The New Warriors Omnibus, Vol. 1

The New Warriors Classic Omnibus

by Fabian Nicieza, Mark Bagley (Illustrator)

Young, idealistic heroes Marvel Boy, Firestar, Nova, Namorita, Speedball and the mysterious Night Thrasher join forces as the New Warriors - determined to make a difference and fight the kinds of crime other heroes won't touch! But as the naïve Warriors dig deeper into a world of grey areas and moral compromises, can they maintain their youthful ideals? COLLECTING: New Warriors (1990) 1-26, New Warriors Annual 1-2, Avengers (1963) 341-342; material from Thor (1966) 411-412, New Mutants Annual 7, X-Men Annual (1970) 15, X-Factor Annual 6, Amazing Spider-Man Annual (1964) 26, Spectacular Spider-Man Annual 12, Web of Spider-Man Annual 8

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Superheroes, Science Fiction, Action

1016 pages, Hardcover

First published May 14, 2013

About the author

Fabian Nicieza is a writer and editor who is best known as the co-creator of DEADPOOL and for his work on Marvel titles such as X-Men, X-Force, New Warriors, and Robin.

His first novel, the Edgar Award-nominated SUBURBAN DICKS, a sarcastic murder mystery, is on sale now from Putnam Books.

The Dicks will return in THE SELF-MADE WIDOW, coming June 21st.

Reviews

[James DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Video Review - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fed88...

So New Warriors was a super big surprise for me. A great team book with some social topics we still have going on today. It helps the team is diverse with lots of different personalities that somehow all connect well even if they disagree on things. Night Thrasher being a standout, way better a character than I ever expected.

The Crossovers and Guest Starring would be the weak point of the series. Everything else? Great! Check this one out before it goes out of print.

[Shadowdenizen · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

While I enjoyed this, I don't think it's for everyone. It's definitely very dated (the New Warriors were initially billed as "Heroes for the 90's), and hasn't aged as well as some other titles.

While the Core cast was OK, I feel like they shuffled the cast about a bit too much, and tended to focus on the less interesting members.

I'd read Volume 2 if I can find it, but would only recommend this title with caution.

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm bummed that this is where I leave the New Warriors. This was a lot of fun. Nicieza rarely disappoints me.

Sure parts are clunky and dated, but it's hard to fault the book. Tons of recaps done because the comics weren't published with an eye towards collections. You needed to catch up new readers every few issues.

I'm always going to have a soft spot in my heart for Bagley. Thunderbolts and Ultimate Soidey were some of my earliest loves in comics. So that art has a special place for me.

[Little Timmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the start up of this new team and thought the series was a great read. Very recommended

[OmniBen · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Zero spoiler review) 3.75/5
My appreciation for this one grew and grew as it went on. Initial issues, although showing promising moments, failed to truly show any real sense of identity or excellence beyond some fairly generic super hero storytelling. There was definitely potential there, with an issue now and then capturing my attention, mostly when it stopped with the generic superhero plots and dealt with some more gritty and gruesome real world issues. Sadly, there was initially a little too much of the former and not enough of the latter, but it was certainly readable, with the art steadily improving as well as Bagley and Mahlsted worked each other out.
By the halfway point though, I was really starting to fall for the book. The characters were growing on me, with Nicieza fleshing them out fairly well. It didn't hurt either when you book features sex on two dimensional legs in the form of Firestar. Hot damn!
By the end of it all, I was well and truly on board. It gave me Claremont era Uncanny vibes, without ever quite reaching any of those lofty heights, yet any way.
Near the end, we got an atrist change, with Bagley leaving the book. I was disappointed to see someone of his calibre leaving. That was until I saw his replacement. Darick Robertson! Losing an artist like Bagley and having an artist like Robertson to come in and replace them. Mainstream comics really used to be something. 3.75/5


OmniBen.

[Shay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this collection overall very good, with characters I was both familiar with and unfamiliar. The artwork was well drawn, with the occasional coloring errors (as are often found in comic books). The storylines were predictable, yet rang of a classic goodness.

The only complaint I have is with regards to one of the annuals (I think it was an annual) which was uber racist. It's this dystopian version of history where black people rule the world, and everything was super horrible for white people. The heroes of the story were all focused on making the world "right" again, a world where black people have been enslaved and treated horribly. The fact that this world we live in was considered an alternate timeline and still considered "right" ticked me off a little. Maybe I'm being overly critical. Still, it was a hard comic to read.

