Alternate timelines, altered worlds, and apocalyptic futures have been ingrained into the nature of superhero comics for some time, popularized in Marvel with the “Uncanny X-Men” story, ‘Days Of Future Past’. Of course, then, it’s only natural that “New Warriors” would dip its toes into the proverbial time/space pond with the story ‘Forever Yesterday’. The dang Sphinx has turned the world into a fascist, mutant-outlawing society for their own personal agenda, and somehow our young Warriors hold the key to putting a stop to it all. Hold onto your horses as we go for a wild ride through the latest installment of our “New Warriors” summer binge.
Written by Fabian Nicieza
Illustrated by Mark Bagley
Inked by Larry Mahlstead
Colored by Andy Yanchus
Lettered by Joe RosenFOREVER YESTERDAY PART 1 The New Warriors hurtled back in time! Or is it the present? The team finds themselves in an alternate future where the fall of ancient Egypt never occurred. Meet Captain Assyria, the new ruler of the Avengers!
We start off with issue #11, dropped into a seemingly post-apocalyptic situation in media res. Bagley is clearly having fun doing his own take on ‘Days Of Future Past’ here, dropping the issue’s title into surrounding building architecture a la Eisner, and giving us some great alternate costumes for our familiar heroes. Vance might be the best here, with his typical white-and-blue deal morphing into a kind of Mad Max by way of Dungeons and Dragons wizard look, complete with a plumbing-pipe staff and hoodie. We soon find out that the mutants of this timeline are persecuted by the ‘appointed peacekeepers’ of this new world, the United States of Assyria. I also want to address the fact that it is somewhat problematic that the ruling power is primarily people of color while the oppressed that we are positioned to support are mutants that are… primarily white and American in ethnicity. Bear in mind this was still the early nineties where proper racial representation in popular media was still developing (as it still is today), yet I feel it’s important to acknowledge this aspect of the story looking back on it in today’s political climate.
Back to the meat and potatoes, the Avengers of this new world order attack our friendly mutants, Vance, Angie and Sam (I’m always down for a bit of Guthrie action in any story), and funnily enough, our very own Richard Rider is on their side, looking appropriately out of place in his unaltered costume. Nicieza does a good job at showing Rich’s doubts for the system he fights for, questioning the fact that these ‘dangerous’ mutants “never go for the kill”. From the shadows, Wolverine shows up, before promptly being incinerated by this universe’s Thor, Horus. It’s a good power move to show the experienced, healing factor-addled fighter getting offed in the first few pages, and a fun throwback again to ‘Days Of Future Past’ where a similar scenario happened. The Warriors escape, and the Avengers reconvene while Rich starts to feel even more like an outsider in the tightly knit group.
Rich shares his new doubts with his family, who enjoy a high-class lifestyle thanks to his superheroic endeavors before they are confronted by a ridiculous being called Sayge, the so-called living embodiment of truth. Sayge’s role in this story seems at this point mostly to conveniently tell Rich why the world is the way it is. We’re told that that current Sphinx is actually an old lover of the original Sphinx from the 616, who carefully planned out this altered status quo with a MacGuffin called the Ka Stone, using a complicated scheme so that the original Sphinx would return her love naturally. With this universe’s history, there are some fun differences like the primarily black superhero community that emerged, one of the fun aspects of these types of stories. Also, in a nice bit of continuity acknowledgment, we’re told Rich is the only one who can defeat the Sphinx as he has previous ties to him way back in his solo series, where they were considered arch-nemeses. There are some spectacular scenes from Bagley, particular the massive shot of an enraged Galactus handling the Sphinx amidst wildly pulsating Kirby Krackle like a child would a broken toy.
Continued belowWhile all this is happening, we see Vance and the gang meet up with the X-Team of this reality, the Mutant Liberation Fron (MLF). Helmed by Magneto who still has his arrogance yet tempered with more sorrow, this is a less a superhero team and more of a sanctuary for mutants on the run from the government, which means Nicieza gets to play with plenty of different takes on classic mutants like Juggernaut. Sam hands over the key to helping the MLF get inside the Sphinx’s base, Maqaman Island, giving the group a spark of hope. Magneto contacts his mole inside the base, this reality’s Reed Richards, who gets caught by the Mr. Fantastic of this universe, Daryl Taylor AKA Night Thrasher’s father! Nicieza is having a ball with this mix and mash of Marvel concepts and its infectiously fun.
