Magpies and rats: The Heroes Reborn roundtable, week one

Carla, Tom, Shane and JK assemble to discuss Marvel’s latest comics event.

Marvel kicked off a new Heroes Reborn miniseries/event last Wednesday, the first of eight issues (and several tie-ins) that tell the story of a Marvel Universe where the Avengers never assembled. Instead, the Squadron Supreme, which takes its direction from a Phil Coulson who is much more menacing than Clark Gregg ever was, is now the MU’s primary super team.

With the first issue by Jason Aaron, Ed McGuinness, Mark Morales and Matthew Wilson now out in the wild, Shane Bailey, Tom Bondurant, Carla Hoffman and I thought we’d discuss the event each week, roundtable style, like we did with Future State earlier this year.

So grab your copy of the first issue and let’s get to it …

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Hulk, Spider-Man and more headline Marvel’s 2021 Free Comic Book Day titles

Jason Aaron, Chip Zdarsky, Greg Smallwood and more will contribute to this year’s offerings from the House of Ideas.

Marvel has shared the covers and a few more details on their two 2021 Free Comic Book Day titles, which between the two of them will include stories featuring the Avengers, Hulk, Venom and Spider-Man.

Marvel’s gold title, Avengers/Hulk, features a cover by Ryan Ottley:

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Mail Call | The Avengers brace for ‘World War She-Hulk’

Plus: More news and announcements from Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, AfterShock, Top Cow, Skybound and more!

Mail Call is a roundup of the announcements we’ve received from comics publishers in our mailboxes recently that we haven’t already covered. Hit the links for more information.

Marvel is dusting off a classic event title for an upcoming Avengers storyline — “World War She-Hulk,” which references the popular “World War Hulk” story from 2007.

The new storyline will find She-Hulk declared a global menace, so the Winter Guard decides to bring her in.

“When the Russian Winter Guard invade Avengers Mountain to arrest She-Hulk, it sets off a global espionage adventure that takes us from the notorious assassin training academy of the Red Room to an undersea kingdom on the verge of violent revolution,” said writer Jason Aaron. “Along the way, traitors will fall, regimes will crumble and the dark evolution of Jennifer Walters will reach its bloody red crescendo, all as we build toward the epic events of Avengers #50.”

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‘Heroes Reborn’ will wrap up in ‘Heroes Return’ #1

The Avengers reassemble to battle the Squadron Supreme in the finale of the event.

Marvel has announced that their upcoming Heroes Reborn event will come to an end in June with Heroes Return #1, where the reassembled Avengers will battle the Squadron Supreme in “a glorious Super Hero slugfest that will shake the Marvel Universe to its core.”

The name of the one-shot is appropriate, as readers of the 1990s Heroes Reborn event may remember. In 1996, Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee took over four Marvel titles — Avengers, Captain America, Iron Man and Fantastic Four — and moved these characters to an alternate Earth/timeline. Eventually the heroes were “rescued” from this other Earth in a miniseries titled Heroes Reborn: The Return. And when each of the four titles were relaunched as part of the regular Marvel continuity, it was under the banner “Heroes Return.”

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‘Heroes Reborn’ in June spotlights Nighthawk, Power Princess, ‘Night-Gwen’ and ‘Murder Hornet’

Marvel’s event miniseries continues in June with more issues and one-shots about a world where the Avengers never assembled.

Marvel has revealed more details about their Heroes Reborn plans for June, including what to expect in the miniseries as well as from several one-shots.

You might remember that Heroes Reborn is an event miniseries coming from Marvel that spins out of Jason Aaron’s work on Avengers. It’ll run for seven issues, with several tie-in one-shots to support it. Jason Aaron is writing the main series, with different artist doing each issue. The first four issues will be drawn by Ed McGuinness, Dale Keown, Federico Vicentini and James Stokoe.

And the story, essentially, falls into the “continuity has been screwed up and now someone needs to fix it” genre, kind of like House of M and Age of Apocalypse. In this new reality, the Avengers never assembled, and the void they left was filled by the Squadron Supreme. Blade is the only Avenger who seems to remember how things should be.

June will bring issues #5-7 of the miniseries, which, like the first four, will have connecting covers:

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Marvel reveals more ‘Heroes Reborn’ details + covers

Dale Keown, Federico Vicentini and James Stokoe join Jason Aaron and Ed McGuinness for the event series.

Marvel has revealed more details on their upcoming Heroes Reborn event series, which will spin out of Jason Aaron’s current run on Avengers. The alternate-reality story imagines a world where the Avengers never assembled.

Ironically, the Squadron Supreme — Marvel’s, um, homage to the Justice League — will become Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in this vacuum. They’ll also take center stage on the series’ covers:

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‘Heroes Reborn’ imagines a world with no Avengers

The series spins out of Jason Aaron’s work on ‘Avengers.’

Marvel has announced Heroes Reborn, a new project by Jason Aaron and Ed McGuiness that asks the question, “What if the Avengers never assembled?”

