New Men (Image Comics)
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New Men was one of the many titles co-created by Rob Liefeld and released as part of his Extreme Studios imprint of Image Comics like many of Liefeld's creations for this and his Maximum Comics line the New Men bore striking similarities to characters from mainstream comic companies, in this case New Men was very similar to Marvel Comics' X-Men franchise. New Men received similar reviews to the rest of Extreme Studios books, with complains about quality of art, story and dialogue, however it achieved much higher critical acclaim following a re-design and revamp by writer Eric Stephenson and the addition the noted art team Chris Sprouce and Al Gordon.
[edit] Publication History
The New Men debuted during the Extreme Predujice imprite wide crossover, following the end of the crossover story, they were given their an eponemous 5-issue mini-series this was a commonly used technique within Image, not just by Liefeld's Extreme Studios, who did use the technique a great deal, but by most of the co-founders and their imprints, many notable and top selling Image titles including The Savage Dragon, Cyberforce and Gen13 started in this manor, the 1994 mini-series was written by Eric Stephenson with art by character desginer Jeff Matsuda, Matsuda, Stephenson and Liefeld were also credited as 'co-plotters'. New Men was then granted an ongoing series, Matsuda did not take up the art duties and most of the first 20 issues were pencilled by Todd Nauck, both mini-series and ongoing series kept a much better schedule than a number of Extreme Comics titles, notably the imprint's 'premiere' title Youngblood, this could be attributed to the minimal role that Rob Liefeld played in the production of the series. Like all of the Extreme titles, a number of issues were taken up by the varoious imprint-wide crossover storylines, such as 'Extreme Sacrifice' and 'Babewatch', and the characters, though not the series, were an integral part of the Extreme Destroyer crossover. The series was put on hiatus with issue 20 for the Extreme Destroyer story and was instead replaced by a 4 issue mini-series 'New Force' which starred the characters and began their revamp, Nauck and Stephenston were again responsible for this. The series resumed after this mini-series via Liefeld's Maximum Comics and received a major revamp, both in plot and style, by Stephenson, and Sprouce and Gordon, Sprouce and Gordon were a known and well respected artist and inker having worked for DC Comics and would later go on work with Alan Moore, up until then reviews and reaction had been mostly lukewarm as with much of Liefeld's line, but this revamp improved it somewhat, with issue 22 the series was renamed 'Adventures Of the New Men' but despite it's better reaction the title fizzled out, possibly due to the problems Liefeld was having with Image Comics and the subsequent problems following his expulsion. The Title was not one of the books revived by Awesome Comics and seems to have been lost to obscurity, with a number of other Extreme characters and titles.
[edit] History
The New Men were 'Nu-Gene' positive teenagers who had banded together supposedly for their own protection under the guidance of a middle aged mentor (which fans will instantly recognize as the crux of Marvel's X-Men), 'Nu-Genes' were Extreme Comics' universe's equivalent of Marvel's Mutants, and were also the universe's explanation for mythical beasts such as Fairies, Centaurs, Vampires and Werewolves initially thought to be a generic 'default' like the Mutant Gene, it was later revealed to have been the result of genetic tampering by a race of aliens (The Keep) as a way to sort the weak, and increase the strong, and their mentor was also later revealed to have been a worshipper of this alien race, keeping the Nu-Genes for their eventual return to harvest them.
Initially the group was five teens; a telepath/telekinetic Reign, who initially used a gem but later found it had mind controlling properties,a serious and angry man Byrd who began with small wings that protruded from his arms, but later evolved further growing feathers, talons and other bird-like features, a blonde speedster Dash who was the teams initial 'T&A' and was involved in romantic relations with Byrd and Reign, Exit who could teleport via entering another dimension (very similar to Nightcrawler) he was later replaced by a being from this dimension Charade a strange being with much less personality, and Kodiak, the youngest member (who was apparently Native American)who could turn into a giant man-beast, Kodiak later lost both the ability to change and his right mind and became totally animalistic, and their mentor and leader John Proctor, who was strikingly similar to The Chief (who likewise was somewhat untrustworthy).
During the course of their ongoing series two old members, Dusk and Narcisse, who was a vampire, were introduced, and the team gained two new members, Pilot who was almost identicle to the X-Men's Bishop, a time traveller come back from the future to warn the New Men of the coming of The Keep and the truth about the Nu-Gene and Bootleg, a student who could copy other's powers and use them. Another member was a young Austrailian man named Pastime, who was a chronokinetic. Although he only remained with the New Men for a short time, he still formed close ties with the group. When not tying into the imprint-wide crossovers, much of the first 20 issues had very generic stories for the time with fights against various re-occurring enemies and secret organisations, most of which tied into their being 'Nu-Gene Postive' (i.e. 'The Brotherhood of Man') though there was often combat with Khyber, an old ally/acquaintance/enemy of theirs who had become a Deathstroke The Terminator type character. Of note, Dash experienced an accelerated pregnancy with Riegn's child, a child that also suffered from accelerated growth and development, becoming an adult with a very short space of time, Exit was replaced by Charade and the crossed over with Team Youngblood in the 'New Blood' story-arc the team also encountered The New Man (who was also granted his own short-running ongoing series), a time traveller similar to X-Man who may have been Dash's child.
When the Keep eventually returned during the Extreme Destroyer crossover, Proctor was revealed and Reign killed him with a psychic blast in a rage, the New Men were one of many characters, including Youngblood's Shaft (who thought himself human) and Glory who were captured by the Keep, and Dash was branded by them, after this the team experienced a personal crisis and backlash to the event (against Nu-Genes) as New Force, including the destruction of their home, Proctor's house, and the loss of Dust and Narcisse, they also gained their final new member Sundance, a Frankie Raye like character who was the herald of The Shepard, who lead the Keep's return.
Following their revamp the team tried to live normal lives, but this, of course, did not last, and they encountered a shadowy organisation who sent a Chris Sprouce designed character Bette Nior to kill them.
