New Warriors: Reality Check

Civil War: A Marvel Comics Event

by Zeb Wells, Skottie Young (Illustrator)

The return of the New Warriors! When Night Thrasher strikes a mysterious deal with a Reality-TV producer, the team moves out of New York to help the villain-plagued denizens of small-town America. But will their filmed exploits be uplifting, or just exploitative? And is heartland America ready for Big City Super-Heroics? Collects New Warrirors #1-6.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Comic Book, Superheroes, Science Fiction, Fiction

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Zeb Wells is an American comic book writer known for his work at Marvel Comics, as well as his work on the animated TV series Robot Chicken.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading this, I can see why Millar used the New Warriors as the catalyst for Civil War. Here, they are portrayed as a bunch of losers who are trying to stay relevant by becoming reality TV stars. This comic just didn't ring true to me. If you've read the original New Warriors book, you'd know there's no way Night Thrasher would turn his team into a reality show. The same goes for Namorita and Nova. Yes, Speedball would be all for it. The book would have made more sense if Speedball had taken the name and started his own team. Anyway, the book in no way has anything to do with Civil War. This was just a failed title that Millar decided to use to kick things off.

[James DeSantis · Rating 1 out of 5]

I go into every comic with an open mind. Changes happen, new writers, new artists bring in new characters. I'm all very open to that.

But YO, what the fuck was this piece of shit? Who greenlit this fucking mess of a garbage-ass comic? Take the New Warriors, a team of young adults/teenagers who deal with very real-world problems, and put them in a comic where they're a bunch of losers starting up a reality TV show? The ONLY one I can see doing this would be Speedball. The rest? Not in a million years.

This trash-ass, boring-ass, dumbass fucking comic ruins every single character. The concept is hot garbage. It's no wonder Mark Millar made these guys a big cause for Civil War. He read this comic and said, 'Fuck these guys,' and I don't blame him.

What a horrible-ass comic. Do yourself a favor and read the original 90s series. A million times better. I want to give this a 0 star but 1 will have to do.

[Javier Muñoz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Esta serie puede llegar a ser entretenida según para qué público, pero me da la impresión de que podrían haber creado un grupo nuevo para contar esta historia... para el que tenga nostalgia de las anteriores colecciones de New warriors esto puede resultar muy feo, como grupo y como concepto tocan fondo, da la impresión q toda la miniserie es un chiste malo sobre los New warriors.
El estilo caricaturesco de skottie young no ayuda a tomarse en serio a los personajes y en mi opinión extrae todo interés q pudieran tener para convertirlos en chistes andantes
Tampoco le veo interés como preludio a civil war, supongo que simplemente sirve como presentación de personajes no tan conocidos como los pesos pesados

[Jeff Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

In Civil War, Millar uses the New Warriors as the catalyst for the Mutant Registration Act. The group of losers try to get famous via reality show and end up accidentally causing the death of 600 people (including themselves, minus Speedball).

This run of New Warriors attempts to show them as the buffoons that they really are by presenting them in a YA comics style. The art, the writing, and the humor is all pretty juvenile. For what it is, I guess it’s well done but it just didn’t appeal to me at all.

[Nathan Hubele · Rating 2 out of 5]

A largely uneventful and very boring series (I’d officially give it 2.5 out of 5), BUT, the character building for this leads up to is so worth it. And having a bunch of B-C list heroes do a failing reality show is an interesting idea, but the problem with that is that the main characters you never really care about, outside of Nova or Speedball to a certain extent

Who knew this team would inadvertently cause one of the most emotionally impactful and hard hitting series that marvel has ever done though? (Referring to Civil War series)

[William Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mainstream comic books have become increasingly adult over the last 15 years. (I would say that is true of YA Lit as well, although the comic pushes the boundaries to the limits.) I've thought this was a way to garner more readers and to appeal to the people who actually make and spend the money. But I don't think many chldren read comic books these days. Every shop I go into is filled with 20-40 year olds- hardly a pre-teen or teen in the bunch. So its makes me feel good when I see a series that is pretty much intended for a younger audience. Especially when its wrtten by Zeb Wells. Its a solid job all around and a great idea to make the New Warriors a YA series, its just too bad it didn't catch on. I think the series could have developed into something brilliant if it had just been given the time to develop.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

A sad, average Marvel story. Take a team of super powered people, put them in a hip, happening, newly relevant scenario and have the disagree with each other as they stop miscreants and ne'er-do-wells from being their own brand of selfish. Add to it the art style du jour. Mix cocktails to serve to retailers and "poof!", you have sales. But do you have any lasting impact? Caveat reader.

