Questionable Questing

That's a good question. I know in canon they started out as an all family team called the Brockton Brigade and they eventually started the New Wave as hopefully a more honest and transparent group to rival the PRT.

I'm guessing during Maquis reign over the city, considering the Teeth invaded and the Empire was being run by Kaiser's much more bloody thirsty and cruel father and sister, not to mentioned the Slaughterhouse Nine visit, the PRT was willing to work with Marquis and kind of looked the other way to focus on what they considered more dangerous threats.

And New Wave got fucked up by him

Which obviously rubbed Carol the wrong way since her trigger event was trusting some smooth speaking criminals not to kill her and her sister during a hostage situation. But also I think Maquis was a pretty genuine threat. If he had been allowed to entrench himself he would be running the city by the time canon rolls around.

But back to New Wave, in the in-between years before Fleur was killed and Marquis was taken down. They genuinely believed that the PRT was corrupt and willing to work with criminals at times to get what they wanted, and were trying very hard to resist them.

And how this history affect Alex?

Which keep in mind how young the PRT was at that point, they still hadn't been fully formed and entrenched and with a little luck some rival organizations could've popped up to oppose them. I'm guessing Contessa was very busy those couple of years, and of course the full backing of the US government is a powerful tool no non profit could've beat.

Carol thinks New Wave could grow to be better then the PRT and uses Alex to take over the city

But the legacy of that failed experiment and the overall failed legacy, with any non family member New Wave members quickly cutting contact and changing their names after Fleur, I guess the biggest thing other than the shared grief off all the adults, is bitterness. Alex is bitter that his family that used to be powerful and active have just allowed themselves to rot away into mediocrity.

He's bitter that despite how amazing and special they are, they've all just seemed to have given up. And he hates the idea of seeing Vicky or Amy going down the same path or the idea of losing them.

Not praises enough. Not useful enough. Not strong enough.

He feels useless and powerless to change anything or help his family despite how much their hurting which is the center of his trigger event.

And from there what does he do for New Wave? Was in tub

I was thinking he starts off like Vicky has, kicking the teeth in of a couple of random gangbangers and skinheads, building a bit of a reputation and acting like a traditional hero. But he notices it doesn't really change anything. He isn't hurting the gangs in any real way or even affecting them. Low level thugs stupid enough to get caught are a dime a dozen after all.

So he wants to do more. He wants to start investigating, find the stash houses, their money laundering operations, start making direct attacks against their parahuman,s In other words he's ambitious and wants to change the world and that directly conflicts with what the older generation of New Wave wants.

He needs more control over the streets

Offering the gangs bimbo mom and sisters or stud brothers to fuck?

He needs more control over his life. lol. This is really just an extension of that and how powerless he feels to fix his family.

Wants money and people to stop breaking the city

And wants his family happy, healthy, and most importantly on top like he feels they deserve. Alex's is not like Vicky, who fights because doing nothing is ripping apart her family, and Amy, who's desperate for love and approval despite how much she hates herself, Alex is ambitious and fights because he wants more.