Sunday Splash Page #384

"Test Case", in New Warriors (vol. 1) #2, by Fabian Nicieza (writer), Mark Bagley (penciler), Al Williamson (inker), Andy Yanchus (colorist), Michael Heigler (letterer)

Aw yeah, now this is my jam. For the next several weeks, it's Sundays for the '90s!

The second issue of New Warriors was my first encounter with the team. I don't think I knew anything about any of the characters prior to that, so they were all new to me.

(Possible exception: I might have gotten Namor the Sub-Mariner #6 in the same batch of comics as this issue, so I would have had two introductions to Namorita.)

Other than Night Thrasher, all of them were pre-existing characters. Nova had his own series for two years in the '70s, Namorita appeared off and on in Namor's books. Firestar fought the X-Men and the New Mutants, courtesy of Emma Frost's excellent mentorship. Marvel Boy (or a version of him) was part of the Guardians of the Galaxy, off saving the Solar System of the 30th Century. Speedball was the most recent creation, and he'd gotten a 10-issue series a couple of years prior.

Again, I knew none of that going in, though Nicieza covers a lot in the first issue. Nova lost his powers, but they were really just buried deep inside. Firestar was trying to hide her abilities, Marvel Boy wanted to join the Avengers but got turned down. Namorita's in college, outspoken about environmental issues, and not hiding who she is. Speedball gets the biggest makeover from the absolute square he was under Ditko, as Nicieza turns him into a hyper-active chatterbox, looking for an escape from his parents' tense marriage.

But let's look at the new character, because in many ways, the 25 issues that mark Fabian Nicieza and Mark Bagley's tenure as creative team are about Night Thrasher's arc. The first issue establishes he's high-tech enough to hack the Massachusetts Academy's files to learn about Firestar (and SHIELD's to learn about Nova), but street-level enough to pay a hot dog cart guy to let him know who enters and leaves Avengers Mansion. Ruthless enough to blackmail Firestar into meeting him, or drop Nova off a roof on the chance the stress will trigger his powers (if not, Rich is street pizza), and enough of a dick not to apologize for it after. (He does apologize to Firestar, but phrases it like Nova and Marvel Boy were part of it.) He's also flexible enough not to fight it when his 4-person team picks up two more members during an impromptu fight against a, Terrax homunculus, basically.

His costume is black armor, with some red on the helmet, the belt, the pouches to break it up. Plus, the entirely unnecessary ribbon around his thigh. He carries a variety of weapons, and yes, he's a black character with a skateboard, but it was the early '90s, and I tell you, the skateboard was a major point in his favor with me - nerdy white kid from the 'burbs - as far as making Night Thrasher seem "cool."

The second issue delves more into Dwayne Taylor's backstory, what's driving (and eating) at him. It also sets the tone for a lot of the interactions between he and the rest of the team over the Nicieza/Bagley run. Dwayne's basically Batman. His parents were gunned down when he was a kid, and he's devoted the family fortune to fighting against the kind of people that would do that. He's intense, driven, not always in control of his temper. Given he's in his early 20s, it makes a certain amount of sense he's not always calm and collected, especially given revelations that come later.

Critically, he's not the best with other people. He tends to push them, or expect them to fall in line with what he thinks or wants, and doesn't keep his equilibrium when they don't. And either because Batman's dealing with Justice Leaguers who are a little older than the Warriors, or because Nicieza's not as committed to making excuses for Night Thrasher's behavior as writers are with Dickhead Batman, Dwayne's teammates don't take his outbursts and controlling tendencies with as much equanimity. Nova, in particular, pushes back, loudly. Maybe because he's got experience fighting wars in outer space, or because when you're used to flying full speed through obstacles like a human rocket, you don't do tact. Or maybe it was the whole "dropping him off a roof" thing.

The other Warriors are quieter, but no less capable of sticking to their ideals. Marvel Boy's typically got a well-researched and prepared argument for why they should do something. Namorita's level-headed, but also seems to best understand the code driving Dwayne. Maybe that's the result of seeing her mother killed in front of her. Nita's more likely to butt heads with Marvel Boy ideologically than Night Thrasher. When Thrasher seems ready to make deals with drug lords to get information he needs about dirty crap his company's been involved in, Firestar and Speedball are the ones who object to the ends justifying the means, and they not only don't back down, they sway Nova to their side (Nita and Marvel Boy are not present at the time.)

So Night Thrasher quits. More accurately, he declares the team disbanded and goes looking for answers alone. The rest of the team promptly ignores him and keeps doing their own thing. When they start to piece things together from another direction, their paths cross, and Dwayne has to not only rely on, but act to save these people who've become his friends. You can see the halting steps he makes in that direction at earlier points, especially when it comes to Speedball. His mentor, Chord, opines at one point Speedball is useless until he learns to actually control his powers. Dwayne's response is a hesitant remark that the, 'others seem to like him.' He might agree with Chord from a tactical standpoint, but he sees the value Speedball's lighter personality brings, maybe even to himself.

