NEW WARRIORS Annual #1 - August 1991

Kings of Pain Part 1 - Errant Knights

Credits:  Fabian Nicieza (writer), Mark Bagley (penciler), Jeff Albrecht (inker), Tom Vincent (colors), Chris Eliopoulos (letters)

Summary:  X-Force and the New Warriors battle until Cable calls a truce.  Two executives at Genetech swear that the Alliance lied about working for them, leading Cable to break into Frenzy’s prison cell.  She reveals that their true employer is AIM, who used them as bodyguards for Harness and Piecemeal.  Soon, a team lead by Marvel Boy breaks into a warehouse owned by AIM, discovering inside “humanoid shell casings.”  In Japan, Harness and Piecemeal absorb more energy, as Piecemeal grows more bloated.  Meanwhile, Cannonball’s team travels to Xavier’s underground bunker to cross-reference Cerebro’s mutant database with the information given to them by Genetech.  When the teams reunite, Cable realizes that Harness and Piecemeal are trying to revive Proteus.

Continuity Notes:  

• Frenzy is being held in the Quebec Provincial Prison, which is a superhuman prison within the Marvel Universe that’s totally new to me.
• Cable recognizes New Warriors member Chord (Chord?!) from his mercenary days (“North Africa, ‘73” to be exact.)  Chord knows Cable as “Winters,” leading him to respond “The name's Cable...this year. ”  “Winters” could obviously be seen as a play on “Summers,” providing another early clue that Cable is Nathan Summers.
• Cannonball is able to use his blast shield to protect the entire X-Force team after Chord throws a grenade at them.  I don’t recall him being able to expand his shield in such a way on other occasions, even if the early issues of X-Force paid some lip service to his developing powers.
• Shatterstar uses his energy channeling/sword-blast powers twice this issue, which is probably more than he ever used them during the entire run of X-Force.
• The locks on the bunker under Xavier’s mansion have been changed.  Boom-Boom comments that “they” changed them, with “they” being X-Factor I assume since the X-Men are off in space until “The Muir Island Saga” begins.
• According to Cerebro’s records, Proteus died on 10/13/1987.  That means the late ‘70s Claremont/Byrne run on Uncanny X-Men happened four years ago Marvel Time at this point in continuity.  Four years seems a bit much, in my opinion.  Considering how slowly characters like Kitty Pryde aged during that period, I would place it closer to two years.

I Love the '90s:  Boom-Boom understands the scientific jargon spoken by the higher-ups at Genetech…NOT!

Review:  X-Force and the New Warriors fight, which I imagine was a huge deal for at least some portion of the audience.  New Warriors wasn’t a book I followed as a kid, so the fight doesn’t mean a lot to me, but I know both teams had pretty hardcore fanbases in the early ‘90s.  As far as superhero fights go, this isn’t so bad, as Nicieza is able to explain who each of the characters are fairly naturally and work in a few decent jokes.  Having Mark Bagley pencil the fight doesn’t hurt, either.  He clearly knows how to keep the New Warriors on-model, and I like his interpretation of X-Force.

Once the obligatory fight is over, that means it’s time for the story to really begin, and it’s certainly one worthy of Nicieza’s reputation for…intricate plotting.  The New Warriors are working security for their friends at Genetech.  Genetech was hired by Ophrah Industries to “create a DNA matrix for a cellular mix…etc. etc. etc. ...blah blah blah.”  A front organization for AIM hired the Alliance of Evil to guard two of its associates (or pawns, maybe?), as they leech energy from various locations, which is somehow what Genetech has also wanted to do.  (What does that have to do with DNA?)  The Alliance (perhaps) lied and pointed X-Force towards Genetech, who swear they don’t know the Alliance, but surely they’re also lying to the heroes, right?  The Genetech exec stuttered before he gave an answer, and we all know people only stutter in comics when they lie.  Later, the heroes discover that AIM is working on shells similar to SHIELD LMDs that can contain energy and be controlled like toy soldiers.  All of this leads to the revelation that new characters Harness and Piecemeal are absorbing Proteus’ energy from all across the globe.  In the background, a shadowy figure that’s obviously Gideon is playing chess with an even more shadowy figure, laughing about how these pawns are being used.

