Originally Posted by
Hybrid
Something that I was wondering just now...
Back in the '90s, how did New Warriors get to be considered a "Spider-Man franchise" by Marvel?
Looking at the original roster, you had Marvel Boy (General MU), Firestar (X-Men*), Namorita (Submariner), Nova (Cosmic), Night Thrasher (original), with Speedball only originating in a Spider-Man title, and furthermore were created by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz for their Thor run before spinning out in their own book. They were created to be a junior counterpart to the Avengers, like the New Mutants were to the X-Men.
I know they had Scarlet Spider join the team, but that was only to justify calling them a Spider-Man franchise. This was when Marvel split up internally and was categorized by Spider-Man, X-Men, General MU and Mature with different editors, making the normally synergized world a lot less so. It seems weird, like fitting a square peg in a round hole sort of way, because no one really associates the NW with Spider-Man much apart from guest appearances. They're more of a General MU team drawing from all corners than a Spider-Man franchise.
Any word on why this happened?
*Firestar was created in the Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends animated series, but was imported into the MU as an X-Men character and mutant, debuting as part of the Hellions and her earliest appearances were very much tied to the X-Men side of the universe. I believe Chris Claremont didn't want anything to do with her because he didn't care to use a character from the show over his own stuff.