Marvel has unveiled the next generation of New Warriors, and not everyone is happy about the latest incarnation of the classic Marvel team. The "New" New Warriors were revealed yesterday to immediate scorn. While Marvel has received backlash for racially diverse and LGBTQA characters from some corners in the past, those progressive steps have earned widespread acclaim and successfully made the Marvel Universe a more inclusive place.
However, the backlash to these New Warriors is a little different. The diverse populations Trailblazer, Screentime, B-Negative, and -- most notably -- the twins Snowflake and Safespace are supposed to represent are reacting negatively.
The New Warriors are generally supposed to be modern heroes for a modern age. Where the original incarnation of the group was a fairly standard superhero team informed by the concerns of the '90s, the team's most notable moment when a New Warriors mission went awry while they were filming a reality show. As a result of that fateful battle with Nitro, over 600 civilians were left dead, and the Marvel Universe was plunged into Civil War, one of Marvel's most memorable crossover events. Where that era of the team commented on reality television, the new New Warriors understandably have ties to Internet culture.
That culture is very much tied into the superhero alter egos of the group. In regards to these name, writer Daniel Kibblesmith explained, "Because we’re doing a story about teenage rebels, a lot of the names are about teens fighting against labels that are put on them."
However, the "New" New Warriors approach internet culture in a way that's too much on the nose. Terms like "safe space" and "snowflake" are often thrown around as insults online, yet here we have two characters who embrace the names ironically. This isn't uncommon -- slurs and insults are reclaimed by minorities frequently -- but it seems aggressively forced here.
Even beyond those two examples, the same too-on-the-nose trend holds true for the rest of the team as well. For instance, B-Negative is the superhero name of a vampire, and it's an unsubtle reference to both a rare blood type and to life-draining and exhausting negativity on the internet.
But in regards to trying too hard to relate to the modern generation, there's Screentime. Even ignoring the name -- which, again, is another unsubtle internet reference -- he gained his powers by being exposed to his grandfather's "experimental Internet gas," an objectively silly concept that seems at odds with the serious work of reclaiming words.
The risk when writing a diverse cast of characters is that, unless you either belong to that diverse group or discuss your idea with members of that group, it's easy to inadvertently might create characters that draw from harmful stereotypes or problematic misconceptions. While someone outside that demographic might not notice, individuals inside that demographic certainly will.
While creating a racially diverse cast of characters of differing body types and sexual/gender orientations is an admirable task, it's one that must be approached with the appropriate about of tact. However, several of these new New Warriors come off as deeply problematic to many fans.
One of these characters, Trailblazer, appears to be either Latina or Native American. Her superpower, essentially, is she has a backpack that is infinitely deep. If Trailblazer is Latina, then her being a girl with an endless backpack draws immediate comparison to Dora the Explorer. If she's Native American, then the name Trailblazer might draw an uncomfortable comparison to the infamous Trail of Tears, where countless indigenous peoples were displaced from their homes. While both of these draw problematic implications, Trailblazer isn't the character that set the internet ablaze.
The most controversial new New Warriors are Safespace and Snowflake, who drew so much ire for elements that came off as problematic and offensive to many that they even that they trended on Twitter. Others in the comics industry, such as nonbinary comic writer Kate Leth, criticized the two as offensive stereotypes that feel like parodies meant to mock nonbinary people.
While Marvel has had gender-fluid characters like Loki for years, Snowflake is the first Marvel hero who's been explicitly billed as being nonbinary. However, the name Snowflake seems exceedingly ill-advised here. While the intention may be to reclaim an insult, the effort comes across as an overly-patronizing attempt to reclaim something that some have no interest in reclaiming.
But on top of that, Snowflake exists as a binary character with their twin, Safespace. Both of these heroes wear almost identical uniforms and have naming schemes that exist as "reclaiming" insults that are frequently used against LGBTQA people. In the preview art available, the two are coded as a binary pair, which adds another layer of problematic text to their characters. They even hold each other in a way that looks way too affectionate for siblings, which left some even more aggravated.
Altogether, these new New Warriors are defined by questionable creative choices that take them into potentially problematic territory. While there's still a chance that this team could star in any number of fascinating stories, these choices have apparently alienated people both inside and outside of the people in the demographic it represents.