I can’t imagine the bulk of the audience at this time really wanted to keep track of so many plot points.  Most of the kids reading this probably just wanted X-Force and the New Warriors to start fighting each other again by the time they reached the end.  (And I can't imagine what a kid thought about the abused, horribly bloated Piecemeal.)  Older readers who might have the patience to try and follow all of the plot details were, I'd wager,  just annoyed by the attempt to revive Proteus.  Having Harness and Piecemeal traveling all across the globe absorbing his leftover energy is automatically going to upset any continuity purist who remembers that Proteus never traveled outside of Scotland, for starters.  In fairness, Nicieza establishes that the energy wavelength is strongest in Edinburgh, where Proteus died, implying that his energy signature was so strong it reached out across the world.  That’s comic book science plausible, sure.  But spreading the energy out is yet another wrinkle that’s been added to an already dense plot.  It also complicates the opening with the X-Terminators from the last chapter.  So those kid mutants just happened to be living in a boarding school where energy from a dead mutant killed years earlier has accumulated?  But what’s really grating is just the concept of reviving Proteus.  The original story is a classic, in part, because people left it alone after it was over.  Nicieza toyed with the idea of reviving Proteus earlier in a Classic X-Men back-up, but he didn’t actually go through with it.  Now, he’s teasing the readers again, but this time it looks like he’s serious, and that’s not a good thing.

Origins of the New Warriors

Credits:  Eric Fein (writer), Tom Morgan (breakdowns), Marie Severin and Jeff Albrecht (finishes), Kevin Tinsley, Suzanne Gaffney, and Ed Lazellari (colors), Rick Parker (letters)

Summary:  The origins of the New Warriors are recapped in various stories.

I Love the '90s:  Namorita compares her family drama to Dallas.

Review:  Every New Warrior has his or her origin recapped in a different story, which probably wasn’t a bad idea since some of these characters have origins from the most obscure corners of the Marvel Universe.  The stories do the most basic job of conveying the information, which is all I really expected them to do.  They might not be too exciting to read today, but as a kid who wanted to know more about Marvel history, these kinds of recap stories were greatly appreciated.

To Bounce or Not to Bounce

Credits:  Dan Slott (writer), John Calimee (penciler), Don Hudson (inks), Kevin Tinsley (colors), Rick Parker (letters)

Summary:  Chord gives Speedball a serum that will allow Genetech to study his kinetic field.  While he waits for an hour for it to kick in, he tries to patrol the city, but is continually rescued by heroes when attempting to activate his kinetic powers.  Later, he discovers that the serum could temporarily cancel his powers.

I Love the '90s:  Speedball worries that the green serum will turn him into a Ninja Turtle.  On the very next panel, he also gives us the second “NOT!” of the issue.

Review:  It’s a comedy story by Dan Slott, a Marvel staffer destined to go nowhere in the comics industry.  The joke is that Speedball is trying to activate his powers by doing dangerous stunts, such as jumping off a building, but is continually rescued by various Marvel heroes.  On the final page, we learn that he actually could’ve died at any time since his powers were cancelled during the previous hour.  It’s funny, but here’s the real highlight…

I swear to you, there’s a joke in this story about Speedball adding spikes to his costume!  It’s there on page 58, I promise.  How did this not get scanned and posted all over the internet in 2007?  Sure, no one probably cares now, but Dave's Long Box could've made gold out of this had it been discovered back in the previous decade.

