Jab’s Builds! (Lawnmower Man! Samus Aran! Metroids!)

[catsi563]

The hair and changes to it represent to me the final evolution of Elsa through the two movies, her story starts with it up and tight , then she lets it loose but is still somewhat controlled as its still braided and restrained though a but wild, then she lets it out of the braid into a tail wilder but still restrained by her own thoughts, finally she lets it all down and is truly free to accept and be herself.

[Jabroniville]

I'm actually impressed at your restraint here. And I mean that sincerely, since you didn't push Elsa as the most powerful Disney hero.

As shockingly powerful as she is here, it's not like she was pulling off "Hercules"-level feats with great regularity. Managing to draw a Water Elemental in its natural habitat while showing literally impossible feats of strength and durability at the same time is beyond anything any other Princess has done. But man, she's at the point now where I wanna see her fight Maleficent.

[Jabroniville]

She might be getting up there, though. Also, that statline is quite a huge improvement, and she's 60 points more expensive than her Frozen I version.

What's funny is that she merely added a handful to her powers- Frozen II introduces the "Spirit" stuff, her unnaturally perfect make-up, and a couple other things, like higher-level Create & Blasts. The majority of those 60 points comes from her Abilities- the Elsa of Frozen II had no natural combat ability, only ever fought two Mooks, had human frailty, and... noticeably bad Mental Abilities, in particular Presence. Now she's received an upgrade across the line, giving her remarkable Strength (pulling herself onto the Nokk's back while in a storming sea), durability (being thrown dozens of feet by the Nokk and being fine), and superior mental abilities as she's become a much more complete person.

Her respective points costs:
Total: Abilities: 66 / Skills: 50--25 / Advantages: 10 / Powers: 251 / Defenses: 12 (364)
Total: Abilities: 36 / Skills: 36--18 / Advantages: 9 / Powers: 231 / Defenses: 10 (304)

So a full 30 points from Abilities, 7 Skills, 1 Advantage, 20 in Powers (half of which is for her base array, which added many points to the core power, plus a few new Alt-Effects), and 2 Defenses.

[Jabroniville]

The hair and changes to it represent to me the final evolution of Elsa through the two movies, her story starts with it up and tight , then she lets it loose but is still somewhat controlled as its still braided and restrained though a but wild, then she lets it out of the braid into a tail wilder but still restrained by her own thoughts, finally she lets it all down and is truly free to accept and be herself.

HAIR AS METAPHOR- Disney is the best.

But yeah, where the gloves represented restraint and guarded secrets in the first movie, and doors did as well (there's no mistaking Elsa literally BLOWING UP a door in Ahtohallan in this film), Elsa's "done up" hairstyle coming down into the long braid with the wild pulled-back hairs on her head (meant to deliberately invoke fire- the "storm" of passions within her reserved exterior)- it was a pretty strong metaphor. This movie turns her more into a Wild Spirit, now so open that she's got her bare feet showing (albeit in ice-slippers), everything above the chest bare, and her hair completely all the way down.

[Jabroniville]

Also, OMG check out these window displays at Saks in New York!:
https://www.timeout.com/new-york-kids/n ... ows-112719

[Jabroniville]

And look! Snow Queen Elsas have begun appearing in the parks:

[Jabroniville]

KING AGNARR OF ARENDELLE
Played by: Alfred Molina (replacing Maurice LaMarche)
Role: Loving & Protective Father
PL 1 (20), PL 2 (20) Saves
STRENGTH 1 STAMINA 1 AGILITY 0
FIGHTING 0 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 1 AWARENESS 0 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Deception 5 (+7)
Expertise (Royalty) 5 (+6)

Advantages:
Benefit 4 (King of Arendelle)

Offense:
Unarmed +0 (+1 Damage, DC 16)
Initiative +2

Defenses:
Dodge +0 (DC 10), Parry +0 (DC 10), Toughness +1, Fortitude +1, Will +2

Complications:
Relationship (Anna & Elsa)- The King is highly-protective of his two daughters, and devotes much of his life to keeping Elsa's powers a secret from others, and trying to help her control them. Unfortunately, his methods for doing this involve shutting her off from everything. He wishes to comfort her, but Elsa will not allow him contact, for fear she'll hurt him.
Secret (Elsa's Powers)- When Pabbie tells Elsa to not let fear be her enemy, and shows an image of people attacking her out of fear, The King fears the worst, and attempts to protect her from everyone.

Total: Abilities: 10 / Skills: 10--5 / Advantages: 4 / Powers: 0 / Defenses: 1 (20)

-Soooooooooooo interesting thing: They've fully-Anglicized the King's name as Angarr instead of "Agdar" (the King & Queen's names appear on their grave markers in Nordic script, and had to be translated by fans; either Agdar or Agnarr kinda fit). And Maurice "The Brain" LaMarche has been replaced by Doctor Octopus for some reason. It's kinda funny, because it's still just a tiny throwaway bit, tossed in right at the beginning of the movie to set the stage and be another bridge in the sisters' relationship. I mean, why bother re-casting him? In Frozen, the King was kind of a hated figure to fans, as his desperation to protect his daughters caused Elsa to be more or less locked away and kept from people, which was... the opposite of good.

-In Frozen II, Agnarr tells his daughters a bedtime story about "The Enchanted Forest", and how he lost his own father (King Runeard is seen falling over the edge of a dam whild fighting a Northuldra man after an inexplicable fight started. He himself is clueless as to the reasons for the fighting, and precisely who saved him- he simply arrived on the other end of a now-impenetrable mist, King of Arendelle. His daughters are impressed by his "epic" story, and Elsa (the responsible one, even now) wonders what happens if the mist ever falls- he carefully (the kindly) tells her that they have to be prepared for whatever comes out of the forest.

-Later, we get a hint that Agnarr did eventually find out who saved him- his childhood friend and later wife, Iduna, says she has something to tell him, "about who I am, and where I'm from". And the ship voyage that killed them? It was a trip to AHTOHALLAN, the mystical "river" that contained the truth about Elsa's birth.

About the Performer: Alfred Molina's most famous role is probably that of Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2, but he was also "the guy who got killed by spikes" in the first Indiana Jones movie. Amazingly, he was also cast as the original Rimmer in Red Dwarf, but was replaced before filming started! He was a constant TV presence in his native Britain, but mostly did "respectable" film roles in the States, doing stuff like Magnolia, Frida (as the famous painter's philandering husband), and more. He is one of only two actors with THREE Lego Minifigures modeled after him (sharing the honors with Chris Pratt), and primarily focuses on theatre, but has been a regular on Law & Order.

