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Quote1 No matter how hard we try, our name is synonymous with Stamford, Connecticut. And in a world with the Avengers, I'm not sure there's a place for us. Quote2
Justice[src]

History

The Original Team

Dwayne Taylor's parents were murdered when he was a child, and so he swore vengeance on all criminals. In order to do so, he trained under the auspices of his guardians Tai and Chord, who maintained the multinational Taylor Foundation, set up by Dwayne's father before he died. When he had finally reached a plateau in which he felt he could begin the "fight," he organized a team of teenage superheroes. Nova was a former Champion of Xandar whose powers were reactivated by Taylor throwing him off the roof of a tall building, Marvel Boy was the present-day version of Vance Astro of the Guardians of the Galaxy, Firestar was a former member of the Hellions, Namorita was Prince Namor's cousin, and Speedball was a teenager from Springdale, Connecticut who had been involved in an accident at a laboratory. Their first battle was against a reformed Terrax.

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The first incarnation

The team's debut, and their subsequent battle with the Juggernaut, solicited the interest of Genetech, a superhuman research facility in Long Island. The company hired the Mad Thinker to research the new group of heroes to assist them in creating their own super-hero team. While preserving their secret identities, the Thinker did hand over the data he had collected, which resulted in the creation of Psionex, a quintet of super-humans who were under close observation by the scientists of Genetech. The Warriors traced the Thinker's intrusive research back to Genetech but were summarily contained by Psionex, who then took the opportunity to turn on Genetech. With the late arrival of Speedball, the Warriors were able to over-power the company's rogue super-team. However, the battle had garnered the attention of the news media, who televised the Warriors' departure from Genetech's facility. Meryet Karim happened to catch one of these broadcasts, and recognized Nova, which prompted her to step up the time table on her plans.

In the interim, the Warriors continued to work together, foiling Star Thief, Force of Nature, the Bengal and others from causing harm. The team also survived a confrontation with the White Queen and her Hellions in an effort to take Firestar back.

The Warriors also fought the Fantastic Four when Marvel Boy, who was under the Puppet Master's control, kidnapped Alicia Masters. Her father, the Puppet Master, knew something was wrong with her. It was later discovered that a Skrull, Lyja had been impersonating Alicia.

Soon after, Meryet Karim found the legendary Ka Stone. Using its reality-altering properties, she was able to re-shape history. Taking on the mantle of the Sphinx, she ruled a world where Egypt grew to be the dominant nation in an effort to win back her love, the original Sphinx. However, this reality was unraveled after Sayge, the embodiment of truth, revealed to Nova how Meryet had manipulated history.

Following run-ins with the Puppet Master, the Hate Monger, rematches with Psionex and Terrax, and several other adventures, the team found themselves questioning each other and the motives behind their very formation. Night Thrasher discovered that the Taylor Foundation was involved in various companies and business dealings of questionable legality. His research led him to his mentor Chord, who tried to manipulate the rest of the team against him. Failing that, Chord attempted to kill himself. The Warriors then followed a messy trail from Gideon in Colorado to Tatsu'o and his Cybersamurai in Japan, and eventually to Tai in Cambodia. Previously thought to be nothing more than a humble housekeeper, she revealed herself to be a Cambodian sorceress who had killed Dwayne's parents and orchestrated the creation of the New Warriors for the sole purpose of sacrificing them to the Well of All Things. Night Thrasher successfully avenged the death of his parents by killing Tai.

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Clockwise From Top: Firestar, Nova, Rage, Justice, Night Thrasher, Silhouette, Speedball, Kymaera

The journey to this truth came with sacrifices. Night Thrasher had attempted to disband the team in Japan, and remained away to clean up and reorganize the Taylor Foundation. Marvel Boy inadvertently killed his father after years of physical and mental abuse, resulting in a highly publicized trial. The proceedings cost Marvel Boy his secret identity and his freedom; he was found guilty of negligent homicide and sentenced to the superhuman prison the Vault. But the team also found itself with new members. Silhouette, a mutant with shadow-melting powers, was the long lost daughter of Chord and a former crime-fighting partner with Night Thrasher and her brother Midnight's Fire before the formation of the New Warriors. Rage was an Avenger with super-strength that the Warriors had met while battling the Hate Monger. He had assisted the Warriors by stealing an Avengers Quinjet to get the team to Cambodia. This led to his eviction from the Avengers. The Warriors had also gained an ally in Darkhawk, an armored hero operating out of Queens. While Chord survived his attempt at suicide, he was physically unable to serve as the team's pilot or join them on missions and so, Sprocket, a foul-mouthed and hardened soldier, was hired as his temporary replacement.

