New Warriors #’s 7&8 Review

“Human, Inhuman. . . there’s no difference. Just people. . . and people that need blasting!”

Kaine and Kompany are sidetracked from preparing for the coming Celestial threat by the kidnapping of one of their own. The newest Warrior’s tale is finally told as Haechi is forced to make a dreadful choice. Will Scarlet Spider and his Amazing Friends rescue Haechi in time? Does Haechi even want to be rescued? Read on!

WRITER: Christopher Yost

ARTIST: Marcus To

COLOR ARTIST: Ruth Redmond

LETTERING: VC’s Joe Caramagna

COVERS by Takeshi Miyazawa & Matthew Wilson

EDITOR: Sana Amanat

SENIOR EDITOR: Nick Lowe

STORY: We come into #7 the split second after the explosion in Mark’s home from last issue began. Watching the flames creep closer to his friends and family, his perception of time seems to slow as Haechi instantly changes into his dragon form to absorb the blast. After a brief skirmish with the Inhuman villains, and being called a “monster” by his own grandmother, Haechi is abducted by an Inhuman darkforce wielder, but not before Sun Girl jumps in the teleport after him. Back at Wundagore, Speedball and Jake Waffles are tracking Celestial energies across the globe in the hope of finding the High Evolutionary and his goons, when Robbie starts to annoy Water Snake by accusing her of being Namorita. Faira walks off in a huff, and right as Jake is telling Robbie about three Celestial energy signatures that are making earthfall, Justice interrupts and summons the Warriors to deal with Haechi’s abduction. Elsewhere, on some tropical beach, three Deviants crash to the Earth and start to prepare for their “master’s return.” In the depths of Wundagore, Scarlet Spider, Hummingbird, and Mr. Whiskers are searching for Chthonian relics and are almost ambushed by a dark, robed figure when Speedball interrupts on the coms and summons them to help find Haechi and Sun Girl. Speaking of whom, the Brotherhood of Evil Inhumans (they’re not actually called that) have Selah and Mark held captive in Jakarta and are monologuing about how humans are obsolete, when Selah attacks them, making a desperate dive through fire to get to her tech and free Mark, who attacks their captors. As Mark and Selah make their getaway, the villain Lash from Soule & Joe Mad’s Inhuman book shows up with his two lackeys and a proposition for Mark. . . As Justice prepares his rescue operation, Kaine tells Aracely not to get too comfortable as they will not be staying much longer. Justice brings in a former Warrior and darkforce wielder named Silhouette to help track down Mark and Selah. However, Silhouette’s powers go awry as the Warriors approach Jakarta and instead of being transported to their teammates’ exact location, they appear in the midst of a crowd of civilians under the mind control of the evil Inhuman Noculus. Kaine tells Justice that he hates him. The End.

#8 both acts as Haechi’s origin story and continues the rescue operation from last issue. In the midst of “Infinity,” Mark watches as Attilan blows up in the sky and releases the Terrigen Mists. He goes into his cocoon and emerges with a ripped new bod and a dragon horn. He is accosted by some haters and is nearly beaten to death when a kindly passerby scares his attackers off with a shotgun and helps Mark to his feat. Back in present-day Jakarta, Lash tries to convince Mark to renounce humanity and come and join Orollan, Lash’s new Inhumans-only city, while Justice, Speedball, Scarlet Spider, Hummingbird, and Water Snake deal with Nocculus’ puppets. Robbie starts to get on everyone’s nerves (except Aracely, who is smitten with him) for not taking the situation seriously. Elsewhere in the compound, Silhouette watches from the shadows as Haechi’s abductors panic at the mention of Lash’s presence, as they are not yet in Lash’s inner circle and have abducted Mark to get in his good graces. Sun Girl has enough of Lash’s prejudice and attacks, causing Mark to come to her defense, disappointing Lash. Just as Aracely manages to force Noculus out of the civilians’ heads, Scarlet Spider gets under Speedball’s skin just enough for Robbie to turn grim and unleash a big, Penance-like kinetic blast. The heroes all catch up to one another as Mark renounces Lash’s vision and chooses to remain with the Warriors. The team makes short work of both Lash’s crew and Mark’s abductors, so Lash retreats with his team to lick their wounds. In an epilogue, Nova finally makes his return to the book, only to have arrived at Wundagore too late to help with Haechi’s rescue. Outside, the three Deviants float ominously in the sunset over the Warriors’ mountain-base. Done-zo.

THOUGHTS: I’m surprised that these issues didn’t have the “Inhumanity” banner across the top of them.

