1996 energy returns to Marvel as Blade makes like Toni Braxton, attempting to unbreak the heart of the world in Heroes Reborn #1. Written by Jason Aaron, penciled by Ed McGuinness, inked by Mark Morales, colored by Matthew Wilson, and lettered by Cory Petit, Heroes Reborn #1 finds Blade adrift in a world just a step outside of the norm. The Avengers never existed, replaced by the Squadron Supreme of America who stand against remixed versions of classic Marvel baddies. Who is behind this new world and why? That’s what Blade intends to find out. Even if it costs him his Daywalkin’ hide…
Jason Aaron gets to live his DC dreams in the set up heavy, but intriguing Heroes Reborn #1. Spinning out of the pages of Aaron’s still ongoing Avengers “epic”, this new miniseries crossover finds cult-favorite Blade wandering a world he barely recognizes. Iconic peoples and places of the mainline Marvel Universe have been either inverted, flipped around, or cast away entirely. But this world isn’t without heroes. Replacing Cap, Iron Man, and the rest of our favorites are the Squadron Supreme, holding the line against this new world’s villains and working closely with this world’s White House.
But Blade smells something (literally) wrong with this world and he plans to either set it right or die trying. Not a bad setup, right? Unfortunately, that’s really where Heroes Reborn #1’s energy and trade starts and ends. Setup.
Largely narrated by Blade, Jason Aaron has to walk readers through a lot of table-setting for this mirror universe. This presents the reader with a fairly expository and text-heavy opening salvo. While some of it pops with fun callbacks and shoutouts to established Marvel (and DC, kinda, in a roundabout way), I worry that this new event might be too “inside baseball”, even for regular Avengers readers and comic fans. Heap on top of that a pretty nakedly explain-y opening script, and you have a pretty lackluster opening for Marvel’s latest “summer blockbuster”.
Even standing as a rare good example of how great Ed McGuiness can be at superhero nonsense and flirting with a slight potential, I feel myself less excited than I would have hoped after Heroes Reborn #1.
Putting the good stuff up top here, I was consistently impressed with the visuals of Heroes Reborn #1. Putting forth a grounded, but genuinely kinetic and expressive visual tone, artists Ed McGuinness, Mark Morales, and Matthew Wilson at least make this opening issue look like a summer blockbuster. Armed with the classically striking designs of the Squadron and the eye-catching new “remixes” of some Marvel faves, the art team really allows the characters plenty of pop throughout this opening issue.
They even get a few really fun splash pages peppered throughout the issue, splintered throughout a multi-fronted battle between the Squadron and “new” antagonists like Dr. Juggernaut and The Silver Witch (also known as The Pretender, Wanda Maximoff). Though I know and appreciate that McGuinness’ more muscle-bound and theatrical style is not for most people, I was surprised at just how well he displays it here in Heroes Reborn #1.
But regrettably, comics are more than just great art pages and Heroes Reborn #1, while interesting in places, does read a bit wooden on the scripting front. This opening issue has to dispense onto the reader a lot of detailing re: the history and core cast of this world and it results in the issue just feeling unavoidably more telling and less showing. Like I said above, some of this works and will work better if you have a working knowledge of Aaron’s ongoing run, the Squadron Supreme, and the DC comics in which they are riffing on. Avoiding spoilers, of course, the crunchy details of the Squadron’s place in this world’s U.S. power structure are particularly interesting and speak to an engagingly lored world in which we will occupy over the course of the event.
That said, however, Heroes Reborn #1 is going to do little to suddenly convince that Jason Aaron’s lugubriously plotted Avengers run is now all the sudden epic and operatically planned. A lot of that is put squarely on the feet of the sheer amount of information Aaron has to deliver in this opening. But though we are given some fun scraps of action and largely follow Blade, who is a neat audience surrogate outsider to hinge an event around, it all just feels like we are checking off sections of worldbuilding instead of just living in them. Much like Aaron’s own contribution to an “Event AU”, Thors did all the way back in Secret Wars. He didn’t just tell us about the world then, he showed it to us. More of that could have been richly appreciated here in Heroes Reborn #1.
Worse still, Aaron’s voice for Blade here is tonally jumbled. While he still occupies the sort of “man on a mission” tone he enjoys in Avengers, the Blade of Heroes Reborn seems a little too loquacious and almost flippantly chatty as he runs down clues as to how to set everything right. Again, this could just be a weird after-effect of the amount of exposition, or maybe even an odd call back to the “tough dudes with attitude” voice of the 90s, but whatever it is, it still stands out as you take a wordy walking tour through this event’s narrative sandbox.
Summer comic events fluctuate wildly between “Good”, “Just Okay”, and “Bad” during any given year. I am let down slightly to report that Heroes Reborn #1 floats somewhere in between the latter two of the above wildly scientific scaling. But thanks to the art and hints of lore attached to this opening, I am buoyed just as slightly at the event’s possible potential. In short, the very picture of a “mixed bag” is Heroes Reborn #1. Take solace in the fact that we now have nowhere to go but up.
Zachary Jenkins runs ComicsXF and is a co-host on the podcast “Battle of the Atom.” Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside of all this.
