New Warriors #5 does a decent job of holding the fort and setting up future plot points. Beyond that, though, it struggles to make an impact. Who are the Warriors now? the opening page of the title continues to ask. Well, we aren't yet sure. We're beginning to find out, of course " but the creative team might need to take a bit more care that readers don't get bored of waiting for the answer.

Hummingbird's backstory gets more hinted at, too, setting up the next issues for even more character development. Personally, I love character-driven plots, so I'm more than excited. Mark seems set up to be the real star of the ongoing show, though " I'm just hoping that doesn't necessitate the fridging that the last pages of issue #6 seem to imply"

So while there's little doubt that the New Warriors will eventually come together against the threat to non-humankind, it could still take them a while. Which is fair. The best kind of team is the one that ends up being like a dysfunctional little family, anyway, isn't it?

There's a lot going on, both in terms of character and plot, especially taking into consideration threads that aren't mentioned this issue but still weren't resolved in the previous arc. It's enjoyable to read something so busy, but it means readers are kept on tenterhooks about multiple things, sometimes for several issues at a time. What it also means, though, is that New Warriors is definitely a team play. No one character is taking centre stage, even supposed leader Vance. And that's refreshing. I can only hope New Warriors avoids cancellation long enough to tell all the stories it's trying to tell. Right now, it feels like that's the least this book deserves.