[Jamie Fickes · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little bit of 90's nostalgia, from the jive-talking Richard Rider to the big haired Namorita, the New Warriors are a snapshot of what made early 90's comics cool. Before the shoulder pad craze with guns coming out of every pocket, this comic transitions from the 80's look to the "darkness" of the mid 90's comic scene. Oversized and printed on quality paper, it is like seeing a grindhouse movie in IMAX, but I am very pleased to see some very dear-to-my-heart comics given the star treatment. Lovely book to have on my shelf! Thanks, Marvel!

[Tomás Sendarrubias García · Rating 4 out of 5]

Con la llegada de los Años 90, parecía que Marvel necesitara de un nuevo grupo juvenil que reflejase esa época. Los Nuevos Mutantes ya no eran tan nuevos (y de hecho estaban en pleno proceso de cambio para convertirse en X-Force), y en general, los héroes del Universo Marvel se habían ido convirtiendo en adultos con los cuales las nuevas generaciones apenas tenían opción de identificarse. Y así, surgió una nueva colección, Los Nuevos Guerreros, que se convertiría precisamente en uno de los iconos de estos primeros 90, la nueva serie "joven", no solo por la edad de sus protagonistas, si no por el enfoque que se le dio a la serie.

Presentados en Los Vengadores durante Actos de Venganza para enfrentarse a Juggernaut, los Nuevos Guerreros iba a reunir a jóvenes héroes procedentes de diferentes puntos del Universo Marvel, y con un nuevo personaje que sería su líder. Este sería Trillador Nocturno (o Night Trasher), un personaje con un historial bastante parecido al de Batman, pero negro y con monopatín, y sería él quien reuniría a su alrededor a Estrella de Fuego (que había sido parte de los Infernales de Emma Frost), Marvel Boy (Vance Astro, del entorno común de los Vengadores y los Guardianes de la Galaxia originales), Kid Nova (rejuvenecido para la experiencia, Nova había tenido incluso colección propia años antes), Namorita (la prima de Namor) y Speedball (un intento previo de crear un personaje que repitiera el éxito de Spiderman, pero que no había funcionado). En sus primeros números, Los Nuevos Guerreros tendrán que vérselas con el mismísimo Terrax (que llevaba sin aparecer desde su enfrentamiento con el Doctor Muerte y Estela Plateada en las páginas de los Cuatro Fantásticos), pero no tardarían en presentarnos su propio universo y trasfondo, y así iríamos conociendo a Cuerda (el entrenador de Night Trasher), Tai (su ama de llaves), Silueta (que no tardaría en unirse al grupo) o Fuego de Medianoche, que sería su primer enemigo propio y volvería varias veces, desde estos números iniciales a los que acabarían con la etapa inicial en manos de Fabian Nicieza y Mark Bagley.

Y así, alternando enemigos clásicos (como el Pensador Loco o los Infernales) y nuevos (como Psionex o Tigre de Bengala), Nicieza y Bagley van a aprovechar esta serie para hablar de desigualdades sociales y económicas, de ecología, de racismo y de muchos otros temas, siempre con su pátina de spandex y poderes, pero llevando las ideas que preocupaban a los jóvenes de los 90 a estos cómics, entre los que brillaría con una luz especial la llamada Saga de la Esfinge, una especie de versión de los Nuevos Guerreros de los Días del Futuro Pasado, en el que un enemigo clásico de Nova, la Esfinge, va a conseguir distorsionar la realidad de tal modo que Egipto se va a convertir en el poder preponderante, y algunos de los Nuevos Guerreros (Nova, Marvel Boy y Estrella de Fuego) se aliarán con mutantes como Bala de Cañón o el propio Magneto para derrotar a la Esfinge y devolver el mundo a la normalidad.

Pero no solo tendrían que hacer frente a amenazas desde el exterior, sino también del interior, pues pronto nos vamos a encontrar con que Industrias Taylor (las empresas de Night Trasher) parecen tener cierta relación con grupos criminales, operaciones organizadas por Cuerda y que llevan a los Nuevos Guerreros a enfrentarse a Gideon (de los X-Ternos, personaje creado por Liefeld para X-Force), lo que llevaría a una disolución (muy temporal) de los Nuevos Guerreros, en la que además, Marvel Boy tendría que responder ante la justicia por la muerte de su padre, fallecido a causa de los poderes telekinéticos del chico cuando intentaba defenderse de una agresión por parte de su padre, maltratador habitual. Y con este trasfondo, Los Nuevos Guerreros se enfrentarían a último arco de su primer dibujante (que se marcó nada menos que unos 25 números), Mark Bagley, Toda la verdad, en la que por un lado tendremos a Marvel Boy y Estrella de Fuego centrados en el juicio del primero, mientras por otro lado, Namorita, Speedball, Nova, Silueta, y los dos nuevos fichajes, Darkhawk y Rabia, se enfrentarán al pasado de Night Trasher, a su nuevo grupo de villanos (evidentemente va a durar muy poco y el habitual líder del grupo no tardará en volver a su equipo), y a las manipulaciones de Tai, que resulta ser la "enemiga final", que había estado tras la muerte de los padres de Night Trasher y toda una serie de barrabasadas que requerían del sacrificio de los Nuevos Guerreros para que ella obtuviera su poder mágico...

