Hummingbird was Kaine Scarlet Spider's sidekick, so when both his solo and New Warriors were cancelled, she was left with nowhere to go. We now know Kaine was even erased at one point, as he was brought back in Slott's current Spider-Man book, just before new character Spider-Boy's introduction. Hummingbird was last seen in a War of the Realms tie-in issue of Champions, in 2019. Sun Girl was also a New Warrior, I think she hasn't appeared at all since it ended in 2014.
Regarding Avengers The Initiative, Reptil had a solo mini a couple of years ago. He was introduced in Initiative before joining Avengers Academy.
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Honestly, I consider Blue Marvel sufficiently unique, but I get why others do not. When Kevin Grevioux replied that Blue Marvel was the answer to "What if Superman was Black?" some of us took that as a loose analogy rather than a declaratory homage. Ultimately, this all boils down to how writers treat him. Ewing didn't write Blue Marvel like he was Superman, nor did Cantwell. Plus, Marvel has a number of major events since Blue Marvel's creation a decade ago where he never even appeared, let alone proved to be a central and/or pivotal figure. That doesn't happen to Superman. He's almost always in the mix. So, it's safe to include BM as a more or less original character in my view.
I know she started out as a supporting character for Kaine but i feel like she's been established enough as a character in her own right that if they're going to mothball Kaine for years at a time she can branch out and do her own thing and make other connections in the Marvel U. She's the type of youngish character with an offbeat quirky personality that Marvel seems to like to push so why not give her something to do other than be a background character???
I consider Reptil more of a core part of Avengers Academy rather than Avengers The Initiative as all he really had in the iniative run was a one shot if i'm remembering correctly. The last meaningful appearances Cloud 9, Trauma, Komdo and Hardball had was the Fear Itself Youth in Revolt mini which was ages ago.
Her ties to mesomerican faiths could put her in the same sort of 'god squad' niche of others like Thor, Snowbird, etc., and it would be fun to see someone both younger and more enthusiastic than the usual suspects, and tied to a less commonly-used faith than the usual suspects of Greco-Roman, Norse and maybe Egyptian.
Plus even just on her own, there's all sorts of space to explore there. A large number of gods from that region seemed to be big fans of human sacrifice, with all the heart-ripping goriness that ensues (Huitzilopochtli, her patron, being one of the few exceptions, IIRC), although it's not clear in the Marvel universe whether or not that's something the gods specifically approved of, or just something particularly bloodthirsty fans of theirs were into... A lot of gods have had their legends wildly distorted over the years (Set being associated with snakes, despite being the dude who fought off Apophis, the serpent that devours the dawn, every day for millenia, and sorta hating snakes!), so it could be interesting to see some Marvelized versions of mesoamerican gods that are quite different than the spotty views we have of them today. In any case, Huitzilopochtli likely had foes, so Hummingbird could find herself facing young foes empowered by his rivals, such as Camazotz (bat powers, summon swarms of bats!) or Hueheotl (fire and time powers?).
Her own abilities might develop a bit as well. There's very little about Huitzilopochtli (a war god also called the 'Left-Handed Hummingbird') which would suggest flight and empathy / telepathy as powers, so it's entirely possible that there's some story behind that as well. (Either that her powers don't come from where she thinks they come from, or that Huitzilopochtli in the Marvel universe is a very different god than sketchy 'real world' knowledge suggests.)
Reptil definitely didn't seem to hang much with the other Initiative kids (of whom I'd love to see Komodo, Hardball, Telemetry, Gorilla Girl, etc. again), and really seemed poised to hop on that 'young hero' niche that used to be Spider-Man's gig, before Nova, etc. moved into it in the 80s. And around that time, it seemed that Gravity was the one getting the push for that niche, instead. Nothing against Gravity, he's got one of my favorite power-sets, but Reptil's got dinosaur powers, so that's like infinity-times cooler to young child-me.I consider Reptil more of a core part of Avengers Academy rather than Avengers The Initiative as all he really had in the iniative run was a one shot if i'm remembering correctly. The last meaningful appearances Cloud 9, Trauma, Komdo and Hardball had was the Fear Itself Youth in Revolt mini which was ages ago.
Last edited by Sutekh; 06-01-2023 at 08:15 PM.
Cloud 9 was last seen in the Outlawed event. She's a member of the Champions Reinforcement Roster (i.e. reservists) and attended a meeting which was raided by CRADLE (and she did have lines, she wasn't just in the background). She laid low for the rest of the run, but I imagine had COVID not happened, causing the book to change writer at the end of issue 5 and be cancelled at issue 10, she might have ended up being a full time team member.
Trauma has appeared in Invincible Iron Man #600 (with other Initiative and Academy characters - Reptil, Striker, and Cloud 9), and in issue 31 of Slott's Fantastic Four (he's Franklin's therapist).
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I believe there's a couple of reasons why a character like Sun Girl wasn't pushed as hard as a Moon Girl or Nadia Van Dyne.
#1 In Nadia's case she's linked to a founding Avenger whereas Selah is the daughter of a not so high profile villain in Lightmaster so they just figured there's a higher chance of her catching on.
#2. I don't know whether people on this board and others do this intentionally or unintentionally but in their rush to heap praise upon Moon Girl they seem to forget or downplay the importance of the big red T. Rex in her success. Marvel seized upon the opportunity to have their version of Clifford the Big Red Dog in elementary schools everywhere via scholastic and i can't fault them for that.
Lastly i think there's a sizeable contingent of fandom that when it comes to intellects in the Marvel U who obsess over whether these characters are explicitly stated or shown to be intellectual peers to Tony Stark, Reed Richards, Black Panther, Dr Doom etc.
There are plenty of other gifted minds in the Marvel U ( Sun Girl, Suzi Endo, Hobie Brown etc) but they're underappreciated by fans unless it's outright stated or shown they're equal to the big brains of the Marvel U.
I hate to say this, but for me, none. None of their new characters have really been interesting enough to want to consistently follow. Really, the last "new" character they came out with that really did capture my interest was Moon Knight.
Keep your hands to yourself, leave other people's things alone, and be kind to one another.
Wasn't Reptyl just Product Placement for the Super Hero Squad Show and game?
Define new. Because past ten years is very different from past twenty years.
Good Marvel characters- Bring Them Back!!!
Yeah, if we're talking *new* new, I've gotta nominate some of the new Arakki like Khora of the Burning Heart or Weaponless Szen. We might never see them again, in a few years, but right now they are pretty cool, and fun.
But they are also characters that don't seem likely to ever leave the X-ghetto, and become relevant to the larger marvel universe, which makes me think they are headed into limbo soon-ish.