No comics franchise embodies the '90s as much as the X-Men, the mutant heroes who dominated that decade with massive comic book sales and an endless supply of pop culture tie-ins. At its height, there were about 17 X-Related comics hitting the shelves every month, and the one that best captured the spirit of the era was probably Generation X. As its name implies, it was focused on a group of younger mutants, led by established fan favorite Jubilee, who formed the new class of disaffected teenagers at the Xavier School. Based on that description, it probably seems like the perfect franchise to adapt into a movie, even one that was meant as a TV pilot.
It probably would've been, too, if the Gen X movie had happened under literally any other circumstances, but pretty much everything was stacked against it. For one thing, its release coincided with the collapse of the comics industry — Marvel would file for bankruptcy by the end of the year — and while the Generation X comics were very good and had dedicated fans, it was a very different time to be launching a TV series than when the X-Men animated series started in 1992. Even if it had lured in the comics audience, there were choices made that seemed designed to alienate fans, like casting a white actress to play Jubilee, one of Marvel's most prominent Asian-American characters. Also, instead of using an established supervillain — which, as you may know, Marvel has quite a few of laying around — former Max Headroom actor Matt Frewer played a generic weirdo mad scientist trying to take over dreams.
Oh, also it was extremely bad. In addition to looking like it was filmed entirely in a laser tag arena with sets made of cardboard, the effects were terrible even by the standards of a TV movie on Fox in 1996, and the acting seemed like the filmmakers had maybe heard of the concept of a second take, but didn't really believe in it themselves. Here's hoping that Gen X's predecessor, New Mutants, has better luck when its movie adaptation comes out... assuming it ever does.
