Cover by Stephen Mooney

This August, Fred Van Lente has a new book at Valiant Comics: Generation Zero. The series follows some of the events we've seen in books like Harbinger and Harbinger Wars, like the team Generation Zero, dealing with the aftermath of Project Rising Spirit. We talked to Van Lente about what we can expect from his latest book at the company.

COMIC VINE: What is Generation Zero all about?

FRED VAN LENTE: It's about, like, life man... as a teenager. As a super-powered teenager. As a super-powered juvenile delinquent teenager showing up in a small town to break heads and take names and overthrow the corrupt elites who run it.

That's what it's about. It's ARCHIE meets THE AUTHORITY.

What can you tell us about Generation Zero's cast of characters and the team?

VAN LENTE: They were all raised as human weapons by shady military contractors, Project Rising Spirit, until they escaped and were unleashed onto the world. They're all pretty militant—Cronus, the leader and the oldest, is the most militant of all. He can destroy and heal things with the same energy in his hands, which makes him pretty powerful.

His second in command, Telic, can see forward and project herself forward briefly in time. She's the most skeptical of this mission.

Animalia, folks know from when she ran with the Renegades over in Harbinger. She acts all tough and badass, but deep down inside she's tempted to be a normal kid, playing with toys and pining over boys, as anybody else.

Cloud is the telepath. Her mind is open to the entire consciousness of the human race all the time, and it's driven her a little batty. Her mind is basically an endless YouTube comments page, so she's reacted to it by retreating into a very childlike, very innocent, personality.

Oh, and I haven't even mentioned Gamete the Super-Fetus yet.

Designs by Andres Guinaldo

Are the Generation Zero kids still being hunted by Project Rising Spirit (PRS) or is there another enemy at play here?

VAN LENTE: Not for the first year, or "season," no. I've already got it all mapped out. Generation Zero doesn't run from people—people run from them, if they've got any damn sense at all! They tend to leave explosions and property destruction in their wake as they pursue what they see as right. And they're kids, so they see the world as black-and-white. If they decide you're evil, they're taking you down. Expect many smoking craters.

Will we see any other heroes from PRS –– or elsewhere?

VAN LENTE: Generation Zero has its hands full in the first year of the book dealing with Rook, Michigan. I’d worry for the lives of the guest-stars, if there were any!

Stephen Mooney

What can you tell us about the setting of this book: Rook, Michigan?

VAN LENTE: Rook is sort of a miracle town in the Valiant Universe. It was transformed overnight by its emergency manager, Jason Poole, from a nowhere rust belt sinkhole into a high-tech powerhouse specializing in bleeding-edge Kirbytech. A boy named Stephen seemed to think he knew why, but he died under mysterious circumstances. His girlfriend Keisha Sherman, the daughter of the town's sheriff, managed to find Generation Zero on-line and persuaded them to take the case and solve the mystery.

Tonally, how does Generation Zero compare to your other work at Valiant (Archer & Armstrong and The Delinquents), which were comics primarily driven by humor?

VAN LENTE: There's a lot of satire in Generation Zero but it's not as overtly “ha-ha funny” as those two books. It's more like holy-crap-that's-weird funny.

What made you want to work on a series that focused on an element from Harbinger Wars?

VAN LENTE: All of my Valiant work up until this point—Archer & Armstrong, Ivar, Timewalker, and Legends of the Geomancer—was focused on the Anni-Padda brothers and their corner of the universe. I wanted to try something completely different, and when Editor in Chief Warren Simons said Valiant was looking to try a team book, I jumped at the opportunity.

What were your inspirations for Generation Zero?

VAN LENTE: A number of things. I really liked the video game Life is Strange for combining high school life with powers in a really interesting way. Twin Peaks definitely, and any number of towns with weird secrets. And there are these great, very different movies about teenagers, Over the Edge, which is this great 70s movies about juvenile delinquents, and Myth of the American Sleepover which is this lovely quiet picturesque movie by the guy who did It Follows. And a lot of manga, like Uzimaki and 20th Century Boys.

I just wanted to capture that dreamlike quality of late childhood, where everything seems possible. And that's just as scary as it is hopeful...

Cover by Clayton Henry

What does artist Francis Portela bring to the book, and the world that you've built?

VAN LENTE: I've had just a great time working with Francis. We did so many fun things at Marvel—MODOK's 11, Halo, Spider-Man—but he is creating a whole world here, full of awesome, and, dare I say it, sexy characters. He is just blowing all of my expectations out of the water. I hope everyone who discovered his work in Faith follows him here; I really think he's going to break out huge after this book!

Thanks to Fred Van Lente for answering our questions and make sure to check out Generation Zero when it launches in August!