Amid the return of the original Sphinx and a cosmic war with Magus, the team struggled to re-balance itself. During Night Thrasher's absence, Namorita had assumed leadership. Her strong activism brought the Warriors into an international incident within the country of Trans-Sabal, where they found themselves facing off against a more savage Force of Nature. Her inaction led to the death of a military leader that further complicated an already sticky political and civil war. Rather than further endanger themselves and worsen the situation, the team left. This defeat left Namorita and other members of the team ripe for possession by the rampant Darkforce energies of Darkling. Teaming up with Darkhawk, Dagger, Spider-Man, the Thing, and several Avengers, Nova, Firestar, and Speedball had to fight their own friends and fellow heroes before finally subduing Darkling with the help of Dr. Strange. During the battle, the heroes met a male Turbo (Mike Jeffries). Since they had met a female Turbo (Mickey Musashi) only recently, this caused some confusion. Nova later met with both Turbos to gauge their abilities, and agreed to give them probationary membership to the New Warriors.

Namorita's final mistake came when she took a night off to party hard and ended up spending the night with a man she met at a club. That man ended up being Kimeiko Ashu, leader of the Poison Memories gang with a vendetta against Night Thrasher. Stealing Namorita's address book, Ashu struck at the Warriors like none had done before. Rage's grandmother was killed when a rocket launcher destroyed their home. Firestar's father was fatally wounded by gunshot. Nova's brother and Speedball's father were kidnapped. Ashu then called Namorita and demanded their surrender. Carlton LaFroyge, a classmate of Speedball who had figured out his secret identity and blackmailed his way onto the team, contacted Night Thrasher. Night Thrasher tracked down Ashu and freed the Warriors, as well as Nova's brother and Speedball's father. Rage then tracked down Ashu and killed him to avenge his grandmother's death.

Rage faced criminal charges for killing Ashu, but the charges were dropped, as he was found to have acted in self-defense. Night Thrasher, who finally returned to the team, and Chord were assigned as Rage's legal guardians. Firestar's father survived his gunshot wound to the chest after a time in a coma. Nova's brother had lost a finger during the hostage situation, but was otherwise unharmed, as was Speedball's father. Namorita and Nova finally acknowledged an attraction to each other, but she felt she had to leave the team and return to Atlantis after the mistakes she had made.

Not soon after, Super Nova returned from the time stream. Before the New Warriors were formed, he had been tricked by the Avengers into entering the time stream in search of Nebula, who he blamed for destroying Xandar. His mental stability had been significantly weakened but he had sensed the return of Nova's powers. Super Nova tracked Nova down and leached the Centurion powers from him, killing Richard Rider in the process. Fortunately, the Xandarians Air-Walker and Firelord detected Super Nova's return and traveled to Earth to intervene. They met up with the Warriors and used their cosmic powers to resurrect Richard Rider. The group then pursued Super Nova into space, where he had launched an assault on Shi'ar forces. Super Nova capturing Richard Rider in the battle and teleporting to Xandar. When Super Nova attempted to absorb Richard Rider's soul to resurrect Xandar, Richard was able to absorb all of the Nova powers into himself, which resulted in the failure of his own sanity. Unbeknownst to any of the players however, a cloning process had already begun within the ruins of the planet Xandar which resulted in the resurrection of Queen Adora and other Xandarians. Adora was able to intervene and convince Richard Rider to use his powers to restore Xandar. He awoke with his Nova powers restored to a higher level than they had originally been, and the rank of Centurion Prime among the Nova Star Corps with the assignment of protecting Earth.

