Heroes Reborn retrospective and gallery

[Van Plexico]

I've just posted Adrian Watts's HEROES REBORN retrospective and cover gallery on the AA! Site.

It will give you a taste of the kind of thing you'll be finding in the ASSEMBLED! book, when it comes out in a couple of months.

www.avengersassemble.net

[dlw66]

I glanced at it briefly -- first impression is very positive (wish I could say the same for that whole gimmick!!). Adrian seems very thorough in his analysis.

[Engage]

Great stuff. I'm looking forward to the book.

While I've yet to read the Avengers' Heroes Reborn, in my opinion the Fantastic Four were much improved during it. Until the story got lost about 3/4 of the way through it was a pretty interesting series.

[Shiryu]

I agree, it's an interesting article. I have only flipped through the Heroes Reborn issues on the DVD, paying more attention to "the Return", but the article flows very well and the summaries are nice.

[Tone-Loc]

I was not a big fan of the whole story when I first started to read them on my DVD within the last couple of weeks. At first I had the feeling that they were rebooting the MU, but then Loki started to give away that it wasn't the real MU, combined with me then finding the information that Adrian relayed about the intentions of the whole story (business-wise)... it allowed me to see it in a whole new light and find an appreciation for it that I didn't have before. I'll admit that my previous opinion was based on skimming over the issues and turning my nose up at the art and the character makeovers, etc... and my already mentioned ignorance about the genesis of the whole project.

Now I find it much more entertaining, as I do with most of the parrallel/alternate reality stories, to see what characters from the Original MU make up the Heroes Reborn Univ.

Something was itching the back of my brain about Hawkeye and Wonder-Man, but Adrian really gave me an "AH HA" moment with his details on that... thanks! Also, I feel that Hawkeye in the brown and black looked eerily similar to Wolverine from the days of his black and brown togs (the best look for Logan IMHO). I thought it was maybe just the exaggeration of the Liefield style, but when Hawk gets in his purple variation, notice the mask takes on a more traditional Hawkeye shape.

Also, I think there is an awful lot of Deathcry in Hellcat as well. At least with the facial markings.

I think I will look them over again. Thanks, Adrian!!

[sharkar]

Van,

thanks for posting Adrian's excellent analysis. Coincidentally, I had just ordered the tpb from Amazon few days ago--never having read these issues before--and Adrian's information is already helping me to put things in context.

[Van Plexico]

Well said, Tone-- but I would add one caveat where Adrian and I may slightly disagree. (I'm not entirely certain of that, since I don't think he and I have ever specifically discussed it.)

I think the "it's just a big side-story" aspect of Heroes Reborn was shoehorned onto it halfway through. If it had been more of a success-- either artistically/with the fans, or had made more money than it did-- then I think it would have continued and never ended.

Note, for example, that Peter David was specifically brought in to write "The Return" when the decision was made to end the thing. And he made the whole "Return" story up at that point. It's not like the whole thing was planned out (the way, say, Civil War has been), in advance.

Some may argue, "But it DID make money! It DID sell way better than the books had sold previously!" Yes, but it needed to be a super-blockbuster to justify basically handing over Marvel's biggest non-X properties to another firm. Sort of like the original Battlestar Galactica-- it was a top-10 show in 1978, and got cancelled anyway, because for what it cost, it needed to be #1 every week!

[Adrian J. Watts]

I *do* disagree with you there, Van.

I think there is ample evidence to suggest that the most of the Heroes Reborn stuff, including the Return, was planned right from the beginning - I am certain that there was never any doubt that, at least, the characters had been reborn in another part of the multiverse.

Look at the first issue of the Operation: Zero Tolerance crossover (I cannot remember the issue number - I believe it may have been X-MEN #64?) - when the OZT crew destroys the Blackbird and Jean Grey is injured, she temporarily appears in the HR world and meets HR Iron Man, with a few hints of what we eventually learned was the nature of the HR world thrown in.

Then there was the DAYDREAMERS limited series, featuring Franklin Richards living at the Massachusetts Academy - his short adventures there with Man-Thing, Leech, Howard the Duck and a Rigellian whose name escapes me contained many hints that the heroes would be returning.

And, of course, there are the references in the HR titles themselves, as early as the first page of Avengers #1, showing that some characters had knowledge of the MU.

I am not 100% sure that the exact method of the return was planned out at the start, but I think the general idea - that the event was a short-term trial and things would eventually come back together - was always there.

Thanks for the kind words, everyone!

- Adrian