NEW-GEN

NEW-GEN is a superhero comic book series created in 2008 by J.D. Matonti, Chris Matonti and Julia Coppola, of A.P.N.G. Enterprises. It is printed, distributed and advertised by Marvel Comics. The series centers around the war over nanotechnology between two powerful scientists, Gabriel and Deadalus, from the extra-dimensional world of New-Gen.^[1]

Publication history

NEW-GEN® was launched by A.P.N.G. Enterprises and Issue 6 was published and distributed at New York Comic Con in Oct. 2010. NEW-GEN is printed, advertised, and distributed by Marvel Comics. Mark Hamill will lend his voice to characters in New-Gen's upcoming full-length featured film.

Plot

New-Gen is an extra-dimensional world where science and technology reign supreme. Nanotechnology controls a huge amount of the world's features, including weather, architecture, energy and materials science. The scientist Gabriel, pioneer in nanotechnology, strives for good and the betterment of his world through the use of his technology. However, his apprentice Deadalus, grows ruthless and seeks to use the nanobots to gain power and control over New-Gen. Deadalus unleashes a powerful, unpredictable type of nanotechnology on the world, which infects several of the children of New-Gen, changing them into super powered creatures. Gabriel defeats Deadalus and banishes him to the underworld. Gabriel then takes in all the children affected by his nanotechnology in order to protect and train them in the use of their powers, founding the Association for the Protection of the New Generation (A.P.N.G.) in the process. Fearing his infant twin sons, Chris and Sean, were affected, Gabriel sends them to Earth in present-day New York City to protect them from Deadalus, much to the dismay of his wife, Thea. While trapped in the underworld, Deadalus finds fierce robo-insectoid creatures called MetalMites that he can mentally control. After discovering that the Mites can dig into other dimensions, he vows to get back to NEW-GEN and get revenge on Gabriel.^[2]

Years later, Deadalus escapes the underworld and begins wreaking havoc on ancient Crete. Gabriel sends the oldest and strongest member of the A.P.N.G., Mini, to dispatch Deadalus and his army of MetalMites. Mini battles the MetalMites, destroying many of them with his horns, but the fight becomes too much for him to handle alone. Gabriel sends the battle-robot, Horus, to help finish the fight against Deadalus and his creatures. When Mini and Horus have Deadalus beaten, Gabriel tells them to let him live, re-banishing Deadalus to the underworld. Throughout the battle, the native Cretans assume Mini is a sort of monster, which eventually leads to the Greek myth of the Minotaur.^[2]

Meanwhile in present-day New York, Chris and Sean prepare to enter a new school in New York City. They are forced to deal with the pressures of fitting in, combined with a growing distance between them and their adoptive parents, and strange visions of Gabriel and Deadalus, of whom they know nothing. On New-Gen, Gabriel encounters challenges finding the best way of teaching the A.P.N.G.. Simultaneously, in the underworld, Deadalus discovers an enormous quantity of dormant microbots. The microbots respond and behave much like the nanobots he worked with on New-Gen. Deadalus plans to use the microbots to gain power over other worlds and dimensions. He infects himself with the microbots, much like he infected the children of New-Gen, in order to have them reconstruct his body and gain superhuman powers.^[2]

In the transformational process, Deadalus' physiology is drastically altered, coming to more closely resemble a demonic beast than a man. His mind is also altered, furthering his powerlust into genuine megalomaniac insanity. He adopts the identity of Sly, and sets his MetalMites to tunneling into a new world to conquer for his own. Additionally, he uses the microbots to upgrade the MetalMites, increasing their destructive power. Once Sly begins taking over the futuristic world of Nu-Mangi, Mini is sent in to stop him once again. However, Sly and his upgraded MetalMites prove far too powerful for Mini alone. The remaining members of the A.P.N.G., Flyer, Diamond, Gazelle, and Roboduck, join Mini for the battle. Meanwhile on Earth, Sean begins having nightmares and visions of the battle, haunted in the night by the faces of Sly and the MetalMites^[2]

The battle rages on the surface of the new world, as the A.P.N.G. destroy wave after wave of MetalMites. Sean and Chris keep getting increasingly vivid glimpses of the battle while at school, but are clueless as to why they are being plagued by the visions. During a lull in the battle, Sly flees and the A.P.N.G. rests knowing another wave is soon to come. Gabriel, observing the battle from New-Gen, holds up several glowing green orbs full of nanobots. Sly, determined to destroy the A.P.N.G. finds machines built by the natives of the new world. He uses his microbots to take over the machines and turn them into larger, more powerful MetalMites. As the twins' visions become more and more clear, they complain of pain and discomfort as their bodies begin to change, alarming their parents as well as Gabriel who is watching them from New-Gen. .^[2]

