Harlekin said:
Sure I feel bad for the New Warriors. Civil War basically gave a big **** you to characters that have been around for around three decades (Justice's thirtieth anniversary was last year for one). Making them into rookies again was even more aggravating.
So, basically... everything Dread said.
Very true; many of the NEW WARRIORS are decently old characters who should be above "rookie" status. Nova came out in the 70's too, for instance.
Having characters remain "perennial" rookies wares very thin, and a case in point is actually USM. That title has been going around for over 5 years, almost 100 issues, and has Spider-Man really LEARNED anything about being a hero? Not really. He's still as likely to make newbie-ish, bone-headed mistakes (mistakes so blatent that even a semi-competant reader could roll his eyes and go, "oh, c'mon!") or find himself "overwhelmed" and "out of his element" amung "real heroes" (re: any superhero character, any one, who is not Spider-Man). Its the schtick of the title, but it is getting very old to see that USM is just as likely to get ambushed, sucker-punched, owned and unmasked in issue #95 as he was in issue #7 or something. That's not character progression. That's spin-cycle. And I LIKE USM.
As for Night-Thrasher, I agree that he'd been badly mangled by the end of the 90's; as I stated before, NEW WARRIORS itself is a cautionary tale of how to massively bungle a franchise at every turn, and see it almost never have hope of recovery. Stronger franchises like SPIDER-MAN or X-MEN can survive screw-ups, retcons, excessive conveluted storylines, and misfires in time, but "middle" level stuff like NW was usually don't, and its a shame. There is too much "DC VS. MARVEL" sentiment these days (especially since both employ simular tactics), but I get more of a sense of DC embracing more of their characters than Marvel does; any Marvel character below B-list usually has backlogs of utterly wasted potential, and most of the NW's apply. At least his death should give Rage something to fight for again, and he's a character whose strength physically rises expotentially with his anger (yes, like the Hulk). Firestar, Nova, Justice (who really needs a definitive design; he always looks so "generic"), Rage, etc., have a lot of room to grow. As I said, if CW manages to get NW's relaunched competantly, then losing Thrasher & Namorita was a worthy sacrifice.
Squirrel-Girl hopefully won't lose faith in Speedball.
Onto others now:
- It is a bit puzzling that Mr. Fantastic would be gung-ho for registration, especially given how much trouble the F4 has been in at times for being so public, and that Johnny just got dogpiled by an angry mob. I've always seen him as a bit of a "narc" in the superhero community, and this doesn't change it. I mean, with a name like Mister Fantastic, could you expect him not to be?

I imagine Sue may not be as willing, though. But the thing is, everyone makes a big deal of "Tony and Peter being friends", but Reed and Peter have been allies and comrades for a lot longer and less is being made of that. Heck, Spider-Man met the Fantastic Four in his SECOND APPEARENCE, and he & Torch have often been rivals/allies. SPIDER-MAN/HUMAN TORCH defined that sort of closeness at times between the Four and Spider-Man. If Peter had been attached to Reed, been talked into joining the SHRA by Reed, maybe it wouldn't reek as much as "being a puss" as it does for Tony, a friendship that was all but manufactured by the last half year of ASM (and argueably, NEW AVENGERS).
- I guess I have to admit a little disliking towards Iron Man now, especially as he's playing "master manipulator" in a way that puts a lot of cruder villian schemers to shame (even hiring Titanium Man to attack Washington for chrissakes). But to be fair, Iron Man's hardly been Top 5 character for me in Marvel, and it is in his nature to be that sort of "futurist", lone wolf type who does what he feels is just, regardless of what others say. Just look at "Armor Wars" (although he agrueably had more moral grounds for it; his tech had been used to hurt people, so he was taking it ALL back, even from allies).