Throughout the history of Marvel comics, several “what if” moments have occurred, providing readers with a glimpse of how events in the Marvel universe could have played out differently. What if Captain America hadn’t vanished during World War 2? What if Spider-Man had rescued Gwen Stacy? What if Venom had possessed the Punisher? These questions have all been addressed in Marvel’s popular “What If” comic book series.
Marvel has also created many great alternate timeline story arcs such as Age of Apocalypse, Marvel Zombies, House of M, and Old Man Logan. These series provided a more in-depth look into what could be in the world of Marvel. Events such as these often spawned off of the death of a major character, the rise of a villain, or some mystical or cosmic interference.
Now, Marvel Entertainment has just unveiled a new comic event in which the Avengers never existed, called Heroes Reborn. In this world, Iron Man never built his first suit of armor, Thor never lifted his hammer, and Captain America was never thawed out from ice. Though the Avengers were never formed, supervillains still rose to power. In place of the Avengers, another team of super powered heroes rose to the challenge, the Squadron Supreme of America.
In this world, nobody remembers the previous reality, except for one man: Blade. The vampire hunter takes center stage in this story, as he tries to discover what caused this new reality to replace the previous one.
On Monday, Marvel Entertainment released the announcement trailer on YouTube:
Heroes Reborn Announcement Trailer | Marvel Comics
The Wildest Story Ever Put on Paper
Heroes Reborn is the brain-child of writer Jason Aaron and artist Ed McGuiness, fresh off of their recent Avengers run. The series will feature familiar, as well as brand-new villains who are opposing the Squadron Supreme. Readers can also expect to find out what many of the ‘would-be’ Avengers are up to in this reality.
Jason Aaron shared some of his thoughts on the new comic in a press release from Marvel.com:
“Maybe the wildest story I’ve ever put on paper. I got to cut loose on this and release my inner comic-reared child in a really profound way, and together with a cadre of immensely imaginative artists, we built a world that I’m pretty confident in saying is quite unlike any version of the Marvel Universe you’ve seen before.”
Aaron talked about how the idea for this story came from the pages of his Avengers run, slowly building up over time. He also shared his excitement for the project, saying “This project really stoked the fires of my love for comics in all the right ways.”
New Heroes, Familiar Villains
Long-time Marvel fans will certainly recognize the familiar title of this new series. Back in 1996, Marvel debut the controversial Heroes Reborn storyline, in which the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and Dr. Doom all “died” in the Onslaught: Marvel Universe crossover event. These characters were ‘reborn’ in an all-new universe, completely separate from the mainstream timeline. In this new world, their backstories were altered, and they had no prior memories of their previous life.
Whether this new story relates to that one remains to be seen, though Marvel’s history of re-using titles for their major story arcs would indicate this to be an entirely separate and original event. One thing is for sure though, it’s going to be a wild ride.
Heroes Reborn is set to launch this May.