The MLF form a strike team, complete with villain Sebastian Shaw in tow, to get into Maqaman Island. Vance manages to disable the underground forcefield that proves fatal to mutant flesh for a moment. In a scene of well-characterized heroism, the Juggernaut pushes everyone through whilst catching the brunt of the forcefield’s reappearance himself, arrogant that he’s fine in a way that feels perfect to his voice. They get in a fight with some guards, with Bagley giving us wild camera angles as Sam rockets out of the panels with his mutant power. Sam, interestingly, is shown as cockier and rogue-ish in this universe, an interesting take on what he would be like had there been no New Mutants. Meanwhile, we see the Sphinx getting noticeably desperate in her rulings, to the point where even cored Avengers members like Iron Man and Cap start to question her ethics and power. It’s good storytelling that makes a potential alignment shift to feel more natural down the line.
A whole bunch of story beats follows here, that work to include most of the other Warriors in the storyline. Magneto meets with the now-King Namor, who rules with his counsel Namorita, and both are blue-skinned traditional Atlanteans in this reality. Bagley draws lovely, ornate undersea architecture, and Nicieza cleverly uses this moment to show the readers that Magneto is desperate to the point of seeking the aid of onlooking superhuman countries like Atlantis. Over in the Taylor Towers, Daryl and Reed are discussing how they can help the MLF before they are all gunned down conveniently by the USA guards, leaving a teenaged Dwayne to stumble upon the scene and become Night Thrasher all over again in this reality. Finally, the MLF squares off against the Avengers, with Nicieza as always pairing heroes up into little sparring matches. There are some great quiet moments in here, as Rich meets up with Vance and Angie as they realize they somehow have an innate connection, which Bagley draws with appropriate desperation and relief. Magneto drops back in with much-needed reinforcements, but the Sphinx has decided to take matters into her own hands and go giant-mode out of her palace and tower over the puny army facing her.
Bagley gets to go wild with details in this final issue, #13, of the storyline, drawing as many dystopian-themed versions of heroes as he can a long-haired mustached Cyclops (it’s as good as you think) and a shirtless, mulleted Havok. The MLF and New Warriors band together in this massive fight against the Sphinx, speculating that even with the Ka stone there must be a limit to her powers, whilst each of our core team gets neat hero moments like Vance causing a telekinetic earthquake. The fight rages one before Sayge comes back for some dang reason. I had actually speculated that because we hadn’t seen Speedball at this point, he was Sayge’s real identity and he was just spouting all this stuff because it sounded cool, but it turns out Sayge is a real deal article and I will forever be disappointed. Disclaimer, Speedball does make an appearance later, but it’s inconsequential and honestly doesn’t contribute anything to the storyline, alas.
Dwayne, now working as a proto-Night Thrasher in this universe, sees all the havoc being wrought around the world through the Sphinx’s television sets, and Bagley does a great moment of emotional awareness here with him. However, he then finds the Sphinx’s one weakness: the old Sphinx’s cat who had been granted immortality. Seriously. Mid-fight, Sphinx realizes her cat is in danger, and retreats to confront Dwayne, while the rest of the MLF and Avengers still have it out because dang it, I could look at these Bagley pages all day with their beautiful fight composition. The Warriors reunite in the Chrysler Building, the true home of the Sphinx. What happens next is pure, blissful ridiculousness. Rich and Dwayne, being the jerk alpha males of the situation, both threaten the Sphinx’s cat. The former even yelling with copious amounts of testosterone: “I’ll break its neck!”. In the end, however, it’s Sayge and his weaponization of the “Burning Light of Truth” that gets the Sphinx to return reality to its original state. Everything is back to normal, and The Sphinx promises to stay cool if she has her cat, however, Sayge denies her even that because it is not a “true” cat. The New Warriors, thanks to Sayge, make a good old bitter foe out of her, as they speculate whether they did the right thing or not.
Ultimately, if you embrace its often-times silliness, ‘Forever Yesterday’ is one of the most fun “New Warriors” storylines to this point. There’s some great character moments, some fun alternate reality concepts, and a lot of great blockbuster Bagley artwork. Next week, it’s nineties business as usual as we see appearances from Darkhawk, the return of Psionex and the original Warriors foe, the Galactus herald Terrax!
