"Generation M" #1

This November, mutantkind gets a new champion. No this person isn't going to use her extraordinary super powers to protect a world that fears and hates her. She's a normal human whose going to use her talents as a writer to give the mutants of the Marvel Universe a voice and try to explain to the rest of the world what it means to be a mutant. Her name is Sally Floyd and she's the star of "Generation M," a new four issue mini-series from Marvel Comics by writer Paul Jenkins and artist Ramon Bachs. CBR News spoke with Jenkins by phone about the series, which is part of the "Decimation" story line that examines the aftermath of Marvel's "House of M" series.

For months, Marvel has been dropping cryptic and ominous hints that the days following "House of M" will not be happy for the Homo Superior. Sally Floyd witnesses the horrible events that befall mutantkind and it changes her profoundly. "She's had this really difficult time. She's a mess, but after seeing this stuff she wants to write about it," Jenkins told CBR News. "She wants to get her career back on track and her life back on track. She's like, 'I want to tell these people's stories. I want to see what they're doing. I want to know what's happening to them.'

"She has a background with the mutants. She had previously written a column called 'The Mutant Diaries'," Jenkins continued. "It was something she did monthly for a magazine kind of like 'The Village Voice.' So, she's always sparred with people who are prejudiced against mutants. She had this history with this one congressman that was anti-mutant. Because of her personal life sort of falling apart, she stopped doing this. Now she wants to come back and do the 'Diaries' again."

Sally's quest to tell the stories of Marvel's mutants means that "Generation M" will be a virtual "Who's Who" in the world of Homo Superior. Because "House of M" is on going, Jenkins wasn't able to reveal the names of all the mutants appearing, but did say that at least one of the main X-Men characters, some of the other major Marvel mutants, and some mutant supervillains would all appear in "Generation M."

Observant readers can safely conclude that former "Generation X" member Chamber will appear in "Generation M" since he appears on the cover of issue #1. "He's an interesting guy. You feel sorry for this fellow," Jenkins said. "He's got this massive sort of nuclear reaction where his chest and his head used to be. The one thing I like about mutants is, and I have always and will always write it like this, it's like this sort of blessing and curse mix.

"Generation M" #2

"Here's someone that can fly. Fuckin A' I'm going to go fly around the neighborhood. How beautiful is that. Then there's some other poor bastard whose like, 'I was perfectly fine up until I turned into a rhino skinned man. The mutation did nothing for me. It didn't give me any powers and I turned into a really ugly bastard.' Like Beak-- he's really sad. Here's this poor bastard; he can't even fly properly. This was a mutation that just fucked him right up."

The tone of "Generation M" is realistic. "It's really an examination of what it would be really like to have this group of people out there," Jenkins explained. "You have this group of mutant people who have this life style and this way of being and you've got all kinds of prejudice against them. You've got people who support them. Do they ban together? Do they just try to stay innocents? Just because you're a mutant why does it take you away from being a human too? And because its done from a perspective of a writer it's really her thoughts on this whole thing as she goes through her life, as she tries to muscle through the next day and the next day."

Jenkins has seen some of Ramon Bachs's art for "Generation M" and likes what he sees so far. "Ramon Bachs is just awesome, so awesome. He's quick to. He's driving me crazy," Jenkins joked. "It means I really have to work ahead on the scripts."

"Generation M" was born out of Jenkins search for a Marvel project that played to his strengths as a storyteller. "Over the past couple of years I've done all kinds of different stuff," Jenkins said. "The 'Peter Parker' monthly was great for me in the days when we were just doing single issue stuff and we weren't necessarily tying it into a series. What Marvel realized was, 'Hey, maybe its a good idea to get this guy to do sort of vignette and single issue type stuff and build that into the form of a series. So that's why this particular one made absolute sense for me.

"I've learned now to take the projects that really suit me and this is something that almost writes itself for me," Jenkins continued. "It's really easy to write because it's so interesting. I've got the two books now that I should be doing; 'The Sentry' and 'Generation M.' These are perfect titles for me."