[Jabroniville]

QUEEN IDUNA OF ARENDELLE
Played by: Evan Rachel Wood
Role: Loving Mother
PL 1 (17), PL 2 (17) Saves
STRENGTH 0 STAMINA 0 AGILITY 0
FIGHTING 0 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 1 AWARENESS 1 PRESENCE 1

Skills:
Deception 5 (+5)
Expertise (Royalty) 5 (+6)
Expertise (Magic) 4 (+5)

Advantages:
Benefit 2 (Queen of Arendelle)

Offense:
Unarmed +0 (+1 Damage, DC 16)
Initiative +2

Defenses:
Dodge +0 (DC 10), Parry +0 (DC 10), Toughness +1, Fortitude +1, Will +2

Complications:
Relationship (Anna & Elsa)- The Queen is an adoring mother to her two daughters, effortlessly getting the rambunctious Anna to settle down while singing the girls on of her people's lullabies.
Secret (Elsa's Powers)- The Queen shares Angarr's decision to keep Elsa's powers a secret from as many people as possible.

Total: Abilities: 6 / Skills: 14--7 / Advantages: 2 / Powers: 0 / Defenses: 2 (17)

-So yes, one of the big shockers early on in the build-up for Frozen II was that the girls' MOTHER was now going to be an important character! Voiced by a celebrity (kind of), even!

-The character of "The Queen" was such a throwaway role in the first Frozen that she's voiced by the DIRECTOR, having only gotten a single line, and a design that's pretty much "Elsa but with brown hair" (though her purple & black dress is actually VERY sharp and would be great for fanart if she was a bigger charater). But suddenly, as the creators needed an origin story for their magical queen, they took a look into where these characters all came from, and came up with some stuff. Even trying to avoid general ending spoilers, I was pretty quick to "get" what was going on, as speculation for "the girl in the trailers" quickly turned into "Oh, that's the Queen" because she got a real actress to play her this time... and when you saw that a big issue was with the Northuldra, and she DRESSED like them... I mean, the twist was clear.

-So yeah, Queen Iduna now has a real purpose in the story! And a part to play in the movie's big moment! Here, Iduna is depicted as a pensive, calming influence- when King Agnarr is done telling his story to the girls, Elsa asks if she thinks the mists separating them from the Enchanted Forest will ever fall- Iduna darkly replies "Only Ahtohallan knows". She then sings a lovely lullaby "my mother used to sing to me", about a "River full of memory", suggesting you "dive down deep in to her sound..." but adding "not to far, or you'll be drowned." This is seen as a kindly Mother/Daughter moment, and the reasons for it will soon be clear- it contains not only the important basis for characterization that is the biggest advantage of the Frozen franchise (the bonds with their mother would have fallen flat later if they hadn't set it up here), but also dark foreshadowing.

-Iduna's song leads to the present day, six years after the death of the King & Queen, and Elsa awakens the ancient spirits of the Forest and goes in- once there, they are quickly told that their mother's scarf (set up before the adventure starts- these people are CLEVER) is a Northuldra design- Elsa's ice-memories featuring a young girl saving their young father makes it clear- "our mother was NORTHULDRA". And before anyone can say "so why the f*ck was mom white?", this bridges the two peoples- Northuldra & Arendellian, and makes some peace. It turns out that Agnarr's mysterious savior was their mother, who ended up on the other side of the mist and went to Arendelle, where she married the King. The novelization of the story features more backstory on this (which... really could have been used in the film as more "ice memories"- Elsa WAS in a room full of them), as Iduna was raised in an orphanage and had "mysterious parentage". This is given as the reason why Anna figures Arendelle was "gifted with a magical Queen", and it's more or less the writers telling us so- her act of saving someone who should have been an enemy was rewarded, while everyone else fighting was met with vengeance.

-This all leads to the movie's big Let It Go moment, when Elsa arrives at the shores of Ahtohallan, the river their mother sang about, feeling like she's in "a place I've always known...". As she continues to hear the voice, she ultimately enters a room full of memory (as the rhyme said), and sees that the original call to the "Fifth Spirit" was given by HER MOTHER, and that most of the images in Ahtohallan was her- and so we get a goddamn duet between the memory of Iduna's voice ("Come my DARLING, homeward bound...") with a tearful Elsa adding "I am FOUND!" and their two voices combining together. It's the most magical moment of the film, and wouldn't have worked without the groundwork they laid out in the film's opening.

About the Performer: Evan Rachel Wood is primarily known to me for getting a LOT of attention with "Across the Universe", but suddenly turning up dating MARILYN MANSON, the former shock-rocker who was now beyond washed-up and forgotten by mainstream society (he's respected in industrial metal circles, but he's completely a relic to anyone else)- this probably put the axe in her career immediately. She appeared in a lot of "Child Actor" roles as a kid, but got noticed in "Thirteen" as a druggie pre-teen, and was nominated for a ton of awards. Alas, someone called her an "It Girl", which probably doomed her immediately (anytime someone's not gonna be a big star, SOMEONE will blurt out "she'll be the new IT GIRL!"). "Across The Universe", notable for being a musical where people walk INTO the theatre singing the songs, should have been a big break- proving she could sing and it being a big film, things seemed set. She was in Mickey Rourke's "The Wrestler" in a pretty generic role (she was okay, but felt like a minor character compared to many others). But then... she dated Marilyn Manson and ended up in the titty show "True Blood" instead- ironically as one of the only characters NOT to get naked, despite her acting career largely being "indie art films" (ie. "nudity was central to this character" pervy stuff). "Frozen II" is one of the only mainstream movies she's done in an age, and it's of course a character with only a handful of lines. But she seems happier in art films anwyays- the weird HBO series "Westworld" is pretty popular and has a bunch of respect, and she's acting in that.

[Jabroniville]

“The life I knew is over/ The lights are out / Hello, darkness/ I’m ready to succumb.”
-ACTUAL SONG LYRICS PUT IN A PRINCESS MOVIE.

ANNA
Played by: Kristen Bell
Role: Disney Princess-Turned-Queen, Badass Normal (kinda)
PL 4 (64), PL 6 (64) Defenses
STRENGTH 1 STAMINA 2 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 6 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 1 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 3

Skills:
Athletics 6 (+7)
Expertise (Singing) 6 (+9)
Insight 3 (+5)
Perception 2 (+4)
Persuasion 2 (+5)
Stealth 1 (+4)

Advantages:
Improved Critical (Unarmed), Improvised Weapon, Ranged Attack 4

Offense:
Unarmed +6 (+1 Damage, DC 16)
Initiative +3

Defenses:
Dodge +5 (DC 15), Parry +6 (DC 16), Toughness +2, Fortitude +4, Will +8

