The New Warriors - Beginnings

The New Warriors: Beginnings by Fabian Nicieza
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When Terrax trashes New York, can these brave New Warriors who burst on the scene stop him? And who are the New Warriors?

Way back in the day, I bought New Warriors #1 off the spinner rack at the local drug store. Decades later, I found this trade paperback at the local V-Stock for four bucks. It contains New Warriors 1-4 and parts of Thor #411 and #412.

The New Warriors were a mix of second and third string teenage/young adult characters. Nova and Speedball each had their own book at one point and Firestar had her own miniseries as well as a role on Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends. Night Thrasher was a new character and very rooted in the 1990s. Marvel Boy was another version of Vance Astro from the 1970s Guardians of the Galaxy and made some appearances in Marvel Two-In-One and The Thing over the years. Namorita was Namor's cousin and the existing character I was least familiar with when I first bought the book off the spinner rack years ago.

In this volume, the New Warriors take on Terrax, the Juggernaut, the Mad Thinker, Psionex, and Midnight's Fire, a man from Night Thrasher's past. The first issue was a pretty solid first issue and made quite an impression on me back in the day. I still remembered most of it. The Thor issues were decent. The highlight for me was Hercules singing She Drives Me Crazy by the Fine Young Cannibals on Thor's couch.

New Warriors #2-4 were somewhat interesting but were a little bit of a letdown after the first issue. The character moments were a lot better than the action. Fabian Nicieza was laying the groundwork for future stories that would eventually bear fruit. I read the New Warriors sporadically back in the day due to the vagueries of what ended up on the rack at the pharmacy but I can already see the seeds of what happens two years down the line. There are already hints of what's to come with Marvel Boy and his father, for instance. Mark Bagely's art isn't quite what it would be when he replaced Erik Larsen on Spider-Man a couple years after this but it's still pretty solid.

There's a lot of potential for future New Warriors apparent in this collection but it cuts off at a weird point. After the battles with Terrax and the Juggernaut, almost everything else feels like setup for future stuff. It's an interesting look at an attempt to launch a team book that wasn't an Avengers or X-Men spinoff. Three out of five stars.

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