The team then saw the return of two of their founding members. Marvel Boy was released from jail early due to good behavior. (He had helped guards squelch a prison riot.) He took on the mantle of Justice and went under-cover to investigate Shinobi Shaw and his involvement in the Upstarts. Namorita returned from Atlantis, but genetically altered. Some time ago, she had learned that she was a clone of her mother Namora. What she discovered while in Atlantis was that her genetic make-up had been mixed with ancient Atlantean DNA in an attempt to control some of Namora's unpleasant puberty years, due to her mutantcy. Unfortunately, this resulted in Namorita having an unpredictable genetic makeup that, in times of stress or sustained amounts of time in one environment, could alter her appearance and abilities. Taking the name Kymaera, she now had blue skin, black fish-like eyes, webbed-hands and feet, and an altered voice.

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The New New Warriors: (Clockwise From Top R) Turbo, Darkhawk, Dagger, Hindsight Lad, Bandit, PowerPax

The New New Warriors

Following a team-up with X-Force, where the two groups unraveled the mystery of the Upstarts and the Gamesmaster, the active Warriors at the time (the original founders plus Silhouette and Rage) were teleported to various points in time and space by the original Sphinx, who had stolen the rest of his powers back from the lady Sphinx. Chord, Sprocket and Carlton (who had taken on the super-hero identity of Hindsight Lad, despite having no powers or combat abilities) formed a new team of Warriors to stop Sphinx from transforming all of Earth into his Egyptian kingdom. Bandit, Night Thrasher's illegitimate half-brother, insisted on leading the group, as he had begun secretly dating Silhouette. The group also consisted of established allies Darkhawk, the female Turbo, and Dagger, as well as Alex Power of Power Pack (who had earlier been identified as a potential member by Night Thrasher), and the de-powered Meryet Karim. The group traveled to Egypt, and engaged the Sphinx in combat just as Nova discovered his own ability to teleport. The new team then rescued Speedball, who had been teleported to the kinetic dimension that granted him his powers, and use him as a gateway to retrieve the rest of the Warriors. Both teams attacked the Sphinx until Sayge appeared to reflect the Warriors' pure motives onto the Sphinx, revealing the truth about himself. Meryet, who had loved the Sphinx since they met centuries ago, merged with the Sphinx and the two vanished to live their lives together.

After saving the world from the Sphinx, the New Warriors became celebrities. But not all fourteen of them wanted to be a part of it. Following another encounter with the Mad Thinker, the Warriors re-thought what kind of heroes they wanted to be. Bandit and Silhouette left. The original members and Rage chose to stay together as a team and family. The rest of the "New" New Warriors admitted to other obligations, but agreed to help out when they could.

Re-committed as a formal team, the New Warriors again confronted Psionex, who had accidentally killed a child while attempting to be heroes. But after a failed attempt to reconcile with Silhouette, Night Thrasher again pulled himself away from the team, this time taking Rage with him. Again, Namorita (as Kymaera) stepped up to a leadership position, sharing the responsibilities with Justice. A televised assault on Rwandan refugees in Goma, Zaire by a mysterious force prompted the Warriors to travel to Africa with the help of Sprocket. They arrived too late to help Air Force, a mercenary unit the Warriors had opposed before who had seen the error of their ways during a confrontation with Night Thrasher. Air Force were helping transport much-needed emergency aid to the refugees when the mysterious attack took place. Cardinal was the only one remaining from the encounter with the Soldiers of Misfortune, a six-member team that operated in pairs. The Warriors didn't fair much better. Like Sparrow of Air Force, all of the Warriors were captured by the Soldiers. Only Nova remained; he had been thrown from the battle field. Nova contacted Hindsight Lad to call in the reserve Warriors. Only the female Turbo and Alex Power (now using the name PowerPax with the stolen powers of his siblings) responded. Two hours later, the two joined Nova, Sprocket, and Cardinal in Africa. Using radio transmissions Nova's helmet had picked up during the fight, they tracked down the Soldiers and freed all of the the Warriors except for Kymaera, who along with Sparrow had been brainwashed to serve the ones behind the Soldiers of Misfortune, Protocol and his para-military organization Undertow. All of them teleported away before the Warriors could get Kymaera back.

