It’s a flashback tale for the Squadron Supreme, as the Heroes Reborn universe explores a fateful night for Nighthawk and the Falcon. Heroes Reborn: Double Action #1 is written by Tim Seeley, drawn by Dan Jurgens, inked by Scott Hanna, colored by Chris Sotomayor, and lettered by Cory Petit.
Presented as a “reprint” of one of Nighthawk’s most “famous” stories, Heroes Reborn: Marvel Double Action #1 hopes to transport readers back to the wooly, but highly readable days of 1970s Marvel. The only trouble is, the way it does so is either going to come across as immensely charming or deeply grating. There is absolutely no in-between.
Starting with what Marvel Double Action does well, no Heroes Reborn tie-in issue yet has committed to the “fake issue of a fake series” bit as hard as this. Though this concept has been all over Heroes Reborn since the start, writer Tim Seeley and company really go for it here.
The sly “Editor’s Notes” are back, but we also get another full on letters page, teases of incoming titles in the page margins (which is hilariously dominated by Nighthawk, as he’s obviously the Batman of this world), and all sorts of pie-eyed posing and dialogue, all perfectly in tone with the pathos of Marvel superhero comics from the era when the issue is set.
The neat, era-specific details about the Heroes Reborn universe it dishes out are also pretty solid. Seeley and company walk us through a purposefully ham-fisted “Nighthawk adventure”, delving deeply into this version of the universe as well as Nighthawk and Falcon’s civilian lives on Capitol Hill. It is the first real look at how they operate in government power structures so far in this event.
Also interesting is the cast of famous co-stars the title has subsumed from An Iconic Marvel Title. One look at the cover and you can guess which one, but it is neat to see these characters completely re-contextualized for this time and place in the Heroes Reborn “canon”.
But unfortunately, the adherence to the slightly hokey production values of ‘70’s Marvel is also its downfall. The constant “Eyes Front, True Believer!”-ness of the issue does genuinely distract after a while, even if some of the jokes ultimately land. It doesn’t exactly help matters that Dan Jurgens’ art style comes across slightly wooden and static. Inker Scott Hanna and colorist Chris Sotomayor definitely add a fun spinner rack vibe I enjoyed, but no amount of good inks and colors are going to spruce up boring layouts.
The overall riff on “The Night Gwen Stacy Died” also falls flat. A story built around what turns out to be some brutal treatment of an iconic Black character is always going to make me blanche.Heroes Reborn: Marvel Double Action #1 isn’t going to be everybody’s favorite. Nor will it do anything to win new readers to comics. I can admit that I liked it, however. It has problems, but I think the one thing we can all agree on is that big swings are always appreciated. Even if said big swing results in a foul ball.
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.
