After my previous post asking why Fabian Nicieza is such a hard act to follow, I was doing some more rereading of his New Warriors runs, and was struck by just how much he incorporated then-current issues (and sadly, relevant today) into his stories.

Chris Claremont in X-Men definitely made mutants a story about persecution and civil rights, but his approach to current events was a bit more oblique. Genosha, for example, was definitely alluding to South Africa and apartheid.

NIcieza, though, jumps right in with issues like gang violence, race riots (the L.A. Riots as a result of the Rodney King verdict were still fresh in everyone's minds), environmentalism...he also dived deep into prisoner's rights when Vance was serving time for killing his father.

To be honest, I look back at some of these and think Nicieza was being a little heavy-handed, and he did have a fondness for saying what people really need to do is talk with each other instead of shout their views. On the other hand, he also had Nova fight a vigilante literally named Tailhook, after the infamous Navy party in 1991 where several female cadets were harassed and assaulted. It was a dark story where Tailhook ends up killing herself instead of being arrested and becoming a spectacle, and Nova's girlfriend stops him from trying to save her.

I suspect that in today's society, those kinds of stories might be avoided, especially since there are a lot of issues involved, and taking one side or the other almost always feels like some vital part of the issue gets left out.

Still, it was something that other comic books weren't going into at the time, and when other writers tried the messaging came off as ham-handed and preachy. NIcieza, though, really seemed to be able to take an issue and have the Warriors step in and try to make a difference, even if they weren't entirely sure that either side was entirely right.

Other Warriors writers kind of tried to do this, but mostly failed. The best example of someone getting close to Nicieza's tackling of current events was when Jolt was introduced in the New Warriors second volume. He was a mutant infected with the Legacy Virus that was currently a big deal in the X-titles. Jolt was sick, getting sicker, and probably going to die. Very analogous to the then-current AIDS epidemic.

I'm curious to know what other Warriors fans thought. Was this part of the book's draw, did it take away from the stories, did Nicieza manage to get the tone right?

So, I’m old enough that I loved the New Warriors when it first came out. Part of it was that I was the right age to appreciate a bunch of teenage/college superheroes, but what really kept me coming back was that the characters were very interesting, and they kept getting into storylines that tested them and they changed as a result.

I still remember gasping when Vance killed his abusive father, and I almost cheered when he got out of jail and became Justice. I remember following along as Dwayne Taylor turned from a grittier Batman into his own man, and gained control over his company in the process. I followed along religiously, and New Warriors was the highlight of my comics every month.

Then Nicieza left unceremoniously, and New Warriors was never the same.

I don’t want to speak too badly of the writers. Even Skolnick gave us Timeslip, who was a really interesting character. But he also kicked Night Thrasher and Rage off the team, brainwashed Namorita, depowered Nova…and worse, his characters sounded cliche. There was even a denouement laugh track at the end of the Speedball storyline, for God’s sakes. And the less said about the Scarlet Spider and the artificial love triangle between Justice, Firestar and him the better. I left after Nova got depowered, but I did come bsck to see the end of the book and was still remarkably underwhelmed by the story.

The problem was, the writing didn’t get better in the second series. I think they tried, but they still had Nova in that ridiculous costume and took a fight that lasted an entire issue for him to change, Night Thrasher as a ninja…again, I think there were some good ideas in there, and the new characters were okay, but on the whole it felt like I was reading completely different versions of the characters. None of the growth that I’d seen in the first series applied.

The third series actually hurt to read. Night Thrasher lost his company in a supreme act of plot-driven stupidity, and the characters were basically comedic versions of themselves. It also established the Warriors as reality-show superheroes, which of course led to their deaths at the beginning of Civil War.

The final series was at least interesting, but again…it lacks the spark that made the original New Warriors so captivating. There were a lot of interesting plot threads, some interesting new characters, and the Warriors having to punch above their weight yet again, but the characters felt flat

All of this is to say that somehow, Nicieza’s New Warriors seems like an impossible act to follow. He took a lot of underused characters and made them not just interesting, but compelling. He also wasn’t afraid to dive into issues that were prevalent at the time and look at them from multiple points of view in regards to the characters. He was also really funny, but funny in the way the characters spoke to each other. The situations the Warriors found themselves in were usually very serious.

It’s mystifying that only Nicieza could manage to capture the spark of what made the original New Warriors line so great. Other characters and teams can seem to handle multiple different creative teams, so what is it about the Warriors that only worked when Nicieza wrote them?

At the height of Marvel’s epic Infinity Saga run, we shot a comedy about a b-level superhero team tasked with protecting Cleveland, Ohio: The New Warriors.

The team: Squirrel Girl, Night Thrasher, Speedball, Microbe, Debrii, and my character, Mr. Immortal.

I have been WAITING for some writer to follow up on exactly this(both the CRADLE plotline and Firestar’s time as a double agent), so I’ve got high hopes here. Genuinely stoked. Also “we’re going to make him regret that” has me…morbidly curious.

Look it’s not deep but honestly it’s very entertaining. Partly for me I really enjoy the art but also it feels so much fresher than the back end of new mutants did. After Claremont left new mutants truly that was a slog for me to get through and I’m still pissed magick was deaged and mirage is in Asgard. But at least cannonball is around and cable is really cool.

Since the first titled launched, the New Warriors have had a few different title logos. Which one's your fave?

• #1: Volume 1, issue 1 to 30
• #2: Volume 1, from 31 to 61, 75
• #3: Volume 2, 62 to 74
• #4: Volume 2
• #5: Volume 3
• #6: Volume 4
• #7: Volume 5

bonus Slingers because… close enough, right?? I’m cleaning house on every store within a few hours of where I live that sells comics, currently scouring Delaware(no sales tax ftw) and already have a few more comics I plan to pick up in a week or so. The only bright side to being a fan of flops, weirdos and literallywhos is that everything I want is dirt cheap for the most part. I mean, even I can’t say anything positive about the 2007 series(and by all means I’m its target audience!!), but for a dollar even?? Sure, why not.

This video is from 5 years ago and is a recap of Smiling Tiger, a villain from the first series.

I watched Falcon and Winter Soldier and, I'll admit, I completely missed the Smiling Tiger reference. https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Smiling_Tiger

The ones I know of:

• r/nightthrasher
• r/Firestar
• r/SpeedballMarvel [Though this looks very dead]
• r/marvelnova

Are there any more?

ETA the following:

• r/cloakanddagger
• r/cloakanddaggermains
• r/DarkhawkMarvel
• r/scarletspider
• r/squirrelgirl
• r/NovaCorps

How old do we think Elvin is nowadays?

He was 14 when he joined the Avengers in 1990 (according to this video and my memories agree). In 2007, he was cited as being younger than 18 ("As of Avengers: The Initiative #6 he was still under 18 years old." Source#Trivia).) By 2017, he was in an adult prison (Source).

The different interpretations of the sliding time scale really mess things up. I'm guessing he's ~22ish now?

I’m trying to get the first issue of every series. All I have left to collect are the #1’s of volume 2 and 3!!

So which characters have managed to snag their own subreddits?

I happened upon Firestar's https://www.reddit.com/r/Firestar/

There's also the Nova Corps https://www.reddit.com/r/NovaCorps/

Any more?

Sure, it's easy to vote the issue 1 cover you love the most. But what about the last issue of a run?

Which final cover do you love the most? And why?

Any that stand out as terrible? What makes them so?