New Warriors #4 Review

“If you could kill one person to save a thousand, wouldn’t you?”

A Scarlet Spider goes on another adventure in Mt. Wundagore! But instead of finding some good ole’ double-retcon continuity clean-up, our favorite Crimson Curmudgeon and Co. stumble onto a genetic-cleansing operation that would make even the Jackal green with envy (or even, uh, greener. . .nevermind). Will Kaine & Krew foil the High Evolutionary’s plans in time? Will this book defy expectations and manage a heel-turn in the final act of its pilot-story? Read on!

WRITER: Christopher Yost

ARTIST: Marcus To

COLOR ARTIST: David Curiel

LETTERING: VC’s Joe Caramagna

COVER by Ramon Perez & Ian Herring

EDITOR: Sana Amanat

SENIOR EDITOR: Nick Lowe

STORY: We come in on the High Evolutionary and one of the Evolutionaries being transported to the middle of nowhere in Ethiopia, seemingly against their will. After a brief skirmish, they are interrupted by a mysterious figure who warns them about the error of their respective visions toward evolution and the imminent return of the Celestials to judge the Earth. Flashforward to the present in Mt. Wundagore where Herbert Wyndham and the Evolutionaries (sounds like a band) are about to “cleanse” the gene pool of Nova, Scarlet Spider, Hummingbird, and Water Snake when Justice, Speedball, Sun Girl, and “Mark” (the Inhuman from the sewers last issue) literally show up as if from nowhere and rally the rest of the heroes. The ensuing battle unfolds over the next few pages, reaching a significant development when Mark transforms into a giant dragon-rottweiler and mauls some of the Evolutionaries. As the heroes turn the tide, the High Evolutionary slips away and activates his “kill everyone that isn’t an unaltered human” machine, effectively neutralizing all the heroes except Sun Girl, who has no powers, just tech. Wyndham unsuccessfully attempts to convert Sun Girl to his way of thinking before she blasts him, allowing the heroes time to recover. Justice destroys the High Evolutionary’s machine so Wyndham and the Evolutionaries beat a retreat, leaving the heroes to their victory. Justice attempts to declare this assembly the “New Warriors” and is met with revilement from every character except Sun Girl (and the endearingly enthusiastic Hummingbird). Meanwhile, at the High Evolutionary’s Savage Land base from Avengers #’s12-13, Wyndham and the Evolutionaries recommit themselves to their genocidal dreams, determining that these heroes and their “samples” (ick) are all they need to “cleanse the world of their own kind.” Cut out to a Yellow Celestial with the Milky Way between his hands aaaand: Done. Boom goes the dynamite.

THOUGHTS: First off, sorry for the delay folks. There was some turn over for the reviewer for this book, so I’ll be taking over the reviews for New Warriors from Evan through its conclusion in November. We’ll try to get caught up on the title before #9 comes out next Wednesday.

Allow me to sum up my impression of this issue, as well as this arc, by saying that it was an incredibly average story by a historically well-above-average writer. 

As he assembles this new rendition of the New Warriors, Yost indicates a suitable amount of awareness of their character histories (with the possible exception of Speedball who has really reverted from his “Penance” persona, but I’m OK with that). Each of the heroes has their own unique voice that never struck me as being out of character. However, in actually bringing these heroes together, I can’t help but compare this story with the Avengers film, and, albeit predictably, Whedon did it better. I know that we’re talking about two different teams with different characters involved, but both stories are about a very eclectic group of individuals who should not be in the same room together but are assembled to combat a threat greater than any they could face alone. Whedon managed to do this in a very organic and, I thought, cathartic manner, but Yost falls short in comparison. This is because this is the kind of plot-driven story that forces the characters through the narrative in an often-jarring manner to bring them to a pre-determined conclusion, instead of letting these individuals come together on their own. When you get to Marcus To’s 2/3-page panel on page 19 with all the heroes standing posed against the High Evolutionary, it doesn’t really feel earned to me. And while the characters themselves acknowledge in the end that they are not yet a team, this does little to salvage the situation for those of us who have invested four issues ($16) in a story we thought would establish them as a team. I speculate that this will be either be one of those books where the team really comes together right before the title is cancelled or, I dread thinking, a book that ends with them being broken apart before we really saw them come together and had the chance to read some good stories about their adventures.

