The New Warriors’ New Vision
In 1990, Fabian Nicieza and Mark Bagley launched a new comic book series for Marvel. The basic premise behind the new team -- the Hollywood pitch, if you will -- was that it would be a young Avengers. However, nobody thought at the time that the name Young Avengers would sell so the new team was named the New Warriors.
The team was comprised of characters from all walks of life. There were mutants in Justice and Firestar, an Atlantean in Namorita, a cosmic hero in Nova, a street hero in Night Thrasher and comic relief in Speedball. The team members were also all teenagers, though a few of them matured into twenty-somethings during the course of the title. In a way, New Warriors was Marvel’s response to the success of The New Teen Titans.
Under Nicieza and Bagley, New Warriors was an energetic, exciting and unpredictable title. They were especially popular with younger readers who related to the younger heroes (in case you were wondering, that includes a 16 year old me when the team was introduced). It wasn’t always high art, and they fought some really lame villains (the Mathemanic, anyone?). But it was fresh, exciting and well, fun. I especially enjoyed their interactions with Marvel’s other young heroes in X-Force and the way they incorporated youthful cast-offs from other titles like Rage, Darkhawk and the Scarlet Spider.
Of course, all good things come to an end and New Warriors was canceled in 1996 after 75 issues. It was a pretty good run and Marvel tried to recapture the magic with a brand-new New Warriors title by Jay Faerber in 1999. I enjoyed the second series but it didn’t recapture the interest of most fans and was quickly canceled after only 10 issues.
Real-world perceptions have a way of filtering into the fictional world of comics. The New Warriors were now viewed by fans as a twice-canceled failure and as a bit of a joke. Zeb Wells and Scottie Young leveraged that negative perception in a third New Warriors title in 2005. This time, the New Warriors would star in a comedic comic book. They positioned the New Warriors as a team desperate for acclaim and willing to sign a deal to star in a new superhero reality series. I was concerned that this new development would further deteriorate their standing with fans but, I have to admit, it was one funny title. It was one of the best superhero comedies I’d read in a long time.
Unfortunately, I was right about it confirming the perception that the New Warriors shouldn’t be taken seriously as a superhero team. On the heels of their third title, the New Warriors were depicted as a bumbling, inept team who accidentally blew up the town of Stamford, Conn., to start of Marvel’s Civil War. The New Warriors then veered sharply from their earlier incarnations. They become angst-filled, somber vigilantes, driven by guilt rather than any desire to do good. A fourth New Warriors title was launched during this dark period and managed to hang around for 20 issues.
Now, the New Warriors are ready to try again at the hands of Christopher Yost and Marcus To. As a fan of the original title, I looked forward to the newest version with a mixture of eagerness and apprehension. I was excited that some of my favorite heroes would be back even if we’re no longer in the same age group (I’m closing in on 40 while they’re still depicted as twenty-somethings). But I also harbored a few concerns. I was worried that it would be another generic team title that failed to stand out in a saturated market. I was worried that it might been dragged down by the dull, angsty era and fail to provide the exciting, energetic vibe that made it popular in the first place. And I was, quite frankly, worried that it wouldn’t be any good.
The first couple of issues allayed several of my concerns. Christopher Yost struck the right tone. It was fast-paced and exciting, with lots of action and several interlocking storylines. There were also healthy doses of a humor. This isn’t a comedy title, like the excellent Zeb Wells version or the classic Keith Giffen Justice League. But it is funny. As usual, Speedball has most of the best lines. However, Yost has also allowed Speedball to be affected by the team’s dark era. He’s more of a sarcastic wisecracker than the sunny class clown. It’s a nice bit of growth that’s also consistent with the character.
In addition, Yost realized that he had to rebuild the New Warriors’ reputation both with the fans and within the Marvel Universe. The team hasn’t actually re-formed yet. And some of the characters are ambivalent about whether or not they should. Justice continues to introduce himself as an Avenger, even while Speedball pushes him to be proud of his New Warrior heritage. As a reader, we can see how the various storylines will eventually come together but Yost is allowing the team to re-form naturally within the course of the story.