Blaming Night Thrasher for not being around when they could have used him, Nova forced him off the team. Only Rage chose to stick with Night Thrasher. Nova then became entangled in the Deathstorm plot that took him into outer space while Firestar, Justice and Speedball were asked by the US government to assist Sabra in guarding the Israeli Prime Minister during his visit to the United States. While Nova was successful in stopping the plot, Queen Adora deemed him unworthy to wield the Nova Centurion powers any longer. Garthan Saal replaced him as Earth's Nova, leaving Richard Rider powerless. Unbeknownst to either, the Dire Wraith Queen Mother Volx had snuck aboard their shuttle back to Earth from Xandar. The Warriors and the new Nova destroyed the underground technology her sons had created years ago but Volx managed to escape.

The New Warriors soon found themselves with some new members. Scarlet Spider was the clone of Spider-Man who believed himself to be the original for a time. His membership was brief but he was essential in helping the Warriors capture the rampaging Helix, the only survivor of a town killed by Genetech toxins released into the air by the Jackal. Helix awoke with no memory of his past and with strange defensive powers that adapted to whatever attacked him. The Warriors held him at their Crash-Pad as he became more docile and aware of his situation. He eventually regained the ability to speak, albeit strictly in Spanish, and eventually left in search of his past. Turbo provided him with the means to contact the Warriors, retroactively bestowing upon him membership. Timeslip was a precognitive with limited time manipulation abilities. She had foreseen Speedball's death and joined the team in an effort to prevent it.

The Warriors also helped Scarlett Spider fight a mind controlled Spider-man (Peter Parker) who was programmed by the Jackal to kill Mary Jane. The Warriors helped brake Spider-Man free of the Jackal's control and protected Mary Jane. Spider-Man thanked the team afterwords.

Meanwhile, Night Thrasher decided to lead a new team and gathered the remaining members of Psionex to properly train them. Unfortunately, the two teams came into conflict when they both attempted to stop an attack by Genecide and her team Eugenix on a health clinic owned by the Taylor Foundation. Firestar happened to be there for medical testing, to see whether her mutant microwave powers had effected her sterility. Genecide's ability to see the genetic make-up of anyone led her to a mission of genetic cleansing by eliminating modern medical intervention. After patients were killed and medical records were destroyed, Genecide and her group escaped, but not before revealing Night Thrasher's "minor mutation" and Firestar's risk of sterilizing herself if she continued to use her powers at the levels she had been.

It was shortly after those events where Timeslip's vision of Speedball's death came true. First, the Warriors were attacked by the Guardians of the Galaxy, who were in search of a time anomaly. Then, the merged Sphinx arrived and terminated the anomaly, Speedball. However, what none of the Warriors realized at the time was that the Speedball who died was actually Darrion Grobe, a young man from the year 2092. Darrion had replaced the original Speedball when he was trapped in the kinetic dimension to travel back in time to prevent his father from conquering all of time as Advent. In the end, the Warriors rescued the real Speedball and returned Darrion's future to normal.

Around that time, Carlton, who had abbreviated his name to Hindsight, had been re-directing some Avengers resources to the Warriors, providing new costumes, communication badges, and a construction crew to repair the damaged Crash-Pad. The Avengers eventually discovered this and put a stop to it. But the reconstruction led to the discovery of a sub-basement in the facility, which contained a small sect of former Hydra agents led by Mother of Pearl. Hindsight, the other Warriors, and the Avengers dismantled their plans and had them arrested.

Night Thrasher then decided to try to make amends with the Warriors by freeing Kymaera from the Undertow. With information the Mad Thinker secretly provided to Night Thrasher, Kymaera was successfully rescued. At the same time, the Warriors were dealing with the return of Volx, who had killed Mike Jeffries (the male Turbo) to obtain the Torpedo armor. She then stole the Warriors' Smartship Friday, Power Pack's sentient spaceship which they had recently been using as transportation, and intended to activate Forge's neo-neutralizer, a weapon she had stolen from the US government that would eliminate the powers of every hero and villain on Earth. The Warriors pursued with the help of the new Nova. Before the neo-neutralizer could be activated, Nova shot down Friday, who crash landed in Greenland. The Warriors and Nova pressed their attack on Volx as they were joined by Night Thrasher, Kymaera and Rage. During the battle, Garthan Saal was mortally wounded. As he died, he transferred his powers back to Richard Rider, who once again became Nova. However, Volx was still able to activate the damaged neo-neutralizer, which temporarily canceled out the powers of everyone in the area. But Night Thrasher still had the use of his armor and weapons and took the opportunity to slay Volx. With Nova back in action, Kymaera free, and Night Thrasher and Rage back, the team was at last reunited.