The story spins out of Aaron’s current work on Avengers, as the world is “reborn” after the Phoenix burns it to ashes — at least that’s what Executive Editor Tom Brevoort says.

“It’s only natural that after the Phoenix burns the world to ash, there should come a rebirth, and so REBORN is the next big step in the massive super-story that Jason and Ed have been crafting in Avengers,” he said. “Prepare to enter a very different yet hauntingly familiar Marvel Universe!”

In the reborn world, Tony Stark never built his armor, Thor avoids hammer and a frozen Captain America was never found. Only Blade seems to remember the way things were, as he looks for what shifted reality. The story will feature the Squadron Supreme, who have been a thorn in the Avengers side as of late, and also, if you look closely at the teaser image, Mephisto — another thorn who has popped up in Aaron’s run.

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Jane Foster soars again in ‘The Mighty Valkyries’

The new ongoing series begins in April.

Following Return of the Valkyries, the King in Black tie-in miniseries that’s currently in stores, Jane Foster, aka the former Thor and current Valkyrie, will star in another ongoing series, Marvel has announced.

As the title implies — The Mighty Valkyries — Jane Foster won’t be the only Valkyrie appearing in the series. She’ll be joined by the new Valkyrie, the one who looks more like Tessa Thompson, who debuted in the KiB tie-in.

Jason Aaron and Torunn Grønbekk will re-team as writers on the series, with Mattia de Iulis providing art. (de Iulis designed the new Valkyrie).

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‘King in Black’ expands its kingdom

Marvel announces several tie-in titles for the upcoming Venom-centric crossover.

Symbiotes are back in fashion this winter, as Marvel’s King in Black event stretches its gooey black tentacles out to characters from Daredevil to Spider-Gwen to Valkyrie.

In case you need a refresher, Knull is the god of the symbiotes, and in King in Black, he’ll be taking on not just Venom, but the Avengers, the X-Men, the Hulk and more, as he heads for Earth. Now Marvel has revealed details on what existing and new titles will help support the event.

Here’s a rundown of what to expect:

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Mail Call | ‘X-O Manowar’ returns, ‘Death Metal’ one-shots and more

A round-up of news from DC, Marvel, Image Comics, Valiant and more.

Mail Call is a roundup of the announcements we’ve received from comics publishers in our mailboxes recently. Hit the links for more information.

The Dark Nights: Death Metal event grew again this week, as DC announced two new anthology one-shots for November prior to releasing their full November solicitations.

The first one is focused on Lobo and is titled Dark Nights: Death Metal Infinite Hours Exxxtreme! #1. It will feature “Uncle Lobo” telling “familiar yet freaky stories of the DC Universe, exactly as he remembers them: with blood and guts and exxxtreme gratuitous violence.” The creators involved include Frank Tieri, Becky Cloonan, Dale Eaglesham and more, with a cover by Kyle Hotz.

If that one isn’t ridiculous-sounding enough, the second one, Dark Nights: Death Metal The Multiverse Who Laughs “offers the curious—and the brave—a glimpse into the nightmare realities that the Batman Who Laughs has created in tales by creators who know what it means to have a truly twisted sense of misfit humor.” As you can tell by the cover, one of those worlds features evil super pets. It includes stories by Amanda Conner, Patton Oswalt, Jimmy Palmiotti, Scott Snyder, Brandon Thomas, James Tynion IV, Joshua Williamson, Chad Hardin and more.

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What Are You Reading? | Red Goblins, celestial avatars, Klan smashers and Texas blood

See what the Smash Pages crew has checked off their ‘to read’ list lately.

Like I said last week, summertime is the right time for crossovers and comics. This week brought us a taste of Empyre, Marvel’s big crossover event featuring the Avengers, The Fantastic Four, the Kree, the Skrulls, the Blue Area of the Moon, the Swordsman and all that crazy cosmic space action Marvel fans have come to know and love. You can see Carla’s thoughts on it below, along with a list of comics Shane has been buying for his kids and Tom’s thoughts on two politically minded books from DC.

You can tell us what you’ve been reading in the comments below or on social media.

Shane Bailey

Lately my kids have started wanting to read more comics. My little one has always been into them, but now the older kids are as well. So I let them pick out their own comics to read on comiXology Unlimited.

My 9 yr old son picked Amazing Spider-Man: The Red Goblin by Dan Slott and Stuart Immonen, and he loves it. He wouldn’t stop commenting on how crazy scary Norman Osborn is, how it was gross when Carnage bit the head off a rat, and during one issue when the Goblin had a captive and was interrogating him, he wondered aloud over who it was, making guesses and gasping when he found out who it was and that Norman knew who Spider-Man was. It’s great seeing him get excited at things that are old hat for me. It made me appreciate those moments more.

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Hail to the king as Aaron, Asrar reteam for ‘King Conan’

Mahmud Asrar, Matt Wilson and Jason Aaron will continue telling Conan stories later this year.

It looks like the band is getting back together as artist Mahmud Asrar announced on Twitter that he’s working with writer Jason Aaron and colorist Matt Wilson on a new King Conan comic.

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