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By Jason Bourgeois
Before I get into anything else, the first order of business is to give Sheryl and everyone working on the Collector Times a mighty congratulations on putting this thing out monthly for ten years, as of this very moment. For ten years, we've been putting this thing together, by hook or by crook (Usually the latter...) and giving our best bits of reviews, interviews and commentary on comics, science fiction, movies, books, and everything else. We've conventioned, we've photographed, we've traveled, we've rambled, ranted, and written our wee little hearts out, and here we stand, ten years later. A few scars, and a bit worn, but we made it this far, and we're still going. It's been a long, strange trip, with no end in sight. Which may be scarier than intended.
Also, thanks should be given to Sheryl for giving me a place to rant for almost ten years, otherwise my thoughts on comics would be limited to chatrooms, or my Live Journal, until I got fed up and made my own website, and I'm too lazy for that. So thanks, Sheryl. I know I'm a pain, but I'm still writing for you.
With the festivities out of the way, it's time to get down to business. This month's business is the return of a series familiar to longtime Marvel fans, the New Warriors.
When the first version of the title started back in the early nineties, it consisted of little known teenage characters, banding together and fighting evil. The book was brought to us by Fabian Nicieza, and Mark Bagley, two established names in the industry, but by no means big stars at the time. This book was the start of their rise, some may say. It had a loyal fanbase, intricate stories, and interesting characters, all done with dynamic, energetic art by Bagley.
After 75 issues, and a few creative teams in that time, the book faded away. One of the factors in this was trying to cram every title into a specific 'family' of comics, and the New Warriors were shoved in with the Spider-Man books, having to take on the Spider-Clone as a member. It went downhill from there. Many of the characters fell into limbo, popping up in the background as set dressing for crossovers, while some members went on to join the Avengers.
Another attempt on the title was made a few years later, but that lasted just about a year, and is more or less forgettable, as many characters from the original run were out, and the book never quite caught on with fans, old or new, so the sales stayed low. One of the characters, Nova, had an equally short lived title at the same time, and the titles were often at odds with their plots, rather than working together to build an audience between them. That's at least how I remember it, and I am a little fuzzy on those issues, so I could be way off, and apologies if I am.
With another few years gone by, yet another attempt was made on the title, but this time they played it smart, and only brought them back with a four issue limited series, having the team decide to become reality TV stars, and go fight villains on camera. Not being a fan of reality shows, nor one of the art style, I gave this title a complete pass, but the general reaction I saw was far from favourable.
The New Warriors were next used as scapegoats by Mark Millar to polarise the Marvel Universe during the Civil War, by having a band of villains they were chasing blow up in a populated area of a city, and causing everyone to jump on the bandwagon of superhero registration, despite the fact that it wasn't heroes that caused the tragedy, and you'd never get villains to register...but that's a rant for another time. Or one I've already covered. After ten years, it starts to blur.
In the wake of the Civil War, with the registration a fact of life now, a new team of young people emerged to challenge the new status quo, and they took up the mantle of the New Warriors. They took the name of those many saw behind the tragedy, to act as a symbol of young rebellion. I'd list off who is on the team, but I only know a few of them, despite being 10 issues into the title now.
That is really the major flaw of the title. It's centered around a bunch of ciphers who are supposed to be old characters, and only a few of them even I, with a near encyclopedic knowledge of the Marvel Universe (And a complete collection of Official Handbooks to the Marvel Universe) can't figure out who many of them are. Even with a recap page, I can't bother to remember who some of them are month in and month out, because the book has yet to tell me in any memorable way.
The book dives into mid storyline, with the team already assembled, in generic costumes that obscure their identities, and tries to draw us in with a familiar face, Sofia Mantega/Wind Dancer from the New X-Men, who lost her powers with many other mutants during M-Day. Rather than using her like most writers would, and introduce the team to the readers through Sofia's eyes, we're thrown from one adventure to another with barely differentiated characters, and Sofia is quickly tossed to the side for a few issues after not wanting to be part of the team, coming back to be a hero, and getting injured.
Once the team is finally out of costume, and having some downtime, the curse of bad fill in art hits the book, and every single one of the women ends up looking exactly the same, despite one being Japanese, and the other being African-American, and I don't know what the third was, since I can't remember who she even is.
The characters sit around and whine about the X-Men not caring about them, and tossing them out when they lost their powers. I can't be bothered to care about them either, since I have no idea who anyone is, so can't identify with their issues and problems, so much like the X-Men, I'm just about ready to toss this book by the wayside.
And truly, that is a shame. Ignoring the characters, this isn't a badly written book, and when characters I do know and care about are the primary focus, I can actually get behind them. When Jubilee and Chamber are reminiscing about the old days, or what to do, or how much their situation sucks now, I can get behind it, and empathize, because they're known quantities.
The book feels like I missed about six issues, where the team got together. If I actually knew anyone, I would have cared when someone or other, whom I think was someone else's brother in the book, was killed in their big opening fight. If I'd been shown these characters coming together, and got to know just who the hell they were, I might care about their issues, and what happens month in and month out, but right now all I really care about is two or three characters, and they're written as generic or just wrong half the time. Sofia is a great example of that, who went from a slightly naive, if brave and smart girl with an accent to a street smart waitress who sounds like every other New Yorker when I wasn't watching, between New X-Men and New Warriors.
I can see quality writing back there, but without knowing and caring about the characters, it's just a pointless exercise in plot twists and advancements. And what good are plot twists when you can't tell the players? If Kevin Grevioux can take some time and flesh out the team, and not make things so dragged out and the big events not be the non-events they've been so far, it would be a much improved title.
Unless something changes by the end of the current storyline, I'm off the book, and I can't really recommend anyone else pick it up, unless they want to read about bland, generic people doing typical heroics.
Jason M. Bourgeois
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