SPOILER WARNING for Heroes Reborn #5!
Batman keeps tons of trophies in the Batcave to help him commemorate his years of crime-fighting. From the Penguin’s umbrellas to Harvey Dent’s coin, most of these mementos previously belonged to the Dark Knight’s various foes and allies. While fans are likely familiar with plenty of the Batcave’s memorabilia, however, Marvel’s version of the Caped Crusader seen in Heroes Reborn has a collection of his own, which contains several notable items, including the Winter Soldier’s arm.
Heroes Reborn has replaced the Avengers with the Squadron Supreme of America as Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. A pastiche of DC’s Justice League, the Squadron Supreme’s members share some striking similarities with their DC counterparts. Readers have gotten an in-depth look at several of the Squadron’s main heroes, with each new issue in the series putting a new member into the spotlight.
Jason Aaron, R.M. Guera, Giulia Brusco, and Cory Petit’s Heroes Reborn #5 focuses on Kyle Richmond, a U.S. congressman who hunts down crime each night as the masked vigilante, Nighthawk. As the story unravels, the parallels between Nighthawk and Batman become increasingly apparent. Replacing the Batmobile with the Hawkrod, Arkham Asylum with Ravencroft Asylum, and even Robin with the Falcon, Nighthawk’s escapades are easy to mistake for a Dark Knight tale. He’s even got his own version of the Batcave under the Capitol Building, which makes a brief, but very interesting appearance.
As Richmond enters his “Nightcave” to prepare for an evening of heroics, readers get a quick glimpse of Nighthawk’s treasure room, which contains an impressive selection of Marvel artifacts. Perhaps the most significant of his trophies is the Winter Soldier’s arm, which is mounted on a wall along with a pair of sais that likely belong to Elektra, as well as the masks of Baron Zemo, Hate-Monger, and the Silver Samurai. The cave’s decor also includes a dinosaur statue, which is a fairly blatant reference to the infamous mechanical T-Rex found in the Batcave.
In addition to giving readers one more reason to compare him to Batman, Nighthawk’s trophy collection also proves that he’s a formidable hero. While the items in his cave may just be for show, they also suggest that at some point Nighthawk fought and defeated their former owners. In fact, Baron Zemo’s defeat is featured in Heroes Reborn: Siege Society #1. Ultimately, the caliber of Nighthawk’s trophies prove that he has a pretty great track record.
Given the amount of 1-to-1 comparisons that the story offers up between Nighthawk and Batman, the inclusion of the Winter Soldier’s arm in particular seems deliberate. After all, as a Russian soldier with a robotic arm, Bucky Barnes is practically a dead-on version of DC’s much-maligned KGBeast. With that theory in mind, a showdown between Nighthawk and the Winter Soldier would be quite the spectacle. Either way, giving readers a glimpse of Nighthawk’s treasure room is a nice touch that certainly adds to the lore of Heroes Reborn. Heroes Reborn #5 from Marvel Comics is available now.