When the New Warriors first appeared, I wondered why it had taken Marvel so long to put together a team like theirs. There had not been a team of non-mutant teenage heroes since The Young Allies in the golden age (OK, they did have Power Pack, but that group was pre-teen). I think the Success of DC's New Teen Titans at the time encouraged them to give the concept a try. The formula must have worked for Marvel, as we have seen teen groups The Runaways, Young Avengers and The Future Foundation follow in their wake. The New Warriors was the first though, and it would be nice to see them make a return. They have never seemed to quite recover form the destruction of the group in Marvel's Civil War event. There have been a few attempts to relaunch a New Warriors comic, but nothing has stuck yet. The original team had an interesting roster of characters, and hopefully we will see a more permanent return soon.
Dave sez,
ReplyDeleteCool! Very "Batman and The Outsiders"!
Marvel certainly has a knack for putting "eclectic" characters together to form teams - Defenders, Champions, the monster team...but they also have a knack of putting teams, books and characters together and throwing at a wall to see what sticks.
Not that they are the only publisher that does that...
Still, pretty cool!
I think a lot of the charm of the first volume of The New Warriors was Fabian Nicieza's writing and Mark Bagley's art. Nicieza was still able to keep most of the magic when Bagley left, but those first 25 issues will always be the best possible New Warriors stories ever. None of these reboots have quite gotten it.
ReplyDeleteWith the events of Civil War and Nova's newfound status as a galactic protector (which suits him), I don't know if New Warriors is even needed anymore. Things like Runaways and Young Avengers succeed basically because they have much of the same charm as the original New Warriors concept. It's basically the same thing with a different name.
I miss the original Night Thrasher, though. But in a way, his story was basically done after those first 25 issues, too. He disappeared frequently in New Warriors after that story, if I recall.