Complications:
Motivation ("Some Things Never Change")- Anna appears delighted with the current status quo. "I have YOU and Elsa, and Kristoff and Sven, and the GATES are open wide, and I'm not ALONE anymore!"
Responsibility (Arendelle)- Though not Queen, Anna appears very concerned with Arendelle, what it stands for, and how to help it. When she learns what must be done, the notion of endangering even the empty city worries her.
Relationship (Elsa)- The two sisters are now close once more, and Anna couldn't be happier- she practically worships her older sister, to the point of identifying herself only through Elsa, and finds herself becoming very protective when Elsa's running into danger ("you're not being CAREFUL"), even ignoring Kristoff whenever Elsa's not there. When she learns that Elsa has died, and Olaf with her, a completely shattered Anna observes the mystery of "how to RISE from the floor; when it's not YOU I'm rising for...", and even the notion of saving the day and freeing everyone from the mist can't bring her back- she stumbles around almost aimlessly.
Relationship (Kristoff)- Anna & Kristoff have now been together for three years. She loves him dearly (despite his weirdness), but her worry for Elsa is distracting her from him.
Relationship (Olaf)- Anna appears very protective and kind with Olaf, typically babying him and explaining things to him.
Temper- Anna is swift to anger, even if something else is much more dangerous than she is.
Secret ("I Prefer You In Leather Anyway")- Anna is a top. 100% confirmed.

Total: Abilities: 40 / Skills: 20--10 / Advantages: 6 / Powers: 0 / Defenses: 10 (64)

Anna- A More Mature Feistypants:
-Anna, in her own way, is as difficult to write as Elsa is. In the sense that both her character arc (Naive Doofus turns Loving, Knowing Friend) is complete, and that she's... a normal person with no special powers in a world where her sister is a Magical Goddess Superhero and can therefore show her up at every turn. So you're like "What IS Anna doing here?". To which point Kristen Bell seemed to realize, perhaps remembering that Anna got 90% of the screentime in Frozen and was shown up by her sister AND her sidekick- each of whom got 12 minutes of screentime apiece, that she needed to give the performance of her life. And did so.

-So in Frozen II, Anna is now a much more mature, level-headed person. A bit silly still (just watch her during the family charades), she only wears the once-trademark pigtails at night (because they make her look very young, the animators wanted them gone for this film), and has developed into a much more mature, thoughtful, perceptive character. For example, she immediately picks up on Elsa's alarm during their family game, recognizes that she's wearing "mother's scarf", which she only does when she's upset, and manages to reassure her sister. The only real signs of her past character are her outrage when Elsa shoves her away ("COME ONNNNN!" she screams, when her attempts to get off the murder-canoe result in them careening down a river), and whenever she has to talk to Kristoff, as suddenly she misinterprets EVERYTHING, and actually acts rather childish ("Just in case we die" *grabs him by the collar* "YOU THINK WE'RE GONNA DIE?!?!"). Then, as the adventure begins, Anna insists on coming with, despite Elsa's reservations (drawing a classic scene in which Elsa is silently trying to disagree, while admitting that Anna makes good points, finally clamming up and accepting it when Anna just keeps going about the travails she faced in the first movie while trying to save her).

-And then, as time goes on, Anna grows increasingly worried- she's still helpful, and is good with Elsa's super-stuff, but is soon horrified by the risks Elsa's taking. She demands to go along with her across the Dark Sea, and is enraged when Elsa throws her & Olaf back in an ice-canoe, and Anna's attempts out of it nearly get her & Olaf killed. And then... Olaf dusts away in her arms, revealing that Elsa has "gone too far" and been "drowned" in Ahtohallan. And Anna completely, utterly falls apart, collapsing in a heap and being nearly unable to move.

Do The Next Right Thing:
-And, because it's Disney, when the emotion's too strong to talk, you must SING- and Kristen Bell knocks it out of the park with Do the Next Right Thing, echoing Grand Pabbie's words that "when you see no future, all that remains is to do the NEXT RIGHT THING". This increasingly-soaring ballad leads to her rising from the floor (even though "It's not YOU I'm rising for..."), struggling up the side of a cave, leaping across a chasm to safety, and finally waking the Earth Giants, realizing that Elsa died for the truth- that the dam built by their grandfather is hurting the forest, and must be destroyed to make things right, even if Arendelle has to fall. This song, which impressed some even more than ELSA's twin songs, is actually being used as a kind of call to arms for people with a variety of mental illnesses and issues with grief- the notion that you "Don't look too far ahead", because "it's just too much to take", but with each step, each moment, there's one small right decision you can make- it's a fairly powerful message for those struggling with the weight on their shoulders.

-And so, powered by grief and liberal guilt, Anna successfully gets the dam destroyed, which breaks the curse of the Enchanted Forest and saves the Northuldra people, creates a light show over Ahtohallan, and immediately unfreezes Elsa, who saves Arendelle (it's carefully mentioned that the city had been emptied deliberately by the Spirits, so that no people would be harmed). In one of the movie's funniest bits, Anna is so happy to see her sister again that she full-on "Ugly Cries", snotting up, bawling her eyes out, and sniffling & snorting through their reunion, then tearfully accepting Kristoff's proposal, because he FINALLY got the moment right. Elsa realizes that Anna has saved the day ("You saved me- AGAIN"), and that the Spirits ("all agreed- Arendelle deserves to stand. With YOU."). And with Elsa choosing to stay in the Enchanted Forest as a guardian and bridge between humanity and the magic of nature, Anna is chosen to be crowned QUEEN Anna of Arendelle- getting a brand-new outfit and a more mature hairdo.

The New Status Quo:
-Anna & Kristoff are thus presumably going to be married, and while the sisters act as a "bridge" (because "a bridge has two sides") between humanity and nature, they now live alone. While it seems like "They Live Apart/Sad Goodbyes" was going to be one of the themes of the movie, I feel they dropped it after a point, perhaps realizing that every CGI movie lately has been doing that (How To Train Your Dragon AND Toy Story just ended their stories that way, as did Wreck-It Ralph), and that it would have been too contrary to the point of the first film, in which sisterly love SAVED everything. And while this did upset a good deal of Frozen fans (all that time to put them together, and they get THREE YEARS before Elsa runs off to the forest, because reasons?), they obviously shrank back from it and made it clear Elsa could arrive whenever, though it's kinda funny she didn't even show up for Anna's own coronation- she was just farting around the forest and going for Magical Horsie Rides.

-So... I feel like there's that "early draft" where Anna's frustration over Elsa's running off headlong into danger was leading to a big "NO! I don't WANT you to leave! Your place is HERE- with US!", they dropped it and went another way. Pabbie's warning in the trailer that "Magic is very alluring; I fear she may LOSE herself to it" was part of that warning, and that Anna was supposed to accept it and move on... but instead it's just Anna being worried in the way a normal person would be if her sister went off being crazy-magical into a firestorm. And I think that's a bit stronger and more "real", without the Ralph 2 premise of "you should accept it and let others leave you so they can be happy", which is weirdly contradictory to the story of the first.

