Along the lines of last week's entry, a bunch of young heroes team-up to fight evil. It's a disparate mix. You have Anya Corazon, formerly Arana, now Spider-Girl despite having no spider-powers whatsoever (courtesy of the Grim Hunt storyline in Amazing Spider-Man, I think), and coming off her own extremely short-lived ongoing series. Then, Rikki Barnes, aka the Nomad from the Heroes Reborn Earth, now on regular Marvel Earth through some process I can't remember. It may have involved that Jeph Loeb/Rob Liefeld Onslaught Reborn mini-series?
Those two at least seem to know each other and be friends when the series starts. Then McKeever throws in Gravity, back in college after dying heroically in Dwayne McDuffie's Beyond! mini-series, then being resurrected as the (briefly) Protector of the Universe in McDuffie's Fantastic Four run. But hell, McKeever created Gravity, so he can use him if he wants. Then he adds Firestar, who doesn't seem like she really wants to be there and is, quite honestly, slumming it being on this team. She was an Avenger! A real Avenger, not one of those people Bendis or Hickman threw on the roster for five minutes that never did anything. She was in stories drawn by George Freakin' Perez and everything! Although this story plays more off her status after that Marvel Divas mini-series, so maybe that explains it.
McKeever rounds out the mix with a new Toro, a child soldier who was experimented on and then escaped to America. He strongly resembles the Toro Nomad knew on her Earth, which at least creates some interesting tension there as he can't understand why she reacts to him the way she does. And she keeps expecting him to act one way, only to be confused when he doesn't.
Baldeon draws the entire series and he's good at not making a cast of mostly teens look too old. Some of the designs for the villains, who call themselves the Bastards of Evil, are better than others. The guy in the back there is supposed to be Graviton's kid, but that costume is not great. Like he's wearing a trash bag or repurposed hazmat suit. The on-fire guy is better, though.
Since the book only lasted six issues, it never gets much past the opening arc, and the cast spends most of that split up outside of the fights. Rikki, Anya, and Toro following one set of leads, Gravity and Firestar some others. They never reach a point where there's any reason they should work together regularly. Especially since the last issue is Emma Frost showing up to criticize how Firestar is living her life. Sorry, any woman willingly sleeping with Scott Summers has got no high ground to critique other people's life decisions.
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