NEW WARRIORS #46 – April 1994

Child’s Play Part Four

Credits: Fabian Nicieza (writer), Darick Robertson (penciler), Mahlstedt, Bulanadi, Akin (inkers), Steve Dutro (letterer), Joe Rosas (colorist)

Summary

X-Force and the New Warriors unite to stop Gamemaster in Switzerland. Gamesmaster uses his mental powers to turn the two teams against one another. When Cable faces Cannonball, Cable uses his telepathic powers for apparently the first time to stop him. Cable soon collapses, along with the rest of his teammates. Paige Guthrie, hiding from the battle, calls out to Gamesmaster. In exchange for sparing her brother’s life, she offers him the next generation of mutants. Intrigued at the idea of guiding a new generation of mutants, Gamesmaster agrees to the deal. Cable thinks that it’s a hollow victory if Gamesmaster gains control over the next generation of mutants, but the New Warriors see it as a challenge to find new mutants before the wrong side does.

Continuity Notes

Cable uses telepathy for the first time to stop Cannonball during their fight. Both Cable and Domino imply that they didn’t know he could do that. In the concurrent storyline going on in Cable’s solo book, he also uses telepathy against Colossus.

The Gamesmaster claims it’s easy for him to read Cable’s mind, but he can’t read Speedball’s due to his kinetic energy field.

At the end of the story, the “real” identity of the Gamesmaster is hinted at. He’s living in a house on an island, has a photo of his family near him, and doesn’t resemble the Gamesmaster at all (different hairline, different body type, wears glasses).

Review

This is better than the previous New Warriors installment, at least. Having Gamesmaster take over the minds of the people facing him is a very obvious move, but the way Nicieza describes his point of view in the narration makes it work. The ending is a little strange, with Paige offering herself to Gamesmaster in rather vague terms. At first, it seems as if she’s promising to serve him if he spares her brother. A few pages later, it’s implied that she’s only dared him to mold the next generation before Xavier does. So, he spared her brother’s life because she just gave him a good idea for killing time?

As the conclusion of a four-part story, this isn’t so bad, but as the ending to a long-running subplot and the introduction of a new one, it’s a flop. I’m assuming that this story was done to end the Upstarts storyline, with Fitzroy apparently dead, the other Upstarts turning on Gamesmaster, and Gamesmaster moving on to a new goal. As a conclusion, this doesn’t work at all because there are just too many unanswered questions. What was the ultimate prize Gamesmaster hinted at? What exactly was Selene getting out of this? Gamesmaster’s replacement for the Upstarts game, finding the next generation of mutants, never amounted to anything, either (was it ever even brought up again?). So, one story that was never properly developed gives way to another one that never really starts.

The ending of this issue leads me to believe that this crossover was originally intended to be a more direct lead-in to Generation X. The New Mutants and Hellions characters were the last “new generation” of mutants, so reintroducing them is one way to revive the idea of discovering new mutants. Gamesmaster is set up as the dark force looking to corrupt young mutants, so Xavier must find them first. I like this idea, because Gamesmaster could serve as a dark alternate to Xavier, which would give the character more of an identity and make him more of a legitimate challenge. He already has a connection to the Upstarts, who claimed to be the next generation of mutants, so it’s not as if this idea comes out of nowhere. Instead, the upcoming Phalanx crossover is used to set up Generation X. The Phalanx are bland villains who disappear once they’re defeated, and don’t offer the dramatic possibilities that Gamesmaster, tempting the young students to the dark side, could provide. He could’ve been an ongoing antagonist for the team, serving as more than just a physical threat to the X-teams. This idea was already introduced, so I’m not sure why they didn’t follow up on it.

