It’s official! After a full year of rumors, Squirrel Girl will lead a new television series at Freeform in 2018. But she won’t be alone. The show is actually called New Warriors, suggesting that she’ll have a whole team of heroes on her side. So who’s going to join the ranks? Freeform won’t say yet, so you know what that means: time to speculate wildly!
While getting Doreen Green her television debut is obviously the main goal here, the use of the New Warriors is an interesting choice for Freeform, as they’ve never really been a huge name in Marvel Comics. When they were first created in 1989, they were meant to be a junior counterpart to the Avengers, sort of like how the Justice League has the Teen Titans. But other young Marvel groups like the Runaways, the New Mutants, and the Young Avengers ended up gaining much more popularity in the long run. These days, the best thing the New Warriors are known for is accidentally exploding (along with a few hundred civilians) while filming a reality television show, which became the catalyst for the events of the Marvel Civil War storyline.Since this 10-episode series will be a comedy, it’s safe to say that no one will be exploding to death anytime soon. And while they might be New Warriors in name, it’s entirely possible that Freeform and showrunner Kevin Biegel might chose to bring in some characters from outside the pantheon of established team members. After all, Squirrel Girl herself was never part of the New Warriors, so at this point it’s anyone’s game, right?
Here are some of the teenage and young adult characters, New Warriors and beyond, who we’d love to see play around with Squirrel Girl next year:
Night Thrasher
Night Thrasher, a.k.a. Dwayne Taylor, is the founder of the New Warriors, and basically their Batman. He has no superpowers to speak of, but he has a strong sense of vengeance brought on by watching his parents get murdered, a foundation within which he serves as CEO, a super cool scar across his face, and a skateboard (which Batman doesn’t have, so take that, Bruce!). He’d most likely be the serious straight man if he were brought in to the show, but every comedy needs one of those to bounce off of, right?
Marvel Boy
Technically, for most of the New Warriors, he’s gone by “Justice.” But let’s face it–Marvel Boy is a funnier name and we are casting for a sitcom. Vance Astrovik is a kid with mutant (that’ll get changed) telekinetic powers who was visited by his future self and told not to follow the same path in life, so now instead of being an astronaut and the leader of the original Guardians of the Galaxy, he’s a… circus performer. Sometimes. At any rate, there’s definitely a lot of comedy you could mine from the stress of being told not to achieve your highest potential by your own time-traveling future self.
Speedball
You know how every once in awhile, the writers of Marvel comics pick a superpower that looks really cool on the page but doesn’t make any sense? (See: Jubilee, Dazzler, pretty much anyone with any kind of “light” abilities.) Robbie Baldwin’s got that. After a lab accident as a teen, he developed the ability to become invulnerable at a certain impact speed, and also manifests these weird light bubbles around him. So, basically, he has bouncy ball powers. There’s also no way he’s not going to be on this show, because Squirrel Girl once had such a huge crush on him that she traveled through time in an attempt force him out of a grimdark redesign. That’s love right there.
Firestar
Firestar was created to be Spider-Man’s buddy in the ‘80s animated series Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, but then Marvel liked her so they threw her into an X-Men comic, which means its possible that 20th Century Fox might already have dibs. She has mutant (again, gonna change that, probably) microwave energy powers, and dated Marvel Boy for a while during her time on New Warriors before she got promoted to Avengers. Also, she’s got a surprisingly cool costume design that I, for one, would love to see on television. You know. Again.
Hummingbird
This is how Hummingbird described herself when she recently started appearing in the comics: “You can call me Aracely! I don’t know who I am or how I got my powers but I was attacked by a fire salamander and Mexican werewolves, who work for The Coyote, who speaks to me in my dreams!“ Yup, sold. You had me at “Mexican werewolves.”
Okay, that’s it for some possible New Mutants characters — let’s get into some other ones!
Chipmunk Hunk and Koi Boy
Technically, both of these guys are friends of Squirrel Girl in her solo-led comic and have never been on any other superhero team, but they’re also the absolute best and I love them and so should you. Chipmunk Hunk would be especially great because he’s basically introduced as the Tuxedo Mask to Doreen’s Sailor Moon, but I’d be very sad if they left him in and kept Koi Boy on the sidelines. Yes, fish powers are not particularly useful in an urban setting, but he’s just trying to help, guys!
Butterball
Okay, yes, Emery Schuab’s superhero moniker is… maybe a little insensitive (maybe they could give him the name “Boulder” instead, because that’s what he wanted in the first place). He’s literally indestructible to all mental and physical attacks, but because of that his muscles can’t develop further and he remains out of shape, which in my opinion would make him a very interesting character to follow if written the right way. He’s not the smartest or the fastest or the strongest, but he’s got a heart of gold, and that’s totally what counts.
Wiccan and Hulkling
Wiccan is a mutant who also happens to be the long lost son of Scarlet Witch. Hulkling is an alien shapeshifter who looks like a Gargoyle Hulk. There would be a lot of barriers to entry here, as the show would probably have to change a lot about the two characters to make them fit MCU canon, and they are a package deal because they’re in love. But it would mean so, so much to fans of the Young Avengers (and especially LGBT ones) to see them in live-action, considering they’re Marvel’s highest-profile gay couple in the comics.
Kate Bishop
Let’s face it, we’re never going to get the Hawkeye team-up we truly crave from the Marvel cinematic universe. But who needs one? Kate Bishop and Clint Barton have an awesome mentee-mentor dynamic, sure, but as we’ve learned in the recent Hawkeye comic, she’s just as badass and hilarious on her own. And yes, as capable as she is as a private investigator, it would be so satisfying to mine the whole “Your superpower is arrows?” thing for meta-jokes.
America Chavez
If there’s one single character who could successfully steal the spotlight away from Squirrel Girl, it’s America Chavez. A Latin-American queer teen with super strength who was raised in a utopian dimension outside of reality, America is an amazing unstoppable force of awesome. And while she absolutely deserves her own series (a spin-off, perhaps?), it would be cool to see her throw down with Squirrel Girl and the rest of the misfits who will no doubt make up the final team.
Of course, these are all just suggestions and we’re leaving out a lot of really awesome young heroes. Who else do you think would be a good for the New Warriors? Let us know in the comments!
Images: Marvel Comics
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