New Warrirors Volume 1: The Kids Are All Fight (Marvel NOW!) Review

New Warriors Volume 1: The Kids Are All Fight

Chances bloooowwwwn,
Nothing's freeeeeee,
Longing foooooooorrrrr,
Used to beeeeeeeee!

Writers: Christopher Yost

Artists: Marcus To and Nick Roche

Collects: New Warriors #1-6 and material from The Amazing Spider-Man #1

Background Information:

The New Warriors are HARDLY the most popular superhero team in the Marvel universe; they destroyed the entire of Stamford, Connecticut which started the super-hero Civil War.

In the real world, they’ve never exactly been front-and-centre of Marvel’s going-ons, and therefore, haven’t earned much mainstream attention. As such, a fresh start was entirely plausible for the team. All you need to know for this book is that Kaine Parker, Spider-Man’s clone, has taken on the role of Scarlet Spider and is hiding in Mexico.

Review:

Y’know, sometimes Marvel just makes me mad.

We’ve had, in Marvel NOW!, what; eight Avengers titles? Nine X-Men ones? We’re set to have three Inhumans books, and somehow justified three Wolverines?

Yet New Warriors, one not directly connected with any of these gets cancelled? It’s not even bad; which is more than I could say for schlock like Uncanny Avengers (at least, if the first volume is anything to go by). Oh well, that’s Marvel for you.

Still does whatever a Spider-Man wouldn't

If you want to get technical, The Kids Are All Fight spins out of Infinity, but it’s hardly central to the story. The High Evolutionary, an odd man in a metal suit is out to destroy all altered humans- mutants, clones, inhumans, atlantians, cosmic, magical or scientifically-altered people and demigods are all on the chopping block to the evolutionaries. Naturally a team consisting of exactly one of each of these kinds of people (excluding magical) forms: Justice, Sun-Girl, Faira Sar Namora of Atlantis, an inhuman named Haechi, Speedball, Nova, Scarlet Spider and Hummingbird. Their mission is to stop the mass genocide of multiple races.

I’ll be honest; I bought this one because I thought it was going to be a continuation of Yost’s Scarlet Spider series, and to a certain point, it is. That said, it’s more of a team book than anything else in Marvel’s line up. We flit between multiple characters, and get a really good taste of what their all about. Yost is, in my opinion, an underrated comics writer. He’s given each character a very distinct personality and his dialogue is fun to read. What makes him better than most industry heavyweights, however, like Brian Michael Bendis, is that his character development doesn’t come at the expense of action, but rather because of it. Fights change these characters and it’s great to see in The Kids Are All Fight.

I’ll admit, the first story arc in this series is much better than the second, which feels a lot like filler, and doesn’t add a whole lot to the team. There are some funny moments here, which I appreciated, but Yost ignores some of the bigger mysteries surrounding the group in favour of this, which I found annoying more than anything.

There’s no way you’re going to write home about anything in this book’s artwork. It’s fairly standard fare that does its job well, but nothing more. I can’t think of a single moment in New Warriors that made me stand up and say “THAT looks awesome”. That said, it’s hardly ugly. You’ll notice the distinct lack of Greg Land in the credits.

Yep, it's a fun book.

All in all, New Warrirors Volume 1: The Kids Are All Fight is an entertaining volume, and it’s a crying shame that Marvel is calling an end to the series while keeping the awful Uncanny Avengers going. It gets a three out of five Wolverines.

***

+ Nice balance of characters.

+ Action and dialogue blend well.

- Last story arc is less impressive.

Alternate Option: Scarlet Spider: Life After Death

Another Yost gem.

Scarlet Spider Vol. 4: Into The Grave (Review

Scarlet Spider Vol. 4: Into The Grave

World's greatest hunter can't spear
a guy who's a foot in front of him...

Writers: Chris Yost and Eric Burnham

Artists: David Baldeon and Carlo Barberi

Collecting: Scarlet Spider #21-25

Background Information:

Ever since Spider Island, Peter Parker’s formally evil clone, Kaine, has been on a mission of redemption. Cured of a genetic flaw that was slowly killing him, Kaine decided that he was going to live for something better. He’s been a fun character to follow; rejecting the notion that he’s a super-hero and trying his best to fight his demons. Those demons have won more than once and, the be fair, Kaine hasn’t exactly been successful at living a new life, but his devotion to protecting the hilarious Aracely (alias Hummingbird) and doing everything a spider can with a little more bloodlust than certain scientific web-heads we all know.

Review:

Let’s face it, it was never going to end well for Yost’s Scarlet Spider. It’s a pity that this series was seriously cut down in its prime, but when your previous volume features Wolverine as a guest star, your series is likely going to be cancelled. When your previous volume features Spider-Man (even the Superior Spider-Man), your series is likely going to be cancelled. When your previous volume features Wolverine and Spider-Man… You’d better start digging your grave.

And make it shallow- you won’t have time to dig a full six feet.

"Ha! Did you hear Scarlet Spider's book got cancelled?
What a loser.... He's right behind me, isn't he?"

That pretty much sums up my feelings on Into The Grave. Despite a very entertaining first three issues. This

is a cancelled series and Yost’s otherwise entertaining run on Kaine reads like a cancelled series. As such, it ends in a way that is both rushed and thoroughly unsatisfying.

Throughout the series, Yost has been teasing the involvement of Kraven the Hunter in Kaine’s troubles and here, Yost finally makes good on the set-up. Kraven and his demented daughter have captured everyone that means something to Kaine and the results are disasterous.

This story links into a Spider-Man story-arc from last decade called Grim Hunt. Reading Into The Grave, though, I was thankful that Yost hadn’t made reading Grim Hunt absolutely necessary. If you don’t know the story, don’t worry. Yost explains enough of the back story to bring you up to speed without making it feel out of place. The fight between Kaine and Kraven is thoroughly enjoyable, allowing us to see Kaine successfully fight off everything he’s been trying not to become and resist the urge to kill the hunter.

Aracelly is great as always in this volume, but she’s used less than she has been in other volumes and that feels like a wasted opportunity. She’s been the source of most of this series’ humour and also a source of mystery, so it’s sad to see her with less exposure than we’re used to seeing.

But what’s really disappointing is the second story arc in this trade. See, it’s about…

Um…

Er…

Well…

And things stop making sense right about... here!

Okay, I have no idea what it’s about, because it honestly tries to do too much in too short a time. In the last two issues collected, Yost tries to deal with the fallout of the first arc, introduce a monster that was hinted at in the first volume and finish the series. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that this results in a final arc that feels rushed. The worst part, though, is that by the end of the series we still have no idea what Aracely’s deal is. She’s still hearing the “Mictlan rises” message and the fact that we know this isn’t going to be resolved doesn’t help anything.

The art here is fine. Artists change a fair bit here, so it’s not consistent artwork by any means, but the art here looks good, so that’s not a problem. The problem is that the art doesn’t compensate for the lackluster ending.

We know Yost is taking over New Warriors for Marvel NOW!, so it’s possible a lot of the abandoned plot strands will be taken up in the new series, but it’s still disappointing that Scarlet Spider fizzles out so much. Overall though, it’s still a volume you want to read, but only for that first arc. Into The Grave gets a three out of five shallow graves.

***

+ Great first arc.

+ Yost makes sure you don’t need to know Grim Hunt to understand what’s going on.

- Fizzled-out ending

Alternate Option: The other Scarlet Spider trades

It’s a good story, but I’d suggest reading the other three volumes.