Gen-Active is a comic book anthology-series from Wildstorm. It was published from 2000 to 2001 and ran for six issues. It is also the term used to describe a form of superhuman beings in the Wildstorm Universe, those who possess the Gen-Factor.
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Gen-Active featured several ongoing storylines, usually starring Gen-Active superheroes and villains in each issue. Many of the stories dealt with the former members of DV8.
Though often converging, there were three main storylines, each with their own writer:
There also were a few short stories:
In the Wildstorm Universe, one of the sources of superhuman powers is the Gen-factor. The Gen-factor was discovered by Dr. Simon Tsung, who found it in the body of young Ethan McCain, a reincarnation of the extradimensional hero, Sigma. Tsung worked for Project: Genesis, a project run by International Operations for national defense purposes, but Tsung left when he found out that I.O.-leader Miles Craven had his own plans for the use of the Gen-factor. Tsung's work was continued by his protege Gabriel Newman and after many failures, the first truly successful application of the Gen-factor was the exposure of Team 7 to the substance.
Miles Craven later contacted Kaizen Gamorra and had him create a synthesized version of the Gen-factor. Ivana Baiul, an I.O.-operative and scientist was charged with the creation of activator and booster drugs that would activate and enhance the powers of people who had the Gen-factor, turning them Gen-Active. After Team 7, other experiments were done on humans of their generation; Team 7 and the other successful experiments were all labelled as Gen 12. Kaizen also started selling his synthesized Gen-factor to everyone who could afford it. This led to Gen-active humans worldwide, but many of them were highly unstable and none were as powerful as Team 7.
Project: Genesis restarted 15–20 years later and the subjects this time were the children of Gen 12. Craven hoped that the younger subjects were easier to control and that being born with the Gen-factor made their powers more stable. Apart from children of Gen 12, other children exposed to the Gen-factor in various ways were recruited as well. This time the subjects were labelled as Gen¹³, though this name was taken by a small group of Gen¹³ Gen-Actives. Another group took the name DV8 (also known as the Deviants). Many other Gen-Active teenagers have been seen over the years, mostly the result of various I.O.-experiments; like Nate, Tommy, Sadie (Voodoo Doll) and Leslie (Trauma Queen), four Gen-Actives that befriended Gen¹³ and jokingly called themselves "The Mongolian Barbecue Avengers".
All Gen-Active humans have a telepathic link to each other. This link usually is very weak, even unnoticeable to most, but stronger between relatives (they sometimes can feel when a relative is in extreme pain). The link also allows sensitive Gen-Actives to notice the presence of other Gen-Actives. In case of Team 7, the link also made the sum of their powers greater than each member's individual powers.
The powers that individual Gen-Actives receive, seem to be completely random; most of Team 7 gained strong telepathic and telekinetic powers and some gained a healing factor. Their children though have displayed very different and unique abilities.
In addition to humans, at least one human/Kherubim hybrid (Backlash) has also been affected by the Gen-Factor. It has also affected animals, and was used in creating the Kindred.