-Anna herself actually becoming QUEEN is definitely not something I expected, and actually kind of a neat twist- given that she was the "Identifiable Character" to little girls (Kristen Bell even insisted upon Anna being a bit more goofy and weird, with the "Wait, what?" catchphrase being her own idea, so that Anna could come off as less perfect and more flawed & human), it's fun to see her "grow up" and become more mature. The pensive stares Anna gives off on nearly all the Frozen II merch was our first clue that she was getting more serious, and except for her weird stuff with Kristoff, she was 100 times more sociable, less-clueless, and a lot more perceptive of people. In short, she grew up. Though it's kind of cute that Kristoff's the only one who can bring out her insane side ("Love makes us crazy" "Wait, CRAZY? You never said I was crazy? *insane, monstrous look* "YOU THINK I'M CRAZY!?").

-Though... it's pretty clear Elsa's still gonna usurp her in this one. Not only does Elsa have more lines AND scenes than Anna, including two solo songs and a huge scene all to herself in Ahtohallan, but Anna never fights anyone, then sits by as Elsa beats up a tornado, a wildfire, and the Dark Sea. I mean, Elsa just dominates the story so much that you can almost physically SEE the writers in the Writers Room going "Okay, how do we make Anna worthwhile in this story?".

Anna's Stats:
Anna is physically the same person as before (though her Athletics score has taken a leap, judging by her jump in the cave), but is mentally much different- she's still happy and charming, but is more mature, sensitive to others, and wise.

[drkrash]

OK. I realize everyone is now fully under Jab’s Frozen II spell, I have to finish KOF. And I’ve never seen Frozen. Still.

I don’t care for Ramon. I don’t like his high-pitched voice, his overly green outfit, or his fighting style. But he hangs out with Angel, so I’ll tolerate him for that.

Ash Crimson. At least by the time he appeared, I was wise enough to realize, “That’s a dude.” As a Westerner, yeah, his appearance didn’t work for me. But what especially didn’t work for me was when I discovered that he was supposed to be the hero. I’m a little biased because I like my heroes to be Captain America, and I know that Japanese heroic standards are not the same, but this guy is a dick.

I think Elisabeth is a cool design (Jab and I don’t always share the same tastes, but evidently we do when it comes to KOF women). However, I found her too hard to play well and so she didn’t get used. Oh well.

Saiki makes a better villain than Ash does a hero. TBH, I’m not 100% sure I understood that Saiki was a separate person from Ash when I first played. But he’s a pretty cool villain. Not as cool as Orochi, but still good.

I wasn’t crazy about Adelheid (and it was a while before I found out he wasn’t the real villain), but I really liked his stage. I like fancy ballrooms/drawing rooms for fights. I also liked his sister hanging around in the background playing piano.

Love Heart seems to have an awful lot of backstory for a Pachinko character. I don’t think her story fits that well in the KOF world, but I think it’s a pretty solid visual design.

I *hate* Shun’ei and hate that he’s the new hero of KOF. I think he’s the worst heroic design they have ever done. For me, a lot of design sin could be forgiven if he just pulled down his f-in’ pant leg.

Koroko gave me a few reasons to appreciate Antonov more, because I definitely didn’t like him as the sub-boss of XIV. I appreciated the humor in the story segments, but it seemed like such a step down narratively to have him be the head of the KOF tournament. But Koroko’s explanation makes a lot of sense.

And Jab gave me a lot of information on Verse. I knew *nothing* of that backstory. I thought he was an alien like Pyrion from Darkstalkers. This seems to me – to the best of my knowledge anyway – like info that was simply impossible to know from the game itself.

I’m going to save Maximum Impact for the next (and presumably last) set of comments.

[Jabroniville]

"Don't worry, Anna, everything will work out fine! Provided we don't get stuck in here and no one ever finds us and you starve and I give up!"
-Olaf's cheery encouragement to Anna

OLAF
Played by: Josh Gad
Role: The Comic Relief, Walking Metaphor
PL 2 (78)
STRENGTH -2 STAMINA -- AGILITY 0
FIGHTING 0 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE -1 AWARENESS 0 PRESENCE 3

Skills:
Athletics 4 (+2)
Expertise (Snow) 4 (+3)
Expertise (Singing) 4 (+7)

Advantages:
None

Powers:
"Small Size" Shrinking 4 (Feats: Innate) (Extras: Permanent +0) [9]
(-1 Strength, +2 Defenses, +4 Stealth, -2 Intimidation)

"Snowman"
Immunity 30 (Fortitude Effects) [30]
"Stuff Goes Through Him" Immunity 10 (Piercing Damage) [10]
Immunity 30 (Slashing & Bludgeoning Damage) (Flaws: Limited to Half-Effect) [15]

Protection 2 [2]
Regeneration 4 [4]
Features 1: May Reattach Limbs [1]
"Power Slide" Speed 2 (8 mph) (Flaws: Limited to Within Snow) [1]

"Detachable Limbs" Summon Limb or Butt 1 (Feats: Mental Link) (Extras: 4 Minions +4) (Flaws: Requires Limb Severing) [5]
"Rearrange" Morph 1 (Objects of the Same Size, Color & General Shape) [5]

Offense:
Unarmed +0 (-2 Damage, DC 13)
Initiative +0

Defenses:
Dodge +2 (DC 12), Parry +2 (DC 12), Toughness +2, Fortitude --, Will +4

Complications:
Responsibility (Maturity)- Olaf is getting older, and believes himself to be maturing.
Weakness (Lack of Cold)- Warm weather (or proximity to a fire) has a negative effect on a creature made of frozen water. This does not mix well with the above.
Weakness ("I'm Flurrying... AWAY")- So it turns out that if Elsa dies, the magic contained within Olaf will, as well.
Relationship (Anna & Elsa)- Olaf is mostly close to the outgoing Anna, but as he is literally the link between the two sisters, he will do almost anything for them. He adores the sisters enough to risk his life on a venture to gain as many Christmas traditions as he possibly can on Christmas Eve. As he tells Anna, "Some people are worth melting for".
Relationship (Kristoff & Sven)- Though Olaf appears unimpressed with Kristoff's relationship with Anna ("You're a Princess you know; you don't have to settle", he likes the two, and freely offers old nose-carrots to the reindeer.
Relationship (Samanatha)

Total: Abilities: -12 / Skills: 12--6 / Advantages: 0 / Powers: 82 / Defenses: 4 (78)

-The funny thing with Olaf in Frozen II is I've only read a couple of people who hate on him (Doug "The Nostalgia Critic" Walker being a notable one; he HATED Olaf in this film), while nearly everybody else considers him one of the highlights, with the most universally-beloved moment of the picture either being Kristoff's song or Olaf's rapid-fire summation of the events of Frozen I, cracking up every showing I've ever gone to with "At least they still have their parents!" "Their parents are DEAD!". A now-iconic sequence is his searching for the party- "Elsa? Anna? Kristoff? Samantha? ... *cracks up* I DON'T EVEN... I don't even KNOW a Samantha!"

