You can listen to the episode by clicking: Episode 90
With special guest star Corey (@NewWarriorsTalk) from the New Warriors Continuity Conundrum and covering:
- The New Warriors #47 – 50
- Night Thrasher #11 – 12
- Nova #6 – 7
OK, what is going on. This is a Power Pack Podcast and it is not Halloween. What is happening here?
So you see, after the original Power Pack run, Alex got his briefs in a bundle and he decided it was time to make a new family. One that really has issues…and I ain’t talking about volume count.
So there is a reason why we are devoting some time to these books, but why so many at one time? Thank you disembodied voice for asking such a deep question.
We do not want to hit each issue for what is a passing reference to the oldest Power kid, so we are doing them in blocks. Four to be precise. After this, we promise to get back to single issues. This is just an experiment. Don’t get mad.
Awkward. It will be interesting to see what we do the next time we run into one of these long series. But for now, we are just trying something out. Let us know how it is going.
Oh, I guess I should talk about this run….uhm….the New Warriors are tossed in the time-stream by some Egyptian dude and a new team is put together to save them.
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Jeff and Rick Present 
Hey! Another New Warriors fan here. I actually do enjoy this storyline, but it’s far from the best one for the series. I greatly prefer the prequel in issues #11-13, Forever Yesterday, where the lady Sphinx is defeated by … threatening a … cat. Trust me, it’s more poignant than it sounds. And it sparks growth in the heroes and their relationships with each other.
The cosmically powered menace that the heroes can’t defeat but they still punch-em-inna-face because “indomitable human spirit” or something. I don’t know what it would take for the story to end believably, and I’m trying to think of an example where it did. Not Korvac in Avengers. Not Beyonder in Secret Wars 2. Not Thanos in Captain Marvel. But the closest might have been Thanos’ defeat in Infinity Gauntlet. Oh, but there’s the “dark humor” tactic in GLA (Great Lakes Avengers), where Mr Immortal tricks Maelstrom into blowing his own head off. Ah, comedy!
What was I talking about? Oh right, New Warriors! Justice has my vote for the best story. Rage has the most cringy, but Firestar’s is also low on my list because in spite of her being a mutant, that’s not the defining point of her character.
Poor Silhouette losing her clothes. I really don’t like this limitation of her powers, and think the number one product that should be made of unstable molecules is underwear. Even if you save the costumes for special occasions, always wear your unsta-cule underwear. Although, it’s a totally Reed Richards move to be more focused on the costumes and not practical everyday life. Thanks, Reed!
I agree Alex did not get enough focus, except to quietly show that he’s the most powerful one there. It would have been better to let him demonstrate it more, but ah well. And hey, about him looking at Dagger, let us not forget that a kiss from Dagger singlehandedly (single lipped ly?) pushed Alex into puberty. Just a thought.
Great discussion and loved Corey as a guest. From your fifth New Warriors “expert”, till next time Pack-men!
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Tim!!
I think that the King in Black mega event worked out pretty well. It made sense how they recovered heroes from symbiote control and Knull’s defeat made sense too with a (spoilers) Captain Universe empowered Venom. The Annihilation Wave (?) run from a couple years ago cheesed me though when the end was Nova flying into the big bad and winning because punching works now…ugh.
Here is your seven pack of UM undergarments…wear what ever you want on top of them. Thank me later.
Yeah, with 14 characters and two Sphinxes monologuing there wasn’t enough room for everyone to get equal time. Alex really got the short shrift due to that. They did show what a powerhouse he is, but they shelf him do hard all the time. Ugh, gotta use the time they take from him to let Rich be a jerk to people… I’ll get off of my vent horse now.
Later, gator.
-Jeff
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Hey there my fine friends of the Pacific Northwest!
