Clockwise, T to B: Justice, Hummingbird, Scarlet Spider, Nova II, Speedball, Haechi, Sungirl. Water Snake is in the middle.
A Marvel NOW! relaunch of New Warriors series is written by Christopher Yost and drawn by Marcus To.
Having taken the road again after renouncing their teacher jobs at Avengers Academy, Speedball and Justice find themselves in the town of New Salem, Colorado, where they get into a little fight with the Salem's Seven, but quickly patch things up after it is clear it was nothing more than a misunderstanding; their leader, Vertigo, explains later to Justice that the place is a haven for all people "born of magic" with Salem's Seven acting as the town's resident protectors. While the conversation deviates to Justice's and Speedball's intention of reforming the New Warriors and the difficulties that that will probably bring due the team's persisting bad reputation for their involvement in the Civil War events, they notice the teleportation arrival into the town of a trio of enigmatic figures clad in advanced armor. One of these beings declares that "the blood here is tainted" and all must be burned down.
In this new team, Justice and Speedball are returning Warriors, while Nova (Sam Alexander), Scarlet Spider (Kaine), Hummingbird (Aracely Penalba), Sun Girl (Selah Burke), an Inhuman named Haechi (Mark Sim), and an Atlantean Water Snake (Faira Sar Namora) are among the new members. Later issues added two New Men (Jack Waffles and Mr. Whiskers) as supporting cast and Silhouette as a member. This series ended with issue 12.
Tropes
- Anti-Hero: Kaine, the Scarlet Spider.
- Berserk Button: Kaine doesn't like being called Spider-Man. Nova keeps pressing it.
- In a more serious vein, villains who threaten Aracely in front of Kaine don't survive for long.
- Speedball is not fond of telepaths poking around his mind. Especially the bits where his Penance persona is still present.
- Big Damn Heroes: At the beginning of issue four, Water Snake, Hummingbird, and Scarlet Spider have all been captured. Nova is being strangled to death by an Evolutionary. Fortunately, Justice, Speedball, Sun Girl, and Haechi show up right then to save them.
- Big Friendly Dog: Caninus, who renames himself Jake Waffles, is an anthropomorphic dog at about the same size as the heroes, and unlike his feline companion, he is very friendly and unfailingly polite. Though his first appearance reveals that he is allied to a dark, ominous creature who has plans for the New Warriors, so time will tell if this trope holds true or not. Yost has revealed in interviews that the being Jake was playing chess with was Chthon and that the deal the canine secured was to save the life of his best friend, but strongly implied that Jake doesn't or can't fully comprehend the dangers of such a deal.
- Bittersweet Ending: The day is saved and the machine destroyed, but Mister Whiskers is dead and the Eternal who started the whole thing pinned the blame on High Evolutionary. While they stopped genocide, they failed to bring the one responsible to justice.
- Happy Ending Override: The ending of the series seems fine until you realize the fate of the New Warriors once you read Spider-Verse. You might find out in the story that the New Warriors had been beaten up by Daemos while Kaine was taken away by Spider-Gwen and the Spiders to safety. This means poor Aracely is left without her champion. Later, it is also shown that the majority of the New Warriors were recovering in the hospital from a cameo in Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy looking all sad.
- Blood Is Squicker in Water: Aracely mentions the water seeming to catch the light of the setting sun at the beach, until Kaine points out it's not the sun turning it red.
- Cats Are Mean: Felinatus, or as he is renamed, Mister Whiskers, who is violent, disdainful and is always frowning and flinging insults. Kaine lampshades it.
- That said, he does care for the other team members, particularly Caninus/Jake, warning Nova and Taking the Bullet for Caninus/Jake, making him a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
- The Champion: Kaine is Aracely's. According to her he's going to save her sometime in the near future from a situation brought on by a prophecy.
- Continuity Nod:
- Sungirl had a run in with the Superior Spider-Man in his Team-Up series that left her jaded with him, so when she hears his name on the radio she's disgusted.
- Kaine mentions his time in Houston and trying the hero thing.
- Issue 5 goes all the way back to the Stamford incident and Robbie's time as Penance, and that he may still have issues.
- Issue 6 continues this, as Justice calls Captain America and Iron Man out on not trusting the New Warriors because of what happened in Stamford, bringing up the Civil War caused by the two of them and also that he and his new team just saved the world. It also shows Speedball has bigger issues than originally thought, as before Justice quits the Avengers, Speedball is charging up kinetic energy in his hand behind his back, seemingly ready to blast Cap and Iron Man.
- Water Snake mentions the rumors that Namorita has returned to life, which was why she was on the surface world in the first place. This was probably the only reference to Namorita's resurrection in Nova volume 4 since The Thanos Imperative.
- When trying to convince Kaine to stay on the team, Justice brings up the original Scarlet Spider being on the New Warriors at one point.
- Darkest Hour: In issue 11, while Justice is presumed dead by Speedball's speculation (actually he had been taken away by Makkari the speedster Eternal to the Himalayas), the rest of the New Warriors are frozen in shock as Scarlet Spider had been brutally beaten up by the Eternals. Later, the New Warriors do fight back but are also curb-stomped and then, strapped to the power-draining machine. Their only hope was Justice who had dug himself out of the snowy grave at Mount Everest.