The first two issues were a decent introduction to the title and the team. I don’t know that they would have convinced anyone who didn’t like the original series to become a fan but they at least assured long-time fans that the team was in good hands.
The third issue, however, was a huge step forward. Yost apparently realizes that he has to do more than rebuild the New Warriors’ reputation. He has to give them a reason to exist in a world that already has plenty of superhero teams. He has to give them, in corporate parlance, a vision statement. In the third issue, Yost showed his cards in the midst of a monologue by the High Evolutionary.
The High Evolutionary has been the big bad villain behind the various interconnected storylines. The H.E. has come to the conclusion that the DNA chain has become corrupted with Atlanteans, Inhumans, mutants and clones wandering freely around the world. And he’s taken it upon himself to prune the garden, eliminating every strain that doesn’t fit with his idea of a pure human race. The various New Warriors now know why they’re being attacked. It’s not because they’re immature and occasionally reckless heroes. It’s because they’re Atlanteans, Inhumans, mutants and clones. They’re being attacked for who they are. Yet by attacking the New Warriors, the H.E. is ironically giving them a reason to come together. They’re uniting around a common cause- the right for every race to exist.
This new vision not only provides a reason for the old team members to unite, it also explains the presence of several characters who weren’t connected to the old team. This isn’t the same Scarlet Spider that joined the team in the late ‘90s but the H.E. doesn’t care. The H.E. is attacking him for being a clone and that’s reason enough to find common cause with the New Warriors. Plus, it gives the New Warriors an opportunity to tie into the big Inhumanity story as one of their new members is a recently converted Inhuman.
The new New Warriors is an intentional celebration and defense of diversity. It’s a welcome change of pace within the Marvel Universe. In Marvel Comics, Eternals tend to hang out with Eternals, Inhumans with Inhumans, mutants with mutants and so on. There are a few notable exceptions -- Bob Harras’ Avengers included both an Eternal and an Inhuman, and Rick Remenders’s Uncanny Avengers are intentionally mixing X-Men with Avengers -- but Marvel characters can be a little clannish. New Warriors is subverting that, bringing together heroes from every corner of the Marvel U. It’s consistent with their earlier incarnation when they added cast-offs from Spider-Man and the Avengers. But it’s never been an articulated operating principle the way it is now.
It’s also a vision that should resonate in the real world. Fans of the original series who grew up on group bonding films like The Breakfast Club should appreciate the all-walks-of-life and all-tribes approach to a superhero team. And today’s younger fans should appreciate the visible and intentional diversity. Of course, that diversity isn’t limited to the fictional factions of the Marvel U. The new Sun Girl is African-American. The new Inhuman character is apparently Asian (at least, they keep calling him Asian but his features are a little generic so I wouldn’t have made that connection on my own). They’re intentionally diverse for their world, and for ours.
Of course, diversity alone isn’t a reason to form a superhero team (or read a comic book). But it is a vision for how this team can be different from all of their earlier incarnations and all of the other books on the stands. Then again, the vision isn’t simply to be diverse. It’s to protect that diversity, to defend the right of every race and human-variant to exist whether they’re a clone, a mutant, an Atlantean or an Inhuman. That’s a book I can get behind. It helps that it’s also a book that’s energetic, fresh, exciting and fun … kind of like it was in the beginning.
Replies
I've read the first two issues of this series, was a fan of the original and sampled all the other series. I like what I've read so far in this one. Most of all, I'm very happy that Speedball is no longer "that other character." You know, that character that Robbie Baldwin would have never turned into.
Further, I like the mix of characters in this version of the New Warriors, and I think you bring up a great point about the team: These guys aren't into that cloistered attitude that many of the Marvel teams seem to foster. If you're in the right generation, you can be a New Warrior.
AMEN!
Lumbering Jack (M'odd-R8-Tr) said: