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Generation Hope #8 (and the eXistential X-Man)

By Andy Frisk
July 8, 2011 - 00:25

Teon, the seemingly feral yet actually highly instinctual, mutant is one of the Five Lights. That’d be one of the first five mutants who manifested powers after the return of Hope Summers, the mutant messiah, to this time period. (New mutants are rare these days in the X-Universe, and only Hope can seem to help them to control their powers.) Aided by Hope, Teon has begun to control his abilities much like the rest of the group. Hope seems to be the only one who truly understands Teon and his motivations. She can get him to accomplish tasks that no one else seems to be able to. When Teon’s parents decide that they need to sue the X-Men for his return to them though, will Hope be able to bring out in him what he needs to achieve what he wants, or will Teon accomplish what he wishes on his own…?

At first, this story of a seemingly feral young mutant boy whose only goal seems to be to satisfy his primal urges, and who is the subject of a custody battle of sorts between The X-Men and his parents, seems rather trite. The feral mutant thing has run its course. Wolverine isn’t even that feral anymore, thank God. Once I turned my own, admittedly pathetic, mutant power of primal literary insight on the story though, I found that “The Ward” Part Three is another example of what makes The X-Men mythos so engaging, and is anything but trite. It's an intelligent metaphoric probing of the philosophical validity of existentialism and the existential lifestyle. It also shows a cool side to Teon that we haven’t really seen in as much detail before.

Teon states (yes, states) during the custody trial, “I am different from you. I am not sentient in the way you are. I am a deeply and profoundly separate way of approaching existence…That I am primarily a creature of instinct means I suffer none of the alienation of the intellect. I have no angst. No lasting doubts. No regrets. I live in the second and revel in it. I am the pursuit of happiness embodied.” Teon appears to be able to do anything necessary in any given situation to achieve his goal, including arguing as well as his lawyer can. Teon’s mutant power gives him the instinctual ability to solve any problem that he is presented with, and this makes him happy. He will instinctively figure a way to satisfy his sexual needs, his need for food, his need to remain as one of The X-Men. Can his happiness really be defined in humanistic terms though? He might be able to virtually do almost anything physically or intellectually possible to meet his needs, but can he really be considered as being “happy” in a human sense? Everyone has a different definition of happiness, but Teon’s definition of happiness is the fulfillment of his most primal needs whereas most humans define happiness in terms of more than just the primally existential. Teon is happy in the most basic and animalistic terms, and upon reflection, his existence actually seems to be pretty appealing. He doesn’t worry about bills, or about employment, or about social status. Does his assertion of being “the pursuit of happiness embodied” make sense though when applied to his own humanity or humanity at large? More importantly, can Teon actually be considered human then? This question is begged in the same sense that we apply it to a psychopath. Add in the whole metaphorically loaded idea of mutant rights and equality that is an X-Men mythos staple and there is no easy answer, and that’s what makes “The Ward” Part Three so captivating. It is like a great lecture by a philosopher that brings up important questions, but doesn’t give any answers. After all, isn’t the goal of philosophy to ask difficult questions in order to try and stir debate as to what the best answers to these most difficult questions are? Add in Hope’s other mutant students' questions as to the nature of Teon’s freedom to argue independently of Hope's influence on whether or not stay with The X-Men, and the questions multiply.

Okay, so Generation Hope #8 isn’t necessarily the most philosophically dense comic book ever written or conceived, but writer Kieron Gillen has definately won me over with his philosophical musings disguised as a sci-fi/superhero story. What Generation Hope #8 is though is a great example of the introspective and philosophically powerful potential of mainstream comic book superhero stories. X-Men stories have been telling these kind of intelligent and thought provoking stories for decades (albeit admittedly off an on at times), and it takes a writer with a solid grasp of these types of ideas and themes to successfully write a worthwhile X-Men story. Gillen seems to have a good handle on what it takes to be a successful and worthwhile X-scribe.

The X-Men are about to go through a “Regenesis” shortly, as the powers that be at Marvel Comics have dubbed the direction that the team is going in post SCHISM, but with these kinds of stories coupled with the character development that we saw just recently in Uncanny X-Men #539, the X-books are really proving to be worthy reads, and are really sparking an X-reading regenesis in me.

Rating: 8.5 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12