Marvel is pushing ahead with its controversial relaunch of the New Warriors title. The publisher has released four different variants of the first issue cover, with two from Luciano Vecchio and Declan Shalvey, and two from New Warriors co-creator Mark Bagley.
All of the variant covers spotlight the traditional team roster. Perhaps the most interesting cover shows the character designs of the original team's roster, with Bagley's notes on each character included. There's even a note that reads "Okay - so I'm not a great inker - so sue me." The second Bagley variant showcases the original team - consisting of Firestar, Nova, Night Thrasher, Namoirta, Speedball, and Marvel Boy - in a more traditional pose. Declan Shalvey's version showcases undead versions of Justice, Marvel Boy, Namoirta and Firestar because of course there's a Marvel Zombies version. Finally, Luciano Vecchio showcases the entire team, but once again, the emphasis is mainly on the team's original core members.
The New Warriors first appeared in The Mighty Thor #411 and #412 back in 1989. The team was intended as a group of young adult superheroes, much in the same way that the New Mutants had found a similar success within the X-Men brand years earlier. The team brought pre-existing teenage characters including Nova, who had his own series for a time, and Firestar, who had first appeared in the Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends cartoon. Night Thrasher was the only character created specifically for the team. The original series lasted for seventy-five issues, after which there were several different iterations of the team, with the last being launched in 2014. Members of the New Warriors were responsible for kicking off the events of Civil War, after a battle with the explosive supervillain Nitro caused high amounts of collateral damage and lead the government to pass the Superhero Registration Act.
The New Warriors are set to be relaunched in the wake of the Outlawed storyline, in which similar registration outlaws superheroes under the age of twenty-one without proper training. In response, the New Warriors, presumably having learned from their disastrous mistakes in Civil War, take several new heroes under their wing. Unfortunately, the series, to be written by Daniel Kibblesmith of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, was met with a large degree of controversy when Marvel unveiled new members of the team such as Snowflake, Safespace and Screen Time. Many fans accused these new monikers of being too politically-motivated, while others lambasted the development as heavy-handed and preachy.
It seems likely the variants are designed in part to take some heat off The New Warriors release. After all, the variants all spotlight the classic roster of the team, harkening back to the glory days of the New Warriors. With the original cast slated to take a major role in the book, the variants could be interpreted as damage control. Whether fans will pick up this controversial new series remains to be seen, but the covers, particularly by Bagley, are certainly a welcome addition for any old-school New Warriors fans.
New Warriors #1 is slated to hit stores April 22nd, 2020 (though this could change given the circumstances).