As already mentioned, her similarities to Snowbird are a mild turn-off, but I could see her powers being taken in a new and interesting direction if she could share them. Grant someone else temporarily some animal-abilities, with the appropriate transformation. A mother and child are trapped atop a burning building? She tells them to stay with her and trust their new instincts, as she transforms their arms into wings and she leads them safely to the ground, with their new temporary ability to fly. She becomes not just 'Latin American Snowbird,' but someone with a more unique niche, able to 'buff' allies (or civilians) with various animal abilities (like winged flight, or aquatic abilities, or bat/cat senses) as needed. Tech characters sometimes do something similar, handing out jet-packs or night vision goggles or scuba gear, but she can do all of that, without access to gear. Need to get the miners up that shaft to safety? Bam, they all can climb like spiders, with appropriately freaky terrifying spider-legs-erupt-from-their-backs transformation!
She's got a similar niche not only to Snowbird (only using Central American critters generally, instead of ones native to Canada), but also Reptil, who takes on both the physical characteristics and traits of dinosaurs. It could be interesting to see Silverclaw hang out with one or more Latin heroes. Living Lightning, White Tiger, Hummingbird, Firebird, Sunspot, Shark Girl, Reptil, Spider-Girl, El Toro, etc. There's a ton of them! They could field their own Latin American Champions branch!
Sun Girl was easily my favorite of those 'new' New Warriors! (Although I did like Haechi and Water Snake as well. Hummingbird, as a character, sure, but flight and empathy/telepathy (and fire blasts???) did not feel at all like appropriate powers for someone empowered by Huitzilopochtli!) I liked her ties to Lightmaster, an underappreciated Spider-Man foe, and that her gear isn't really all that similar to her dad's abilities, suggesting that she's striking out on her own and not just being 'Lightmistress, Jr.'
American Eagle earned my undying devotion when he graphically reminded Bullseye that he was only scary to people with no actual super-powers. Wow. A brutal beatdown! And rarely so richly deserved!
And those Initiative folk, yes. So many sort of glossed over that really intrigued me, like Melee, Gauntlet, Armory, Butterball, Gorilla Girl, Red Nine and Telemetry, to spend so much time and focus on characters I was not quite so interested in, like Cloud Nine and Trauma. (Of those who did pull focus, I was a fan of Komodo, Michael van Patrick and Hardball!)