When Heroes Reborn arrives, the Marvel Comics universe will see some of its biggest characters take on whole new identities in their fight against the Squadron Supreme.
Writer Jason Aaron, who will tackle the event inspired by -- but not connected to -- the controversial '90s arc of the same name, spoke to ComicBook.com about some of the biggest characters debuting in the series. One that immediately caught the attention of fans was Doctor Juggernaut, a combination of Doctor Doom and the Juggernaut. But Aaron says this villain is no mere mashup.
"I wouldn't call them mashed-up characters. This is just a world where a lot of the powers and weapons we know have ended up in different hands, for various reasons," Aaron said. "Doctor Doom is still Doctor Doom, but when your arch-enemy is Hyperion, the strongest man in the Marvel Universe, it inspires you to seek out the Gem of Cyttorak, thus giving us Doctor Juggernaut. We'll also meet the Black Skull, the Silver Witch, the unstoppable All-Gog and Thanos with his Infinity Rings."
In the event, the Squadron Supreme will take the place of the Avengers. But while Earth's Mightiest Heroes have made some dubious choices, the Squadron is more akin to The Seven from The Boys.
"The new Squadron Supreme of America have been a big part of my Avengers run almost since the beginning, and that has all been leading to this," Aaron said. "As militantly-nationalist, government-sponsored heroes operating out of Washington D.C., they've been calling themselves 'America's Mightiest Heroes' for a while now. In Heroes Reborn, they become much more. In this world where the Avengers never formed, the Squadron are now and have forever been Earth's Mightiest Heroes."
Rather than a mashup of characters similar to Infinity Warps, Heroes Reborn will see major events in Marvel Comics history play out differently. Doom, for instance, a life-long practitioner of the mystical arts, will seek out the powerful Crimson Gem of Cyttorak, which grants Juggernaut his supernatural strength and durability. Mixed with Doom's magic and scientific genius, it will make him a clear threat to Hyperion.
"So you're looking at a Marvel timeline that played out radically different," Aaron continued. "When Galactus first came to earth, it wasn't the Fantastic Four who were there to face him. When the Green Goblin threw someone to their death from the George Washington Bridge, it wasn't Spider-Man who was there screaming. When a civil war tore apart the Marvel heroes, it wasn't Iron Man and Captain America who were fighting at its center. Heroes Reborn drops us into the middle of a world where the Marvel landscape has been radically recast and reshuffled, in some ways that I think will be surprising."
Heroes Reborn #1, by Jason Aaron and Ed McGuinness, goes on sale on May 5 from Marvel Comics.
Source: ComicBook.com