New Warriors
The New Warriors are a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. They traditionally consisted of teenage and young adult heroes, and were often seen to serve as a junior counterpart to The Avengers in much the same way that the New Mutants/X-Force did with the X-Men. They made a cameo appearance in The Mighty Thor #411 and made their full debut in The Mighty Thor #412. Over the years, the New Warriors, in their various incarnations, have been featured in five different volumes of the title The New Warriors.
The New Warriors team was created by editor Tom DeFalco, who brought together existing Marvel characters Firestar, Marvel Boy, Namorita, Nova, and Speedball, and added the newly created Night Thrasher. Through the 75-issue comic series, the team fought adversaries, including the second Sphinx, the Folding Circle, and even the Fantastic Four. Over time, the team was joined by Silhouette, Rage, Hindsight Lad, Bandit, Timeslip, Dagger, Darkhawk, Powerpax, Turbo, and the Scarlet Spider.
The second volume of New Warriors was published in 1999–2000 and this team consisted of Namorita, Nova, Speedball, and Turbo, joined by new members Bolt and Aegis.
The third volume of the New Warriors was a six-issue mini-series that sees the superhero team cast as the stars of their own reality TV show. Night Thrasher, Nova, and Speedball were joined by Microbe and Debrii. The New Warriors are at the center of a televised fight against a number of super villains in Stamford, Connecticut, where Nitro explodes and kills 612 people, including several members of the New Warriors. The incident was one of the sparks that led to Marvel's Civil War crossover in 2006 and 2007.
The fourth New Warriors series saw Night Thrasher gather a group of former mutants and replace their lost superpowers with technology. The comic book was published from 2007 to 2009. The story reveals that Night Thrasher is the original Night Thrasher's brother, formerly known as Bandit, who wants to travel back in time and change the events at Stamford that killed his brother. When they try to travel back in time, the team ends up in a dystopic future where the original Night Thrasher is a ruthless dictator. The New Warriors return to their own time and disband.
The fifth New Warriors series was launched as part of the All-New Marvel NOW! initiative in 2014. The story saw original New Warriors members Justice, Speedball, and Silhouette return to team up with the new Nova, Scarlet Spider, Hummingbird, Sun Girl, Haechi, and Water Snake.
''The New Warriors'' (vol. 1)
Fictional team history
Dwayne Taylor, the vigilante known as Night Thrasher, meticulously researches a group of young heroes to help him wage a war on crime. They are Vance Astrovik, Angelica Jones and Richard Rider, who at that time believed he had been depowered after quitting the Nova Corps. During their first battle with Terrax, a former herald of Galactus, they are joined by Robbie Baldwin and Namorita. They defeat Terrax, but the Avengers unintentionally end up taking the credit. The team decides to stay together and Speedball dubs them the New Warriors after a news report he had seen on the battle.The newly created team gets involved in a fight between Thor and Juggernaut, helping Thor to send the Juggernaut to another dimension. In the team's second issue Night Thrasher's past comes back to haunt him as the brother and sister team of Midnight's Fire and Silhouette is introduced. Next, the corporation Genetech hires the Mad Thinker to gather information on the New Warriors to create their own superhumans, resulting in their battle with Genetech's team of superhumans, Psionex. The Warriors travel to stop a superhuman named Star Thief who is destroying space launches, with Firestar, Marvel Boy and Namorita ending up on the Moon with the Inhumans. The Team minus Night Thrasher travels to Brazil to rescue Speedball's mother from an environmental terrorist group and battle the Force of Nature. Night Thrasher stays behind to patch things up with Silhouette and confronts the Punisher. Upon the Warriors' return to New York, their headquarters is trashed in a battle with the Hellions for the claim of Firestar.