Estos primeros 26 números de Nuevos Guerreros suponen una de las etapas más reconocidas e interesantes de la primera Marvel de los 90, y en la que desde su esquina, Nicieza y Bagley supieron contar buenas historias, indudablemente modernas pero cargadas de espíritu clásico, y que sin duda, no defraudan, ni en guion ni en dibujo.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Nineties were a funny time for me as a comic reader, because I don't think there was ever a time I was a more voracious and avid comic reader as I was then, but looking back on my diet of comics I would disavow huge swathes of those books now. During that time period comic book artists were becoming superstars--Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld being featured in a Spike Lee-directed commercial for Levi's jeans was certain a moment!--and the writers were definitely becoming second-fiddle. Consequently, comics were becoming more about flash and less about substance. Artists who grew up on a steady diet of Cindy Crawford, 80s action movies, and Reagan Americanism really brought that sensibility to their comics. I ate it up, but there's not much that remains in my head as my personal comic book canon.

One book I missed during this time period was New Warriors, which definitely bucked the trends at the time in many ways. Clearly trying to make some Marvel version of Wolfman and Perez's Teen Titans over at DC, they chose a seemingly random assortment of also-rans comic characters like Speedball and Nova to form a team of Beverly Hills 90210 aged kids trying to make their way in the hero business. Mark Bagley's art was very much against the grain of what was marketable at the time--he had more in common with the OG generation of Marvel artists than, say, Todd McFarlane or Rob Liefeld--and the writing really leaned into a lot of tropes comic book writers like Roger Stern and Roy Thomas made their hallmark. However, writer Fabian Nicieza was savvy enough to include copious characters from the X-Men bullpen and occasionally give someone a large cannon or random blades sticking out of appendages. But by and large this book charted new ground for lesser characters while also keeping an OG Marvel house style in both writing and art. I might've past it up when I was a kid, but my comics palette definitely grew to appreciate this book a lot more than Youngblood or Spawn.

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

The lows are low and the highs aren't that high in this very uneven collection. Nicieza writes some entertaining romps, Speedball (Speedball! and Night Thrasher! Two of the dumbest names ever!), Namorita, and Marvel Boy are fun characters, but the convoluted plots are just not good. Worst are two plotlines that each crossover four annuals and don't make a lick of sense - and take up hundreds of pages here. The highlight is probably an Avengers two-parter about racism.

Not recommended to any reader who isn't bringing a load of 90s nostalgia.

[Dan Solomon]

lots of heart to this one! there is something extremely earnest, in the best way, about a bunch of teenagers debating ethics and trying to figure out how they feel about deforestation in the amazon while wearing spandex and getting ready to pound the bad guys. the moral ambiguity of this run is really something to behold—makes me miss the days when they made superhero comics explicitly for smart twelve year olds.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a buy triggered by my reading the New Mutants Omnibus vol 1 and 2. I was familiar with the book from childhood, but never got into it. I think it was written to be more teen focused and I was a kiddo when it first hit shelves. I was surprised by how much I liked it. The art is classic 1990s and the story lines are awesome. So many team-ups and the first story arc where a hero is dealt a real does of powers having consequences in the legal world. Definitely worth your time to read.

[Patrick Barb · Rating 4 out of 5]

These comics were an essential part of my childhood. Nice trip down memory lane. Plus the Sphinx storyline is still a banger.

[Honora Quinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this massive beast of a book, It was everything I wanted/expected and more

[Devero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Con questa serie Fabian Nicieza si dimostra un grande scrittore, in grado di spaziare da temi ecologisti a conflitti familiari, dai rapporti tra i super esseri della Marvel al senso della famiglia e dell'amicizia.
Mark Bagley, autore dei disegni di quasi tutte le storie comprese in questo poderoso omnibus, è disegnatore maturo e ottimamente in grado di rendere avvincenti queste storie giovanili.

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better than I expected!

It doesn't change the way you look at comics and overarching villain seems like a mistake, but many of these characters come close to compelling and both the short-term and long-term arcs seem to make a certain amount of sense.

Probably almost each one of these characters could stand to be radically improved, but it works fine.