Writer: Kevin Grevioux
Artist: Paco Medina
Company: Marvel Comics

First issues are a tough lot for a lot of reasons. There is a laundry list of things that they must do, and do well, in order to set themselves apart from the always jam-packed list of other number 1’s that are coming out. Beyond that, they have to wrangle the reader’s interests for long enough to make them want to come back for a second helping. It’s more than tough really, it’s an uphill dogfight where one wrong rudder manipulation can get you killed. So, with all of those things in mind, does the first issue of The New Warriors deliver the all important, one-two knockout sucker-punch that makes a reader sit up and take notice? Or if you’d rather phrase the question in a more blunt-like manner, how about this: Is it a book that’s actually worth your three hard earned, crisp one dollar bills? The short answer to both of these questions is:

You bet your sweet Aunt Bippy it is.

Okay, so the book’s good, which is great and all, but the nagging question of why is it good is probably rattling around in your head like a bunch of loose marbles. Well for a starting point, it’s different from any other incarnation of The New Warriors to come before it. It isn’t the satire that the recent Zeb Wells mini was, nor is it the lighthearted action romp that Fabian Nicieza made it to be in the early 90’s. No, Kevin Grevioux’s New Warriors is a different animal altogether, one driven by a story that has one heck of a hook to spur it on. A hook that pits an underground and motivated team of teenage superheroes that are united against evil, fighting baddies on the street, old school style. If you’re asking, that’s not too shabby a place for a book to start. A small quibble would be that the boss level villains of the piece really shouldn’t be Iron Man and the Initiative…But that’s just how the “Marvel Machine” works these days, and even though it’s not a backdrop that necessarily works for every book out there, it certainly works for The New Warriors.

As team book, one might assume that this first issues main goal is to do a little world building and introduce readers to the leads of the book. Grevioux, the man behind the script for the movie Underworld does do these things, just not in the way that we’ve come to expect. He skews away from the routine avenues that have become the mainstays and instead goes with the fundamentally intriguing route of the classics like Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and contemporary master writers like John Ostrander during his Suicide Squad days. Sounds strange to compare Grevioux with the likes of comic book gods like these when he’s a relative newcomer to the field, but the overall feel is there, especially by way of opening the series with an intense action scene and the notion that a chunk of history has already happened. You the reader are just dropped into the thick of it, head first, and even though it sounds like a wrong turn for a new book to take, it isn’t. Like the recent relaunch of the Nova series has already taught us, you don’t need an entire issue of backstory and people talking to grab a person, you can just as easily tell a story through action and events, letting the characters and story be fleshed out in a more organic fashion.

Beyond the nicely handled fight scene that takes place between the Gray Gargoyle and a new superhero (which all by itself is a great thing to get) called Wondra and the smart usage of super powers during said fight (think Dan Slott ingenuity), we’re also introduced to the familiar face of Sofia Barrett. If you have perused any of the issues of The New Mutants recently, you’ll probably recognize her as one of the many mutants to recently lose their powers but even if you don’t, Grevioux makes the character easily accessible. There are also a few other characters that pop up later that are familiar faces as well but Sofia, for the moment at least, is the main star of the book. She’s a good character to latch onto as she fits into both the human and superhero world, and Grevioux makes each of these worlds and the spiral back into the superhero community a truly fun thing to watch.

Speaking of fun, the art in The New Warriors, handled deftly by Paco Medina, gives the book that extra edge that it needs to complete the circle of exemplary goodness. Medina, most known for his work on the book New X-Men, who’s style had seemed a little overdone and standard, seems to have really have stepped it up with this higher profile book. It isn’t that he’s changed his style from the J. Scott Campbell and Karl Moline influences that his work has had, he’s just improved upon it, even simplified it to some extent, making the lines of his pencil work cleaner which in turn allows them to carry a more dynamic energy.

So, we get a new superhero book with a great hook, some righteous art and an exciting and fresh story that reads well. There’s no way that this isn’t a great first issue. Not only that but it really could be the veritable underdog of Marvel’s recent crop of books, as so far, it seems to be doing everything right. Here’s hoping it stays that way.