The New Warriors fight against the Rwandan genocide, which is being supported by General Obsidian and the Soldiers of Misfortune, who have names like “Right” and “Wrong” and “Light” and “Dark.” I think that’s intended to convey a sense of balance, but they’re just powered neocons who want to capture and convert the “liberal” New Warriors.
The New Warriors are called in after Air Force (who I thought were bad guys?) are attacked, while providing humanitarian aid, by Gen. Obsidian’s soldiers. Tanager and Oriole are killed, Cardinal is captured, and Sparrow is on the wing. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)
I mean, there’s more to it than that–we have to “figure out” that General Obsidian is a bad guy, for example. But it’s not a hard mystery to solve works for Admiral Protocol, who looks like this:
After figuring out what’s really going on, they take down the General but the Admiral escapes–with Namorita captured. This makes Namor mad so he fights the team.
He apparently answered those emails for men who want bigger wings.
Namorita is still missing at the end of the arc.
None of this is good. What is good about these issues is the development of Power Pack into “adults.” Alex has been “taking” all four power sets to work with the New Warriors as Powerpax and the other kids are getting a bit upset with them.
They’re acting like teens–not little kids–and it’s good to see them developing that way. It takes an otherwise C- story up to a C. I also like how Alex was shaken by the starvation and death in Rwanda–we don’t often see heroes getting personally affected like that.
This is a new creative team on a book that has been in the same hands since its inception by Fabian Nicieza. Let’s see how they do going forward. Reading ahead, it looks like they get involved in the Israel/Middle East conflict next, so I’m guessing this book is being pulled–like several (notably Force Works and Fantastic Force) into “ripped from the headlines world affairs” stories. Not sure I like that.