New Warriors (Vol. 5) #3

Background

The New Warriors haven’t officially formed yet, but so far we have the major players. Currently, each are under attack by the Evolutionaries, who were sent by the High Evolutionary to “save” humanity. He’s decided that mutants and magical beings and other people with powers are a danger to humanity. He’s abducted the new Nova to accomplish this goal.

Story Details

The comic begins with an explanation of who the Celestials are and how they helped shape humanity. When humans were first appearing, they created three races: the humans, the Deviants, and the Eternals. Deviants and Eternals fought, while humans evolved into…well…humans. Of course, being the Marvel universe, things began to change with the appearance of mutants, Inhumans, magical beings, and scientific super powers. The High Evolutionary believes this was all a mistake, and blames himself for creating his race of beastmen. He’s modified the machine he uses to evolve humanity and is now planning to “end the corrupted lines of man” and he plans to use Nova’s “worldmind” within the helmet to target his attacks. At this time some of his Evolutionaries appear, carrying Water Snake, Scarlet Spider, and Hummingbird.

Back in New York, the police have arrived at the scene with Sun Girl, Mark, Justice, and Speedball. The police don’t trust Mark because he’s an Inhuman. He opens fire and the group flees. Mark becomes upset at what his life has become and Sun Girl tries to give him a pep-talk, but Justice cuts in, siding with the argument that Mark is right to be upset. While they try to figure out how to help him, Sun Girl takes a shot at him.

In Wundagore, Kaine is coming to (don’t ask where he got his costume from since he wasn’t wearing it last issue). He, Hummingbird, Nova, and Water Snake are stuck in some kind of bubble prisons. Kaine tries burning through them, but to no success. Sam tries to convince them to get his helmet back so he can call for help. Kaine “talks” to the spiders in the base, causing them to flood into the power supply for the shields. This of course causes most of his companions to be rather grossed out.

Cutting back to New York, Mark is fine, due to his super power. Sun Girl convinces them to take this matter into their own hands due the absence of the Avengers. Justice immediately decides they need to find Nova.

We go back to Wundagore, where Scarlet Spider hands Sam back his helmet. He transforms into Nova, but the group is immediately attacked by Evolutionaries. The rest of the group attacks, allowing Nova to flee. Aracely is almost immediately downed, with Water Snake being overrun next. Before they can kill Scarlet Spider, Nova returns, deciding that rather than call for help, he IS the help. Kaine of course criticizes his choice, seeing as he saved three people instead of millions. Despite his powers, Scarlet Spider and Nova are soon overrun as well…

General Comments

I found this issue to be more interesting than the last, though that is not to say it is not without its flaws. The character of Mark is still underdeveloped and does not provide much. Being a team book, we of course don’t have enough time to really explore one character because otherwise it overshadows the others. That being said, I would still like to see more detail given to him as things develop.

I’m interested in reading more about this new Nova and I’m interested in seeing the dynamic of having an actual kid on the team. Hummingbird I’m a little less sure about, but her personality and character mostly seem to serve as a balance to Kaine. I think this issue demonstrated how versatile her character is in a fight by having her immediately taken out. But I’m hoping this is proved wrong soon!

My biggest complaint here is just more of the typical things we saw from Yost during Scarlet Spider vol. 2, which is characters randomly appearing in places (the cops at the beginning) or characters randomly changing (such as Kaine suddenly being in costume in this issue). But still, I’m enjoying this series enough so far, so I’ll keep trying!

Overall Rating

A decent issue, which continues the story so far. Having not generally been impressed with Yost’s multi-part stories before, I am pleasantly surprised with how much I’ve enjoyed this series so far. I’m hoping that this continues as we come closer to the conclusion of this arc.