However, the event left the Warriors changed. With his friend Friday badly damaged due to his own teammates firing on him, Alex Power (who had been calling himself Powerhouse) left the team and returned their respective powers to his siblings. It is unknown whether Timeslip ever got her powers back. She was standing closest to the neo-neutralizer when it went off and has not been seen since. Hindsight seemed interested in being trained in the use of the Torpedo armor with Turbo but has never been seen since. The remaining Warriors returned to New York to find all out chaos at the hands of Onslaught and an army of Sentinels, which resulted in the disappearance of most of the Avengers and Fantastic Four. The Warriors stepped up their crime-fighting efforts, assisting in the pursuit of the Thunderbolts, a group of super-villains from the Masters of Evil who had been posing as heroes. They also assisted Ultragirl in combating fires in Los Angeles. Kymaera returned to Atlantis to rule in Namor's absence.

Heroes Return

When the missing Avengers and Fantastic Four returned, Firestar and Justice found themselves helping the Avengers combat Morgan le Fey, eventually earning themselves full Avengers membership. Night Thrasher left for Seattle to go back to school and try to get an internship at Stark-Fujikawa. Speedball and Nova both agreed that the team had been disbanded, since all the others seemed to have moved on.

During her time in Atlantis, Namorita had begun to painfully mutate again. She flew to Nova for help and support. Nova's own powers were fluctuating causing doubt in his own abilities, he was working at the fast food chain Marvel Burgers to pay for his community college tuition, and he had just reconnected with a high schooled flame who was being beaten by her husband. For whatever reason, he was unable to support Namorita, whose skin was hideously flaking off. His decision effectively ended their romantic relationship and damaged their friendship. Her mutation eventually ended with her shedding her previous Kymaera appearance and returning to her original form. Nova's own powers were eventually stabilized with the help of Mister Fantastic of the Fantastic Four.

Feeling the need to honor Mike Jeffries' death, Mickey Musashi renewed her career as Turbo. While assisting Manhattan fire fighters battle a warehouse fire, she unwittingly got the attention of Joe Silvermane (formerly Blackwing). Silvermane instructed Firestrike, the leader of Silvermane's team of armored muscle, Heavy Mettle, to get close to Turbo to obtain her armor. (He believed that her armor was too powerful to be forcibly removed from her person).

Reunited

A short time later, Speedball convinced Nova, Namorita, and Turbo to re-form the team after successfully defeating Blastaar. They were joined by the young mutant Bolt and new hero Aegis during the battle, where Namorita discovered her most recent mutation had provided her with new powers. When she went to the Hermiston Research facility to analyze these changes, she found herself ambushed by Genecide and Eugenix. The Warriors were able to stop Genecide's termination of the clones, which were being cultivated at the facility, but they weren't able to capture her or her team. Namorita then went to Atlantis to find the answers to the changes to her body.

While she was away, the Warriors became embroiled in a gang war due to Aegis' friendship with a victim of a drive-by shooting. Aegis tried to convince the leader of his late friend's gang to hand over their weapons to avoid retaliation. But the discussion degenerated into a battle, where the gang revealed their high-tech weaponry. The gang managed to escape and later destroyed the Crash-Pad with a missile launcher while the Warriors were still inside. Nova was able to fly everyone out in time. Aegis got the name of the gang's weapons dealer from another friend who was now part of the gang.

With Namorita back, the Warriors tracked down weapons dealer Harley Traynor, who had Heavy Mettle waiting for them. The New Warriors survived the ambush but Heavy Mettle escaped. However, Traynor agreed to reveal to the police the identity of his boss. However, before his confession could be made, he was mysteriously killed in prison. His son Fletcher Traynor, a student of the Massachusetts Academy, received letters from his father recounting what had happened and blamed the Warriors for his death. Fletcher raided his father's store-house for an appropriate weapon to exact his revenge, but accidentally broke one device which somehow turned him into a toxic sludge monster. Calling himself Biohazard, Fletcher attacked Christmas shoppers at a Brooklyn mall while demanding the presence of the New Warriors. Both the Warriors and Generation X converged on the scene. Generation X secretly operated out of the Massachusetts Academy, which was run by team leader Emma Frost. A misunderstanding turned the two teams against each other until they worked together to defeat Biohazard. Namorita then turned him over to Project Pegasus under an assumed name to protect him from the authorities and the criminals who killed his father.