X-FORCE #33 – April 1994

Child’s Play Third Move – Rules Were Made to be Broken

Credits: Fabian Nicieza (writer), Tony Daniel (penciler), Jon Holdredge (inker), Chris Eliopoulos (letterer), Marie Javins (colorist)

Summary

Cable tricks Fitzroy into draining life energy from his techno-organic arm, causing Fitzroy to drain his own energy and create a teleportation portal. X-Force use Fitzroy’s guide Bantam to go back to his previous location. Cannonball’s sister Paige follows them. The New Warriors confront Graydon Creed and learn where the captured New Mutants and Hellions are being held. Justice turns Firestar over to the Gamesmaster and learns that all of his captured targets are hooked up to his mind. Justice can’t fight Gamesmaster without harming them. Later, Karma reveals that she took over Siena Blaze’s mind hours ago, and releases the other abductees. Blaze appears, under the control of the Gamesmaster. He tells Karma that he knew what she was doing all along and will now use their powers against X-Force and the New Warriors.

Review

The Child’s Play crossover continues, basically just moving the characters to where they need to be for the finale. Nicieza pokes some fun at the rather lame Fitzroy and Bantam, but that’s really the only highlight of the issue. Paige Guthrie is given another brief scene when she follows X-Force without their permission. I really have no idea why she’s in this story, especially since Generation X is still months away and Marvel hasn’t figured out what her powers are supposed to be yet. The upcoming summer crossover will pave the way for Generation X, while Paige’s role in this story is essentially forgotten. Tony Daniel’s art is starting to develop a looser, less restrained style that doesn’t really work. There’s a lot of energy on some of the pages, but at times, it looks like he’s just forgotten how to draw human faces and anatomy.

NEW WARRIORS #45 – March 1994

Child’s Play Second Move – Sleeping With the Enemy

Credits: Fabian Nicieza (writer), Darick Robertson & Brandon McKinney (pencilers), Mahlstedt/McKenna/Stegbauer (inkers), Avon (letterer), Hondru (colorist)

Summary

Graydon Creed’s men, the Tribunal, try to kidnap Firestar from the New Warriors’ headquarters but are stopped by the team. Justice arrives, explaining to Firestar that she needs to be given to Shinobi Shaw in order to work undercover to stop Gamesmaster. She reluctantly agrees, and Justice takes her to Shaw’s apartment in Tokyo. Shaw explains to Justice his plan to overthrow Gamesmaster and the Upstarts, confident that his apartment has been properly shielded from the Gamesmaster. The Gamesmaster watches their conversation as Siena Blaze arrives with the kidnapped Moonstar, Empath, and Karma.

Continuity Note

The Tribunal are a variation of Tribune, the identity Graydon Creed assumed in the Sabretooth miniseries. Creed is listed as a member of the Upstarts in this issue, but the story never explicitly states that the Tribunal work for him.

Review

The crossover moves over to New Warriors, spending almost half of the issue reiterating the plot, with the story only slightly going forward by the end. This is one of the problems with a crossover; if you don’t take the time to explain what happened in the other title, some readers will be confused while everyone else will be bored with the recap. The rest of the issue isn’t really different from the first part of the story, either. We see different Upstarts attacking different New Mutants and Hellions, but the story’s the same. The only advancement of the plot comes in the last four pages, when Shaw announces his predictable plan to betray the Gamesmaster. It seems as if Firestar would have received more attention, considering her past with the Hellions is at the center of the crossover, but she’s mostly ignored until the end of the issue. I’m sure New Warriors fans just viewed this story as an intrusion on the book’s ongoing plotlines, and I can’t blame them after reading this issue.

X-FORCE #32 – March 1994

Child’s Play (First Move) – With A Roll of the Dice

Credits: Fabian Nicieza (writer), Tony Daniel (penciler), Jon Holdredge (inker), Chris Eliopoulos (letterer), Marie Javins (colorist)

Summary

Fenris kidnap Magma, a former member of the New Mutants and Hellions, in Brazil. Their other target, Empath, turns their soldiers against them and flees. When Fenris finally reach Empath, Moonstar uses her psychic powers to stop them. In Kentucky, Cannonball’s sister Paige tells Cable how Cannonball and Boomer were kidnapped by Siena Blaze. She tried to use her budding mutant power to stop her, but could only turn into a bird. That night, Fitzroy arrives to kidnap Warpath and Rictor. Gamesmaster holds a meeting of the Upstarts, telling them that he’s invited Fenris on their hunt for former members of the New Mutants and Hellions. In New York, Shinobi Shaw tells Justice that if he doesn’t bring him Firestar, one of the Upstarts will abduct her.

