Back in 1989 or thereabouts, when Marvel Comics announced a new "team book" that would feature a bunch of second-string characters - many of whom hadn't really been seen in years - the critics were not kind. Dismissed by many as a "teen Avengers" comic that had no prospects and wasn't going to last more than a few issues, it seemed that The New Warriors was doomed to failure before it even hit the newsstands.

Those critics were wrong. The book was a hit (so much so that a year or so later the first issue was reprinted with a lovely gold cover), and it brought at least one reader (me) back to Marvel for the first time in years. The creative team - initially writer Fabian Nicieza, penciller Mark Bagley and inker Larry Mahlstedt - treated the book seriously, gave the characters real depth and produced something considerably more fresh and exciting than anyone had any right to expect.

The first volume of The New Warriors lasted an impressive seventy-five issues. It would very likely have lasted a lot longer if Marvel hadn't, in the mid-1990s, rather pointlessly attempted to collect their monthly publications into groups ("Marvel Knights", "X-Men", etc.). The New Warriors didn't neatly fit into any of their categories so it was awkwardly lumped into the Spider-Man group.

A couple of years after its cancellation, amid clamouring from fans, a second volume was published. Like its predecessor it showed great potential, but sadly wasn't a hit and was terminated after only ten issues. But the Warriors refused to remain in comic-book limbo, and soon a third volume appeared - but only as a six-issue limited series. Sadly, volume three missed the mark completely and treated the Warriors almost as hapless comic relief: this time around the team drove around in a van solving crimes for a reality TV show.

Perhaps this nadir was deliberate: The New Warriors next resurfaced in the opening pages of Marvel's epic Civil War cross-over event... Their attempted capture of some high-powered villains led to the deaths of hundreds of civilians (and most of the Warriors' current team) and sparked the whole Superhero Registration Act. A rotten way to treat some of my favourite characters, I thought!

On the positive side, this renewed interest in the New Warriors led to a fourth on-going title, though this time the team was completely new and the book bore little resemblance to the book we all knew and loved. It was a pretty good read, but only lasted for twenty issues (which I guess isn't too bad these days).

Anyway...

If anyone ever offers you a complete run of the first volume of The New Warriors, take it! It really was excellent stuff and is as much fun to read now as it was all those years ago.

Below, you can find my renditions of the original team. There are a couple of others - later members - that I'll add at some point in the future, time permitting.

I love Nova. Sure, some of his early adventures in his own series were at times a little, well, tame, but he was fantastic in The New Warriors and his latest on-going series absolutely rocks. (And congrats to the creative team for finally getting a Nova series past twenty-five issues!)

Namorita is the cousin of Namor, the Sub-Mariner, and was one of the original line-up of The New Warriors. This was a particularly challenging image to create; the figure was pretty straight-forward but the background seemed to take forever! During the development stage I used a stock photo, but I'm determined that everything in these images will be completely home-grown so I had to create my own underwater scene.

Vance Astrovik, AKA Marvel Boy - another of the founding members of The New Warriors. Vance's costume here is rather ordinary-looking so I decide that a nice shiny texture would spice it up a little. Later, Vance renames himself to "Justice" and takes on a much cooler costume, but I'm going for the "original Warriors" look with these pics (except for Nova, because his costume in the first few issues of the comic is, well, dull and brown).

And now the founder of The New Warriors... Every other member of the Warriors' original line-up already existed in the Marvel universe, but Night Thrasher was created especially for the comic. Dwayne Taylor is the incredibly wealthy orphaned child of murdered parents, and he vows to "make all criminals pay". So far, so Batman, you'd be forgiven for thinking... But trust me, Night Thrasher is no Bruce Wayne rip-off! Dwayne is incredibly talented, but equally hot-headed and somewhat prone to making rash decisions that don't always work out for the best.

Angelica "Angel" Jones, gifted with the ability to generate powerful microwaves, was another of the founding New Warriors. Firestar was originally created as a supporting character for the Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends cartoon, but proved popular enough to be brought into the Marvel mainstream continuity. To be honest - like her NW colleague Marvel Boy - she was a rather dull character until the New Warriors when writer Fabian Nicieza (in my opinion one of the great unsung heroes of Marvel Comics!) gave her an actual personality.

Robbie Baldwin, the bouncing, kinetic bundle of fun. Initially almost a comic-relief character in the New Warriors - and the main reason a lot of Important Comic Fans derided the book when it was announced - Speedball quickly became a fan favourite and possibly the most important character in the first two volumes. Robbie was the only Warrior who survived the disaster that sparked Marvel's Civil War event. He subsequently shouldered the entire blame (though it really wasn't the Warriors' fault!) and became the very dark hero known as Penance.

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