Writer: Steve Foxe
Artist: Ivan Fiorelli & Ig Guara
Colorist: Arthur Hesli
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Cover Artists: Gleb Melnikov & Edgar Delgado; Federico Vicentini & Matt Milla; Luciano Vecchio; Rose Besch; Stanley “Artgerm” Lau; Peach Momoko; Paco Medina & Jesus Aburtov; Nicoletta Baldari
Graphic Designer: Kat Walkington
Editors: MR Daniel, Kaitlyn Lindtvedt, Alanna Smith & CB Cebulski
Publisher: Marvel
Price: $4.99
Release Date: January 8, 2025
Hydra captured them. Kondrati Topolov, aka Gremlin, brainwashed them (and made their families forget them). The young heroes worked for Echidna and followed Titan's commands until screamy Angar unlocked memories of Hydra’s conditioning. Nick Fury helped them reunite with their families (well, most of them). But who are the newest superheroes protecting San Francisco? Let’s hitch a ride on Max Zorin’s blimp, leap into New Champions #1, and find out!
Story
The Brothers Grimm collected folktales about extraordinary children. But when the New Champions interrupt their hovering heist, the skull-faced villains who took their name feel embarrassed to be captured by children. Liberty is ecstatic at her friends’ teamwork. Cadet Marvel objects to such parental praise in public, and Moon Squire reminds her that his parents expect him home at dinnertime. But the young heroes are tired of taking the bus for their superhero patrols, so Hellrune teleports them home.
Echidna's marketing team crafted an origin story for their new corporate superhero team. Some of it was false. But while Nick Fury reunited Moon Squire, Liberty, and Cadet Marvel with their parents, Echidna’s story about Hellrune living in an orphanage seems based on fact. Hellrune should be traumatized by her Hydra experiences. Yet what bothers her more in New Champions #1 is the magic she wields.
Are we products of our biology or our environment? Superheroes are no different from the rest of us. In Steve Foxe's story, Cadet Marvel, Liberty, and Moon Squire benefit from their parents and sibling's influence. But Hellrune has nothing to call her own except her magic. Unlike Jaren, Miranda, and Emilio, "Runie" doesn't even know her given name. So, while living with her foster parents, Hellrune uses magic to find her biological parents. She needs to learn what makes her tick and why her family abandoned her.
Art
While Moon Squire enlivens in white cloth and a black mask, Cadet Marvel rocks with a yellow lightning bolt emblem and yellow goggles. Clad in Captain America attire, Liberty flies with her Wasp-like, hard-light wings. Hellrune displays Iron Age fantasy adventurer appeal with her greaves, rondels, and fur cape. But her unique lantern-like spear separates her from the rest of humanity.
Magic flows from Hellrune’s spear in bands of rainbow light. While Arthur Hesli lavishes a loaded palette of vivid colors on Ivan Fiorelli and Ig Guara’s art in New Champions #1, intense blue-white light unifies our heroes. Hellrune wields this from her spear and conjures glowing symbols and runes. The same intense energy surrounds her when she teleports.
Liberty gathers her friends Moon Squire and Cadet Marvel with a blue light vehicle, while newcomer Fantasma crackles with blue-white energy as she roller-skates into their lives. Perhaps most intriguing are Hellrune’s blue-white ravens. Do her scouts foretell destruction, as they did for Spider-Gwen on Earth-65?
Travis Lanham conjures uppercase black letters into white dialogue balloons. The letters grow bold for inflection, swell for volume, and shrink for lowered voices. White letters in red narrative boxes introduce readers to our heroes, while black letters in colored boxes reveal texting. The cawing of ravens accompanies the cracking and booming of Hellrune’s magic, while a giant crashing toward the friends brings along another young hero in New Champions #1. Thanks to Marvel for providing a copy for review.
Final Thoughts
After her friends hit the jackpot with loving families, Hellrune grows desperate. She risks using magic she doesn't understand in a quest for her biological family. But when her hoped-for reunion becomes mayhem in the marsh, the first people Hellrune calls are her found family. New Champions #1 is a quest for identity and a reminder that learning the truth about our past may not always be pleasant.
Rating 9.5/10
To look inside see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.
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