[David Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marvel's Civil War event pitted superheroes against each other as pressure to register and recruit into SHIELD each super powered person reached a head. Heroes fought to remain anonymous while others fought to protect the public in the wake of a catastrophic superhero battle in Stamford, Connecticut that left 600 civilians dead in its wake. That fateful battle involved the New Warriors as they tried to gain high enough ratings to get back on the air.

This collection documents the New Warriors' show from its inception to its initial cancellation (or in TV speak its status as a "mid-season replacement with an order of six episodes"). The premise of New Warriors is a superhero team with a twist: their exploits will be filmed for a reality-TV show. It is billed as superheroes for the rest of America, and the New Warriors travel to small towns such as Fairbury, IL and Salina, KS to deal with villains. With frustrating (and funny) results producers and TV executives insert themselves in the process. The team is divided about their status as reality TV stars: Night Thrasher sees it as a necessity, Speedball loves the spotlight, while Namorita and Nova are dubious about the benefits of being on TV, and Microbe's powers don't play well on TV which makes him an outsider.

Writer Zeb Wells's script is fast paced and genuinely funny. The SPOTA (Society for the Protection of Television Animals) consultant was particularly amusing! Artist Scottie Young deservedly has gained a considerable following for his cartoon-style panels.

This novel works well because it fleshes out the characters who would eventually cause the flashpoint that leads to Marvel's Civil War. After reading this novel, the next step is The Road to Civil War, and then readers will want to pick up the main event collected in Civil War.

[Brandt · Rating 2 out of 5]

So I've embarked on reading Civil War related titles after reading the really excellent Captain America/Iron Man volume as part of reading Ed Brubaker's run on Captain America. I read a previous Civil War prelude book that I didn't feel did much to lead-in to Civil War, but at least some of what was in that volume obviously leads into Civil War.

If you know the event that leads into the Superhero Registration Act being enacted in Civil War this book might make some sense (I do because I've seen that spoiler) but given the gravity of the event that kicks off the Civil War, this book comes of as tone-deaf. It doesn't know if it wants to embrace the ridiculousness of a "Reality TV" supergroup or not. Given that these are the heroes responsible for the event that leads to the Civil War it just doesn't feel right. Having Scottie Young (whose work I usually enjoy) probably doesn't help, since it's too precious to end up leading to something like "The Death of Captain America".

Really when it comes down to it, the New Warriors are really a disposable super-team. While Marvel has proven they can sometimes turn B and C list heroes into a successful book (see Guardians of the Galaxy), this restart of The New Warriors seems pointless. Do we really need a comic to show us how "unreal" reality television is? Considering who the president is right now, maybe? But probably not.

[Emilie]

I'm not a fan of the art style, but there were some interesting bits of characterization in the dialogue between the team members. I thought this collection would end with the explosion in Stamford that started Marvel's Civil War event, but it ended before that.

I hadn't realized that Nova was a regular member of the team during this first reality-TV stint. He matured fast during the Annihilation War. Here, before that, he's really not particularly mature. Nita has gotten Thrash's number by now, how he tends to withhold information from the team. Even Rich has picked up on that by now, and he was never considered one of the most intelligent members of the New Warriors, or even of his own family. The cartoony style of art didn't suit him at all, or Namorita. That's my opinion, anyway. I appreciated it much more when they were drawn as being pretty characters, or at least in a relatively realistic style. I didn't like how in Annihilation: Nova, Rich was drawn as being craggy and ugly. But in the original New Warriors run and in the Nova series set right after the first Annihilation event, he was drawn as a good-looking man.

Shallow on my part, I suppose. But, as I said, there were things to appreciate in the dialogue between New Warriors team members.

[Honora Quinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually really enjoyed this. More than I thought I would. I liked the whole premise, a group of heroes with there popularity on the decline renewed by a reality TV show. It seems aggressively 2000's imo. I liked the whole group dynamic and the additions of Micro and Debrii. My main reason for reading this IS because I thought that this series would contain the events of the Stanford Disaster, which is one of the most infamous events in the New Warriors comics and I'm actually a bit happy that it didn't. The series ended in a nice way which makes me sad that practically the next thing to happen to the team after it ends is death. Anyways I liked this I thought the whole reality show thing was pretty creative and I liked all of the wacky storylines and places they went to.