Outside Night Thrasher's broad arc of trying to emerge from a past that turned him towards vengeance, there are several other threads. It's the early '90s, so there are a couple of stories about the environment. One where Roxxon plans to dispose of nuclear waste by shooting it at the Moon (killing the Inhumans in the process), another where an environmental group has super-powered agents attacking and killing logging operations in the rainforest.

Nicieza and Bagley do a 3-issue "Days of Future Past" involving a new version of Nova's old enemy the Sphinx. Although a 3-issue test run for Age of Apocalypse might be more accurate, since it involves Sphinx rewriting the past to create a different present. It doesn't entirely make sense to have Captain America and Iron Man analogues in a world where Egypt dominates, but as narrative shorthand for the conflict a young Nova feels about risking his position as the token white guy on this version of the Avengers to do what his heart says is the right thing, it works.

Firestar gets a chance to confront Emma Frost and tell her to get lost. (Emma would, of course, repeatedly ignore this over the next few decades. Definitely a person to let be around kids!) Speedball makes some halting steps towards improving control of his abilities, even getting to punch a more-complete Terrax through a skyscraper. Namorita, while generally the one doing the best job keeping her shit together (she has real Cool Older Sister vibes in this stretch), also gets to show hints of how out-of-place she feels above and below the sea. Not truly at home in either, but trying to make it work.

The biggest single story is the trial of Marvel Boy. Vance, in the process of protecting himself from his abusive, bigoted father, kills his dad and is put on trial for it. Despite getting Foggy Nelson as a defense attorney, and having the Thing as a character witness, Vance is found guilty. It's especially rough since, with the whole mess with Night Thrasher reaching a crescendo, Firestar's the only member of the Warriors there to have his back. (Though that does play into their burgeoning romance, which would carry through the next 15 or so years before they split up.)

The team picks up a couple of new members partway through in Darkhawk and Rage, although neither is on the team long enough at this stage to do much. Well, Rage helps them steal a Quinjet and lie to the Cambodian Air Force. That was pretty cool! Silhouette, another new character and part of Dwayne's past, doesn't necessarily get a pronounced arc. When introduced, she seems to have settled into a quiet life, coping with the loss of the use of her legs. After crossing paths with Dwayne again, she's drawn into his world, and learns a few things about her past in the process of helping him with his own. I don't know if she gets closure, since the revelations open up new cans of worms, but she gains some connections. She'd shunned her brother, so her world might have been pretty lonely. Like Dwayne, the Warriors are a new family.

The costumes, never Bagley's strength, are a mixed bag. We already discussed Night Thrasher's. Bagley sticks to Firestar's original look, and Marvel Boy's costume is initially just Vance Astro's, but with a cape. Later, he ditches the cowl to let the hair flow freely. Maybe Speedball was feeling self-conscious as the only guy with flowing locks (the only real change to his costume from Ditko's design is the hair's longer.)

Namorita rocks a variety of green swimsuits, minus a few issues where she wears some Atlantean blood revenge armor. There's no mention of separate male and female versions of the armor, but I can't picture Namor wearing it. Still, it has a jagged and organic look that would suggest is was made from coral or shell and sharkskin or something similar. Nova's look is the biggest change. Initially, the red-and-yellow version seen above, it later shifts to something approximating the color scheme of Wolverine's tan-and-brown costume, before ultimately going back to the blue with yellow starbursts on the chest. So, kind of a mixed bag.

Bagley's strengths are, as usual, the clarity with which he depicts action and emotion. He never does anything flashy with page layouts, but conveys a lot with faces or body language. Thrasher broods a lot, rarely demonstrative (until late in the run where he feels like his life is falling apart), where Nova is constantly leaning into people's space, waving his fist in their face. Speedball tends to perch on stuff when his powers are active (the easier to fall off and trigger the kinetic field, I assume), but slouches a lot when he's regular Robbie Baldwin. Namorita walks or stands confidently. Chin up, calm, whereas Firestar is more tentative, almost hugging herself when she's getting caught up in her thoughts. Even when there's over a dozen characters involved in a fight, Bagley knows when to pull back and show the full battlefield, and when to zoom in on just a couple of characters.

I wasn't buying comics monthly back then, so I would have only picked up issues here and there. Still, this run stuck with me. Probably because they were younger heroes, closer to my age (although even Speedball was still several years my senior), but not true kids like the Power Pack, and not a "minor league" team, like the New Mutants or, to an extent, X-Force. The New Warriors were their own group. No telepathic bald guy inviting them to his school, or turning them into footsoldiers in his private war like Cable. Thrasher might have tried that, but he was in the same age cohort as the rest of them, he couldn't pull it off. They were a team because they wanted to be, but they still got to argue and disagree and almost fight each other sometimes. But crucially, they could do those things and still save the day. Nova did call in the Fantastic Four to help against Terrax (and the FF called in the Silver Surfer), but for the most part, the Warriors handle things themselves. They get to be good heroes, but still with their own causes and ideals they're passionate about.