And on a related note, in a market with a number of Avengers titles that you have to use two hands to count, I couldn’t help but think as I was reading the pilot-arc of this title, “what distinguishes this team from the Avengers?” They’re not all mutants. Or Inhumans. Was it the affirmative action, “every hero comes from a different power demographic,” aspect? Nope. Hickman’s Avengers are from all over the Marvel U. Was it the fact that previous New Warriors teams have been comprised of younger, inexperienced heroes, as opposed to the veteran heroes in Stark Tower? Kinda, I guess. A slight majority of the team is made up of younger heroes (Sam, Aracely, Selah, Mark, and Faira), but the others (Vance, Robbie, and Kaine) are pretty experienced heroes. And the fact that we have reached the end of this arc and I am still wondering, “Why does this book exist? What place does a new team of New Warriors have on the shelves? What distinguishes this book?” well, I think that’s something that, in this market, a writer would do well to establish a new book’s place within the first issue, or two at most, which Yost has done to great effect with his late Scarlet Spider series. Maybe I missed what they were going for in that regard, but the “point” of this book’s existence still eludes me.

But let’s talk about Kaine. I got a little nervous when I realized that they were bringing Scarlet Spider to Mt. Wundagore again, because, as those of us who have read Scarlet Spider Unlimited #1 from late ’95 can attest, the last time that happened we got a very contrived and convoluted story that didn’t seem to belong anywhere near a Spider-Man title. But I gave Yost the benefit of the doubt for this one. If he proved anything to me with his run on Scarlet Spider, it was that he is capable of mining good stories from previously controversial or oftentimes reviled arcs, such as the “Clone Saga” or “the Other.” But this was just a very underwhelming story. While I am quite happy to have the chance to read more Kaine tales under Yost’s pen, Scarlet Spider spent most of this issue either being really pissed off & antisocial or being the butt of the “well guys, he’s definitely not Spider-Man” joke, which started to fall flat on me last issue.

I did however, like the specific annoyance that Kaine had towards the straight-laced and archetypically heroic Justice in the few panels they shared, not only because Vance’s demeanor would likely, if subconsciously, remind Kaine of his goody-goody brother Peter, but because it’s a kind of reversal of the relationship that Vance had with Ben Reilly when the first Scarlet Spider was briefly on the original New Warriors’ team. Vance didn’t like Ben because his girlfriend Firestar would innocently flirt with Scarlet Spider, which Ben definitely did not mind as Angelica reminded him of Elizabeth Tyne from his “Lost Years” on the road between Clone Sagas (those Parker boys and their redheads). But as that was neither the focus nor the point of this chapter, it didn’t do very much to raise the book in my esteem.

As for the art, Marcus To strikes me as being a consistent artist of a certain above-average quality. Being that this is almost a cover-to-cover fight issue, he managed to move the characters through the action in a clear and exciting manner. While I don’t think To has the story-telling ability or range of a Romita or a Frenz, and his line work was admittedly much sketchier in this issue and Curiel’s colors much less bright than in the last three, the art still effectively maintained a consistent tone and overall quality throughout this issue and throughout this arc.

Some straggling nitpicks: Why did Mark have new super-heroey pants and no shirt when he showed up at Wundagore with Vance, Robbie, and Selah? Robbie said that it took an hour to find the others and presumably had to fly back to New Salem in order to seek and travel to Transia, so when and where did he get his new Haechi-pants? Also, Herbert Wyndham’s consequentialist justification for killing all the non-powered people on Earth just made my eyes do a big Tina Fey-sized roll. I recognize that the whole “do we kill a few to save a lot?” question is a real ethical conundrum, but this was a case where Wyndham was trying to convince Selah that it was the right thing based on results that may not even happen. And speaking of the High Evolutionary, I thought that it would have been a cold day in Hell when he would abandon Wundagore in the midst of a battle with beings far less powerful than himself, but sure enough, ole’Herb ran off to the Savage Land after very little resistance. Whoever this secret character is that gathered Herbert and the Evolutionaries, he must be pretty spooky to get Wyndham to forsake his worldview and abandon his home, & not to mention kill off all of his loyal Animen (Rest in Peace, Bova. *sniffle*).

KAINIAC KORNER: For all us Kainiacs out there, my Scarlet Spider highlight for this issue unfolded on pages 13 and 14. After Wyndham blasts Nova into unconsciousness, Justice desperately tries to get Sam to tell him what kind of machine the High Evolutionary built. After yelling “What did he build?!” Kaine derides Justice in his characteristically guarded manner, saying that it’s no use yelling as Nova’s unconscious. Turn the page, and Kaine just gets fed up, changes his mind, and grabs Sam, yelling “Wake the &*^% up!” . . . (I laughed. . . I mean come on, there weren’t many Kaine moments to choose from in this issue)

GRADE: C- Incredibly average.