It may be the most controversial and widely-dismissed 're-imagining' in the company's history, but the so-called 'worst' Marvel relaunch created the modern Marvel Comics universe. In 1996, Marvel kicked off what became their most infamous relaunch of all time. The comic book publisher was going through a rough period, with the entire industry struggling. Although it's hard to imagine, back in 1996 the Avengers and Fantastic Four franchises were in dire straits. So they came up with the idea of relaunching them all, using the "Onslaught" event to blast these heroes into an alternate, relaunched timeline.

"Heroes Reborn" is generally viewed with scorn by modern-day fans. It didn't help that Marvel outsourced the project to artists like Rob Liefeld; back in the '90s Liefeld was seen as a pioneer, but he's not exactly venerated in the same way today. Meanwhile, behind-the-scenes issues at Marvel Comics meant that the whole "Heroes Reborn" brand only lasted a single year. Writer Peter David was ultimately given a miniseries, Heroes Reborn: The Return, to wrap it up.

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Strangely, while "Heroes Reborn" may not be well-remembered, it actually had a massive impact. It kicked off some major changes in the comics, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe itself owes a debt to "Heroes Reborn."

Heroes Reborn Was The First Modernized Relaunch

Heroes Reborn Iron Man from Marvel Comics

There's a sense in which "Heroes Reborn" was ahead of its time. Marvel believed that the decades' worth of continuity had become a barrier to new readers, and as a result they used "Heroes Reborn" as an opportunity to take the franchises back to their roots. They retold the origins of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four in a modern context, and they attempted to weave a new, more consistent continuity across the titles. Unfortunately, Marvel made a mistake when they believed old readers would carry on to the new books. They'd failed to understand that, to people who'd been reading Marvel for decades, continuity wasn't a problem; it was an asset. As a result, the sales of the relaunch didn't meet Marvel's expectations.

Marvel learned some important lessons from the popular and critical failure of "Heroes Reborn." In the year 2000, Marvel made a second attempt at a modernized relaunch, the Ultimate Universe. This time, they wisely decided to make it an alt-universe, meaning the old books continued. As a result, readers could go for one or both of the different iterations, and it turned out there was pretty much no competition between them. The Ultimate Universe is essentially the foundation for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which lifts arcs and concepts from popular runs of Ultimate Iron ManUltimate Captain America, and The Ultimates.

Heroes Reborn Made The Avengers Essential

Heroes Reborn Avengers in a comic panel

Modern comic book readers are used to the idea that the Avengers are Marvel's biggest franchise, with the X-Men generally viewed as secondary. That was very different in the '90s' the X-books had flourished for decades under legendary writer Chris Claremont, they'd been redesigned by popular artist Jim Lee in 1991, and they'd been the stars of a hit animated series. The Avengers, in contrast, just didn't seem to be quite so important.

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All that changed as a result of "Heroes Reborn." The core concept was that the Avengers and the Fantastic Four were removed from the mainstream Marvel continuity and relaunched; as a result, the main Marvel Universe was entirely bereft of heroes like Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor. Marvel wanted their departure to be a big deal, and writers were encouraged to explore the new status quo. The most successful of these was Kurt Busiek's Thunderbolts, which introduced a brand new superhero team who were attempting to fill the void left by the Avengers. The final issue ended with a shocking twist that had been carefully concealed in marketing; the Thunderbolts were actually a scam, consisting entirely of supervillains who had been gathered together by Baron Zemo.

With the benefit of hindsight, "Heroes Reborn" was the beginning of a fundamental shift in the Marvel Universe's power dynamics. It emphasized the importance of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, to the extent that their absence shook the entire universe. The next few years saw Marvel build upon that, with the Avengers ultimately stealing the X-Men's crown as Marvel's flagship franchise.

Heroes Reborn Reinterpreted Several Key Characters

Avengers from 90s Heroes Reborn comic book

Marvel eventually revealed that "Heroes Reborn" had been initiated by Franklin Richards, the son of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman. He had used his reality-warping powers to create a sort of pocket reality, in which the Avengers and the Fantastic Four had been secreted away in order to be saved from death. Although Marvel had long suggested Franklin was powerful, this was the grandest use of his powers to date, and it even earned him the attention of the Celestials. Franklin still operates at this kind of power level, and in fact he relaunched the entire Marvel Multiverse in the aftermath of Jonathan Hickman's Secret Wars. Meanwhile, during the time his parents were believed dead, Franklin moved over to the X-Men books and became a secondary character in Generation X. "Heroes Reborn" thus arguably set the precedent for Franklin being treated as both an X-Men and a Fantastic Four character, and thus is the spiritual ancestor of the upcoming X-Men/Fantastic Four crossover event.

"Heroes Reborn" required Marvel to separate their mutant and non-mutant franchises, and as a result they had to decide where Scarlet Witch fitted in. They decided she was an Avengers character, and reimagined her as a sorceress rather than a mutant. Again, this set a precedent; for a major comic book retcon centered around Scarlet Witch's powers, and even for her origin in the MCU. That isn't the only element of "Heroes Reborn" to loosely inspire the MCU, either; the range envisioned Jane Foster as a scientist rather than a nurse, which was the very approach Thor took in 2011. It's fascinating to see just how "Heroes Reborn" foreshadowed some pretty important comic book retcons and film plots.

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It's fashionable to dismiss "Heroes Reborn" as irrelevant, but the truth is that the range was ahead of its time. The execution wasn't perfect; some of the artwork in particular hasn't dated well. But the concept was revolutionary, and set the precedent for the Ultimate range and even for the MCU itself. It's hard to imagine what the world would look like if not for "Heroes Reborn."

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