After a light-hearted and entertaining two-parter over the last two issues that used the whole cast in a really nice, balanced way, Yost narrows the focus onto one character for these issues. And since I’m reading this book for Kaine, I wasn’t thrilled by how little we got to see of him. It’s not like the Scarlet Spider and the rest of the team just dropped out of the book, and when they were used they were used well, but if you’re like me and are wanting to read more of Yost chronicling Kaine’s continued adventures, than you might be disappointed by how little panel-time he received here.

It’s not like I didn’t like the issues though. The book’s stories continue to go in a more character-oriented direction, as opposed to the plot-forced story from the pilot-arc. It’s nice to see Marcus To back on the art, as well. And although I personally favored David Curiel’s brighter coloring to Ruth Redmond’s more subdued tones, keeping her on from the previous arc did emote a nice sense of continuity within the volume. There’s some irony though, I thought, that the shift to Redmond’s restrained and slightly moodier colors from Curiel’s brighter, more optimistic palette coincides with the darkening of this book’s future on the shelves. Which would be a shame, if the book continues to develop in the direction it is.

#7 did start on a shaky note with me, as right there in the first panel on the first page there was a spelling error (“javen’t” instead of “haven’t”). It’s a tiny thing, but I remember thinking, “I hope this isn’t a sign of negligence for the rest of the story.” Thankfully, it wasn’t. In what could have easily been a throwaway back-up story, Yost managed to weave Mark’s origin into a New Warriors tale in a good way. It wasn’t jarring. It had some good character moments, particularly how much Sun Girl looks out for Haechi, and when Robbie demonstrates his raw Penance kinetic energy. Speaking of which, Mark finally receives his nom de guerre, “Haechi.” Evidently it refers to a Korean dragon.

And since this is a Spider-Man site, I just want to point out a connection between Mark’s story here and what Ben Reilly went through when he had his brief tenure with the Warriors. After the explosion of the Terrigen Bomb during “Infinity,” Mark goes through an experience that makes him question his very identity. It was nice to see, here, that the New Warriors are there for him while he figures stuff out. Likewise, Ben joined the Warriors right after “Maximum Clonage” (yeesh), having recently undergone an experience that made him question his very identity. And I remember thinking, when I first read those tales, that it was nice for this consummate loner to have some people he could call to have his back if he needed. Sadly, we didn’t really see much of this, except in the “Time Bomb” arc when Ben called in the Warriors to keep with a Jackal-programmed Peter from killing Mary Jane.

Back to the issues at hand, a small development we did get with Kaine was when he told Aracely that they were going to leave the team. I’m glad that Yost did not beat around the bush with this development as it is something that needs to be addressed. After all, the last time someone asked him to be on a team (Texas Twister from the Rangers), Kaine punched him in the face (Scarlet Spider #9). Consider too that it has been one of the more prevalent complaints about Spidey’s membership in the Avengers that he’s historically kind of anti-social and not really a team guy, and Kaine is his even-more-abrasive clone. Psychologically speaking, Kaine would be kind of a mess when it comes to the whole team-thing. While I’m sure it’s nice to be with people who accept him again, the last time this happened things ended pretty disastrously. So I look with high hopes to see what makes Kaine stay when Yost and crew hopefully address this next issue.

In the ongoing quest to find something that defines this book, I think I may see a prevalent theme develop in these issues: friendship, particularly that friendship dissolves the borders between peoples. I liked that the conclusion Mark came to when he considered Lash’s proposal was that it is not genetics that makes him belong, but camaraderie. Mark doesn’t care about being human or Inhuman, he just wants to be with people who accept him for who he is. Since I’ve speculated that we will see a similar development with Scarlet Spider next issue, I think it’s safe to say that this may be the premier theme of the book: acceptance through friendship.

As a parting remark, I just want to express my disappointment in that it seems we will never see the big “Mexico story” that Yost has been developing with Aracely and Kaine since the beginning of Scarlet Spider. When I heard that Yost was writing those characters in this book, I was happy that he would still have the chance to tell that story, but, alas, it looks like New Warriors will be sharing its predecessor’s fate. Sad panda.

KAINIAC KORNER: Since this two-parter was very much a Haechi-centric story, we really didn’t get much Kaine-action in these issues. I think though, my favorite development was between Kaine and Speedball. Kaine begins this story by reminding Robbie of how painful he can make Robbie’s final moments if he keeps annoying him. Then in the midst of battle with the possessed civilians, Kaine derides Robbie for not taking anything seriously, after which Robbie snaps and Penance-blasts everyone in the room. After this, things seem to subtly change between these two, like when Jack Chain tries to seize Kaine in the final battle with Lash’s goons, Kaine tells Speedball to take him out, indicating that Kaine at least respects Robbie’s battle-prowess, and which may suggest that Kaine senses a kind of kinship amongst two tortured souls who each in his own way is trying to make amends for the horrible things they’ve done. I’m clearly reaching here.

GRADE: B Pretty good (not much Kaine).