In 2021, Marvel published a new Heroes Reborn storyline. The company loves confusing readers by using the same titles over and over. But why Heroes Reborn? The 1996 original storyline was not a success and does in fact has not the best reputation. Let’s take a look back at that strange pure 1990s experiment.
Everything started in 1992 when Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, Rob Liefeld, Erik Larsen, Whilce Portacio, Jim Valentino, and Marc Silvestri left Marvel to form Image Comics. Those creators found big success at Marvel. In fact, they were quite famous and wanted the company to recognize that in ways that were not agreeable for Marvel—they wanted better treatment, pay, and rights.
Everybody thought that they were coming back quickly, but Image became an instant hit that changed the industry forever. And then, the comic speculator bubble burst in 1993, changes in the distribution of comics created cash flow difficulties for some publishers, and poor sales numbers certainly didn’t help.
In fact, 1996 was a very bad year for Marvel. In January, the stock price dropped, and 275 staffers were laid off, and it was not the first time nor the last that year. In December, Marvel Comics declared bankruptcy—in truth, that was mostly the result of a battle to control the company between leaders that didn’t care for comics.
Times were bad. Before they reach this level though, a marketing strategy was thought out: what if Marvel made peace with Image? That’s what Marvel President Jerry Calabrese proposed to the Image founders, and it took the form of a contract. Marvel decided to outsource the creation of some of its comics to Image. The publicity alone should put Marvel back on top!
Todd McFarlane and most of the Image creators didn’t want to do it, except Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld. At first, they were supposed to produce crossovers, but things evolved in a different direction. Lee and Liefeld instead licensed Marvel books. The contract was for 12 months, but each side could opt out after six. Marvel had to pay 2 million $ in advance and give full creative freedom to the Image guys—they still had veto power over storylines though.
The Heroes Are Reborn
Before Heroes Reborn, there was Onslaught, a juggernaut of a crossover that put an end to the Marvel Universe as we knew it. It’s pure ’90s comics with so many characters, convoluted plot twists, and deaths… Onslaught was the ultimate X-Men villain as he was a sentient psionic entity created from the consciousness of Professor Charles Xavier and Magneto. Putting an end to his reign of terror required the disappearance of a lot of characters, mostly the Avengers and the Fantastic Four.
Everybody thought they die, but it was not the case. Instead, they have been transported into a pocket universe by Franklin Richards—aka the Franklin-verse. That’s where Heroes Reborn took us, in this alternate reality where their origins were rewritten. The line was composed of four books. Jim Lee’s WildStorm Productions was in charge of Fantastic Four and Iron Man, and Rob Liefeld’s Extreme Studios took over The Avengers and Captain America.
Fans were not all happy with the rewriting of the characters, especially with Captain America as the previous run (by Mark Waid and Ron Garney) was critically well received.
In “Heroes Reborn,” the world is without heroes, especially since Captain America disappeared decades ago. When we met this Steve Rogers, he is a Pittsburgh steelworker who has forgotten his alter ego. This changed when it’s time to stop the civil war started by the Red Skull. Thor, the Vision, Scarlet Witch, and Hawkeye fight at his side—Iron Man, joined them a bit later. Stark just only started wearing the armor after a violent meeting with the Hulk, he then went on fighting Hydra. The Fantastic Four’s story was also rewritten, but the key elements were still there and the classic enemies were revisited.
Costumes were redesigned, fans were unsatisfied, and creators became frustrated by the responses.
The Unavoidable Cancellation
Without surprise, the launch of “Heroes Reborn” was a smashing success. The idea of having Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld “coming back” to Marvel was certainly intriguing, especially at that time. But they didn’t save the company as the sales of the different titles quickly plummeted. They sold better than before, but not to the expected level. As a consequence, Marvel terminated its contract with Liefeld’s Extreme Studios (around issues 7 and 8) and Jim Lee’s Wildstorm took over Captain America and Avengers.
Lee brought in Walt Simonson and Michael Ryan on Avengers, and James Robinson on Captain America. Sales went up as they produce stories that were more in the style of Marvel. Things went smoothly and a 13th issue was added to the order, but that was it (everything is available in one omnibus). The plan was for a year and Marvel stuck to it. The heroes made their return.
As for Rob Liefeld, he didn’t take the firing very well and decided to use his plan for Captain American in a new series called “Agent: America.” Marvel was not happy and lawyers got involved, but Liefeld found a way out by licensing “The Fighting American” (Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s creation) and published his work under that title as a relaunch of the old heroes.
The Heroes Returned
After a year, the Celestials asked that Franklin Richards eliminates one of the two universes. He, of course, decided to keep the Earth-616 alive and well, but he also worked to bring back everybody before the disappearance of the Alternate Universe.
Titled “Heroes Reborn: The Return,” this story was a four-issue miniseries by writer Peter David and artist Salvador Larocca. More miniseries, annuals, one-shots, and regular issues were used to complement the story around the return (available in one omnibus). After that, new volumes of Fantastic Four, Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor were launched, marking the start of a new era.
Marvel hoped to make a huge comeback to the top with Heroes Reborn, but the strategy was flawed and weakened the brand as the readers were not satisfied with the stories and the industry realized that the company didn’t believe in its own creators.
In fact, Marvel’s problems were far from fixed at that point, but it’s another story. As for the Image guys, it is said that the way Rob Leifeld dealt with this business venture contributed to his departure from the company in September 1996. Things went in a different direction with Jim Lee as Wildstorm found more success and was ultimately bought by DC Comics in 1999.