2022 in Review

With our much-delayed last update, all known comic book appearances of New Warriors released with cover dates in 2022 have been added to the site. So that can only mean it’s time for another Year in Review retrospective.

2022 mostly saw Marvel return to pre-pandemic levels of production. However, the comic book industry as a whole saw sluggish sales that may have impacted how the year’s planned releases actually rolled out.

There were 95 comic book stories containing at least 1 panel of at least 1 New Warrior set in Marvel’s main 616 comic book universe. That is an increase from 2021, which saw 87 New Warriors appearances. That’s not quite back to pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, the New Warriors had 97 appearances, and averaged almost 107 appearances from 2016 to 2019. The outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 created an outlier year with only 49 appearances, as all comic book production paused for about 2 months and then returned with a diminished release schedule.

2022 marked the 50th anniversary of the very first canon New Warriors appearance. In 1972, Namorita debuted in Sub-Mariner #50 by Bill Everett, 17 years before she would be placed on a new team called the New Warriors in Thor #411-412 by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz. Since then, about 40 characters have been added to at least one iteration of a team using the New Warriors name. In total, 2,725 comic book stories containing at least 1 New Warrior have been released across those 50 years. That’s not counting alternate reality tales and other appearances we typically don’t count as in-universe character appearances.

In 2022, Ben Reilly had the most comic book appearances set in Earth-616 among the New Warriors. Thanks to his return to starring in Amazing Spider-Man, which was published three times a month for much of the year, plus starring in his own retro miniseries Ben Reilly: Spider-Man, and various guest appearances during the Beyond era of Spider-Man, he appeared 29 times. It’s the most appearances a single New Warrior has made in a single year since Jubilee’s 30 appearances in 2019. Speaking of Jubilee, Ben Reilly topping the list breaks Jubilee’s 3-year streak she held from 2019 to 2021. This is Ben’s fourth time topping the Most Appearances list. Ben Reilly last topped the list during the Clone Saga; he had a staggering 83 appearances in 1996 and 70 appearances in 1995. He first topped the list in 1975 when he had a three-way tie with Namorita and Vance Astrovik; all three had a meager 2 appearances each.

In second place for most appearances in 2022 was Firestar thanks to her getting voted onto the X-Men in the one-shot, X-Men: Hellfire Gala #1. She began appearing in X-Men vol. 6 just as the A.X.E.: Judgment Day event began. She also had several appearances in mutant-related Infinity Comics on Marvel Unlimited. In total she appeared 15 times.

Close behind was Jubilee in third place with 13 appearances. Her drop from top place was likely due to the end of Excalibur vol. 4, although she did have appearances in that title’s continuation, Knights of X. She also co-starred in the X-Terminators miniseries that began in 2022.

Here are the top 10 New Warriors with the most appearances in 2022:

1. Ben Reilly – 29 appearances
2. Firestar – 15 appearances
3. Jubilee – 13 appearances
4. Nova (Sam Alexander) – 11 appearances
5. Nova (Richard Rider) / Chamber (tie) – 9 appearances
7. Dagger – 6 appearances
8. Justice / Beak / Angel – 3 appearances

Comics included in the totals for the year 2022 are based on cover dates, which are typically about 3 months ahead of actual release dates for print comics. Any comic books with a cover date from January to December 2022 are included regardless of where it was ultimately placed in our recommended reading lists and chronological order. Cover appearances and appearances set in alternate realities were not included.