What if Casey Anthony killed her baby because she was mutant?
What if Matthew Shepard was murdered because he was a mutant?
What if Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated because he was a mutant?

Ripped from the headlines! Gillen and McKelvie take a very real and tragic story and barely do anything with it. In fact they do so little it is offensive.

Maybe it’s the corporate machine cramping these creators’ style. Maybe I’m asking too much of 22 pages but there was an opportunity to do something moving here.

In this issue Hope and her team track down an emerging mutant only to arrive too late. The story of the emerging mutant (Zeeshan) happens too quickly and too deliberately. Zeeshan’s acquaintances reactions are plotted and lifeless as are the main cast. Zero’s motivation for revenge is one-dimensional and erratic. Wolverine makes a cameo but he’s used poorly. His role as guidance counselor falls flat and trivial.

What I found particularly frustrating was Zeeshan and his motivations. His actions are deeply serious but Gillen obscures the reasoning behind them. Gillen spent too much time setting up where the story was inspired from and little into the very real emotions associated with what happened.

McKellvie’s pencils are stiff and atonal. Some shading and detailed backgrounds could have given the story some depth but it just wasn’t there.

I’ve recently pondered whether the mutant as metaphor for the disenfranchised still worked in our increasingly tolerant world.  This issue does not pose a strong case for it and that’s what’s so disappointing because it really could have. Instead Generation Hope #9 blows out a premise when it should have burned.