The Avenging New Warriors
The Avengers are a colorful bunch and it had too many members in the team over the years. Some of them used to be solo heroes, some used to be bad guys who turned good and some used to be in different teams. Like the X-Men, the Avengers also have spin-off teams.
Here, I am talking about my usual favorite Marvel team you are likely to groan about - The New Warriors. Yes, there were New Warriors characters who used to be in Avengers or the other way round. The New Warriors who are in Avengers (or just the spin-off Avenger teams) are Rage, Darkhawk, Justice, Firestar, Speedball and the two Novas (Richard Rider and Sam Alexander).
Unlike most of the New Warriors, Rage used to be an Avenger until he was shuffled off to New Warriors.
Rage (Elvin Haliday) “joins” the Avengers by barging into the Avengers Mansion (which was under repair) and he demands for membership, bringing up on the racial issues about the shortage of non-white Avengers. I find this scene too difficult to discuss here. = Avengers v1 #326, 1990
Darkhawk (Chris Powell) and Iron Man had a typical superhero misunderstanding fight in the beginning. After all things were cleared up with a mandatory team-up, Darkhawk grudgingly joins the Avengers. Though Darkhawk was barely an Avenger because he was more of a solo hero than a team player. = Darkhawk Annual #1, 1992
Unlike those two above, Justice (Vance Astrovik) had dreamed of being an Avenger. In the beginning, Vance tried to join the Avengers but he was turned down because he was too young and he had limited use of his telekinesis due to lack of training at that time. After his time in the New Warriors and getting honed in his powers, Vance Astrovik managed to join the Avengers along with his girlfriend, Firestar (Angelica Jones). They were accepted as reserve members under the tutelage of Avenger Hawkeye, and soon graduated to full membership status. While Justice spends his time fanboying over his heroes; Firestar on the other hand, was not thrilled in joining the team. However, Vance becomes too nervous and worked-up on himself as he feels inferior among the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and having to live up with their expectations. Firestar had her own issues, she was doubtful because she was concerned about having cancer if she overuses her microwave energy powers so she sought out help with Hank Pym. As Hank Pym helped her to control her microwave energy powers by giving her a special suit to reduce the excess radiation, Firestar accepted her role of being an Avenger. = Avengers v3 #4, 1998 and Avengers v3 #12, 1998
Years later, things had changed. Stamford happened and the poor New Warriors were tarnished. Speedball (Robbie Baldwin) was the only survivor of Stamford explosion and after spending his time being abused in prison, he snapped and took a dark turn as he became Penance. After Civil War, Justice had to join the Initiative as a counselor at Camp Hammond while Rage was forced to train as a cadet despite his experience as an Avenger and New Warrior. Meanwhile, Firestar retired her superhero life due to health issues and the anti-New Warriors sentiment was too much for her. Justice and Rage eventually left Camp Hammond when they found out that the camp supervisors were too incompetent and corrupt. So Justice and his remaining New Warriors form themselves into super-powered whistleblowers known as Counter Force.
Later, things started to look up when the Superhuman Registration Act and the Initiative were abolished. The anti-New Warriors sentiment seemingly died down and Robbie Baldwin was back as Speedball after reuniting with his old friends.
Speedball (Robbie Baldwin) was barely an Avenger. Instead, he was in Avengers Academy as a teacher because Justice who was also a teacher, vouched for him due to his experience which could be used as a cautionary tale for teaching the superpowered kids. Being haunted by the memories of Stamford incident and trying to recover his PTSD, Speedball was unsure about teaching the kids but he was making a genuine attempt to change. Some time later, another event happened again. Speedball and Justice left the Avengers Academy for a roadtrip. = Avengers Academy #1-20, 2010-2011
Nova (Richard Rider) was also barely an Avenger. Richard Rider was called upon by Steve Rogers to join his covert team of Secret Avengers as a reserve member. Being too busy with the Nova Corps and flying around in space on his solo missions, Richard was not sure whether he could commit his time as an Avenger. After his first mission in Secret Avengers, Richard left the Avengers to answer the distress call by the Guardians of the Galaxy about the invasion of Cancerverse monsters and handling Thanos. Eventually, Richard was presumed dead when he and Peter Quill stayed behind to fend off Thanos in Cancerverse. And of course; Richard, Peter Quill and Thanos did not stay dead.
= I am an Avenger #3, 2010
Lastly, there’s Sam Alexander as Nova. Unlike the elder New Warriors, Nova (Sam Alexander) is a teenager (15 years old) when he was accepted into the Avengers as the rules had changed in the recent years. Last time, the superheroes are allowed to join the Avengers when they are over 18 or over 21 years old as well as having more experience in fighting or having in control of their powers. After fighting Kluh the Inverted Hulk in AXIS event, Sam Alexander was invited into the Avengers despite recovering his wounds. = Nova v5 #25, 2014
Sam Alexander was at first hesitant about joining the team but he accepted it by taking the Avengers card as well as getting selfies with the Avengers.
Well….*Sigh* That’s all for today. Who knows that there might be more and more superheroes (or even the New Warrior) could join the Avengers. The Avengers team keeps expanding over the years that I could barely keep track of them anymore.
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