"Forever Yesterday"
Their next adventure involves the transforming of the world into an alternate one at the whim of Meryet Karim, the second Sphinx, as seen in the Forever Yesterday storyline. This alternate world involved Egypt becoming a super-power and the formation of the United States of Assyria where that reality's Avengers served as Meryet's government task force. This is undone by the New Warriors Nova, Marvel Man, Firestar, and Dwayne Taylor.Folding Circle
The New Warriors, together with a few Psionex members, the Fantastic Four, and the Silver Surfer, fight a revitalized Terrax sometime after. Around this time, Silhouette joins, and the New Warriors meet Avenger Rage and solo hero Darkhawk. The Left Hand has also begun collecting random superpowered individuals for a team he names the Folding Circle, one member being Midnight's Fire.The Warriors also fought the Fantastic Four when Marvel Boy, who was under the Puppet Master's control, kidnapped the Puppet Master's daughter Alicia Masters. The Puppet Master knew something was wrong with her. It was later revealed that a Skrull, Lyja had been impersonating Alicia.
Night Thrasher discovers his company, the Taylor Foundation, is involved in illegal dealings and sets out to find the truth. In the process, he discovers that his legal guardian, Andrew Chord, has been betraying him for an unidentified period of time. The team confronts the mutant immortal Gideon concerning his involvement and he handily defeats and tortures them before giving them the information they seek. Shortly thereafter, the team comes to a moral crossroads in a mission involving cocaine traffickers, and Thrasher leaves the team. Night Thrasher then comes into contact with the Folding Circle.
Returning home after the confrontation with Gideon, Marvel Boy accidentally kills his father when his father attacks him. Marvel Boy is arrested and found guilty of negligent homicide, while Firestar reveals her love for him.
With previously unrevealed abilities, Tai confronts and seemingly kills Silhouette. Silhouette survives and assembles the remaining New Warriors. They learn from Chord of a mystical plot to take control of the world in Cambodia, and they recruit Rage and Darkhawk to help them. The Folding Circle also travels to Cambodia. The New Warriors fight Tai, who reveals her plans for world domination. Tai is defeated and sacrificed in a mystical well along with the Left Hand. In the end, Thrasher rejoins the Warriors.
After the adventure, Rage is kicked out of the Avengers and Speedball invites him to join the New Warriors. Meanwhile, just having been convicted of his father's murder, Marvel Boy is being escorted to the Vault via a Guardsman-guarded prison van. Namorita, Nova, and Firestar try to free him from the van, but he refuses, determined to serve his sentence. Firestar and Marvel Boy share one last moment and declare their love for one another.
Namorita as leader
leaves the team to put the Taylor Foundation in order, and Namorita assumes leadership. The team meet Turbo, and get involved in the civil war in the country Trans-Sabal. Although they eventually retreat, the actions of the Warriors have not helped the country. Meanwhile, Silhouette has gone missing and Speedball's parents split up. Speedball moves to New York with his mother to be closer to the New Warriors.The team faces the new villain Darkling and meet Cloak and Dagger and a second Turbo. Marvel Boy adapts to prison life and becomes good friends with the guards, most notably the man who would become Hybrid. Marvel Boy helps find a compromise between the inmates and the Vault staff, quelling an inmate uprising. Meanwhile, Carlton LaFroyge, Speedball's new neighbor, blackmails him into giving him Warriors membership after Carlton discovers Speedball's secret identity.
Some time afterward, Namorita has a one-night stand with Kimeiko Ashu, a former adversary of Night Thrasher. Ashu steals Namorita's address book, discovers the secret identities of the Warriors and kidnaps their families. Rage's grandmother, the last member of his family, accidentally dies. In retaliation, Rage kills Ashu. Night Thrasher justifies Rage's actions in court and the judge rules in Rage's favor and he is released into Chord's custody. Namorita leaves the team, feeling guilty.
Nova is attacked by Garthan Saal, a Nova Corps centurion, and after a conflict between the Warriors, Saal, Firelord, Air-Walker, and a power-mad Nova, Xandar is restored. Nova is promoted to the rank of Centurion Prime and allowed to return to Earth to continue his activities as a superhero.
Meanwhile, Namorita faces trouble in Atlantis, and is captured. Her body is undergoing a cellular change, as a result of her being a clone, into a blue-skinned Atlantean. After a conversation with Namor, she renames herself Kymaera and decides to rejoin the New Warriors. Later, Marvel Boy is released on parole, but after anti-mutant attacks on his mother, decides not to rejoin the New Warriors, instead joining Shinobi Shaw and the Upstarts and renaming himself Justice.