Since their formation in 2014, the trio of Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods, and Big E – known as The New Day – have entertained many wrestling fans with their fun antics and thrilling talent. They’ve racked up many championships as a tag team and as individuals along the way and battled through many ups and downs. From their less-than-impressive debut, to a heel turn that would ironically make them popular with fans, and the KofiMania journey, the New Day remain strong to this day, easily placing themselves into the conversation as one of WWE’s greatest factions.
BOOM Studios’ WWE comics from years past have been praised for getting right what previous attempts at wrestling-based comic book stories have largely missed on – namely properly integrating the world of WWE without going completely off the rails, so to speak.
While the ongoing stories are done, that hasn’t stopped BOOM from releasing a comic all about WWE’s fan-favorite purveyors of positivity. Originally released as a two-issue story, this trade paperback collects both issues and compiles them into one long tale about brotherhood, pancakes, and the importance of being yourself even when others are doubting you.
The writing tag team of Evan Narcisse and Austin Walker, joined by artist Daniel Bayliss and letterer D.C. Hopkins pitched in an excellent effort in creating this story from start to finish.
Power of Positivity traces the origins of the New Day set around the framing device of an important tag team championship match against The Shield (Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, and Dean Ambrose… who’s not prominent here due to his AEW appearances). As their match turns sour, we flashback to where each of the New Day started out: Kofi watching a WWE event as a kid and meeting Faarooq; Xavier finding time for video games and excelling in high school; and Big E standing up to school bullies.
From there, we go through each of their journeys as Kofi works his way up as a wrestler before joining WWE and being assigned to a tag team with Big E, while Xavier tries his hand at figuring out his wrestling character (with the help of a video game character creator, naturally). The three eventually cross paths and the rest, as they say, is history.
What I liked about BOOM’s WWE comics is how they managed to seamlessly integrate actual WWE moments while adding their own spin on things, allowing them to stand on their own without being a complete retread. Here, writers Narcisse and Walker fill in the blanks, so to speak, when it comes to telling us about the birth of New Day and the ups and downs they’ve faced as a unit, particularly when the trio is struggling with WWE officials coming up with their images and new personas.
Narcisse and Walker also nicely nail down the voices of Kofi, Xavier, and Big E, keeping them in step with the real-life versions of these wrestlers. The camaraderie between the New Day trio feels authentic and really helps make them easily rootable protagonists. Complimenting the writing is the art by Bayliss, whose art style really shines here in the larger-than-life world of WWE. Bayliss’ renditions of New Day are full of energy and recognizable and accurate to their counterparts. His depictions of other wrestlers shown here, like The Shield’s Rollins & Reigns, are also well-drawn, and I wouldn’t be against Bayliss being a regular artist should BOOM and WWE decide on restarting their comic stories on a regular basis.
Fans of the team will definitely enjoy what WWE: The New Day – Power of Positivity has to offer in terms of a story detailing their heroes rising to the occasion. Wrestling fans will certainly get a kick out of seeing another great wrestling story play out in a comic book. All in all, another winner from BOOM Studios, one that will certainly leave you shouting “New Day Rocks” after reading it.
