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L to R, T to B: Nova, Firestar, Justice, Speedball, Night Thrasher, Namorita. The guy in the back is Gideon, a villain.

The New Warriors is a team of young superheroes published by the Marvel Comics company. Created in the 1990s as Marvel's answer to DC Comics' Teen Titans, they were at first, like the Titans, composed mostly of teenage superheroes who had already appeared in other comics, though new characters were added as well. Among their most notable members are:

  • Dwayne Taylor / Night Thrasher, an orphaned African-American who uses his parents' inheritance to create a gadget-equipped suit (and an armored skateboard) and organize the group to avenge the murder of his parents: sort of like if Batman were a black teenager. Created specifically for the series.
  • Richard "Richie" Rider / Nova, whose origin resembles that of Hal Jordan: inheriting the powers of a dying alien member of the Nova Corps. First appeared in his original solo comic, which ran in the mid-to-late '70s, languished in obscurity before Thrasher restored his powers and recruited him for the Warriors, and has since had three ongoing solo series of varying success.
  • Robert "Robbie" Baldwin / Speedball, an attempt by Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko to create another character whose struggles with friends, family and school are complicated by his superpowers, albeit with more wackiness. He possesses the ability to redirect kinetic energy, which he uses mostly for bouncing. The team series kept the family problems but recast him as the mostly-ineffectual Plucky Comic Relief, although he gets more competent as the series progresses.
  • Angelica Jones / Firestar, a mutant girl with microwave heat powers. Canon Immigrant from Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, brought into the comics as a student of the then-villainous Emma Frost.
  • Vance Astrovik / Justice, originally called Marvel Boy. The alternate past version of Major Victory from both Guardians of the Galaxy teams. A mutant with telekinetic powers; he and Firestar dated and were engaged.
  • Namorita Prentiss / Namorita, cousin of Namor the Sub-Mariner, prince of Atlantis.

Other members include Rage, a super-strong angry young Black teenager in an adult man's body; Silhouette, a paraplegic girl with darkness powers who fights crime on crutches; Turbo, actually a guy and a girl who shared the superpowered Torpedo costume between them; Hindsight Lad, a nerdy Joke Character; Microbe, who could make people sick, and a few others. The most famous non-original members include Darkhawk, Cloak & Dagger, both the Ben Reilly and Kaine Parker incarnations of the Scarlet Spider, and Slapstick.

The first series started in 1990, thrived during the comics industry's boom years following, limped through the market's contraction and finally ended in 1996. Firestar and Justice "graduated" to the ranks of The Avengers, while the rest of the cast went their separate ways.

In a later revival, the team was deprived of their funding, forcing them to star in a Reality Show in order to make ends meet. Whilst filming an episode of their reality show, the team entered a fight with several supervillains in Stamford, Connecticut. One of the villains, Nitronote , caused an explosion which killed the majority of the team, their camera crew and destroyed several city blocks, including an Elementary School. The New Warriors became the face of superhero negligence and were the catalyst of Civil War (2006). Speedball survived, but with an extreme case of Survivor Guilt. The very term "New Warrior" became an insult amongst people who hated Supers, much to the annoyance of the former team members and the majority of the team was forced to register under the Super Human Registration Act & receive formal training; the exceptions being Justicenote , Novanote , Firestarnote  and Speedballnote .

At the same time, a new group led by someone in a Night Thrasher costume began calling themselves "New Warriors" and striking at the government that passed the Super Registration Act. However, with the exception of Night Thrasher (who was revealed to be Dwayne's stepbrother Donyell Taylor, a.k.a. Bandit), every member of the team was a former member of the X-Men depowered following the events of House of M. With a lack of trust between Night Thrasher and the rest of the team, due to Night Thrasher secretly working to resurrect the original Night Thrasher and using the rest of the team as a distraction on numerous occasions, the former X-Men eventually tired of his leadership and disbanded after a trip to an alternate future where the original Night Thrasher had been resurrected, manuevered his way into office as Head of S.H.I.E.L.D., stole the Iron Man armor for himself (Tony Stark took the Night Thrasher identity) and banished the majority of the superheroes to the Negative Zone.

