New Warriors (Vol. 5) #8

Background

With the New Warrios temporarily back in New York, Mark (Haechi) decides to finally decides to head home and see his family. Unfortunately, a group of new Inhumans is waiting for him, and he and Sun Girl end up being taken. With the help of Silhouette, the rest of the team is able to track them down. The duo being held by their attacks, who intend to turn them over to Lash, a leader of the emerging Inhumans who has a decidedly twisted take on the role of Inhumans in society. Sun Girl attempts to attack them, managing to free Mark. However, a fire was started in the ruckus. When the duo tries to escape, they are stopped by Lash. When the rest of the New Warriors arrives, they are surrounded by a gang, looking for a fight…

Story Details

Since this issue is pretty confusingly arranged if written in a normal review, let’s take the stories which go together and piece them like that.- Our story begins with a description of the Terrigen Mist over New York several weeks ago. Throughout the issue, we get some more detail, including how soon after he emerged from his cocoon, he was attacked for being a monster. He is eventually saved, because of course. This plays into Mark and Sun Girl’s run-in with Lash. Back in the present, we get introduced to Lash’s crew, Nocculus and Sheath (based on her appearance, her power is having knives). Nocculus’ “puppets” (the people the rest of the New Warriors landed among) tell him that the others have arrived. Lash instructs them to kill any non-Inhumans. Lash tries to convince Mark to leave his life behind, but with Sun Girl in danger, he of course is concerned about her.

Meanwhile, the rest of the team is being attacked by Nocculus’ “puppets” (i.e. mind controlled humans). Justice instructs the team not to hurt any of attackers, but Scarlet Spider just goes about his usual business. As the fight with the mind controlled people continues, Speedball and Scarlet Spider have gone off on their own. Speedball questions Spider whether or not Hummingbird has mentioned anything about him, telling him to ignore her is she does. Speedball also shows his ability to take things seriously by releasing a large blast of energy, subduing some of the attackers.

While all this is going on, Silhouette snoops on her own, where we find that Hollow (the man who abducted Mark) is afraid of Lash. Hollow defends himself by saying that having seen Orollan, others would be scared too. Silhouette tries to attack the group, but she is captured herself.

With Mark making his choice to save Sun Girl, Lash gives up on him and attacks. It’s at this point that the rest of the New Warriors arrive. Nocculus is easily defeated by Hummingbird and her demi-god connections. Mark tries to take on Lash, but Hollow stuns him and offers Mark as a “gift”. Lash is unimpressed with Hollow and…turns him into a statue or something. Mark is of course swayed to heroism by new friends. As we wrap up the issue, Nova returns to Mt. Wundagore, only to find his friends gone…and Wundagore is being observed by the mysterious figures from last issue.

General Comments

Overall, this issue was pretty much a let down. There’s no real surprises here: Bad guy wants the hero to turn, hero refuses. Of course, there’s a lot lost here because I didn’t read any of the Inhumanity tie-ins, so I think I lost out on on this whole Lash and Orollan business.

This is, of course, the problem with tie-ins, because if you don’t read all of them (or any of them), then stories like this just seem disjointed or poorly written. In this case, it may just be a bit disjointed. Switching between so many characters and scenes makes writing a coherent summary very difficult.

I did find the part about Speedball to be interesting at least, but I’m afraid we’ll never get a satisfying explanation or cause. And I’m assuming we’ll never get a good answer on Aracely’s past and all. So, for one line, this issue was great. For the rest of it…eh.

Overall Rating

A real let-down, in my opinion. Nothing interesting happens, or at least, nothing unexpected. The humor is there at the end and the Speedball mystery is great, but it’s not enough to make me want to recommend this one.