-Olaf, to be fair, is EVERYWHERE in this film. He's in the big group song, does charades (being expectedly amazing at them, being able to change his shape), goes on the mission into the Enchanted Forest for no particular reason ("I'll bring the snacks!"), annoys the gang with random trivia, and generally interjects himself into almost every situation. He gets a short song of his own ("This will all make sense when I am older"). If you don't like Olaf, you'll be ENRAGED by him in this film. The fact that the 22-minute "short" Olaf's Frozen Adventure features him over the entire rest of the cast doesn't help with the "Olaf is Everywhere" thing.

-However, I think most people appreciate him, largely because while he's the goofy comic relief, a huge amount of his comments are actually very dark, dry humor. Similar to the first movie's casual "Oh look, I've been impaled", he's full of all kinds of bizarre, somewhat creepy asides that often involve death or ass humor. Josh Gad's often ad-libbed comedy is perfect in many cases, like the "Samantha" bit, his casual disregard for mortal danger, and repeatedly going "That's NORMAL." or "This is FINE" when all sorts of calamity is befalling him. He actually gets hurt a fair bit here, particularly in his only song (a mostly forgettable throwaway that's best for all the slapstick humor and terrifying spirits). The only time I kinda found him annoying is when Anna & Elsa meet the freaking SHIP THEIR PARENTS DIED ON, and he's still there, snarking away and going "I wonder why they didn't make the whole SHIP waterproof". That was kind of a moment that needed more gravitas, and the sisters were ignoring him and doing their own thing anyways.

-Olaf, however, best represents the relationship between the two sisters- this was his purpose in the original film, and Olaf's Frozen Adventure continued it, as they apparently repeatedly made snowmen named Olaf and drew pictures of him. And here, this link becomes all the more notable when Elsa freezes in the depths of Ahtohallan... and Olaf starts flurrying away. The death of Elsa LITERALLY destroys the link between the two girls. Now, part of me's a little perturbed that the death of the MAIN CHARACTER was glossed over in seconds while Olaf got a long, drawn-out death scene in a sobbing Anna's arms, but it fits when you realize the aforementioned symbolism- Elsa dying means that their connection- Olaf- is also severed. And his body slowly disappearing as snowflakes fall off of him is pretty dramatic and outstanding as far as "Disney Deaths" go, and leads to Anna's best moment in the film, as she manages to pull herself up and go on.

-Olaf is largely the same character as last time, but doesn't get any of his truly insightful moments, like when he points out that Kristoff loves Anna and that "Some people are worth melting for". In fact, he's actually coming off a bit more immature, constantly chatting and interjecting himself, then getting upset at the reactions of others. His stats are mostly the same, but his ability to rearrange gains Morph-like qualities, as he manages to copy Mickey Mouse, a Unicorn, and others.

[Jabroniville]

KRISTOFF BJORGMAN
Played by: Jonathan Groff
Role: Quirky Loner, Valiant Pungent Reindeer King
PL 5 (71)
STRENGTH 2 STAMINA 4 AGILITY 2
FIGHTING 5 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 1 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 0

Skills:
Athletics 8 (+10)
Deception 2 (+2)
Expertise (Ice Salesman) 8 (+9)
Expertise (Survival) 6 (+8)
Expertise (Singing) 5 (+5)
Insight 1 (+3)
Perception 2 (+4)

Advantages:
Equipment 2 (Rad Sled, Climbing Gear), Skill Mastery (Ice Salesman), Sidekick 9 (Sven)

Offense:
Unarmed +5 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Initiative +2

Defenses:
Dodge +4 (DC 14), Parry +5 (DC 15), Toughness +4, Fortitude +5, Will +6

Complications:
Relationship (Sven)- Sven is Kristoff's best friend, and his companion since childhood. He even has "conversations" with Sven, doing the reindeer's voice, which is actually pretty close to what Sven means. Ryder, who does the same thing, points out "And then you just SAY it!"- Kristoff knowingly adds "... and then you just say it".
Responsibility (Odd)- See above- he talks to reindeer. He even has a song called "Reindeer are Better Than People". He was also raised by Rock Trolls, engages in weird dietary customs, and is generally incapable of getting the words out in important moments (like, say, proposing). Only the similarly-weird Ryder seems to get certain aspects of him.
Relationship (Anna)- Kristoff is now hopelessly in love with Anna, his "True North", and is sure that he wants to marry her. Unfortunately, he still sucks at words, and she jumps to conclusions.
Responsibility (Lost in the Woods)- Kristoff, normally a closed-off, stoic kind of guy, now finds himself "lost in the woods" without Anna in his life- the mere hints that things aren't going well, or that she might leave him behind, sends him into 1980s-style Power Ballads about how much he loves her.
Motivation (Selling Ice)- Kristoff loves and admires ice. When he witnesses Elsa's massive Ice Palace, he basically has a religious experience, fighting off tears at its beauty.

Total: Abilities: 36 / Skills: 32--16 / Advantages: 12 / Powers: 0 / Defenses: 7 (71)

"Well, we gotta give KRISTOFF something to do...":
-Easily the most universally-maligned thing about Frozen II, mentioned even by its fans, was the "Kristoff Arc". With the sequel being very much "Elsa's Story", with Anna taking a subordinate supporting role (while still being integral to the story), primarily as part of the "bridge" with her sister... Kristoff didn't really having anything to do. And so the writers stuck in a subplot about him trying to find a way to propose to Anna! And then, in a comedy of errors, on three separate occasions it's a disaster- Anna's distracted by Elsa's worried state the first time, and both other times, she reads the wrong thing into what Kristoff says before getting again distracted by Elsa's issues. The latter two, involving the much more mature Anna suddenly having outbursts when she misunderstands what Kristoff is saying, are funny, but are pretty much the ONLY times Anna acts so immature in the film, so it comes off as a bit forced and weird.

-And then, after all that, Kristoff goes off with Ryder to talk about reindeer and proposing to Anna, while Anna runs off after Elsa, thus leaving him alone. And Kristoff then DISAPPEARS FOR THE REST OF THE STORY, popping up only in the end to rescue Anna from the Earth Giants and get her to the dam. So, like, he's integral, but they clearly have no plans for him in the story, and so he bails and is picked up later. His insecurity about Anna, and the fears that he's lost without her, manifests itself in song, but he gets over it in the end. When Anna apologizes for leaving him behind, he has apparently gotten over it, stating "it's okay- my love is not fragile". And then, of course, he chooses the perfect moment, when the day is saved, to ask Anna to marry him. The, uh, off-camera "getting over it" part bothers people, but I can at least buy him having a temporary moment of insecurity, especially given his lack of way with words.

