A week ago, TV Line broke the story that Marvel and ABC Studios are developing a comedy series based on the young super hero team, the New Warriors and that “sources confirm the half-hour project is currently being shopped around to cable and streaming outlets.” That is to say, this will not be a network TV project on ABC as they are going out to cable channels and SVOD’s like Netflix and Hulu. With the recent promise of the Runaways on Hulu, it seems like prime time for the service to pick up another hero team series in the New Warriors and then have plenty of room for some crossovers.
Along with this news was also the revelation that the spotlight of the series would fall on the recently re-discovered fan favorite Doreen Green, a.k.a. Squirrel Girl.
What are her powers, you might ask yourself — she has the agility and speed of a squirrel as well as the ability to talk to squirrels. Also, she’s unbeatable, as she’s defeated the likes of Doctor Doom, Galactus and Thanos — by herself — with a little help from her squirrel friends.
As the site explains the series, “Described as the junior version of The Avengers, the New Warriors are a superhero squad made up of teenagers, one of whom would include Doreen Green (aka Squirrel Girl).” However, other than Squirrel Girl, who’s never actually been a member of the New Warriors in the comics, what other heroes could we expect to see in the series?
Here are our top five New Warriors we’d like to see in the series fighting alongside Squirrel Girl.
JUSTICE/MARVEL BOY
His real name is Vance Astrovik and, in an alternate timeline, his future self went on to become an astronaut cryogenically frozen for a thousand year journey to Alpha Centauri. Upon awakening there, he discovered that the Badoon had taken over our colonized solar system. So, he changed his name to Vance Astro and became a founding member of the original Guardians of the Galaxy.
However, this Vance Astro went back in time to visit his younger self and convince him not to become an astronaut. This event awakened latent mutant powers of telekinesis, which allowed him to fly at very fast speeds as well as other basic telekinetic powers. Along with this, he also has a romantic relationship with the ex-X-Men character, Firestar.
FIRESTAR
Firestar, a.k.a. Angelica Jones, could be the trickier of the additions to this line-up due to her nature as a mutant, which Fox very blatantly owns the rights to. However, her first appearance was in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends #1, so those of us not directly involved with the legal talks have no clue where her rights might land.
And just what are her powers? Well, with a name like Firestar, it should come as no surprise that she is basically like the Human Torch, able to surround herself with fire, shoot blasts of fire and heat and fly. Though, if you want to get technical about it, where the Human Torch is fire, Firestar is microwave radiation and electromagnetic disruption — she’s basically a human sunspot. (Not to be confused with the mutant who’s name is Sunspot…)
Having her involved with the team as well as Justice would bring the perk of an in-place budding romantic relationship for the rest of the team to deal with.
NIGHT THRASHER
Night Thrasher, a.k.a. Dwayne Michael Taylor, was the original leader of the New Warriors as well as being the hero that every kid in the mid-90’s wanted to be because his costume was so simple and his powers so easy to emulate — he’s just a really kick-ass fighter, acrobat and computer hacker. He’s basically like Robin, but without Batman and with a much cooler costume. This comparison even includes watching his parents slain in front of him, leading him to a life of fighting crime.
In fact, just like Batman, in some incarnations of the team, created the Justice League, Night Thrasher observed several heroes and then recruited them to join his unnamed team, pulling both Justice (Marvel Boy) and Firestar to his team, as well as the original Nova, a.k.a. Richard Rider.
SPEEDBALL
Robbie Baldwin has a very strange power — he can create a force field of unknown energy around him that manifests as bouncy, bubbly, colorful balls of energy that he can use to bounce super high as well as throwing at his enemies. Basically, he can surround himself with super bouncy balls that protect him from assaults, allow him to jump a few stories and can throw super hard to knock out bad guys. It’s a strange power, but a fun one to play with when you’re ten years old.
One of the best attributes of this character is that he is one of the only heroes who un-ironically loves being a hero. Speedball loves his powers, loves putting on the spandex and loves fighting bad guys. He fights with a smile on his face. He would offer some good balance to the dour Night Thrasher and the efficient Justice/Marvel Boy.
In the original Civil War event in the comics, it was Speedball who was indirectly responsible for the giant explosion event in Stamford which lead to the Superhuman Registration Act. After this event, his powers shifted to mere energy blasts and he took on the mantle of Penance, wearing a suit that was basically an iron maiden as self-inflicted punishment for his irresponsibility and rushing into a dangerous situation.
SILHOUETTE
Silhouette’s real name is, conveniently, Silhouette Chord, and she is also an original member of the New Warriors. She is an excellent fighter, with increased speed and agility, as well as having the ability to manipulate Dark Force energy, become a living shadow and teleport through shadows. Think of her as Cloak from the team of Cloak and Dagger, but without the cloak or all the angst. Also, with this Dark Force manipulation, we’ve already got links to that from the second season of Agent Carter and could possibly get a small nod to it in the upcoming Doctor Strange.
An interesting element to this character is that she was shot by police in a sting gone wrong and is paralyzed from the waist down. Positive portrayal of handicapped individuals is something terribly lacking in television with very few characters ever really dealing with it on a prolonged basis. Felicity Smoak is the only one that immediately comes to mind, though she had her paralysis more or less cured within five or six episodes. Seeing a powerful character handle her paralyzed condition would bring an interesting element to the series and a much needed new angle.
And yes, we know what you’re saying — Namorita and Nova are also both members of the New Warriors and that they could be great additions to the team. The truth is, Nova’s power comes from the Nova Corps and we’d rather see him in a movie. As for Namorita, as the first cousin to Namor (it’s actually more complicated than that), we’d rather see show up in a film with Namor exploring the politics of Atlantis and their interaction with the surface world.
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He has two cats and knows all things about Doctor Strange but little else.
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