A Sense of Doubt blog post #2343 - Heroes Reborn and More - Comic Book Sunday for 2107.18 - WHAT I AM READING pt.6

A Sense of Doubt blog post #2343 - Heroes Reborn and More - Comic Book Sunday for 2107.18 - WHAT I AM READING pt.6

And so we're back...

After a little different COMIC BOOK SUNDAY last week focused on the reactionary RIGHT and it's pathetic attempt to cancel Captain America for being "woke," or what we here in the House of Ideas like to think of as behaving with empathy and compassion for others, and after the week before when I acknowledged the sixth anniversary of my Mother's death, now, two weeks hence, I am back to the usual COMIC BOOK SUNDAY with an emphasis on WHAT I AM READING, which is always comic books among other things.

Toward that end, I took the dogs on a long walk and listened to my new audio book, which is this:



Crying in H Mart is a memoir following in which author Michelle Zauner, lead of the band Japanese Breakfast, chronicles the death of her mother and her journey of grief.

It's a great book and comes right at a time in my life when I need more Asian context for a novel I am writing with a Vietnamese character. Though Zauner is part Korean, there's plenty of similar cultural practices that are giving me good ideas. Plus the book is just extremely well written and gut wrenching. Zauner is a tour de force and, it seems, a genuinely nice person.

I am also reading this YA novel, When the Beat Drops by Anna Hecker, who is the teacher of the YA novel writing workshop that I am taking this summer.

Since I did not work at all today, Sunday, and I have the benefit of hindsight writing this post on Monday, I can report that I relaxed in the hammock on our deck and after a nap read a fair amount of this book while listening to the Cubs lose to Arizona. There is no audio book edition for Hecker's novel, but I would surely read-read it anyway.



I am still reading Attack Surface by Cory Doctorow, How to Write a Best Seller by Dean Koontz, and several other things including my own manuscript, so...

Lots of reading.

Because reading is life.

Today, I am just going to focus on comic cooks, specifically just the mini-series Heroes Reborn and the one-shot follow up Heroes Return.

These CBR links never seem to work. You have to copy and paste them not click them. Clicking takes you to the main site.

https://comicbookroundup.com/comic-books/reviews/marvel-comics/heroes-reborn-(2021)


7.5 critic rating

7.1 user rating

A WORLD WITHOUT AVENGERS!   

Welcome to a world where Tony Stark never built an Iron Man armor. Where Thor is a hard-drinking atheist who despises hammers. Where Wakanda is dismissed as a myth. And where Captain America was never found in the ice because there were no Avengers to find him. Instead this world has always been protected by Earth's Mightiest Heroes, the Squadron Supreme of America. And now the Squadron faces an attack from some of their fiercest enemies, like Dr. Juggernaut, the Black Skull, the Silver Witch and Thanos with his Infinity Rings. But why is the Daywalker Blade the one man alive who seems to remember that the entire world has somehow been...reborn?

Of course, SPOILER ALERT.

I love these alternate reality stories, especially when they are not so much "what if" queries about the comic book mythology, in this case Marvel's mythology, but places the heroes in an actual situation, which is actually happening in the current chronology of the comic book world.

In this newly created alternate timeline, the Avengers do not exist and the Squadron Supreme serves America as the team of great protectors. Current Avenger Blade, the Vampire Hunter, is the only one who remembers the "real" world, and he is traveling about trying to reunite the Avengers, who do not realize that they are Avengers, starting with Robbie Reyes, the Ghost Rider.

Blade narrates as Reyes rejects him and he shares current events as Hyperion and Nighthawk battle a Doctor Doom revision called Dr. Juggernaut and Red Skull-Venom mashup known as the Black Skull.

Blade passes posters advertising Phil Coulsen for president, and we are treated to the introduction of other Squadron members, such as Dr. Spectrum, Blur, Power Princess, as Blade details where other Avengers are and why they are not heroing, such as She-Hulk, who is just Jennifer Walters, lawyer, and Bruce Banner/the Hulk, who was exiled to the Negative Zone, used as a prison in this Squadron Supreme run world.

Each issue ends with a strong cliffhanger reveal. Issue one ends with Blade finding Captain America still frozen in the ice and Mjolnir finds Thor, who has become a drunken bar rat.

Critics gave issue one an 8.3 overall rating, highest of the series.

I think critics are often over-harsh, and I am not interested in being too critical of my comics as long as they continually try new things, are true to the characters, remember their own history, and entertain me.

Issue two starts with Hyperion's solution the Galactus problem, which was to fly through his helmet and head, puncturing his skull, and killing him. It's cute in the way the scene in Raiders of the Lost Arc is cute when Indiana Jones responds to the Asian sword fighters prowess with his blade and all the spins and twirls by shooting him.

One would think that a being as powerful as Galactus, who may confronted other powerful beings like Hyperion, would have defense measures against such a simple and obvious attack. But it's funny, right? It's all part of the "what would be different" thought process of such alternate reality stories.