Eventually, the former New Warriors who had joined the Initiative, along with the surviving Scarlet Spiders, left after they felt the Initiative was becoming corrupt and needed someone to regulate them to stop an abuse of power, adopting the name Counter Force until the current New Warriors team disbanded, at which point they recruited the second Night Thrasher and briefly took the New Warriors name back, before Tigra and Gauntlet joined them and renamed the group the Avengers Resistance in the wake of Norman Osborn taking control following Secret Invasion. This team operated until the events of Siege, when they mounted an attack on the former Initiative training camp to keep Osborn's back-up occupied whilst the New Avengers and Secret Warriors fought the Dark Avengers. After their victory, the Avengers Resistance disbanded. A new team wouldn't reform until phase 2 of Marvel NOW!, when Speedball (who had retaken the mantle following Osborn's deposition and imprisonment, and became an instructor at the Avengers Academy until Fear Itself), Justice (who was also part of Avengers Academy and left along with Speedball), and the second Nova, Sam Alexander, all find themselves being thrown into the Second Evolutionary War. The new team consists of founding members Speedball and Justice, and new members Nova II, Scarlet Spider, Hummingbird, Sun Girl, Haechi, and Water Snake.

During Marvel NOW! the series received a relaunch written by Christopher Yost and drawn by Marcus To. Speedball and Justice from the original series returned, with some new recruits like the latest versions of Nova and Scarlet Spider as well.

A further revival miniseries was intended as part of the teen-hero-centred Outlawed event in 2020, but never materialised due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and intensely negative fan reaction to publicity for the new characters intended to be introduced in it.

The series was also being adapted for television as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, starring first-time New Warrior Squirrel Girl, along with Night Thrasher, Speedball, Debrii, Microbe, and Mister Immortal. Quite unusually for the franchise, it would've been a half hour comedy series. It was ultimately cancelled after the pilot was passed on by Freeform, the original intended channel, and subsequently shopped around to no success.

Tropes in New Warriors include:

