New Warriors (Vol. 5) #6

Background

After securing their first victory, the New Warriors explored the area in and around Mt. Wundagore. The surrounding village was peaceful, but it seems that Speedball may still be harboring dark secrets from the Stamford incident. Inside Wundagore, some of the New Men tha the High Evolutionary created are still present, and one of them appears to have a connection to a sinister “figure in the shadows” type character. Still, he (now known as Jake Waffles) and his “friend” (the very disgruntled Mr. Whiskers) use the High Evolutionary’s technology to transport the New Warriors back to New York…along with all of Mount Wundagore.

Story Details

As the comic opens, we are treated to a very ominous summary of a book of ancient evil called “The Darkhold”. Apparently, monsters come from it. Sounds interesting!

In Avengers’ Tower, Iron Man and Captain America are discussing the burst of energy hours ago in Central Europe. However, it is only just at this moment that the cause of that disturbance (Mount Wundagore) is appearing in New York’s Hudson River. Inside the mountain, the New Warriors are understandably upset, as this will cause a panic…but it seems as though they are there only in some vague sense of the word, as ships are passing through the mountain and there is no disturbance to the water either. According to Jake Waffles, they exist in both places at once, but neither at the same time. It’s at this time that Iron Man and Thor show up.

In Grand Central Terminal, a clean-up crew is attempting to fix the damage caused by Haechi and Sungirl from the previous issues. A group of mysterious other Inhumans observe the damage and begin to track Mark, intending to deliver him to their “Master”.

Back in Avengers’ Tower, Captain America and Iron Man attempt to interrogate Speedball and Justice, but Justice tells them the New Warriors have it covered. Not sure how Speedball and Justice are now fully present in New York, but whatever. Thor was given the duty of watching over the rest of the team and he seems to be a bit miffed about the job. Haechi/Mark asks if he can at least check in with his family, but is denied. Meanwhile, Water Snake/Faira begins to “hallucinate” again, as a creature from “The Darkhold” begins taunting and causing more hallucinations and leading to her attacking Thor.

The interrogation in Avengers’ Tower is going just as poorly. Iron Man tells them that the “New Warriors” are a “tarnished brand”, while Cap offers Justice and Speedball Avengers status. Justice is bothered by the lack of trust, while unbeknownst to any of them, Speedball is activating his powers literally behind his back. Justice explains that their new team stopped the High Evolutionary, but that he is officially resigning from the Avengers. With his faith restored, Speedball turns off his powers. Of course, at this time, a giant lightning blast comes from Mount Wundagore, drawing their attention to the battle.

The demon from the Darkhold continues to taunt Water Snake, who is continuing to see increasingly more haunting visions. Hummingbird is unable to help her and Thor continues to make short work of the rest of the New Warriors. However, when Aracely does tackle Water Snake, the spell is broken and the demon is revealed. The demon (“The Hand of Chthon” according to Aracely) attempts to attack Thor. Aracely does the scary demi-god thing, calling herself Huitzolopochtli, but has no recollection of the event a second later.

When Iron Man, Justice and Speedball arrive moments later, the team and Thor are heartily celebrating. Iron Man essentially gives them his blessing, but asks them to move the mountain. With things settled, Mark finally returns home, but arrives to find his family being held hostage by the mysterious crew tracking him from earlier in the issue: Spark, Fume, and an unknown leader. The leader of the crew orders the others to blow the place up, which they do!

General Comments

So, this issue was a bit more what I’m used to after reading Scarlet Spider Vol. 2, which is not really a good thing. It’s not the story that’s a problem, it’s the action sequences. They don’t really add anything to the story and really, the subplot is just more confusing than anything.

My biggest complaint is who exactly Chthon is. Based on some of the events from last issue, I’ll assume that he is perhaps the figure Caninus/Jake Waffles was talking to at the beginning of the story. This information does not explain anything about why the demon targets Faira though, or even how Jake brought the demon into the world. Or why. We just know that he’s maybe in cahoots. I think this should have been given more attention in either this issue or the last.

As for the bits of story with Justice and the Avengers, I was actually genuinely interested. However, there wasn’t enough going on to really create a fully story there, though maybe if we had more details about the Avengers’ lack of trust or the Warriors’ personal struggles it could have been a better story.

The Haechi story will be explored further, but there’s not enough here to really comment on, so let’s wrap this issue up.

Overall Rating

Not as entertaining as the last few issues, but I don’t think most people were really entertained by those either. Not a whole to comment on that wasn’t addressed above. I would have liked more explanation for anything that happened or is happening. I think Yost gets a bit over-zealous and creates too many mysteries, which led to a rather unsatisfying conclusion in Scarlet Spider.

Footnote

SPOILERS- So unfortunately, this series last issue will be issue 12. And again, I assume we won’t get many of the answers. It’s a shame because I was looking forward to closure from a lot of unresolved answers from Yost’s previous series as well…