I feel like New Warriors is a book without a real identity. I was a big fan of Yost’s Scarlet Spider series, and I was psyched to see Kaine and Aracely coming along to this new book as well. My knowledge of the New Warriors starts and ends with their involvement in the Civil War event, so I was also interested in learning more about them as well.
But so far, I feel like this book is building in a bunch of different directions, and none of them are paying off. We’re eight issues in, and I’m still not sure what the High Evolutionary was up to. Now we’ve got some evil new Inhumans filtering out “non-worthy” new Inhumans. Not to mention, Kaine and Aracely really have nothing to do with anything that’s happened in this book so far.
If Yost is building toward something, I’m not seeing what it is. On an issue-to-issue basis, New Warriors has been a fun popcorn book, full of action and witty banter. And I absolutely love the new Sun Girl, who I think could be a candidate for her own book. But with all of these characters thrown together under the banner of New Warriors, this group just doesn’t have an identity yet.
Sadly, it’s already been announced that New Warriors will end with issue #12 in November. That’s probably not enough time for Yost to right the ship, but if he and artist Marcus To can pull this team together by then, I think the series will be remembered fondly. As it stands right now, it’s more of a failed experiment, and I think the cancellation is evidence of that.