-Of course, while this plotline is the most-derided aspect of the movie to everyone, his SONG is the most universally-praised highlight. Into the Woods, written largely as an apology for giving Jonathan Groff no real song in the first movie (and thus little impact in Disney history), is HILARIOUS, and is given the most obnoxious, overwrought "80s Power Ballad" music video accompaniment ever, with Kristoff getting a ton of "group shots" of him posing mournfully, holding back his hair and singing into a "mic" (a large acorn), then mimicking Queen with a band of reindeer (whose mouths now move, as it's his own vision). The writers have mentioned that it's both an apology to Groff, and a way of showing boys watching the movie that it's okay to feel big emotions about love- Sven's "You feel what you feel, and your feelings are REAL- come on Kristoff; let down your guaaaarrrdddd" is all about how it's fine to be emotional at times.

Kristoff's Stats:
-Kristoff actually hasn't changed at all since the first movie. In fact, he only really does ANYTHING once, having rescued Anna from an Earth Giant's stomp. Though I knocked up his Will a single notch, because I dunno.

[HalloweenJack]

The issue with alot of anime is that with the long-running ones, it can be hard to get into becuase of the sheer amount of episodes (as well as having to figure out which ones are filler and which aren't, if you care about that.) It's one of the reasons why, while I like the Naruto and One Piece video games, I don't dare try to watch the anime given how huge and daunting their episode lists are, and the sheer amount of filler.

it was just the movie though. I watched it and was "meh."

Oh, the movie is a terrible introduction to Fist of the North Star, rocking animation aside. It tried to compress about 100 episodes of story into two hours with predictable results. Dropped characters, oversimplified plot resolutions, and a very disjointed narrative. You should try watching the TV series, as it is online and 100% free. The show is long at 152 episodes, but not so overwhelming compared to some other shonen like Dragonball, Naruto, One Piece, or Bleach. You could finish it in a few months if you watched semi-regularly.

I think still the show's influence on the whole genre of action cartoons is greatly underestimated. It was FotNS's runaway success that nudge Akira Toriyama to make Dragonball more focused on martial arts battles, and the chain reaction from that is being felt down to the present day. And it directly inspired Jojo's Bizarre Adventures, which was a major trendsetter in terms of character design for many video game designers in the 1990's.

Fun fact of the day: Akuma from SF was inspired by the character of Zodd the Immortal from Berserk, who in turn was a thinly veiled rippoff of Raoh from FotNS. Remember how I mentioned in another post that Ryu's design was altered to make look darker? It was to make him look more like Guts, the protagonist of Berserk, who was heavily inspired by Kenshiro. Modern Street Figher can therefore be considered a 'grandson' of FotNS by extension.

Your ideas intrigue me and I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter.

[Jabroniville]

THE NEW WARRIORS:

This series is kind of an anomaly in Marvel Comics, in that it made its debut in the early 1990s, alongside X-Force, the grittiest X-Men yet, and also shares its era with Image Comics, yet it's one of the most "ordinary" Marvel books in a highly-experimental, weird era for the medium. It's got some grittiness to it (murder and moping are common plot devices), but a newbie Mark Bagley's bright, sunny-looking faces, and some good-old-fashioned super-heroic stuff, combined with some HORRIBLY dated "Totally Radical" '90s slang, make for something that almost defines the '90s era of comics as well as the "Blood 'n' Guts" stuff did. And overall, I swear to God it holds up better as classic comics than almost anything else in the early half of that decade. Fabian Nicieza still considers it his proudest accomplishment in comics (though the specific reasons why are fun- read on).

And of course it's now known more for a long series of failed books that've come afterwards.

The Origins of the New Warriors:
-The team was created from the vestiges of the Marvel U, as Tom DeFalco ordered a book featuring all of the "un-used" teenage characters that Marvel had created and then left lying around. This included Firestar (created for Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends to replace the Human Torch- she was quickly forgotten in the X-Books, used only a couple times), Marvel Boy (the young alternate version of Major Victory in a plot point I still can't comprehend- typically a supporting character in The Thing's solo book), Nova (a Peter Parker wannabe from the '70s, whose series had been forgotten), Namorita (a cousin of Namor, as Marvel added new girl versions to many heroes), and Speedball (a Steve Ditko creation that only had a few appearances). Combined together with a new character in Night Thrasher, a REALLY dated concept merging Batman, black people, and teen skateboarders, The New Warriors were "The Team For the '90s!" "Teams of Disparate Characters" have been created before (The Champions) and since (various Defenders), and the rate of failure is roughly 100%, so this should obviously never have worked. And yet IT DID.

Fabian Nicieza & Mark Bagley were the creative team for the first ton of issues, and it's pretty interesting stuff. It breaks almost zero new ground whatsoever, its villains are frequently TERRIBLE, and a lot of it is very, very dated (people actually say things like "rad"; one issue is described as "Kick-Butt"); Thrash uses his SKATEBOARD to fight crime), but it's this very generic-ness that makes it kind of fun. While other books are up their own asses about being more hardcore and nasty and full of killing, the New Warriors was a fair bit lighter and softer, yet also had a fair bit of angst- Speedball's parents are divorcing, Marvel Boy kills his abusive father in self-defense and goes to prison for it, and Night Thrasher's parents died Thomas & Martha Wayne-style while his two parental replacements were lying to him long-term. But not EVERYTHING was like that, especially at first- Nova, Namorita, Speedball and others were fairly light-humored characters.

Another appealing thing was how they'd generally fight a bunch of generic villains with "good, old fashioned" super-heroics- they weren't always stamping out racism or mutant terrorists or whatever- they'd just fight metahumans gone rogue, super-villains from other books, and more. Bagley's early art would get better over time, and while he has an INSANE fetish for super-costumes with goggles on them (check out his runs on New Warriors, Spidey or Thunderbolts and just count 'em... Impulse, Firestar, Jolt, three of the four Forces of Nature, etc.), it's among the more "old-school comic-booky" of his works). All in all, being a plain, ordinary super-hero book in the era of Image-style nonsense actually makes it one of the BEST comics of the era! The first twenty-five issues in particular, culminating in a big story, are the high-water mark according to pretty much everyone- Bagley leaving the book cut out its life-blood, and I feel that even Thrash, the least-liked member, was integral to the book, and his absence hurt it.