[Lobo DeSade · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was terrible, it had nothing to do with Civil War, you don't need to read this at all. It has about as much to do with Civil War as toilet cleaning, or Donald Trump, another good analogy would be, this is about as connected to Civil War as Donald Trump is to common sense and rational thinking. If you are a Civil War buff(which I was up until the end of it, but that's another review for another time), then you really don't need to read this. The only thing that connects it to Civil War is the reality superhero tv show, but the Stamford incident is never shown, nor is it referenced. If it was shown or even if it was foreshadowed then I would have given the book another star. The book was poorly written too, I think it would appeal more to younger comic readers because it just had a Saturday morning cartoon style to it, a very bad Saturday morning cartoon at that, and I'm not saying that because of the art work, I'm saying it because the characters just didn't have depth to them, they were very poorly written, at points the dialogue was just cringe inducing. I actually didn't mind the art, it did grow on me, I'm not really one for cartoon style art, but over time I enjoyed it, the art was the only thing refreshing about this book.

Some of the characters in this just seemed very annoying, and they didn't act like themselves, for example Nova, he was just reduced to a muscle head, then there was Microbe I think his name was, he was very forgettable, I can't say why I didn't like the character, I just didn't, Night Thrasher was reduced to a terribly executed Batman knock off, I don't know, it just seemed like the writer was trying too hard, or paradoxically, maybe he wasn't trying enough. I also think it's very cheap to dupe people into buying this trade, the marketing was very dishonest, they didn't need to resort to these kind of marketing decisions in order to make people buy the book, people would have bought it anyway, I mean, Marvel make enough money as is. But then again deceptive marketing is a big thing when it comes to Marvel and DC.

I don't normally sell off trades or single issue comics, because I do like to have a collection, but I feel that this book leaves a dark mark upon my collection, like it's infecting an otherwise great collection of trades. So when I say that I'm considering selling a comic or a trade, that generally means that the comic, or trade in this case, is terrible. One comic I can recommend with the same style of art would be Truth by Kyle Baker, it delves into the history of the first Captain America's, and it deserves more credit than what it got. But when it comes to this book, save your money, spend it on something else, I would recommend any 2000A.D or Judge Dredd based trade, you always get your monies worth and then some, skip this.

Getting back to the character of Microbe, I think I know why I don't like him, he disgusted me, other characters remarked on his poor hygiene, and I think that sends out a wrong message to any kid reading this comic, because I think this is aimed more at kids. But yea, any time Microbe was on the scene I honestly felt revolted. That and his lack of intelligence, and his terrible powers just made me despise the book even more. If you want a good cartoonish comic for your kids try Squirrel Girl, she isn't a great character, but her comics are humourous and very entertaining, and the stories actually go somewhere. I can't think of one instance in the New Warriors where the story truly came together, it just seemed like it was going from one scene to the next without any real point. I'm going to sell this trade tomorrow, I will not have my collected marred by this pathetic excuse for a trade, I can't stress my hatred of this book enough, it is derivative and pointless, it's not even a good paper weight, it's not something you want to have in your line of sight, because if it is in your line of sight then you just want to gauge your eyes out so you don't have to look at it and be reminded of the horrors of bad writing and terrible characters.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd always assumed the low rating of this book was because of the character assassination of the New Warriors, trying to make them relevant again by turning them into reality TV stars. And I figured no problem, I've never read their original series, so why would I care?

But it turns out this book also deserves low ratings just because it's BORING. We get four one-off stories and a double header, and they're mostly self-contained, and they try to be funny but they're not. Yikes. I can't believe this is from Zeb Wells who is usually a strong writer.

[Austin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read on its own, this story has charm and even whimsy. But as a prologue to Civil War, and an opening scene where these same characters spark the deaths of hundreds of children, the tonal shift is jarring and off-putting.

[Devero · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sigh, che bruttura. Tutto sbagliato, dall'idea di base ai disegni, pessimi anche per gli standard della cartoonizzazione. Che brutta fine per una delle serie migliori degli anni '90.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

A surprisingly interesting build-up to Civil War, but with some pretty weak writing and not great villains.

[Nikki · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting idea, started off fun, but didn't go anywhere.

[cam · Rating 3 out of 5]

robbie himbo

[Odo · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5.0

[Declan Waters · Rating 3 out of 5]

A prequel to outbreak of Civil War within the Marvel universe.

A fun little group of comics and lovely drawing as I'd expect from Marvel.