After the destruction of the Crash-Pad, the Warriors had moved into an abandoned firehouse offered to them by arson investigator Dalton Beck. Turbo had befriended Beck while assisting with the investigation into the Manhattan warehouse fire she had put out. The two spent more time together, growing closer until Turbo discovered that Beck was Firestrike of Heavy Mettle. Beck admitted that he had fallen for Turbo and agreed to help the Warriors get Joe Silvermane, who he revealed to be Traynor's boss, and Heavy Mettle behind bars. Despite his cooperation, his involvement in the warehouse arson and other criminal activities serving Silvermane landed Beck in jail as well, where he entered the witness protection program to assist in the prosecution against Silvermane. It is unknown what became of Silvermane's trial or Beck.

Following this, the Warriors assisted Night Thrasher in Seattle, where he revealed he hadn't been interning, but investigating the death of his mentor Masahiko. His investigation led him to The Hand and their young leader-in-training, Junzo Muto, who killed Masahiko as a test. The final stage of his test was to steal the powers of Iron Fist. While they failed to stop Junzo from obtaining Iron Fist's powers, they did save Iron Fist's life. Following an encounter with Iron Man's rogue armor and Aegis discovering the Greek origins of his breastplate with the help of Hercules, Night Thrasher returned to the Warriors once again.

Reality Stars

The Warriors seemed to disband again, or lapse into a period of inactivity. The full extent of their actions were unknown, but they were been spotted many times fighting major crises that hit New York City. They were on-hand to fight the hordes of Hydra who attacked the city under Baron Strucker's command, and several of the team (Nova, Namorita, Justice and Firestar) were mind-controlled and used as soldiers by the Purple Man during the ten days he held the city hostage. They were forced to fight the Thunderbolts in a failed attempt to keep the reformed villains from saving the city.

However, Night Thrasher reunited the team to fight a crime wave of super-villains who'd moved to small-town America, out of the view of the hero community. His finances had been hit hard, so he made a deal with a production company (the mrvl network - WTNH, channel 8) to film the team's car trip and market it as a reality TV show. This didn't sit well with the rest of the team. Night Thrasher also brought a new member onto the team without explaining the real reason for his presence to the other Warriors. It turned out that the new member, Microbe, was an orphan that Night Thrasher had legally adopted. Another member, Debrii, was added to the team by network executives to add conflict for the reality TV show.

Civil War

The reality show incarnation of the team was the catalyst in the Super-hero Civil War. In a battle with a group of super-villains while filming season two of their hit TV series, the super-villain Nitro exploded, killing most of the team and hundreds of civilians in Stamford. This led the government to introduce the Superhero Registration Act. The heroes, particularly the Avengers, found themselves divided over the act, and Civil War broke out. Eventually, the pro-registration forces won the war, which led to many former new Warriors joining the Initiative. Among them were Justice, Rage, Debrii, Ultra Girl, and Slapstick.

Speedball turned up alive, but depowered, and was incarcerated in federal prison as the first hero charged under the new SRA laws. After he discovered his powers were still functional, Baldwin was taken to the new penitentiary called Negative Zone Prison Alpha. Reed Richards, the facility's creator, offered Baldwin the chance to testify before the U.S. Congress. On the Capitol steps, Baldwin was shot by an assailant and taken away in an ambulance. Baldwin recovered from the wound, and Richards determined that Baldwin's powers were evolving. Baldwin thwarted an escape from the prison and said that he would comply with the Superhuman Registration Act. Baldwin ordered a new suit of armor that featured 612 internal spikes that caused him constant pain, symbolic of the 612 deaths he felt responsible for. He joined the newest incarnation of the Thunderbolts. Meanwhile, fellow Warriors founder Firestar announced her intention to retire.[1]

Vigilantes

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Depowered Mutants with Tech

A new team appeared utilizing stolen technology in their war on crime. This team was led by a "resurrected" Night Thrasher, who was secretly Donyell Taylor. Donyell gathered several depowered mutants such as Wondra (Jubilation Lee, formerly known as the X-Man Jubilee), Tempest (Angel Salvadore, a former student of the Xavier Institute), Skybolt, Blackwing (Barnell "Barry" Bohusk, formerly known as Beak), Decibel (Jonothon Starsmore, formerly known as Chamber), Ripcord, Renascence, the siblings Phaser and Longstrike, and Sofia Mantega, (formerly known as Wind Dancer). This version of the team took on an anti-establishment agenda. They acted outside of the Initiative, and therefore outside the law. They apprehended costumed criminals, leaving behind an NW as their calling card.