The Early Days:
-Night Thrasher was a young boy when his parents were killed by mysterious criminals- pulling a "Bruce Wayne", he ran his company while devoting his life to fighting crime- utilizing some gadgets and armor, he also created a super-team of his own, feeling it'd be helpful. Using some strong-arm methods (he threw Richard Rider off of a rooftop figuring it'd "re-start" his powers as Nova- The Human Rocket), he gathered together a band of teens. In all, he was left with Marvel Boy (who'd just been rejected for Avengers membership, marking him as the most "serious" hero), Firestar, Speedball, Nova & Namorita- Nita was featured in the Namor book at the time, while Nova was given a "Team Dumbass" personality, much to the chagrin of older readers, who'd recalled a more generic "Peter Parker" type of everyman. Tom DeFalco, having ordered the book, was good enough to debut them in his Thor run, where they helped the main hero fight The Juggernaut.

As the book starts officially, we meet a "Support Crew"- Night Thrasher has two older mentors in Chord (a friend of his parents), and the elderly, somewhat sinister Tai. Nicieza would often rely on his old standby story- the "Team Of Villains" set-up, where the team would have to fight a brand-new team of guys- they'd battle Psionex (rebellious empowered youths) and the Force of Nature (eco-terrorists), and slowly deal with the build-up of The Folding Circle, who'd be part of the over-arching story. Thrash would meet up with his ex-girlfriend Silhouette, a crippled martial artist with shadow-powers, and her brother, Midnight's Fire- Sil would join the Warriors, while Fire would occasionally cause her loyalty to waver.

Arguably the most popular story was the "Sphinx" arc, in which an attractive female takes the role of Nova's big enemy, refashioning Earth's history so that Ramses's two court magicians defeated Moses in the fabled contest from the Bible, thus creating a world in which the Middle East dominated- the Avengers were now all-Middle Eastern, save for Nova, but he slowly realized that his world was "wrong". The great Alternate Reality redesigns of the Avengers and other heroes made this an outstanding arc, and really put the book on the map.

Along the way, various things would happen- Speedball would deal with his father being the District Attorney- and an anti-vigilante one at that. Firestar & Marvel Boy would form a relationship, while Nova would flirt with Namorita. The Avenger known as Rage would get booted from his team, and end up on the Warriors (typically palling around with Speedball), as would solo hero Darkhawk, who had his own book. Marvel Boy would also deal with his brutal, abusive father, with that story culminating with him killing his father in self-defense, and despite the best attempts of his legal team and friends, he went to prison for negligent homicide. Meanwhile, the "Folding Circle" arc unfolded.

Tai & The Dragon's Breath Cult:
-With early hints about Tai being a bit of a dark figure (very early on, the Warriors face the Hellions over "ownership" of Firestar, and Tai trashes many of the Hellions and has some VERY evil smirks going for her), we'd soon learn more, and it's tied into various characters. See, it turns out that Tai is the leader of a Cambodian cult that was part of an ancient ritual to empower their children- Tai cut a deal with a group of soldiers in the Vietnam War to marry and have children with her daughter and other Cult members, thus giving us a group of super-children (these were the members of the Folding Circle). Only one man refused- Night Thrasher's father. As a result, he was eventually killed when he returned to America and got married- THIS was the incident that set Thrash off on his vigilante career- Tai kept a close watch on him. Tai's daughter had rejected her mother, and was herself killed- this was Silhouette & Midnight's Fire's mother. And wrapped up in all of this was Chord, another one of the soldiers- he tried to commit suicide when found out, but recovered.

Tai would, of course, have an even darker purpose- desiring all the power for herself, she used the well to try and kill the Warriors AND the Folding Circle, but ultimately they defeated her, and she was sucked into the well. With Marvel Boy in jail and Tai dead, Night Thrasher was soon spun off into his own book (also written by Nicieza), which frequently put him at odds with his own team, causing a split. Mark Bagley would leave right around then, as he was in charge of the art on the bigger Amazing Spider-Man book... and sales would immediately falter.



New Warriors #26-75:
-The book lasted six years, all in all, going for 75 issues, 53 of which were written by Nicieza himself. Things would kind of be held together after Tai died... but you could see the wheels starting to fall off. Rage's beloved grandmother (his only surviving relative) was killed, creating further angst. Marvel Boy served his time in prison and was reformed in the eyes of the law (in a good story arc), but returned as Justice, with a wedge driven between him and Firestar, because angst. Namorita took over the team while Thrash was away, but repeated mistakes and troubles caused issues, and she was turned into the blue-skinned, angsty Kymaera, because angst. ummm... you might be seeing a pattern.

The roster was kinda same-y for a while, but the teen heroine Turbo was quickly added, in a big that kind of marked the shifting between eras- now a LOT of people started showing up on the squad, and not all of them fit. Goofy comedy character Hindsight Lad joined, as well as Bandit (Thrash's long-lost brother), Dagger (of Cloak & Dagger fame), Alex Power (of Power Pack, having stolen the powers of his siblings), Timeslip, Helix, and more. And of course, people would quit- Namorita & Justice taking sabbaticals, Thrash & Rage quitting after missing a mission in Zaire, and others. Having read some of these issues, it's REALLY OBVIOUS that the wheels were falling off- I think Bagley offered a lot to the book, and Fabian on his own couldn't maintain the stories any longer- the book felt unfettered, the roster too loose, and the villains very lame. The "Folding Circle Arc" was built up for two years, while everything else was done in a couple issues- the fact that he was writing X-Men and X-Force couldn't have helped. But sales fell with time, and kept doing so after he left.

Ultimately, the book stumbled to its end- Thrash, Rage & Namorita rejoined, and Firestar & Justice got engaged, but one of the Turbos was killed, and Power Pack's former ship Friday was destroyed. The book was cancelled, and members Ultra Girl & Slapstick were added in that interim.

Ultimately...:
-The New Warriors remains a high water mark of the '90s- before it got up its own ass with angst, it was different by NOT being up its own ass with angst! And Fabian Nicieza is frequently quoted as saying it's his proudest achievement in comics... but not so much for its quality. He explained that it might not be the most well-WRITTEN exactly (he's his own toughest critic), but it's what the book MEANT to him. It was his first regular series, and there were ZERO expectations at the office for that book to succeed- that it started doing well within its first year was a huge pride moment for him, and it basically made his career- he got the X-Books based off of that. So he effectively got himself a major career boost from writing a book that everyone thought would fail.

The Warriors also have that weird kind of "Alpha Flight" situation, where fans are like "I'm a big fan of the New Warriors!", but what they REALLY mean is "I'm a fan of the initial incarnation of the New Warriors!". Like, I am 90% sure that NW fans never, ever mention Rage in their list of likes, and none of the later incarnations of the team have any fans. Certainly not the Timeslip/Helix/Hindsight Lad era. And their roster had characters that later "grew out" of that book (Justice, Firestar & Nova), and then Justice & Firestar broke up in a silly bit that damaged both characters, so that aspect was wrecked for good.

