Heroes Reborn was a surprisingly good series with a solid core concept (a deal with Mephisto erases the Avengers from reality, and inserts the Squadron Supreme). Everyone involved seems to have enjoyed the opportunity to do something different for a change and had a lot of fun twisting the Marvel Universe beyond recognition while painting the characters the Squadron are based on, the Justice League, in the worst possible light.
Even the spin-off titles, which are usually just kind of there to take up shelf space, were much better than expected, and I had pretty low expectations for Heroes Reborn: Night-Qwen. The only thing I found disappointing thing about Heroes Reborn was kind of buried its lede; unless you actually read the comics you were probably unaware it also took place in a world where Christianity had been replaced by Mephisto worship. It’s only touched on briefly, so we don’t get to find out things like, what holidays do Mephisto worshippers celebrate (and are there animated specials?).
And while it’s established that Christianity exists as a cult religion in the Mephisto reality, other religions aren't mentioned (do Judaism and Islam still exist)? It’s a premise full of possibilities, and knowing Marvel as I do, I wouldn’t be surprised if they revisited this world a year from now, or in years to come (Marvel seems incapable of leaving either the Clone Saga or Age of Apocalypse alone, so why not more Heroes Reborn)?
As major comic book events go Heroes Reborn was pretty worthwhile, though I do find one thing about it thoroughly disagreeable one major problem with it; the man who makes the deal with Mephisto is Phil Coulson, which seems fantastically out of character for him. It seems much more in the wheelhouse of professional scumbag Henry Peter Gyrich who’s recently been making appearances in Immortal Hulk. Phil has long been one of my favorite Marvel characters (see “Confessions Of A Comic Book Guy--Eulogy For A Very Special Agent”), so let’s hope he finds a way of coming back from this.
One thing though, as I recently outlined (see “Confessions of a Comic Book Guy -- Battle Of The Titans”), the movie Space Jam: A New Legacy is going to be full of appearances by characters in the Warner Bros. Discovery catalog including Jabberjaw, Magilla Gorilla, Yogi Bear, The Flintstones, Thundercats, Wacky Races, The Iron Giant, The Herculoids, as well as the Droogs from A Clockwork Orange. Well, none of these are in the graphic novel, though both Wonder Woman and Superman do make cameos. And when LeBron and Bugs visit DC World, we see a sign that reads “Welcome To Gotham City, Home Of Many, Many People To Avoid”.
And due diligence compels me to reveal that once again, I was wrong. Two weeks ago (see “Confessions of a Comic Book Guy -- More Thoughts on Pride Month Comics”), I said that The Rawhide Kid didn’t “even merit a cameo” in the Marvel’s Voices: Pride comic Well, he does in fact merit a very brief cameo in its opening pages, alongside text reading “Rawhide Kid made waves as a gay cowboy in the Old West, a pioneer of a whole different sort.”
The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.