I just got done listening to this episode, and it has me two seconds away from trying to hunt down this complete story you cover. I realize that it is most likely in a morass of multiple plots making it more likely to want to pick up a new title than read this one, AND it seems like a juggling routine which has the balls dropping at different times. Those caveats aside, I really like the look of this book from your showcase artwork. I remember the first two years of the New Warriors were incredibly hard to find for me back when it was published (Thanks Wizard!) I had thought it looked adjacent to Power Pack in that it was about the characters more than just heroics. Plus, Nicieza was a favorite of mine working on the popcorn guilty pleasure that was X-Force.
I had heard Sean Ross on his podcast speak about the omnibus that includes the early material, and had I the time to read it I would. I’m glad that Corey is assisting you boys on this, as his New Warriors coverage is quite fun to read. Corey reminds me of a fellow named Gavin Higginbotham. He is a detail minded historian for Erik Larsen’s ongoing Savage Dragon, and got onto Erik’s radar and has landed an editor spot on the book! I would like to think Corey in a place like that if New Warriors were published by Image and ongoing since the early 90s.
I have to second the comment by the esteemed Tim Price regarding Alex and Dagger in the issues you are talking about. I so thought of that peck she gave him on his cheek back in the classic Thanksgiving issue so the hormones and puberty are going to compel the boy to get a little inappropriate in the book.
It is sad that as we recognize how anachronistic the art is in this story, there is a small yet really obnoxious subsect of fandom that still produce this and charge a surprising amount of money. It has felt very problematic to me as a young adult and even more now the tropes of over sexualization has continued to seemingly seep into the comic collecting culture or portions of it.
ANYWAYS, a few digressions; 1) Sphinx with his mystic powers of Ka had me think of the episode of Big Bang Theory where the cast played a card game Mystic World of Ka’a. I kept waiting for you guys to drag out the a lol. 2) Robertson’s pencil work inspired me to keep practicing back in the day. That smoothness and sturdy proportions would get better on subsequent projects.
I’ve rambled enough fellas. I’m hitting a local comic convention this coming weekend and just received my Unpacking the Power… t-shirt. Going to represent my favorite podcast to the masses. Fingers crossed they listen to the show. They won’t be disappointed!
Jeremy
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My main man making a mark from Missouri, marvelous!!
If you think that this has plot morass for tracking all the story beats, wait till we get to Maximum Clonage!!!! That has A LOT of moving parts.
Never feel bad about popcorn pleasures, there is a definite need for them to exist. There are times when I want to be challenged, and then there’s all the other times I want to be hand feed my entertainment.
There are so many people that are super knowledgeable about things that we cover, and then there’s me. They talk about the run of writers, inkers, pencilers and editors on multiple series and my contribution is to say that I know that a character that I have just learned of (Rage) is 14. The fact that some people can take their hobby knowledge base and make a career of it…good on them.
That peck on the cheek, and the fact that he is drawn looking any where between 12 and 35, means that his hormones are all over the place, so I guess I get it. It seems like an occasional running background gag for him. There is one background panel where Alex is flying Pretty Persuasion around and she is ALL up in his business.
Hmmm, now that I think about it, Alex is doomed to this kind of behavior. Bad sources of influence and advice abound on this team. (Looking at you Speedball, Nova and Speedball…yes I know I said his name twice, and I stand by it.)
I was about to launch into a whole thing about the over sexualized treatment of characters and even background characters, but I decided not to. Let’s just say that it is present and that maybe it was a choice to show what an edgy mature book this is. I don’t know.
Hmmm, Mystic World of Ka’a… didn’t catch that one. I do like BBT, but have to admit that I have only seen an armload of them. I hit a stage quite awhile ago where my TV watching got severally limited.
I love Robertson’s work. Sadly it was just recently that I realized he was the same artist on a bunch of titles that I like. Which made sense after I figured it out, but blew me away at the time. Glad he was a muse for you.
The fact that you are billboarding for us blows me away. I have to admit that I would love to have more listeners, but I also have to admit that the fact we have any listeners at all…let alone awesome ones like you…makes me really happy and proud. Thanks for going out and spreading the word. Hope that the convention is a fun one.
Talk at you later.
-Jeff
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