Continuity Notes

The Hellions were intended to be the archrivals of the original New Mutants. Magma, Empath, Warpath, and Firestar were all Hellions. Justice is Firestar’s boyfriend and fellow member of the New Warriors.

Paige Guthrie, later to be named “Husk”, makes her first full appearance. She turns into a bird in this issue, which doesn’t reconcile with the way her shapechanging powers will later be portrayed.

Domino infers that she’s married. I believe this does come up later.

Review

This is the first part of the X-Force/New Warriors crossover. Both titles were written by Fabian Nicieza and both teams featured former members of the Hellions, which becomes the basis of this crossover. Nicieza introduces the idea organically, without using the old cliché of having the two superhero teams coincidentally stumble across the same villain. The pasts of the characters (in some cases, dating back ten years at this point) are used as the impetus to get the story moving. This is the type of continuity-heavy comic that Bill Jemas seemed to hate so much during his reign at Marvel. While there is a certain amount of fan service in reuniting the various Hellions and New Mutants characters, the first chapter is told clearly and offers a proper introduction for most of the characters. I had only a vague idea of who the Hellions were when I first read this story, but that didn’t hinder my enjoyment of it. It is true that it’s hard to get too excited about seeing characters you don’t know get reunited, but if the main story itself is interesting, the use of past continuity is just a bonus to long-time fans. Using the Upstarts as villains, rather than bringing back old foes from the New Mutants days, ties together the new continuity with the old, so the story comes across as more than just a nostalgia exercise. I don’t remember how this crossover turned out, but the first issue is a decent start.

NEW WARRIORS #31 – January 1993

Ruins

Credits: Fabian Nicieza (writer), Darick Robertson (penciler), Larry Mahlstedt (inker), Joe Rosen (letterer), Joe Rosas (colorist)

Summary

Cannonball, Warpath, and Firestar travel to Nova Roma (an ancient Roman city hidden in the Amazon) to tell former Hellions Empath and Magma about the deaths of their teammates. While there, Firestar realizes that Empath is using his powers to control Magma. When she attempts to investigate, she’s attacked by the mind-controlled Cannonball and Warpath. She creates a microwave pulse to undo Empath’s influence, which frees the entire city. Empath reveals that Nova Roma was founded by the mutant Selene, not ancient Romans, and populated by her kidnapped victims. Her mind control was wearing off, so Empath took over. He releases his control, and the surviving Hellions move on.

Continuity Note

The White Queen is in a coma, which contradicts earlier issues that referred to her as a corpse. Someone probably realized that killing off so many established villains in just a few issues was a mistake, so she’s been resurrected very quietly. Empath is also alive and well in this issue, which means he couldn’t have been killed with the rest of the Hellions in Uncanny X-Men #281.

Nova Roma’s status as an actual Roman City has since been re-established, I believe. Nicieza’s only basis for this issue’s retcon seems to be his belief that Nova Roma is just a dumb idea.

Review

I wasn’t a regular reader of New Warriors, so this crossover issue was successful in bringing in at least one X-completist. This issue seems to be aimed at long-time New Mutants readers familiar with Firestar and Warpath’s past with the Hellions, characters that had been casually disposed of a few months earlier. Nicieza seems more interested in retconning an old New Mutants idea he didn’t like than in actually providing an actual sendoff to the Hellions, though. As a story, it’s not very interesting and parts of it don’t work. If Cannonball and Warpath can see that Empath is controlling Magma, why didn’t they call him out on it right then? Why would they leave, go to bed, and give him a chance to zap them? It’s nice that someone bothered to address the senseless death of the Hellions, but I doubt this was really what the old-school New Mutants fans wanted to see.