In all, it's a book that started hot, stayed great for a few years, and then fell off a cliff, right at the '90s peak of the comic book industry, meaning it still has name value. But... as we'll see, every attempt to revive interest has failed- I think that is largely due to the fact that it's a Nicieza/Bagley baby only- that exact roster with those exact creators are all you can possibly do to make the Warriors a success- it's so tied to that team and those two guys that any other attempt to do anything is doomed.



SUBSEQUENT NEW WARRIORS RUNS:
-The Comic Book Crash of the '90s hurt many books badly, and The New Warriors was cancelled in 1996. But Marvel never met an IP it didn't want to reinvent every few years, and so the name was dragged back out there repeatedly.

New Warriors, Vol. 2 (The Faerber Era):
-Three years later, a rookie writer Jay Faerber, a big fan of the original, was given the reins of a new version. Here, Speedball, considered the "heart" of the team (and the one guy who didn't fit onto other books), recreated the team, getting Nova, Namorita & Turbo to rejoin, and adding two new characters- the Legacy Virus-suffering mutant Bolt, and Aegis, empowered by the Goddess Athena. However, this version was an utter failure, and was cancelled after 11 issues- the dorky Nova redesign was an immediate problem, but 1999 was just the wrong time for this kind of a book.




New Warriors, Vol. 3 (The Reality TV Era):
-June 2005 saw a revamp of the Warriors in a 6-issue mini-series written by Zeb Wells- it featured Night Thrasher, Namorita, Nova & Speedball joined by Microbe & Debrii, and featured the somewhat-clever concept of "Superhero Reality TV Show", with cameras following around the crew. Unfortunately, this didn't really mesh well with the team, and made them look very irresponsible. Ultimately, Marvel would use this incarnation for the kick-off to Civil War- chasing down the jacked-up metahuman Nitro, they accidentally set off an explosion that kills 612 children in Stamford, Connecticut, thus creating a massive public backlash against super-powered vigilantes.

Civil War would change Marvel FOREVER (one of few events to really successfully make that claim, in fact), and would put a permanent black eye on the team (though they couldn't have known Nitro was jacked-up, the "Reality TV" angle made them look extra-careless and stupid).

The big changes here were of course the deaths of much of the team, with Night Thrasher & Namorita being done for, and Speedball being so irrevocably-changed that they'd probably ruin him forever by turning him into the ultra-angsty "Penance".



New Warriors, Vol. 4 (The De-Powered Mutants Era):
-Only a couple years after Civil War (and an arc in The Initiative where super-drill-sergeant Gauntlet gets into crap from Slapstick for trashing the New Warriors' name), the Warriors pop back up again... with Thrash's brother Bandit now taking up the "Night Thrasher" identity, and oddly teaming up with a bunch of mutants who'd been de-powered on M-Day, when the Scarlet Witch revoked most mutant abilities on Earth. This was a sorta-clever way to use guys like Beak, Angel and whomever, but the book went nowhere, affected nothing, and was cancelled after 20 issues.




New Warriors, Vol. 5 (The NOW! Era):
-The book took a seven-year-gap, it's longest thus far, when in 2014 the "Marvel NOW!" initiative saw a revamped book- Justice, Speedball & Silhouette would re-start the team using a band of rookie heroes- the new Nova & Scarlet Spider, Hummingbird, Sun Girl, Haechi & Water Snake. As it was a fourth-tier book starring lesser-known heroes and a TON of newbies, it was expectedly a failure- twelve issues in and it was cancelled.

[Ares]

Count me as one of the old-school New Warriors fans. I deeply loved the book for a lot of reasons Jab mentioned. They, along with the New Titans, sort of felt to me what an "average" superhero team should be like. Teams like the Justice League defend the entire planet regularly, teams like the Justice Society and Avengers defend the country regularly while also occasionally saving the world, while groups like the Titans and the Warriors tend to defend their home city while occasionally saving the country or the world. To me, a comic setting would more likely have a ton of teams like the Warriors protecting major cities, while teams like the Avengers would be much more rare, usually only one or two to a nation, and you'd only have one or two Justice League level teams on the entire world.

The team actually works as being fairly diverse in terms of powers, having a variety of abilities while none of the team is strictly "top tier". The team's first fight against Terrax was won due to the ex-Herald being in a weakened state, and when having to fight a fully powered Terrax the team could barely slow him down, requiring the Fantastic Four's help to contain him and the Silver Surfer's help to beat him. However, "power creep" did eventually set in, particularly after Bagely left, which lends credence to the theory that he was involved in more than just the art department. Nicieza seems to work best when he's got a co-writer to help him out, as his solo projects tend to quickly develop either a lot of angst (see this series) or go off on some really weird spiritual/philosophical tangents (see Dr. Fate and the Spectre).

Anyway, while I loved how they expanded on Speedball's abilities and remembered that a core part of Nova's book was his incredible potential, you'd get things like Marvel Boy becoming one of the most powerful telekinetics on Earth, Firestar being compared with Heralds of Galactus in terms of raw power, etc.

Bagley also wasn't responsible for some of the much more '90s' redesigns of the costumes, having left before Firestar was given essentially a female version of Speed Demon's costume (seriously, they're almost identical save for a couple of changes), along with the re-designs Rage, Speedball, Nova and Namorita got.

And Jab's not kidding about the book becoming this whirlpool of angst after a while. It's kind of amazing how much the book mirrors The New Titans, where you get a beloved initial run with a core set of characters, the culmination of a storyline started in the team's first appearance (the Trigon/Raven arc, the Folding Circle), then the book kind of puttering around for a while, devolving into angst, new members and more extreme character designs coming in, until both books just kind of putter out.

To me, the key Warriors are the originals, plus Turbo and Rage. Darkhawk sadly didn't get to do much with the team from what I've read, though he would have been a good fit for the team, and if I was going to revive the book I'd definitely include him. Turbo was an interesting take on a young hero, with two friends sharing a power suit they discovered, while Rage was given a decent home after leaving the Avengers. Rage and Speedball played off each other well, in a very Cyborg and Beast Boy sort of way.

I've also hated what Marvel has done with the New Warriors since the original book ended. So much that I made long rant about it in the Most Petty Thing You'd Do As A Comic Creator thread, detailing how I'd try to fix the team following Civil War. It really does showcase how wrong-headed Marvel was at the time. The guys doing the Reality TV series (which has only really worked over in the Wildguard comic) mentioned how they wanted to give the Warriors their own identity, because the original series was them being involved fighting supervillains, time travel, stuff the Avengers would get up to. Which shows how out of touch they were because that's the stuff people LIKED about the original book! They liked a team of superheroes ACTING LIKE SUPERHEROES and getting up to superhero style adventures. The reason the Reality TV series failed was because A) It didn't get the characters and B) It tried to subvert expectations.

Overall, the Warriors as a concept was a book I really liked, and I look forward to commenting on the write ups.