The New Warriors set out on a mission in New York City against the Zodiac. Longstrike was killed by Cancer. Sofia Mantega, who had been watching from the crowd, attempted to help a kid on his bicycle to safety, when she was blasted in the back. The New Warriors attacked, forcing the Zodiac to teleport away. Night Thrasher wouldn't leave a wounded teammate behind, but with law enforcement approaching, he left Sofia in the care of the paramedics who were grateful that the young heroes had protected them from the Zodiac. Night Thrasher took responsibility for Longsrike's death. Refusing to put more lives on the line, Night Thrasher announced he was disbanding the team. Jubilee argued that the team would go on, with or without him. He finally relented and agreed to keep the Warriors going.

Meanwhile, in the Initiative, former New Warrior Slapstick attacked his instructor Gauntlet in retaliation for the man's comments about his dead friends while drilling The Initiative recruits. Gauntlet was left battered with 'NW' sprayed on him.[2] Ultra Girl created a program called the Junior Guardsmen to teach kids to be superheroes and counter the vigilante New Warriors.[3] Rage criticized the program for resembling the new Hitler Youth and suggested it was time for him and Justice to form their own New Warriors team.[4]

Justice did form his own New Warriors team including himself, Rage, Slapstick, Debrii and Ultra Girl.[5] Justice's team battled a deranged clone of MVP calling itself KIA. The Mighty Avengers showed up to help and Cloud 9 and MVP defeated K.I.A. Justice's team, with the exception of Ultra Girl, left the Initiative. Justice could no longer go along with the Initiative's lies and cover-ups. He planned to use his team, Counter Force, to make sure the Initiative didn't abuse its power. He agreed to turn himself in if he broke any laws.

Meanwhile, Night Thrasher initiated a truce with Midnight's Fire. Midnight's Fire supplied Night Thrasher with one of Diablo's books and a fragment of a Ka Stone to power a time machine. Night Thrasher intended to go back in time to prevent the Stamford disaster so that he could save the former New Warriors from their deaths in Stamford, and by extension, prevent the Civil War. Night Thrasher had become increasingly absent during key moments in their missions causing Wondra to become suspicious and hostile towards him. Night Thrasher was indeed creating a plan to trick his team into remaining loyal to his cause and he employed the young genius Kaz prepare the time machine. However, he also told Kaz he intended to tell the Warriors the truth behind this plan when the time was right.

The New Warriors tracked down and confronted the Machinesmith, under Night Thrasher's false intelligence claiming that the villain had designed a techno-organic virus. During the battle, a section of roof came down and Tempest, Phaser, Decibel and Ripcord were left trapped inside. The trapped New Warriors cobbled together what little weapons they had to battle Machinesmith. Night Thrasher, clad in a large battle-suit, and the rest of the team burst in and attacked Machinesmith, while Grace, Kaz and Aja, remote-controlling Destroyer, Nimrod and Hulkbuster Iron Man robots, found his mainframe and shut it down, reducing Machinesmith to his component elements. After the battle, Night Thrasher admitted he was lying about his intelligence, but stated that it was for the good of the team.

When the Skrull Invasion occurred, Donyell suspected that the Night Thrasher who was killed in Stamford was actually a Skrull and wanted to find proof about the remains of his brother Dwayne. Donyell decided to go on his own but his teammates secretly followed to find out what going on. Counter Force also wanted to know why the Warriors had reformed without the founding members. After Donyell revealed his true identity and his reasons to both the former and current Warriors, Vance led all of them to a SHIELD Helicarrier where their teammates' remains were stored. The Warriors fought off a Super-Skrull possessing the founding Warriors' powers. During the battle, Donyell confirmed that the remains were authentic and had them removed from the carrier for burial.

