Marvel Comics have revealed this year’s ‘Heroes Reborn’ event will be a new series from the current “Avengers” creative team of Jason Aaron and Ed McGuinness, debuting in May. Described as the “zenith” of their run, the comic will see Blade waking up in a world where the Avengers never existed. Here’s the trailer:
In this reality, Tony Stark never became Iron Man; Thor never wielded Mjolnir; and Captain America was never recovered from the Arctic; and the Squadron Supreme of America have filled the void left by the Avengers. “Now the Squadron face an attack from some of their fiercest enemies, like Dr. Juggernaut [Victor von Doom], the Black Skull, the Silver Witch [an amalgamated Wanda and Pietro Maximoff] and Thanos with his Infinity Rings. Blade is the one man alive who seems to remember that the entire world has somehow been… reborn. And so begins his search for the cause behind this ominous shift in reality.”
Aaron stated it’s “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. It grew out of the pages of my ‘Avengers’ run, but kept getting bigger and bigger as it went, and the more pieces I put in place for this Reborn world, the more gleeful and excited I became. This project really stoked the fires of my love for comics in all the right ways.”
McGuinness said, “I’ve been having an absolute blast designing and drawing some new spins on old favorites Jason Aaron has brought to the table. They are all with a purpose story wise which makes them really cool to get into from the art side of things. He may be the maddest scientist of all!”
The new series coincides with the 25th anniversary of the original ‘Heroes Reborn,’ which saw the Avengers and Fantastic Four being shunted off into a pocket dimension after the catastrophic events of 1996’s ‘Onslaught’ crossover. Although the heroes soon returned to the mainstream Marvel Universe, other versions of the reality were introduced in a 2006 arc of “Exiles,” and Jeph Loeb and Rob Liefeld’s “Onslaught Reborn.” The Squadron Supreme were originally introduced by Roy Thomas and Sal Buscema in 1969’s “Avengers” #69, albeit as the Squadron Sinister, an evil pastiche of the Justice League: their heroic alternate universe counterparts were eventually introduced in Thomas and John Buscema’s “Avengers” #85 (cover dated February 1971).
More details on the series, including its length and potential tie-ins, will be revealed in the coming weeks. In the meantime, check out the announcement triptych below, and last week’s teaser images for more of the new universe here.