  • Abusive Parents: Marvel Boy's father beat him for being "different". Eventually Vance lashed out at him with his telekinetic powers... and killed him.
  • Alternate Company Equivalent: Some have described the team as "Marvel's Teen Titans". Though, except for Namorita, none of them are younger versions of more established heroes.
  • And Now for Someone Completely Different: New Warriors Vol. 4 didn't feature a single former member of the team, instead filling the roster with X-Men characters who had been depowered following House of M. Whilst there was a Night Thrasher on the team, it was quickly revealed to be the younger brother of the original.
  • Animal-Themed Superbeing: Both Scarlet Spiders when they were - separately - on the team.
  • Appropriated Appellation: The New Warriors got named when a random reporter referred to them that way, and Night Thrasher hurriedly announced they'd be sticking with that before any of his team could come up with anything more embarrassing.
  • Armoured Closet Gay: Justice's father. Justice is cast back in time by the Sphinx and sees that his own father was gay and beaten by his father for it, which is why he later grows up to be abusive to his own son for being a mutant.
  • Ascended Extra: Except for Thrasher, the original cast members were protagonists of cancelled series (Nova, Speedball) or minor supporting characters elsewhere. Several characters went on to new solo series, Nova being the most successful (albeit intermittently.)
    • Likewise, the version of the team in vol. 4 was made up of numerous depowered former X-Men and students of the Xavier Institute, including Jubilee, Angel Salvadore, Beak, and the remnants of the Omega Gang.
  • Ascended Fanboy: Hindsight, and Marvel Boy gushes so much super-hero trivia that his teammates nickname him "Super-Tights".
    • Also Turbo (Mike Jeffries).
  • Asian Babymama: Silhouette's mother.
  • As You Know: Played for Laughs in issue #41 of volume #1. Hindsight Lad explains the history of the planet Xandar, but Speedball points out they are with two people who were from Xandar and they have a teammate who lived on Xandar for a year.
  • Back from the Dead: The New Warriors managed to revive the Xandarians in the Starlost arc from issue 40-42 of the first volume when they traveled to the desolated remnants of their Domed Hometown built from their pieces of their destroyed homeworld.
  • Battle Couple: Tempest and Blackwing in vol. 4, on the original: Thrasher and Silhouette, Firestar and Justice, Nova and Namorita.
  • Became Their Own Antithesis: The team was formed with the premise of tackling issues that other superhero teams like the Avengers and the Fantastic Four wouldn't touch. In issue #51 of the original series, Night Thrasher expresses concern that the Warriors are following in the footsteps of the various teams they were supposed to be different from.
    "Lots of members, diverse powers, fancy headquarters, unlimited budget... Are we becoming like them in other ways as well? So busy talking about what they should do to help the world instead of acting on it? Are going to become a part of the very system we always said we were going to fight to change?
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Firestar is the nicest redhead girl of the group but if any loved one or friend is threatened, she becomes fearsome. One of the boys who had raped her best friend in the party found out the hard way.
  • Beware the Silly Ones: Speedball may look ridiculous with his costume, powers and his attitude but he has proven himself a badass at times. In the tie-in issue of Infinity War crossover, Speedball found an evil doppelganger of himself terrorising his mother and destroyed the doppelganger with a lot of kinetic energy bubbles.
  • Big Guy, Little Guy: Rage and Speedball.
  • Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Namorita (blonde), Silhouette (brunette) and Firestar (redhead).
  • Bouncing Battler: Speedball is the poster boy for this trope.
  • Bullet Dodges You: In Annual #1, the New Warriors fight X-Force. Vance is pitted against Boom-Boom who has the ability to create energy bombs with a four-second delay. Vance simply uses his telekinesis to seize the bombs and throw them back at Boom-Boom.
    Vance: Never throw things at a telekinetic.
  • Bullying the Dragon: Yes, Mr. Astrovik, do continue beating your powerful telekinetic son. It'll end well for you. Made especially worse when Vance has retaliated against his father with his powers in the past. Slow learner, Mr. Astrovik is.
  • Canon Immigrant: Firestar. Originally she was from Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends cartoon.
  • The Cape: Justice. Accidentally kills his abusive father, turns himself in, serves his time and does so proudly. Captain America would be proud.
  • C-List Fodder: The various incarnations of the team generally draw their ranks from this pool. Civil War plays the trope appallingly straight, killing the team to kick-start the event.
  • Clothes Make the Superman: The original Thrasher and several of the vol. 4 team members depend on gadgets for their powers.
  • Clones Are People, Too: Namorita is the clone of Namora, Sub-Mariner's seldom-seen cousin. Basically, Namora couldn't have children, so she had her science folks implant her with an embryo made entirely from herself. The plot has always treated her like more of a daughter, though her clone status has been discovered and caused trouble at times.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: The New Warriors break into Gideon's house to interrogate him for the information on the ties the Taylor Foundation had to Ophrah Industries. However, it horribly backfires on them as they are unprepared for Gideon's mutant power of mimicking superpowers and skills, so he easily defeats them. In return, he tortures Marvel Boy and Firestar while describing the painful details.
