Comic Info
Comic Name: Heroes Reborn: Avengers
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Rob Liefeld/Jim Valentino/Jeph Loeb/Walt Simonson
Artist: Chap Yaep/Rob Liefeld/Ian Churchill/Michael Ryan/Anthony Winn
# of Issues: 12
Release Date: 2006
Heroes Reborn: The Avengers #1
Reprints Heroes Reborn: The Avengers #1-12 (November 1986-October 1997). The Avengers are dead…killed by Onslaught. When Loki finds himself in a new world and a new team of Avengers in front of him, he quickly forgets his past and sees new opportunity. The Avengers are young team and still trying to find their feet in the world…but the danger is growing quickly and their world might not last long.
Written by Rob Liefeld, Jim Valentino, Jeph Loeb, and Walt Simonson, Heroes Reborn: The Avengers is a Marvel Comics superhero comic book collection. Released following the events of Onslaught and part of the Heroes Reborn event series, the collection features art by Chap Yaep, Rob Liefeld, Ian Churchill, Michael Ryan, and Anthony Winn. Issues in the collection have also been featured in Heroes Reborn Omnibus and Marvel Universe by Rob Liefeld Omnibus among others. Not included in the collection is Heroes Reborn: The Avengers #13 (November 1997) which was released as part of an Image Comics crossover storyline called World War 3.
While I didn’t like Heroes Reborn ending the long running legacy titles of Avengers, Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America, I also knew it would be temporary and potentially fun. When Heroes Reborn was released (each with a shiny, hip creative team), I learned that big names don’t always lead to big titles…Heroes Reborn: The Avengers is a great example of that.
Heroes Reborn created a clean slate for Marvel’s top tier superhero comics that were not “X” based. This collection features a lot of the original Avengers launch (with Loki manipulating the team and everyone), but it also featured a hodgepodge reconstruction of the team which included a reimagined Hellcat and the Swordsman. Unfortunately, the comic book has no flow and feels very stutter-y. The creators try to touch on a lot of Avengers early plotlines (Kang, Masters of Evil, etc.), but they are also interrupted with crossover with other Heroes Reborn titles (the crossover aren’t included here which is a whole different problem since summaries of some of the events are even provided).
Heroes Reborn: The Avengers #11
The problem is that all of the “reimagined” creations feel like a downgrade from the original. The characters are made less interesting in this relaunch and the character designs by Liefeld are quite bad (Hellcat looks like he just ripped off his other creation Feral from X-Force). This is combined with some typical disproportionate Liefeld art for the first seven issues where he serves as artist (I don’t even understand what is happening with his leggy Enchantress). Instead of wanting to read more about the characters, I kind of wanted them all to die again…but more horrible than the Onslaught fight in which they were perceived dead.
In general, Heroes Reborn was a completely missed opportunity. The creators feel uncommitted to it and continuously built “outs” from the onset. It is filler instead of something original. The series was meant to be a return to Marvel from the upstarts that formed Image, but the comic book demonstrates that some of them should have left for good. With poorly crafted fights, bad character designs, and a plot that slogs along, Heroes Reborn: The Avengers can just be skipped and forgotten. The Avengers relaunched and was followed by the Kurt Busiek and George Perez reimagining of the team collected in Avengers by Kurt Busiek & George Perez Omnibus—Volume 1.
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