FW Presents: Find Your Joy: THE NEW WARRIORS

Travel back to the totally awesome early '90s for the latest episode of FW Presents. Ryan Daly welcomes David Gallaher and Delvin Williams who find their joy in THE NEW WARRIORS, the much-beloved but oft-overlooked superhero team from Marvel Comics. Join the guys as they discuss the various members of the team and highlight their favorite dramatic (and traumatic) stories from the first twenty-six issues of the series.

Let us know what you think! Leave a comment or send an email to: RDalyPodcast@gmail.com.

Check out David's work at his website: https://www.davidgallaher.com

Check out Delvin’s podcasts on The Longbox Crusade at: http://www.longboxcrusade.com

This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK.

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Music this episode: “Wave of Mutilation" by The Pixies; "Fast Lane" by Urban Dance Squad.

Thanks for listening!

14 responses to “FW Presents: Find Your Joy: THE NEW WARRIORS

  1. I LOVED the first two and a half years of The New Warriors. It was an amazingly fun book. The return of Richard Ryder to super heroics. Firestar in a regular series! It was a must read. Unfortunately it became a victim of its own popularity and soon Marvel gutted the team. Vance was taken off the team (and he was my favorite character) Nova and Night Thrasher left for their own series. They crippled the book. Fortunately! I can still find my joy in those early issues. In fact, New Warriors #1 is one of my “comfort comics” a book I can sit back, read and get joy from every single time I open it up.

  2. I never followed the New Warriors series, but I remember running into them all over the place in Marvel in the 90s. I did follow Namor’s series at the time, so I am most familiar with Namorita (and, yes, I remember the whole clone-of-Namora thing). I’m sorry to hear that she may not have gotten as much character development as her fellow teammates.

    Thank you all for educating me in the history of the New Warriors.

  3. Great show fellas. I enjoyed the series for the first 20 plus issues (just about what you covered). I think the only reason I dropped out was all the crazy stuff going on at DC at the time with the Death of Superman, Knightfall, etc. It kind of sucked the oxygen out of any Marvel buying I was doing.

    But I really dug the series and the characters. I was glad to see Firestar finally get her due, since I considered her a much bigger thing thanks to the Spidey-Friends series. And I loved that Busiek and Perez put them in their great Avengers run.

    Loved the discussion!

    Chris

  4. Thanks gents, for a terrific listen. I wasn’t a regular reader, i tried the first issue but I was a little put off by Richard Rider (he said, having previously typed ‘Ronnie Raymond’) having to be ‘Kid’ Nova, and the name ‘Night Thrasher’. I can’t believe not one of you mentioned how silly that sounds. Plus, his costume is really dull. And he was beyond a jerk in that first issue, throwing Rich off the roof and then slamming him to the ground.

    BUT, this is Find Your Joy and I did have a fondness for the series, always popping back. As was pointed out, Larry Mahlstedt was a great inker for Bagley… he and Al Williamson just don’t gel at all. I’m so tempted to order that omnibus, and I have Marvel Unlimited. See what your enthusiasm has done!

    In the ‘who would you have wanted to join?’ section, did David say Bangle? I rewound and that’s what it seemed to be, but Googling didn’t help. I’d have come up with an Asgardian kid, if there wasn’t someone pre-existing.

    I’m all for a reunion of the original team; I didn’t get David’s point about Tom DeFalco not allowing simply ‘Warriors’, that was a little local, please explain!

  5. With the Network’s usual content, seeing a shout-out to the New Warriors took me by surprise. The X-Men had my attention at the time, and it was through the bargain bin in later years that I discovered what I’d been missing.

    You did a great job covering most of the cast so I’ll just give an extra shout-out to the Avenging Daughter. Thinking back on the Warriors, I have to say that Nita is one of the underrated hotties in comic books. Think Superman’s little cousin but more exotic and with a Power Girl attitude. Barefoot in bikinis, rocking a ponytail or pixie cut, and her powers / weaknesses meant she’d either be getting wet or sweaty. Bagley drew the definitive Namorita in my book, a beautiful but tough young woman coming into her own. The obvious sex appeal aside, she was definitely underused in the book; and that would only get worse in ensuing years, regardless of the Kymaera transformation.

    A shame because Namorita had interesting threads to pull on. She was quite affluent but also (over)eager to throw herself at a cause she deemed worthy. She very much invested herself in both Atlantean and human worlds, but also could feel like an outsider to both. I’m not pink-skinned, blonde, or female, but Nita having that juxtaposition hit home with my mixed racial / ethnic background and inability to just blend in with the different crowds. Her getting taken off the board to be a crutch for Civil War left the same sour taste as Ted Kord getting head-shot for Infinite Crisis. But continuity and comic books today don’t hold near as much meaning to me as these older issues anyway.

  6. I was a ground-floor fan of New Warriors, from the Thor issues straight into the series, and I’ve said this on Twitter a bunch but I’m gonna say it again: the first 25-26 issues of New Warriors are comics gold. You guys covered why far better than I can, so just know I was nodding like a heavy metal head-banger this entire episode. Wonderful job, guys!

    For another New Warrior, it’s tough because I keep coming up empty for other teenaged Marvel heroes in that era that weren’t Darkhawk or X-Men/New Mutants/X-Force, and I had a hard time pulling any of them into Warriors. But then one New Mutant came to mind. Dani Moonstar. She would hold her own in this team, expand the representation angle, and bring interesting dynamics. Oh, the arguments she and Night Thrasher would have. Ooooooo!

    Or make it a skateboard club and add Rocket Racer. Don’t worry, just kidding about that. Mostly. Kinda. Sorta. Maybe not kidding.

  7. Such a fantastic episode! Loved hearing about everyone’s passion for this book. For myself, I discovered the series with issue #11 and stayed with it until issue #40 (and then dropping back in from time to time). It was so popular, I was only able to track down a few of the previous issues. So to this day, I haven’t read most of the first 10 issues. Since I have Marvel Unlimited, I should correct that!!

    I could never put my finger on why exactly I loved this book (besides the amazing art by Bagley and Robertson), but you all really articulated several of the emotions this comic brought forth in me. I’ve always been a sucker for teen teams (New Mutants, Teen TItans, Young Avengers, Young Justice, Runaways, Champions, etc), but this one had something special that sparked the imagination.

    Thanks for this wonderful episode and for sharing your passion!

  8. Ryan,

    Thank you for an enjoyable listen with a great pair of co-costs. Seems a good time was had by all on both sides of the microphone!

    On the Fire and Water Network, the saying “Find Your Joy” so often becomes “Share Your Joy” and my, oh my, was the joy infectious with this program!

    I had never before read the original New Warriors run, but I began reading the series after listening to this show. I’m up to issue 3 and having a jolly good time with this new discovery.

    I’ll admit I didn’t care for Bagley’s artwork when these comics were originally published, finding his figures too stringy for my taste. Perhaps that’s why his art is usually reserved for youthful chatacters like the New Warriors and Spider-Man. As my tastes have matured, I see his real strength is in his page layouts. Bagley’s storytelling chops are top notch and remind me a little of Frank Miller’s 1980s Marvel art.

    Thank you, Ryan, once again for dusting off this treasure that I missed the first time around and for all the fun I’ll have reading on through this highly enjoyable series!

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