“Not My Generation”

I’m going to back track a bit here and note the entire lineup of ‘The New Warriors’ basically takes major generational tropes and hits people over the head with them. Let’s recap here:

“Screentime” = a superhero addressing the idea that the new generation is spending too much time online

“Snowflake & Safespace” = two superheroes addressing the idea that the new generation is overly sensitive / requires defending (as opposed to the old generation who, what, grew tough skin and stayed on the offense all the time?)

“B-Negative” = a superhero addressing the fact that 90′s children are trying to impose their generational pop culture references (some of which are actually from 80′s children) on future generations, as if the new generation doesn’t have valid pop culture references of its own

“Trailblazer” - a fat superhero, because 50% of America’s population is obese but only maybe 2% of our superheroes are; yet we’ll give her the weight-based power of hoarding infinite amounts of random crap because that’s also something most Americans do

I haven’t read the comics yet to be honest, but just reading the summary of the characters I’m not sure how these weren’t set up to fail. I could see them as a joke/farce comic commenting on societal views, but instead they’re pitched as serious supers. That’s probably Marvel’s issue. If people see them capitalizing on issues that drum up free publicity, rather than writing quality content that addresses the said issues above, they’re not gonna make it.

Here’s my example of adding diversity / addressing societal issues the right way: Valiant comic’s Faith from Harbingers. Honestly speaking she takes all the above and makes it work: She’s fat but her superpower is flight - not the power you’d associate with someone fat at all, just a random, regular ole’ super mutation. She’s a huge fangirl/nerd spouting pop culture references all the time, but that’s not her entire superhero identity it’s a charming personality quirk that makes her relatable. She can create “companion fields” around others, but it’s not a gimmick it’s simply another useful superpower. She’s also an online website reporter and uses a phone like any other normal, hot-thumbed young adult, but we don’t have to dwell on this we just incorporate it into our comic like normal people. The fact that her name is “Faith” sorta says it all - she gives hope to younger generations who fit her tropes by showing she has more to offer than just being a trope.