During the battle, the A.P.N.G. show signs of victory until Sly shoots them all with a specialized radiation, destroying all of the nanobots in their bodies, reverting them to their human forms and taking away their powers. Just as Sly is about to finish the A.P.N.G. off, Gabriel teleports to the battle wielding his Kane. He gives the A.P.N.G. the green orbs, containing nanobots that will heal the A.P.N.G. and restore their super-powered forms. As the members A.P.N.G. fight the giant machines, Gabriel battles Sly. The two former friends fight brutally, landing crushing blows and unleashing powerful energy bolts against each other. Eventually, Gabriel and the A.P.N.G. overcome Sly and his forces, but Gabriel decides to again spare Sly, saying he is not ready to finish off his old friend.^[2]

Characters

• Gabriel- Gabriel is the foremost scientist in New-Gen when it comes to nanotechnology. His knowl­edge of sci­ence and the practical applications of nan­otech­nol­ogy have helped him bal­ance and lead New-Gen to a new era, causing many to see him as father of New-Gen's prosperous new age. Due to his patriarchal nature, he constantly strives to make the universe a safer, more harmonious place, but is fiercely combative when those he cares about are in danger. He took in the infected children of New-Gen, feeling a great deal of responsibility for their mutations. He is capable of making very difficult decisions, which causes rifts between him and his wife on numerous occasions. His Kane grants him immense control over nanotechnology, affording him superhuman strength, the ability to form energy blasts and allowing him to bend the fabric of time and space itself.^[3]
• Deadalus-Born on New-Gen after Gabriel had already arrived and begun his work, Deadalus grew up to even­tu­ally become one of Gabriel’s great­est pro­teges. Together the two made many advance­ments, par­tic­u­larly in the realm of nan­otech­nol­ogy. But after suf­fer­ing great losses in his per­sonal life, he began experimenting to make the inhab­i­tants of New-Gen "per­fect" and invul­ner­a­ble cit­i­zens. Soon, he becomes enraged when Gabriel sought to stop him. Gabriel saw Deadalus' experiments as unethical and overly ambitious. The two fought and Deadalus is ban­ished from New-Gen to the Under­world dimension, which he quickly makes his base of operations. After discovering the MetalMites and mircobots, Deadalus takes control of the destructive technology, while simultaneously being driven towards a more bestial state of consciousness through his own self-afflicted microbot infection. He controls his robotic army through sheer mental force.^[3]
• Thea-Also born on New-Gen, Thea was one of the powerful care­takers for the nat­ural world of New-Gen before Gabriel arrived. Thea's levitation and clairvoyant abilities make her a formidably powerful match for Gabriel. She is strong willed and passionate in her actions, but possesses a motherly instinct. The two soon fell in love and with each of their indi­viual tal­ents, found a way to bal­ance the nat­ural world of NEW-GEN with the tech­no­log­i­cal advances Gabriel made to also improve the world. The decision to send their sons, Sean and Chris, to Earth is a source of constant conflict between the two powerful beings. Thea even leaves for a time to return to her for­mer home. Eventually, however, she returns to take over the co-tutelage of the chil­dren of NEW-GEN at A.P.N.G. Headquarters.^[3]
• Sean and Chris-Sean and Chris are twin broth­ers, the chil­dren of Gabriel and Thea. The two of them were sent to Earth as babies, under the care of robot par­ents to keep them safe from Deadalus when he unleashed his nanites upon New-Gen. The two boys know north­ing of their ori­gins, their true par­ents or their true place of birth. Whether the two of them grow to have any Nanopow­ers like the rest of the A.P.N.G. remains to be conclusively seen, but they have vivid visions of the battle on Zaadar III between the A.P.N.G. and Sly.^[3]
• Nate Guard-A sen­tient robot con­structed by Gabriel under the watch­ful eye of Thea, Nature Guardian or Nate Guard, was built to mon­i­tor New-Gen’s electro-magnetosphere and the pre­cise bal­ance of the nanobots and tech­nol­ogy that cur­rently works in con­cert with the natural environment of New-Gen. If there are prob­lems with either, he fixes it or alerts the A.P.N.G. if he finds the issue to be beyond an every day occurrence. His sentience, which allows him to gather more information beyond that which is pertinent to his primary directive, gives him an insatiable curiosity. He asks con­stant ques­tions on the nature of every­thing, much to the annoy­ance of other mem­bers of the A.P.N.G. He is able to alter his shape, adapting to the situation he presently finds himself in, making him a mechanical analogue to Darwin from the X-Men.^[3]
• Mini-Mino­taur was only a lit­tle older than the other chil­dren when he was infected by Deadalus’s nanobots and mutated into a bull-headed humanoid with hoofed feet. He has a staunch and aggressive temperament, much like that of a real bull. He has a nasty tem­per, but remains a stal­wart and loyal com­pan­ion to his friends. He serves as the drill sergeant and de-facto field leader for the A.P.N.G. He is often the first member of the team dispatched by Gabriel in many com­bat situations. His mutation gave him, in addition to a physically altered body, highly increased strength and durability, which he uses to his advantage in battle when running headlong into enemies with his sharp horns.^[3]
• Roboduck- A first generation combat robot from New-Gen, Roboduck is equipped with several plasma-based weapons systems. In addition to arm mounted plasma cannons, and rocket enabled flight, he has the ability to fire an extremely powerful plasma blast from his mouth, in a "burping" fashion. Roboduck was affected in a very bizarre way by Deadalus' nanobots that mutated the children of New-Gen. Instead of changing Roboduck physically and granting him extra powers, they transformed Roboduck's programming, causing him to behave in a manner much more similar to a human than a machine. This in turn, makes Robo­duck the most truly sentient of all robots on New-Gen, as he is able to feel emo­tion, dis­obey orders, improvise, develop a sense of humor, and act the part of class clown with the rest of the A.P.N.G.^[3]
• Diamond-With a body com­posed of a diamond-like material, Diamond’s body appears to be one of the strongest mate­ri­als dis­cov­ered on New-Gen. He is nearly invulnerable and possesses limited superhuman strength. He is devoted to mar­tial arts train­ing and seeks north­ing short of per­fec­tion for himself, physically as well as mentally. He is highly intelligent and intuitive and has a quick sense of humor and friendly temperament, which is balanced by his extremely strict self discipline.^[3]
• Flyer-Fly­er’s Nanopow­ers give him the abil­ity to fly with large brown bat-like wings. He’s dri­ven by a com­pet­i­tive spirit to prove he’s just as good if not bet­ter than all the oth­ers who have slightly stronger muta­tions. His competitive spirit is most often tested against Gazelle, who routinely gives him a run for his money. His cocky, sometimes arrogant attitude is tempered by a fierce loyalty to his friends and an eagerness to prove himself as a force to be reckoned with.^[3]
• Gazelle-Gazelle's mutation transformed her into a humanoid creature appearing similar to her namesake, with two long horns, fur, hoofed feet and an elongated snout. The nanobots also afforded her with tremendous speed and agility, which more than make up for the fact that her martial arts skills leave much to be desired. She often expresses jealousy towards her friends who look more human than she does, but on the whole is a very caring and nurturing figure. She continually competes with Flyer, one of her best friends.^[3]
• Carmen-The youngest of the A.P.N.G. and daughter of Deadalus, Car­men works extra hard to prove herself to compensate for her dark legacy. She wants to make sure that everyone knows her as her own, capable formidable person, instead of the daughter of a supercriminal. Since her father was ban­ished, she was taken in by Gabriel and Thea like many other chil­dren and always strives to do her best in order to remind every­one, she is far more than her father’s daughter.^[3]

