Gen 13 #7
Gen 13 (Vol. 2) #7, titled 'Veni, Vidi, Vici!', is the issue that first puts Ivana Baiul's black-ops team DV8 — the Deviants — on the page in a meaningful way, delivering first appearances for several characters (Copycat/Gem Antonelli, Evo/Michael Heller, Powerhaus/Hector Morales, Sublime/Rachel Goldman, and Freestyle/Jocelyn Davis) who would anchor DV8's own ongoing series launched in 1996. The issue also concludes the Rome 'Order of the Cross' story arc, reinforcing J. Scott Campbell's signature blend of action-comedy adventure and Wildstorm espionage intrigue. Because it closes out the first major arc of the ongoing series while simultaneously seeding the DV8 spin-off, it functions as a structural hinge in early Wildstorm publishing history. The DV8 cast introduced here represented a deliberate moral inversion of Gen 13 — gen-active teens used as expendable assets rather than protected runaways — a creative contrast that gave the Wildstorm line a notably darker counterpart to its breakout title.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Gen 13 was created by Jim Lee and Brandon Choi and illustrated by J. Scott Campbell, published under WildStorm's banner within Image Comics. The ongoing volume 2 series launched in 1995, with the creative team of Choi, Lee, and Campbell co-writing, building an action-adventure tone consciously modeled on the adventure sensibilities of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg rather than the grimmer Image output of the era. Issue #7 sits at the end of the 'Starting Over' story arc — the same arc collected in the 1999 trade paperback *Gen 13: Starting Over*, which assembled issues 1–7 — meaning this issue marked both the conclusion of the first collected edition and the first fully rendered glimpse of what would become the DV8 franchise.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Story title: 'Veni, Vidi, Vici!' — the concluding chapter of the Rome-set 'Order of the Cross' arc, in which Burnout and Bliss infiltrate Vatican City to free the captured Gen 13 team from the religious-militant Hand of God.
- First appearances of several core DV8 members in this issue: Copycat (Gem Antonelli), Evo (Michael Heller), Powerhaus (Hector Morales), Sublime (Rachel Goldman), and Freestyle (Jocelyn Davis), all depicted in a Caballito Island virtual-reality training flashback run by Ivana Baiul.
- The DV8 characters introduced here — gen-active teens under Ivana Baiul's covert control — went on to headline their own Wildstorm ongoing series (DV8 #0–32, launched August 1996), making this issue the seeding point for that entire franchise.
- Written by Brandon Choi, Jim Lee, and J. Scott Campbell; art by J. Scott Campbell — the same core triumvirate responsible for the entire early run of the volume 2 series.
- The issue was reprinted in the Gen 13: Starting Over trade paperback (published 1999), which collected issues #1–7 of volume 2 and served as the primary introduction to the ongoing series for new readers.
- Bliss (Nicole Callahan) plays a pivotal supporting role, using one of Ivana Baiul's backdoor computer passwords to grant Fairchild access to the Order of the Cross's secret files — a plot beat that underscores the ongoing tension between Bliss's loyalty to I.O. and her alliance with Burnout.
- Cover date is listed as December 1995 by both the DC Database and Image Comics fandom wikis, though the issue appears in the user's catalog and some retailer databases under the year 1996, consistent with a late-December on-sale date that slid into the new year.
- Gen 13 was originally intended to be named 'Gen X,' but was rebranded after Marvel trademarked 'Generation X' — the name 'Gen 13' itself references the 13th American generation, with Team 7 (the parents) being 'Gen 12.'
Cast · 26 characters
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Reprints
Reprinted in Gen 13 #7 (1997), Gen 13 #7 (1997), Gen13: Starting Over #[nn] (1999), WildStorm Fine Arts: Spotlight on Jim Lee #1 (2007), DC Comics: The Art of Jim Lee #1 (2020), Gen 13 #7
Key issues in Gen 13
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