New Warriors Annual #4

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A young child out in the field finds the golden mask of Asylum in a park. Taking it home, his sister Dorrel takes it from him. However, Dorrel does not enjoy the golden beauty of the mask for long, before Joachim takes it. Joachim takes the mask and begins a robbery rampage. However, in the midst of the robbery, darkness pours out from the mask, seizing control of him.

Spiraling into the air, his body is completely consumed, and Darkling is reborn. Realizing that he can’t let New York City decide for itself, he says that he has to force people to see the light. And the only way to do that would be to change his name! But first, he realizes he must rescue his former teammates, Psionex.

The scene shifts to Genetech, where Mathemanic uses his “Arithmetic” telepathy as a part of the tests of Genetech. Darkling appears and offers Mathemanic a chance at freedom, and a chance to help him, help the world.

The scene shifts to a strip club, where Heidi P. Franklin, better known to most as Pretty Persuasion does her dance that she’s been doing for far too long. When her “manager” comes into the room yelling at her about her performance; she turns on him. Before she can do too much damage, Darkling appears and tells her that they’re about to become heroes, rather than villains and that they’re going to set things right.

In another Genetech office, the containment cell that holds James Sharp; better known as Coronary explodes. Threatening to kill Mr. Rosen if they don’t discover a cure for his condition; his body radically deformed since the battle with Terrax. However, before Coronary can do any damage, Darkling appears and tells him that they’re going to make things right in the world.

Mr. Rosen watches the new Psionex leave, and then dials the phone; calling a number he rarely ever calls, but knows, this time it would be for the best.

Piecing together what Darkling was doing, Night Thrasher and Rage show up at the home of Dwight Hubbard, better known as the Psionex member Impulse. When they kick down his door, he is still in a wheelchair. Night Thrasher tells him that the rest of Psionex is going to come knocking on his door, and if he wants to do what’s right, he will contact the New Warriors when they come. However, when Darkling arrives, he tells Dwight to stand, revealing the fact that he knew Dwight had recovered from his back injury that he had sustained in the battle against Terrax. Dwight dons on the Impulse outfit and joins the newly reformed Psionex.

Psionex begins appearing all over the news from fighting gangs to stopping shipments of cocaine to be delivered to local schools in New York City. Psionex appears to stop another gang, where the New Warriors appear as well. In typical fashion, an immediate fight breaks out where Night Thrasher commands Turbo to take out Mathemanic. However, the fight quickly comes to a conclusion. Psionex informs the New Warriors that they will be doing what the New Warriors originally set out to do; to fight the fight on the streets, where the people were; not fight big cosmic fights like Terrax and the like. And with that Psionex departs.

Note: Darkling changes his name to “Asylum” in this issue. Not to be confused with the first Asylum who wore the mask found at the beginning of this annual.

Sub Stories Include: An issue where once again, Speedball finds himself at the end of the brute’s antics at school. Tired of dealing with it, he decides he will take care of it sometime after school – but not as Robbie, but as Speedball. So he heads to the brute’s home, and discovers why he does what he does. Realizing his anger is misplaced because his father beats him. Speedball realized when he was angry, he had the New Warriors to turn to, but when Chuck is hurt and angry; he has no one to turn to; a victim of child abuse, apparently being blamed for his mother’s death in his father’s eyes.

Another sub story, and perhaps one of the most powerful ones, centers on Firestar. When Firestar goes with her friend Jupiter to a party. Jupiter meets up with a guy at the party and leaves Angelica to sit on the couch. When hours pass, and Jupiter comes out of the room, tears stream from her eyes, her blouse ripped. Firestar learns that her best friend had just been raped by the boy she had gone off with at the party; Jupiter’s virginity destroyed by rape. Firestar takes to the skies afterwards and finds the boy driving his car. Using her power, she melts the tire, forcing the car to come to a stop. When Firestar confronts him, he lies and says that she was “into it” at the time. Firestar strikes him, calling him a liar, and begins powering up, saying, “Perhaps now you know what it feels like to be helpless, held down, shivering in fear, unable to move.” She then lets off a blast aimed directly at his groin.

However, as Firestar tells Nova about it, she explained that last minute, she knew she couldn’t be the one to deliver justice, to be the one to do what she wanted. She held onto Nova, crying that for all the incredible powers she has, that she was completely powerless to help her best friend; powerless to take away the memories that will haunt Jupiter for the rest of her life.