Gene Pool

    (IDW, 2003)
™ and © Idea + Design Works LLC

Marv Wolfman and Len Wein are true comics icons. They may not receive the attention of some of the “hotter” creators, but they are rock-steady foundations of the industry. Wolfman created Blade, Daredevil’s Bullseye, and The New Teen Titans’ Cyborg, Starfire, and Raven. Wein created Swamp Thing and The X-Men’s Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and Storm. One would expect that, working together, they’d come up with more than Gene Pool.

Oh, there’s nothing bad about it, per se; it just suffers from a serious case of “been there, done that.”

Here we have a group of attractive young people with special abilities being hunted because of what they can do. As if we haven’t seen that before.

OK, these attractive young people do not have their powers because of natural mutations or mysterious flashes in the sky. They are the result of a doctor’s genetic tinkering. So they’re not a clone of The X-Men or Rising Stars. No, that makes them a clone of The Helix, Dr. Love’s mutations from Infinity, Inc. As if that’s better.

Angela is a young woman in the Gene Pool who has multiple personalities, each of which has different powers. At first glance, she reminds the reader of Rising Stars’ Critical Maas, but, on reflection, she’s more like Crazy Jane of The Doom Patrol (another group of persecuted freaks).

You could buy a worse comic book than Gene Pool. You no doubt have. It’s just you’d expect more innovation from two titans such as Wolfman and Wein.

— Jack Abramowitz
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#1

October, 2003
Cover Price: $6.99
4 copies available from $1.75 		Marv Wolfman, Len WeinSteven Cummings