  • Color-Coded Speech: When in his Speedball form, Robbie Baldwin has yellow speech bubbles as opposed to the white ones other characters have.
  • Coming of Age Story: Vance's time in the Vault causes Character Development and the transition from Marvel Boy to Justice.
  • Cool Board: Night Thrasher's skateboard.
  • Cursed with Awesome: Firestar may have visually awesome fire powers (microwave heat) but it also render her sterile if she uses them too much. Later Averted when Firestar and Justice joined the Avengers; Hank Pym discovers a genetic potential for immunity to her own powers that failed to develop naturally, and provides tech to stimulate those dormant genes.
  • The Dark Age of Comic Books: Some see the team as being part of this.
  • Dark Age of Supernames: Night Thrasher, Rage, Darkhawk.
  • Dead Person Impersonation: Volx, Queen of the Dire Wraiths, kills and impersonates Mike Jeffries (Turbo).
  • Deliberately Painful Clothing: After becoming the only active member of the New Warriors to survive the Stamford Incident, in which 612 people — many of them kids — died, Robbie Baldwin, formerly known as Speedball, started calling himself Penance and donned a new costume, the inside of which was lined with 612 spikes that constantly pierced his flesh, to remind him of all the people who died. This was also because his guilt over the mass death made him psychosomatically incapable of using his powers unless he was in pain.
  • Deus Exit Machina: Nova is at times written out of some New Warriors issues by losing his Nova Force powers or going away on a space mission as he is one of the most powerful members of the team.
  • Did Not Think This Through: Coronary uses his powers to make Namorita let go of him. Unfortunately, they were several feet in the air when he did this and while Namorita can fly, he can't.
    Coronary: Uh oh. That wasn't very bright.
  • Die or Fly: Night Thrasher recruits Nova this way. Nova is less than thrilled. Not helped by the fact that Night Thrasher was making a lucky guess. Later he gives us the data he was working off of, and there was only a thirty-five percent chance that Nova's powers could be reactivated.
  • Disability Alibi: In a 2006 story a pair of detectives are trying to determine the identity of the new Night Thrasher, as he and his New Warriors are acting in deliberate violation of the Super Registration Act. Naturally, their first suspect is Donyell Taylor, the half-brother of the previous Night Thrasher, but his alibi is that he could not be engaging in vigilante actions because he lost both of his legs in an accident. Of course, it's later revealed that his supposed legless appearance is the result of an image inducer, and he is in fact the new Night Thrasher.
  • Disowned Sibling: Silhouette disowns her brother Midnight's Fire after he becomes a gang leader and comes to blow with Sil's sometimes boyfriend and Fire's ex-friend Night Thrasher.
  • Evasive Fight-Thread Episode: The New Warriors once fought X-Force with no clear winner, although there was a double-KO when Nova and Cannonball collided.
  • Evil Old Folks: Tai in 'Nothing But The Truth' storyline.
  • Expy:
    • Bandit (to the X-Men's Gambit) and Chord (to the X-Men's Cable; they even worked together once as mercenaries).
    • The original Night Thrasher bears a distinct similarity to Batman. As he was a character created by market research conducted in 1989, it's perhaps unsurprising that the result was "Batman-Punisher-Skateboard." (Fabian even referred to him as "Bat Punisher" in his pitch.)
  • Face–Heel Turn: Hindsight Lad, who outed several of the surviving Warriors in the wake of the Stamford incident, because he felt betrayed by the dead Warriors' actions.
  • Fad Super:
    • Night Thrasher and his skateboard gimmick, although no less than The Punisher comments, "I called it stupid? It's a shield and a weapon at the same time. Maybe I should get one."
  • Fair-Weather Friend: In Issue #52 of the original series, Asylum causes the accidental death of a boy whom he wrongly thinks was brandishing a real gun. While Mathemanic and Pretty Persuasions turn themselves in, Coronary and Impulse go hunting for Asylum to bring him in and make him answer for his actions. Asylum verbally tears into them for turning on him the second something goes wrong instead of trying to help prove he didn't mean to kill the boy.
  • Flying Firepower: Unlike her original cartoon version, Firestar controls microwave energy instead of fire, but the uses and effects are largely the same.
  • Foregone Conclusion: When the 3rd series of New Warriors issues was cancelled, the fans knew their fate before Civil War started.
  • For Want Of A Nail: While in prison, Vance receives a message from his future self who reveals that he and his father's relationship took a much different turn due to future Vance activating Vance's x-gene. In the time future Vance came from, he and his father had something of a reconciliation much earlier, while in the present timeline Arnold grew more violent towards his son due to his powers.
  • Fun Personified: Speedball in his New Warrior days.
  • Future Me Scares Me: Vance's initial reaction to his future self, Vance Astro.
  • "Get Out of Jail Free" Card: Subverted with Vance, who refuses to take it and instead serves his time in the Vault after accedentally killing his father.
  • A God Am I: Nova's archenermy Sphinx has this. He/she had fought the New Warriors and altered reality twice.
  • Hammered into the Ground: In one annual, Nova has a day dream in which he kicks the crap out of Magneto, Doctor Doom and Galactus at the same time. At one point, he hammers Magneto into the ground in this manner.
  • Handicapped Badass: Silhouette.
  • Henshin Hero: Robbie Baldwin transforms into Speedball whenever he absorbs any impact.