[Silas · Rating 3 out of 5]

With the marketing of this volume, I expected this book to lead towards the events that were the cause of the Civil War event, and I expected that it would be shown or at least foreshadowed in this book. The fact that the book has a full-on cartoon art style really contrasted with that idea. That expectation was also thwarted. The Stamford incident doesn't take place here and is not referenced. The only way this is a prelude to the Civil War is that it establishes the New Warriors as a reality TV property, which was used in the beginning of that event. The fact that this volume ends that show in a bit of a downer ending is glossed over. Ignoring the tragedy coming later, and taking this book on its own merits, this is a fairly enjoyable volume that takes a cynical look at reality programming while telling fun superhero tales. Some of the characters feel a little bit off from other portrayals of them, particularly Nova as a total meathead, but if you can just go with it, it has enjoyable story beats, though I think most of those have been forgotten ever since.

[Randy Lander · Rating 3 out of 5]

As an old school New Warriors fan (I picked up issue #1 at the comics shop, and bought up through issue #50... and I later bought the rest as back issues), I was a touch nervous about Wells' revamp. He's a very good writer, but I worried that he might go the "lovable losers" route, when in fact I thought the Warriors were kinda cool heroes, despite their admittedly cheesy-sounding names and powers.

I'll admit that my fondness still lies more with those Nicieza-penned Warriors 50 issues, but this is a fun one-off, a fun alternate take, and I had a lot of fun with it, even if the "lovable losers" reality show shtick did set them up to be the fall guys for Civil War.

This is superheroes as sitcom, with more than a few loving nods to Marvel continuity (and hell, literature and historical figures, while we're at it), plenty of fighting, a touch of heart in the Night Thrasher/Microbe relationship and stunning artwork by Skottie Young.

Ultimately, it doesn't have any long-term resonance, but it's a really fun, well-crafted story that I'm happy to have in my library.

[Alan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story is as much of a “prelude” to Marvel's 'Civil War' as 'Amazing Fantasy' #15 is a prelude to the same event. Both stories have absolutely no connection to 'Civil War' other than the fact that they contain origins of characters who play big roles in it. In the case of this 'New Warriors' mini-series, which was originally released before 'Civil War' was even a glint of an idea, all it does is show the “origin” of the New Warriors in their new form as reality TV superheroes. In terms of story, theme, or even tone, there is zero connection between this and 'Civil War', and it was clearly just a cynical marketing decision to re-release it years later with the title of 'Civil War Prelude'. If you read it expecting any relation to 'Civil War', you will be disappointed! Rather, this is a silly, cartoonish, all-ages adventure. Personally, I didn't find it funny at all, and only mildly entertaining, but I loved the Skottie Young art and give it a second star for that reason alone.

[CapesandCovers · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my first real introduction to the New Warriors, other than hearing other people tell me about them, and Nova showing up in the background of a few issues. And that whole Civil War thing, but I just knew about it vaguely, instead of actually having read it since I have my share of issues with that event. Overall, I thought it was a pretty good starting point and stand-alone, I could follow along with everything without a problem. I just wish there was more of it, instead of it being a mini-series.

This has just the right amount of ridiculous to it, but it's not so over the top that it becomes pure stupidity. Skottie Young's art is what really helped to pull off Zeb's story, it gave it that great late '90s - early 2000s vibe that it needed, and damn did it work well. Now I'm wishing that Young was still illustrating like this, his chibi's are cute, but this just takes the cake.

[Mitch Romig · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this in a bargain bin and was very pleasantly surprised. All I knew about it before reading was that this was the team involved in a disaster that lead to Civil War. I bought it for $3 without even checking the creative team. Zeb Wells and Skottie Young are a perfect match and these stories are tons of fun. I wish there was more to read.

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

God damn you, Skottie Young. There is little to no reason that I should like anyone here.,and yet, I do. Why? Skottie mother-fucking Young. That's why.

This series is fluff. But somehow Skottie Young makes it so that I actually give two flips what happens to these characters. I'm not sure how. I'm pretty sure the answer involves black magic.

Fun. Interesting. Awesome.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pure fun. I love the art, love the humor. I received #3 in a grab bag, and had to grab the rest of the series. My only complaint is Virginia Woolf's appearance. Hello, she would not be cool with the gender dynamics and it's a little weird that Marvel tried to endorse it there. Nevertheless, I look forward to finding more about New Warriors.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Things are so bad for the New Warriors, they've stooped to the last bastion of the trying-to-stay-relevant. Yep, reality TV. So what happens when superpowers get their "reality" scripted for them? Twists, turns and action a-plenty.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun. All that it tries to be. And a young Skottie Young on art. It isn't what he can do now, but it is still great fun. Almost makes me sad that they blew em all up.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

This needs to be an animated series. It really feels like Marvel's answer to DC's Teen Titans cartoon from a few years back.