- Depopulation Bomb: The Lord High Evolutionary built one to kill anything not human. Sun Girl blew it up.
- Ethnic Magician: Vertigo of the Salem Seven. Aracely is too... sort of.
- Evil-Detecting Cat: Mister Whiskers can sense evil beings that Aracely can't.
- Fainting Seer: Hummingbird occasionally gets visions and predicts the future without realizing it, due to the god sealed inside of her. It comes and goes.
- Fantastic Recruitment Drive: One of the Inhuman Groups is trying to recruit Haechi by killing off his family and human attachments.
- Final Solution: The Evolutionaries goal seems to kill anything that isn't 100% human before the Celestials return. This includes Mutants, Inhumans, Aliens, Magical Beings, and Hybrids of all kinds.
- Five-Token Band: The team boasts a representative from all of Marvel's races/species/empowered folk. There's Justice (mutant), Speedball (superhuman), Sun Girl (human), Scarlet Spider (clone), Aracely (demigod), Nova (Cosmic hero), Haechi (Inhuman), and Water Snake (Atlantean).
- Ethnicity/Race wise: Justice is half Jewish. Speedball and Scarlet Spider are both white. Sun Girl and Nova are both of mixed race, with Sun Girl being half black and half white and Nova being half Hispanic and half white. Hummingbird is Hispanic. Haechi is Asian.
- Friend or Foe?: The fight between the Salem Seven and the New Warriors began because Speedball jumped the gun and assumed one was a villain because of how he looked.
- Same with Scarlet Spider and Water Snake.
- Good Is Not Soft: Water Snake and Scarlet Spider are downright vicious in a fight, one being a warrior and the other a former villain. If Speedball drops the goofy act he goes into this territory.
- Hypocritical Humor:
- Despite repeatedly calling Scarlet Spider "Spider-Man" despite repeated protests that he's not Spider-Man, Nova isn't happy when Justice starts calling him Sam.
- Nova has fallen unconscious and Justice is yelling at him to wake up, only for Scarlet Spider to dryly note that yelling at Nova isn't going to wake him up. Not too long after, though, he's doing that same thing.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Kaine, much though he might deny it. Also Felinatus/Mister Whiskers.
- Jumped at the Call: Aracely is giddy the moment Justice and Speedball show up since it meant she'd get to fight alongside heroes. When she gets offered the chance to be a member of the new team she's absolutely thrilled.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Nova not running away when they others told him to because he had the one thing the bad guy wanted to try and save the others, only to get captured again. The other members of the New Warriors arrive to bail them out.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: When Speedball drops the goofy act and just resorts to blasting his enemies.
- Making a Splash: Water Snake seems to be able to manipulate water to a great degree, including making weapons.
- Oh, Crap!: Pretty much the reaction of both good and bad guys when, during their first fight as a full team, Haechi just up and morphs into a freaking dragon but it turns out that Haechi in dragon form chomps on the bad guys that his teammates breathe a sigh of relief and resume back to fighting.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Speedball stops joking around and gets serious, you know that something bad is happening.
- Party of Representatives: The New Warriors had a team which was not only racially diverse, but also contained a representative of most of the different types of heroes and human types (i.e. Mutants, superhumans, Inhumans, demigods, Atlanteans, clones). This becomes a plot point in the 2014 series as the High Evolutionary tries to use the genetic makeup of each member as a template to help his superweapon target and eliminate all non-pure humans on Earth.
- Refused the Call: After Justice declares that the heroes present will fight against the High Evolutionaries as the New Warriors, everyone except Speedball, Sun Girl, & Aracely refuses.
- The Call Knows Where You Live: Haechi's home was nearly blown up by a group of Inhumans trying to recruit him at the end of #6. Scarlet Spider gets dropped off in Houston to find it under attack.
- Say My Name: Speedball screams for Vance a lot.
- Stepford Smiler: Speedball still has a lot of issues. Aracely finds it hot that he's silently broody.
- Super Team: They all came together because they were dragged into the situation with the High Evolutionaries.
- Taking the Bullet: Mister Whiskers for Jake.
- Token Adult: Subverted with Kaine. Although Justice and Speedball are technically young adults, Kaine seems to be the oldest member of the group as he looks physically in his late 20's/early 30;s despite the fact that he's only a couple of years old, since he's Peter Parker's clone.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Lord High Evolutionary.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Before re-forming the New Warriors, Speedball's cat was seen with his owner and Justice as they leave the Avengers Academy for a road trip. However, as Marvel NOW's New Warriors comic was relaunched, Speedball's cat wasn't brought up again (barring the Pet Avengers team-up with Cosmo and Rocket Raccoon in Guardian's Team-Up). Presumably, it was left with someone else to look after it.
- Neils was either abandoned or got lost from wandering off. He ended up in a SHIELD laboratory. When the original Human Torch Jim Hammond found out, the synthezoid adopted the cat.
- White Sheep: The Salem Seven are known as the Children of Devils but protect New Salem to change things, with Vertigo mentioning that she's trying to do right.
- Zerg Rush: How the Evolutionaries deal with the team when they try to escape.
