to check it out this May! Oh and check the cool new pages for the first issue below!
Zachary Jenkins runs ComicsXF and is a co-host on the podcast “Battle of the Atom.” Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside of all this.
