Credits: Written by Evan Skolnick, pencilled by Patrick Zircher, inked by Andrew Pepoy and edited by Tom Brevoort.
Plot: As per the last issue, Helix is being held by the New Warriors in the Crashpad. The problem is that when he tries to escape his cell, he shifts and alters when facing the automatic defenses and when they fail, he changes more as he battles Justice, Firestar, Powerhouse, Speedball, Turbo and Scarlet Spider. While everyone is reacting, Ben (as the Scarlet Spider) observes and works out what to do, ordering everyone to back off Helix and just push him back into his room. When Hindsight tries to activate the defences again, Ben grabs his wrist to prevent this. He tells Justice to reinforce the door, but not to affect Helix at all. Justice really doesn’t take that too well, but acquiesces. With no defences and no attackers posing a threat, Helix shrinks to a smaller, more basic form thus ending the immediate threat.
Justice and Firestar take Ben to one side and have a talking to about his taking over the team during the fight. Firestar points out that Ben’s response was very scientific and asks if he has that background, prompting Justice to point out how little they know about their team-mate and that secrets aren’t good for the team Ben points out that he’s not there with them, yet. Firestar notices the time and heads off to an appointment, but doesn’t tell Justice (at this point her fiance) what it is, to Ben’s amusement.
Justice and Ben join the rest of the team who are watching the CCTV monitor and see that Hindsight has brought in Rina Patel, who has been stalking Speedball in an effort to save his life as she has temporal abilities that have shown her the future death of Speedball.
Elsewhere over New Jersey, Firestar arrives at the clinic where her appointment is and whilst filling in forms, has a brief chat with fellow prospective patient Amy who is there with a genetic problem regarding her ovaries. In her appointment with Doctor Chen, Firestar/Angelica tells her that she has concerns over her health relating to microwaves. This is an ongoing subplot with Firestar that she has concerns that her mutant ability to generate and manipulate microwaves can affect her health and/or fertility and it’s been causing hesitation when she’s been needed. Before she can get into more detail the clinic is attacked. Firestar activates an emergency beacon, which interrupts Rina’s attempt to convince Speedball of his future fate.
The attackers are led by a woman identifiying herself as Genecide (yes spelled like that, rather than genocide) and she identifies them as Eugenix, loving the spelling here. She is on some sort of eugenics/genetic purity kick, killing anyone she considers non-viable or genetically inferior as her minions (numbered 1-12) destroy records, steal funds and kill or sterilise anyone who doesn’t fit their worldview as useful, or genetically fit. I suppose they’re Poundland Apocalypse. After getting Dr Chen to safety, Firestar flies in to fight back. She blasts Genecide, severely burning her face, Genecide smiles as her skin regenerates to its previously flawless appearance. Genecide keeps Firestar at bay, preparing to leave when help arrives.
The voices are familiar to Firestar, but it’s not the Warriors. Former member Rage and New Warriors founder Night Thrasher have arrived with the at this point hopefully ex-villain team Psionex.
Notes: This was very Scarlet Spider light in content, being mostly about Firestar’s health issues and the introduction of Eugenix, but it was a good luck at the character trying to fit into a team under it’s own leader after years of being a solo guy and the trust issues of being the new guy in a field where secrets are part of the status quo, but everyone already knows one another well. The whole reflexive power thing is a bit of a worn trope, but this actually handles it well. The rest of the issue moves into ongoing plot territory and it’s not all stuff I remembered straight away. The thing with Firestar’s powers were a thing that moved through this title and into her and Justice’s association with the Avengers in years to come and I liked that it looked at the possibility that a mutant ability could be inherently harmful to the person who had it more than who was around them. At the end of the issue we’re teased with the re-introduction of Psionex, now led by Night Thrasher and including Rage, who at this point was sort of a sidekick to him. It was a good cliff-hanger to end the issue on, with the information that the New Warriors were about to join in this little melee.
Verdict: Writing 4 out of 5 – More in depth characterisation, more focus on how the characters feel about things and then suspenseful action. The villains motivations are silly, but honestly work as an ideology based villain should and they do look like a viable idea in a world full of weird and wonderful iterations of humanity alongside all the medical things we live with in the real world. The last minute reveal of Psionex was a great “Oh, I forgot that they were a thing.” moment.
Art: 3 out of 5 – Again, Zircher is solid, the character design is very 90s, but everything looks good and the action is well put together. Nothing to write home about, but honestly, this is good stuff and exactly what a regular monthly mid-tier title should be doing.
Overall: 7 out of 10 – I find I am enjoying the consistency of the New Warriors of this era a lot more than the wild hit and misses of the Scarlet Spider solo series. Quality is always better than quantity and this comic proves that.
Next Time: Last Stand of the MLF and Stryfe ups the drama.
My Marvel Life 