It's really a cross over type thought game as the Squadron Supreme are obviously a thinly-veiled (very thinly) re-tread of DC Comics' THE JUSTICE LEAGUE.

So, how would the Marvel universe be different with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and the Flash in charge or the hero game?

And the Jason Aaron written story continues to explore how familiar stories might go differently, such as Doctor Doom getting the power of Juggernaut, Venom overtaking the "Red" Skull turning him "Black," and how the Imperial Guard of the Shi'ar would be if infected by the Brood, and so on.

In this issue, Hyperion kills the Hulk. But in the end, Blade and the revived Captain America team up to put the world back to rights.

Critics gave issue #2 a 7.6 rating despite the art of Dale Keown, and the obvious cadence for the rest of the series with each issue focusing on a different member of the Squadron. This was Hyperion's issue, the Superman analog. Is Superman .7 points less popular than the team as a whole?

Issue #3 receives the lowest critical rating, 6.9, of all the issues and rightly so as it focuses in the narcissistic character of Blur and may well be the weakest issue of the lot.

There is neither a strong cliff-hanger to this issue nor strong revelations about how Blur would affect the Marvel Universe with free reign.

However, the after-word story introduces Bullseye and the new Phoenix, Maya Lopez, aka Echo.

The Doctor Spectrum-centric issue four has one of the best cliff-hanger reveals at its end, revealing that "In Mephisto We Trust" is featured on the currency in this America as Mephisto is worshipped like a God, and so now we know how this world came to be: someone made a bargain with Mephisto.

Despite that reveal and interesting art work by Jason Stokoe, this issue earned only a slight uptake from the last with a 7.1 rating as Doctor Spectrum fights Starbranded Rocket Raccoon.

In the back story, Groot saves the Starbrand child of the "real" Marvel Universe to be one of the Avengers.

Issue five may be the strongest of the lot since the first, though I am biased towards Nighthawk as my favorite of the Squadron heroes. I am not over-fond of the art by R.M. Guéra but the story has merit. I love the idea of Kyle Richmond as a congressional representative complete with a sliding pole to his Hawk Lair from his office in the U.S. Capitol Building.

The alternate history returns here, blending Spider-Man mythology with Nighthawk and a frightening Green Goblin/Joker mashup in which Gwen Stacey is saved, only to be revealed as having become a homicidal maniac by the Goblin's crazy gas.

Even better, the issue ends with Richmond spotting the Avengers team at work and seeing the characteristic shield of the good Captain.

The back story shows Black Panther masquerading as Ronin and fighting Nighthawk before returning to his home in Wakanda, a nation that has stayed hidden in this alternate reality.

Critics only gave this one a 7.2 rating, a 0.1 uptick from the last issue and only seven major comic book sites reviewed it, down from 16 for the first issue.

I am not over-fond of Power Princess, which of the names of these heroes is the stupidest and most demeaning, and yet even with only seven critics again writing reviews, like last issue, this one earned a 7.8 rating. Possibly because Power Princess crows "Merciful Mephisto" rather than "Merciful Minerva," which is mildly clever. She has a big fight with Thor, ho hum, and tells her teammates at the end that they face a threat from a group of heroes known as "The Avengers." Not a great cliff hanger because we already know this and so does Nighthawk.

Except for the Blur issue, which I really didn't like, this is issue six the weakest of them all.

Now, having showcased each of the Squadron, merging classic traits from their invention in the Sixties with the reboot by JMS which redefined them in key ways, making Kyle Richmond a black man (good idea) and revealing that Power Princess sleeps with Hyperion but is in love with Nighthawk (sort of interesting).

This issue earned 7.4 overall from nine critics and features Wolverine killing Hyperion, which apparently didn't take as he is not dead.

The cliff hanger is expected, too. The Squadron face off with the Avengers: Avengers Assemble. Okay.

But then in the back story, we find that President Coulson has a variation on the Cosmic Cube called a "Pandemonium Cube." Yikes!

The series wraps with a on-shot: Heroes Return.

https://comicbookroundup.com/comic-books/reviews/marvel-comics/heroes-reborn-(2021)/heroes-return-1

Again, you might want to copy and paste the link above.

7.8 critics rating and 7.3 user rating.

The showdown.

The right world is restored.

But the Squadron are stranded in the current Marvel universe, the one with the Avengers large and in charge.

Coulson receives comeuppance from Mephisto for being such a loser, trapped in the Pandemonium Cube, also known as the HELLAHEDRON (heh, cute).

But there's a great reveal at the end.

The playing with alternate realities has brought 615 more (616 total) Mephistos from other realities into this one: THE COUNCIL OF RED.

You just know that's gonna be a problem for our heroes, eh?

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2107.18 - 10:10

- Days ago = 2207 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.