New Warriors (Vol. 1) #68

Background

With the Scarlet Spider gone, the Cyber Scarlet Spider defeated and a new Spider-Man swinging around (which, unknown to them, IS their former teammate), the New Warriors return to business as usual. However, the threat of Speedball's impeding death still looms over their heads as well as his recent power troubles. (EDITOR'S NOTE: Nobody of the arachnid persuasion appears in this issue, but in order to understand the entire story since the Scarlet Spider's membership you need it, so we made an exception.)

Story Details

Kyle Grobe is a man displaced. His protection on his trip has a defect that allows it to bond to his skin until he crash lands at his destination: Roswell, New Mexico, 1947. A passing farmer sees the crash and gets out to investigate, only to be confronted by the inhuman cybernetic creature Kyle has become.

New York City, 1995. At the New Warriors' base, the sounds of global domination are heard as Hindsight continues to conquer his teammates in the game of Risk, along with guests Mike Jeffries, Laura Dunham and Richard Rider (formerly Nova). The battle rages as one by one the warriors fall to Carlton. Soon, it's down to just him and Alex (aka Powerhouse), but in the end Carlton emerges triumphant. But, his celebration is soon cut short as a doorway opens up from nowhere in the middle of the Crash-pad. From it emerges the Guardians of the Galaxy!

While the Guardians look for an "anomaly", Vance (aka Justice) and Major Victory, his future self, have a small chat with each other. Victory explains who they are, and upon further pressing Yondu tells them about the space/time anomaly that threatens to destroy several realities. While the Guardians search the pad, Victory asks them if they have any idea who or what may be causing the temporal mayhem. Of course, all eyes go to their newest member Rina (aka Timeslip) who had come to them with visions of Speedball dying in the near future. However, the Guardians' instruments say that it isn't her. In fact, it's Speedball!

Victory nabs Speedball in his telekinesis to take him away, but Vance snags him as well to keep him here until they give a better explanation. Charlie-7 makes a move on Vance but Angelica (aka Firestar) covers him. Nikki, in turn, fires on her. Helix throws himself into the mix and Hollywood looks to take him on. Victory tries to regain control of the situation but the rest of the Warriors and Guardians throw themselves into the mix.

Aleta tries to take down Powerhouse, but ends up hitting Victory instead. Vance demands for Victory to end this now, but he refuses. Speedball powers up, but feels like something is wrong. Timeslip, however, enjoys her first super hero fight and tries to push her powers to their limits. But, something goes wrong and she finds herself being ripped to another time like during her first vision.

When the world stops spinning, Timeslip finds herself back to playing the game with the others. Except, something's different. Now, it's Speedball who's winning the game instead of Hindsight and it's day instead of night. She mentions the Guardians and Vance wonders how she knows of them, but she explains that things are wrong, like time reset itself. Suddenly, the world goes blooey again and a doorway opens. But, instead of the Guardians it's the Sphinx that comes through. Once again, Speedball is declared an anomaly that must be destroyed.

General Comments

Time stories are often confusing, and this one's got plenty of twists and turns to confuse even the most hardcore of Back to the Future fans. But, as it's one part of a very involved story arc I'll refrain from critiquing the story until the final part. On that note, the art was great as usual and the quiet moments of the issue did offer some light chuckles.

Overall Rating

4 Webs. This issue will undoubtedly make sense once the story wraps up, so stay tuned!