After Skybolt and Ripcord were killed during a confrontation with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s capekillers Donyell revealed the existence of his time machine. The machine didn't work as planned sent the New Warriors into a dystopian future where Donyell's resurrected brother Dwayne had assumed Iron Man's identity and taken the Registration Act to the extreme by removing all super-powered beings the the Nth dimension. Despite having misgivings about Dwayne's totalitarian rule, Donyell's need to reconnect with his brother led him to betray and capture the other New Warriors. However, after Dwayne tortured and killed Tony Stark (who in this timeline had taken on the identity of Night Thrasher), Donyell came to his senses, rescuing the others and freeing the incarcerated superheroes. Donyell was forced to kill Dwayne. Upon their return to the present, the New Warriors disbanded.

Dark Reign

Night Thrasher joined Counter Force who reclaimed the New Warriors name. They were once again wanted by the law after they were falsely blamed by Norman Osborn for letting the Thor clone loose on a rampage.

Road Trip

New Warriors (Earth-616) from Nova Vol 5 8 001
Speedball has made it very clear how disappointed he is of the disbandment of the New Warriors, trying to relive his glory days as much as he can along with Justice. After several attempts to get Justice to agree to restarting the New Warriors the two witness Nova flying past their van. Thinking it was Richard Rider Speedball takes it as a sign to bring the New Warriors back. [6] After following the new Nova for several days they finally decide to approach him with their proposal. Nova denies their request until Speedball tells him that he knew Richard Rider and he might be able to help Sam uncover his full potential. [7]

New Warriors Members

Original members:

New members (Vol. 1)

New members (Vol. 2)

New members (Vol. 3)

New Members (De-powered mutants)

Counter Force

Scarlet Spiders:

New Members (Marvel NOW!)

Paraphernalia

Weapons

Each teammates' arsenal and equipment

Transportation

The team used to travel the country in a van, with a TV crew. However, historically, Dwayne owned a helicopter, piloted by Sprocket and Nova had a detachable hover-pod from his Xandar battleship orbiting Earth.

Notes

  • The original New Warriors series was ground-breaking in that it touched on many issues not normally dealt with in comics. Marvel Boy was domestically abused by his mutant-hating father for years, and one day he lashed out and accidentally killed his father with his telekinetic powers. (He went to prison for it, but was eventually given an early parole, and returned to the team as Justice). Firestar and Justice were planning on getting married and having children, but discovered that Firestar's microwave powers were causing her to become sterile. Namorita once drunkenly slept with a man who turned out to be the leader of the Poison Memories gang, who stole the Warriors' personal information and launched an assault on their families. The Poison Memories shot and almost killed Firestar's father, cut Nova's brother's fingers off, and murdered Rage's grandmother, which led Rage to kill the gang's leader in cold blood. Firestar's friend was once raped by a boy at a party, and Firestar almost castrated him in anger.
  • The fourth volume of the New Warriors was one of the new team books to debut out of Civil War. The new team had one returning member from the original group, (Night Thrasher), while everyone else was new to the team. The series is written by Kevin Grevioux, writer of the film Underworld, with Paco Medina as the artist. The series made its debut in June 2007 and lasted twenty issues.

Trivia

  • Marvel originally planned to spin off the "New New Warriors" from the "Time & Time Again" crossover into a new book. However, sales diminished, and after the original Warriors were rescued, the "New" New Warriors mostly returned to their solo heroing.
  • Speedball is the only character to have been a member through the team's entire tenure, though only if one counts that he was temporarily replaced by someone assuming his identity. He even survived the Stamford blast that started the Civil War. Out of all the members, only three have been members in each of the team's series: Speedball, Nova, and Namorita/Kymaera, though one could count Night Thrasher, who was not a member in Vol. 2 until the last page of the last issue.
  • An attempt to relaunch the book in 2002 with the characters of Speedball, Rage, Bolt, Turbo and the X-Men characters Skids and Jubilee as college students/super heroes fell through due to legal problems. Coincidentally, Jubilee would later join the group under the guise of Wondra after losing her own mutant powers after the de-powering of 98% of the worlds mutant population by the Scarlet Witch during House of M.
  • Slapstick and Ultragirl were made members off-panel. We found out in the pages of She-Hulk.

See Also

Links and References

References

Template:New Warriors

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