New Warriors #1 Review

“Warriors – Get Your War On!”

Writer: Christopher Yost

Artist: Marcus To

Colors: David Curiel

Lettering: Joe Caramagna

Editor: Sana Amanat

Assistant Editor: Devin Lewis

Plot: The first issue of the New Warriors begins with the High Evolutionary, the mad genetic scientist from the stars, attacking a former inhabitant of Wundegore Mountain (who also happens to be half human, half cow). From here, we zip over to Justice and Speedball who are in the middle of their  cross country trek to find themselves ala Hal Jordan and Oliver Queen, only with a lot more “war” puns. The duo are caught in a fight with the Salem’s Seven, a former super villain team who are now the acting guardians of a town in New England. What would the first issue of a team book be without heroes fighting one another due to a misunderstanding?

Meanwhile, Kaine and Aracely, fresh from the ending of the Scarlet Spider ongoing series, find themselves in Mexico, soaking up sun and margaritas, while running into the occasional mugger here and there.

Across the border, Sungirl flies across the skyline of New York City, saving lives and stewing over what a jerk Spider-Man is. She’s lured into a situation under ground involving Morlocks being fried by large mysterious entities, that turn out to be lackeys of the High Evolutionary. On the other side of the country, Nova (Sam Alexander) fights a shape shifting alien looking to retrieve technology dropped by Thanos the Mad Titan from the end of the Infinity Crossover.

The gang fights the High Evolutionary cronies and we’re left with a nice “To Be Continued”

Thoughts: The first thought that came to mind when I put down this issue was, “By the numbers”. This story, for good or for ill, was about as by the numbers as you can find in a team book. Members are attacked by massive threat and must eventually band together to overcome it. This is a structure we’ve seen many, MANY times before and I was hoping that we would be able to buck the trend with this one. Unfortunately, it seems like we’ll have to go on this familiar ride once more unless Yost manages to pull something out of left field out of his hat. With a book like this one, you really need to come out of the gates with guns a-blazin’ to get folks’ attentions or you may not live to see tomorrow.

Starting from the top, Vance (Justice) and Robby’s (Speedball) side of the story was fun and offered some cool ideas to it. I thought that Robby attempting to come up with battle cries for the as yet formed team got a chuckle out of me, especially the “Sign the War-Saw Treaty”! I also really dug the concept behind the Salem’s Seven, now trying to undo the mistakes of their, and their parents’, pasts by guarding a town specifically made up of magical beings and I wouldn’t mind seeing more from them in the future in this book or somewhere else. The former enemies bonding of video games and ice cream was a nice change of pace.

What I find most odd about this was the mention of Civil War. I get that it was a big event in the time of the New Warriors but it made me scratch my head when Vertigo, of the Salem Seven, just blurts out that the team was responsible for blowing up Stamford. It was really Nitro who was responsible for the whole thing and I find it odd that there wouldn’t be more of a PR push to explain that fact on the side of Tony Stark and the remaining New Warriors. Still, as long as Robby isn’t wearing an iron maiden suit and cutting himself, I’ll take it as a win.

The interplay between Kaine and Aracely was great, as it was in the Scarlet Spider series, managing to bounce off one another effortlessly. It makes me miss that series and while it’s great to at least see the two appearing in a book, it did make me want more from them, which I’m sure we’ll see in the coming months. Their time of course was eaten up by Sun Girl, who is just sort of…there. There’s not really much to her personality as far as I can see, and while I know she’s a favorite of Yost’s from her appearances in the Spidey Team-Up book, I think she needs something to differentiate herself from the pack. Also, it was sort of strange to see Marrow with the Morlocks, considering she’s currently bouncing around with Cable’s current X-Force sans bones shooting out of her skin.

The artwork by Marcus To was great and I get a nice Mark Bagley feel from it, with the colors popping thanks to David Curiel, which were both appropriate for the story. To is great at action sequences and especially character emotions, as you get a good They’re going for the vibe of a “fun romp” and it certainly works in that regard. The story overall had some humorous moments among the cast, but I was hoping for something that wasn’t as typical. The book feels like it’s straight from the 90’s, not to necessarily say that this is a bad thing, but your mileage may vary.

Hopefully we can get some more twists and turns with the upcoming issues.

Grade: B-