New Warriors Vol.5 #1

New Warriors (vol.5) #1 by Chris Yost and Marcus To

I’m a big fan of Chris Yost and this was the one of the other Marvel Now titles I wanted to check out. It’s ending in january, but it does follow some really interesting characters (including picking up Kaine from his Scarlet Spider series and the new Nova and co.). So I wanted to at least read the first issue before it ends in January and see if it’s worth reading. For reference, the last New Warriors series was published in 2008. This allows follows up on a plot thread in Nova where he was visited by Speedball and Vance to be part of the new team. This also continues on the plot threads in Yost’s Scarlet Spider.

We open on Bova, the cow woman of the evolutionaries, being killed on the first page. She’s a bit of a classic marvel character so I’m a bit surprised that she was killed suddenly. The team starts the issue battling against the villains known as Salem’s Seven in New Salem, but realize that it was all a misunderstanding and later hang out in their house. I find it interesting that Nova is called Kid Nova probably to make an even further divide between Sam and Richard Rider. Most people don’t like Sam, and I can see why, but I was willing to deal with him for the time being. I’m still a bit behind on the Nova series, but I’m hoping to read more soon. Vance is shown that New Salem is home to several supernatural beings or children of devils that are protected by the Seven. Vance is also reminded by the leader of the Seven that his team is still blemished by the events of Civil War when they were responsible for blowing up Stamford. Then a group of agents who seem to be the same as the killers above cause an explosion to interrupt the two.

Meanwhile, in Mexico, Kaine is still traveling with Hummingbird (and since I didn’t read the full SS series I was a bit lost until I read the wiki page. They beat up some muggers, showing off their powers in really neat ways. Kaine actually uses his stingers and the classic “mark of kaine” (where he can burn someone by touching them). The new duo then relax on the beach and contemplate where they want to go with their lives. Hummingbird, being an empath, knows that Kaine is unhappy. He says he gave up being a hero after so many violent things happened to the people he cared about, and that he isn’t as responsible as Peter Parker is. They suddenly see atlanteans covered in blood in the waters, and a atlantean woman asks for their help.

We are then introduced to Sun Girl, a tech based hero who flies and uses light beams. She was created by Yost for Superior Spiderman Team-Up. I should also note that Mockingbird was also created in Scarlet Spider by Yost...seems like he has a habit of making cool new characters. Somebody’s gotta try though, it gets boring seeing the same heroes over and over. She finds a group of morlocks in the new york tunnels being hunted by the same energy blasting agents as above.

We see Sam at the end of the issue being captured by these Evolutionaries to end the issue off.

I thought that this issue was alright. It is a bit held back by telling 4 different stories that all have a slight connection, but I don’t think it hurts the story too much. Overall, I’m looking forward to figuring out what is going on with the Evolutionaries and how the team comes together. I also really like the cover and logo for the series even if it is a bit basic, it’s very colorful and shows the whole team. My only major complaint is that Nova should have gotten more time in the issue rather than just being stuck at the end. Still, for me it’s a solid 7.3/10. The cover is more of a 3.6/5 for me. I also really enjoyed the active style of this new artist and look forward to more of his work.