  • Insane Troll Logic: This exchange between Night Thrasher and Hindsight Lad in issue #47 of the original series.
    Hindsight Lad: Do you deny that I am well-versed in strategic maneuvers and computer technology?
    Hindsight Lad: Well, maybe I wouldn't be as persistent if more of you asked me for my input in advance!
    Night Thrasher: And maybe we'd ask for your input in advance if you weren't such a pest!
    Hindsight Lad: Well, I wouldn't be such a pest if all of you didn't require pestering!
    Night Thrasher: How do you argue with logic like that?
  • Insult Backfire: Done by Justice when he's confronted by an anti-mutant mob.
    Woman: Mutants are genetic Nazis out to exterminate us!
    Justice: Ma'am, as someone who's half-Jewish, I can't tell you how insulting that is.
  • Karma Houdini: Eugenix, a villain team introduced during the New Warriors' involvement in The Clone Saga and obsessed with improving the human race by killing or sterilizing whoever they considered genetically inferior, were last seen in the second issue of the second volume of New Warriors, where they escaped the heroes and remained unpunished for all the people they killed or sterilized.
  • Lawful Stupid: SHIELD agent Sykes, who was a first responder at Stamford, is naturally pro-registration, but when placed in a Bad Future where America is a totalitarian police state and the only way to fix it is breaking and entering she has the most vocal reservations over that option because it's against the law.
  • Legacy Character:
    • Turbo, whose armor belonged to The Torpedo, an ally of Rom Spaceknight (who's been Exiled from Continuity due to legal issues with Hasbro). Justice/Marvel Boy is an odd inversion: his Buck Rogers-like future self, Vance Astro of the Guardians Of The Galaxy, was introduced first, and he travels back in time to prevent the present Vance from becoming an astronaut. Vance's Marvel Boy costume is modeled on Astro's black-and-white spacesuit. The Scarlet Spiders also joined the Counter Force/Avengers Resistance incarnation of the group, wearing modified versions of the Iron Spider armor. Also, the Dark Reign era Night Thrasher is the brother of the first, who was killed.
    • Nova, Scarlet Spider, and Sun Girl are these in the Marvel NOW! volume. Nova and Sun Girl also count as Affirmative-Action Legacy heroes.
  • Lets Wait Awhile: Vance and Angelica decide not to consummate their relationship (literally) in the wake of his aborted jailbreak.
  • Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Night Thrasher occasionally uses his skateboard as a shield. A retractable blade is built into the nose, but otherwise it's mostly used for defense. The Punisher, of all people, commented:
    "I called it stupid? It serves as a shield, a weapon and transport. Maybe I should get one."
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: Silhoutte meets her grandmother just seconds before the old lady blasts her out the nearest window.
  • Missing Mom: Firestar's mother is not mentioned in any backstory, she lives with her father.
  • Mission Control: Hindsight Lad (before his Face–Heel Turn)
  • Monster Modesty: Namorita already had ankle-wings and pointy ears before turning into a blue skinned water babe. Considering her costumes were usually Stripperiffic, she invoked this trope.
    • Considering that she and her cousin Namor are both amphibious and were raised in Atlantean society, doesn't it make sense that both of them wear outfits that are essentially swimsuits? One wonders at the practicality of full-blooded Atlanteans in the Marvel Universe, who are often portrayed as dressing in voluminous, heavy robes and dresses—underwater.
  • Most Common Super Power: In vol. 4, Jubilee (of the X-Men, now a New Warrior) is suddenly more busty
  • Ms. Fanservice: Jubilee in vol 4, Namorita in the original. When she temporarily wore battle armor, Speedball lampshaded this with the comment, "Lordy, do I miss that bikini."
  • No Endor Holocaust: Subverted in the explosion that killed the original team and set up Civil War (2006).
  • No One Could Survive That!: Spider-Man has to convince the team this can happen.
  • Once Done, Never Forgotten: Thanks to their reckless and accidental actions that sparked Civil War, the New Warriors and Speedball are known by public for blowing up Stamford.
  • Parental Abandonment: Night Thrasher is initially driven by the murder of his parents when he was a child. Rage was an orphaned child and raised by his grandmother until she was murdered by Poison Memories gangsters.
  • Prison Episode: After he's convicted of killing his abusive father (actually a negligent homicide), Marvel Boy spends several issues in The Vault, a prison for Superpowered-Individuals.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Nova, Night Thrasher, and Namorita are red in different ways (Nova was quite the impulsive, hot-headed guy in the 90s, while Thrasher was '90s Anti-Hero, and Namorita is Proud Warrior Race Guy), while Speedball, Marvel Boy, and Firestar are blue also in different ways (Speedball was the laidback fun guy with a sort of slacker vibe, Marvel Boy was the more serious and introspective guy of the team, Firestar was the more serious and introspective girl of the team, well okay, Marvel Boy and Firestar are kinda Birds of a Feather).
  • Reed Richards Is Useless: The first team tried to intervene in the Trans-Sabal civil war, only to make things worse.
  • Re-Power: The Post-Civil War era Warriors are depowered mutants using stolen or reverse-engineered technology
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: In one storyline, the mafia Poison Memories had targeted the family members of the New Warriors as part of a vendetta against the Warriors and one of them was Elvin's grandmother who was killed by the gangsters. Elvin Haliday (also known as Rage) was very pissed-off and went after the gangsters that on the final confrontation, he brutally snapped the neck of the gang leader as a result.