Creators

NEW-GEN is created by J.D. Matonti, Julia Coppola, and Chris Matonti. The artist for the comic is Abdul Rashid.^[4]

Expanding into other media

• NEW-GEN® is a transmedia global brand that plans to extend into 3D- Motion Comics, Mobile Games, Live Action Feature Films, Television Series, Video Games, Toys and Merchandising.^[5]
• A.P.N.G. Enterprises announced the development of a NEW-GEN live action movie, to star Mark Hamill.^[6]
• A.P.N.G. also announced the development of a 3D Motion Comic based on the NEW-GEN comic series, being developed by Green Leaf Film Studios in Chengdu, China.^[7]
• NEW-GEN: New Dawn, a second comic series detailing the origins of Gabriel, is scheduled to debut its first issue at the New York Comic Con in October 2011^[8]

References

1. ^ Montero, Patrick. " 'New-Gen' comic book series merges classic superhero tale with hi-tech nanotechnology". Daily News. July 21, 2010
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Overview of the NEW-GEN Comics Volume 1
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} Basic Information of NEW-GEN Characters
4. ^ Information of the NEW-GEN Team
5. ^ NEW-GEN Overview Page
6. ^ [1], Daily Variety article about NEW-GEN
7. ^ "A.P.N.G. ENTERPRISES EXPANDS NEW-GEN® UNIVERSE WITH FEATURE FILM AND REVOLUTIONARY 3D-MOTION COMIC". New-Gen. accessed July 26, 2011.
8. ^ "Volume 2 NEW-GEN: New Dawn". New-Gen. accessed July 26, 2011.