  • Running Gag: People getting Robbie Baldwin's codename wrong.
  • Sacred Flames: In issue #6 of Volume 5, Hummingbird generates divine fire which she uses to destroy a demon that was possessing Thor. However, she was overcome in that moment by Huitzilopochtli and has no memory of the event after it concludes.
  • Self-Restraint: Marvel Boy's refusal to be busted out of prison.
  • Shadow Walker: Silohuette can transport through shadows.
  • Shooting Superman: Played with in issue #14 of the first series. Speedball mocks a crook for shooting at him despite Speedball's power being a kinetic energy field. However, it is implied that the crook simply doesn't know who Speedball is or what his powers are.
  • Simple, yet Awesome: Vance's Cool Bike has great mileage and is easier to park on campus than a car. Humorously lampshaded by Angelica who quips that only Vance would own a motorcycle for practical reasons.
  • Something Person: Marvel Boy.
  • Stolen Good, Returned Better: Played with this a bit. The character Silhouette stole an Unstable Molecule costume from Reed Richards (she could meld into the shadows for teleportation but would always lose her clothes in the process since they can't meld with her, forcing her to find something with less Fanservice.) She shed her old costume and stole the new one, feeling guilty about the situation afterwards. She tried to return it to Richards but he was fine with the situation and ended up tweaking it slightly for her and offering to make further costumes in the future.
  • Stripperific:
    • Namorita's preferred costume is a bathing suit. Frequently a bikini, as depicted above.
    • Pretty Persuasions' outfit is a bra and panties with thigh-high boots. Extra points for actually having been a stripper before she became a villain.
  • Superhero Sobriquets: Speedball is known as 'The Masked Marvel' (even though half the superhero community already wear masks) and Nova is known as 'The Human Rocket'.
  • Tarot Motifs: Every introduction page of 'Justice: Four Balance' mini-series starts off with the image of Vance holding the scales as a motif of Justice tarot card.
  • Telescoping Robot: Tattoo, of the Dark Reign group (actually a Powered Armor).
  • Token Minority Couple:
    • Night Thrasher (black guy) and Silhouette (a handicapped half-black, half-Cambodian girl)
    • If mutants are counted, it's Justice and Firestar.
  • Took a Level in Badass: In a later issue where he visits his hometown, Speedball runs into all of the crooks he fought in his original series at once - and inflicts an effortless Curb Stomp on them. He then muses that he can't believe those guys ever gave him a hard time, though admits learning better use of his powers probably helped.
  • Tornado Move: Turbo was the name given to two different characters who mostly appeared in the New Warriors as members.
  • Totally Radical: Among other criticisms leveled at the new 2020 line-up, all of them fail spectacularly at looking trendy. In particular B-Negative, who is supposed to be obsessed with music from The '90s but dresses like David Bowie.
  • Traumatic Haircut: Sea Urchin does this to Namorita after he defeats her in their first fight. He likens it to how white people once scalped Native Americans.
  • True Love Is Boring: To be fair, Fabian Nicieza (the man who made Justice and Firestar a couple in the first place) said that he had always planned to split them up, but simply left the book before he was able to. Nonetheless, later authors had the pair get engaged and used them as an introspective of what it's like to be young would-be newlyweds working as Avengers. However, eventually, the two characters wound up back in the hands of Nicieza, who promptly broke them up.
  • Twofer Token Minority: Silhouette is half-black, half-Cambodian, female and handicapped.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Nova with both Speedball and Night Thrasher.
  • Whip of Dominance: The villainess Heidi P. Franklin / Pretty Persuasions is a former stripper turned villainess that has a blatant Dominatrix motif, not only due to her domineering personality and suggestive attire but because her powers have her manifest her own libido as a psionic weapons, but the most common was a whip. She could then use it to overload the pleasure centers of anyone that got entangled in it.
  • Wolverine Publicity: Towards the end of the first volume, the Scarlet Spider was shoehorned into the cast to boost flagging sales.
  • Working with the Ex: Justice and Firestar.
  • Younger Than They Look: Rage was about 14 when he started his superhero career, but looked like he was at least 30 due to his gargantuan size and muscles. Of course, prior to getting his powers he looked like a regular kid. In any case, this gives him the distinction of being the youngest Avenger ever - so young that when the team discovered his true age they demoted him to "training" status. It wasn't until he stole one of their jets to help the New Warriors that they kicked him off the team, and the New Warriors took him in.
    • Speedball was about 15 when he joined the New Warriors, he looked like he was at least 18 or early 20s when he is in his superhero persona. When Chord told Speedball to drop his superhero stint and go undercover, he transformed back to the short, scrawny Robbie Baldwin much to the surprise of his teammates in the early issues.
      • When Rage joined the New Warriors, he and Speedball became good friends when they found that they had something in common, forming a classic Big Guy, Little Guy duo (as even in "hero" form, the skinny Speedball is dwarfed by Rage's massive physique.

Alternative Title(s): The New Warriors

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