JASON AARON WRITER

ED McGUINNESS PENCILER

MARK MORALES INKER

MATTHEW WILSON COLORIST

VC’s CORY PETIT LETTERER

LEININ FRANCIS YU & SUNNY GHO COVER ARTISTS

Reviewed by Blue Fox

” ”THE MAN WHO REBOOTED THE WORLD”

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THE PREMISE

The Squadron Supreme has finally uncovered the hideout of the ‘so-called’ Avengers in Wakanda and is willing to go to any length to stop the cabal of heinous criminals. Nevertheless, the Avengers are willing to give all they have and more to see the world being set back straight again in this week’s concluding issue of Heroes Return #1 by Jason Aaron.

STORY

As is fitting for the final issue, the story opens with President Coulson revealing his cards. And thus, Jason Aaron is showing us Coulson casually murdering Peter Parker and a few other nosy busybodies. Furthermore, readers find that Coulson is booking it to Wakanda with reinforcements in the form of Carol Danvers’ Flight Squadron and the Pandemonium cube. The Avengers don’t stand a chance, or do they? Let’s get cracking!

SPOILERS

With the Squadron facing the Avengers team at Wakanda, the battle is much less one-sided than one would assume based on the previous showings. Why? Well, because Wakandan soil is filled with Krypt- ahem, Vibranium. And therefore, “Superion” has a very unhappy reaction realizing their flaw when Thor pushes his face into dirt… Meanwhile, Blur gets his $#$ kicked by Black Panther, and Dr. Spectrum reveals he actually has some morals -though grey they might be, by refusing to hurt “a child” aka Starbrand.

Starbrand is naturally pissed because his Dad, Rocket is dead and breaks the prism leaving spectrum powerless. This leaves us with the Power princess Zarda taking on the new Phoenix and Nighthawk facing Blade. Finally, the good Captain lets Coulson know his ire while Danvers has an epiphany from seeing Captain America alive. This is all very entertaining and perhaps even a little gratuitous. Aaron’s writing does not feel contrite or forced as so often happens when the heroes just have to ‘win’ at the end of the last issue. The Avengers winning the fight here feels earned.

ART

Ed McGuinness has the art duty in this last issue and his style is as recognizable as ever. Mark Morales handles the inking duties much better in this issue. Ed’s more cartoonish style seems to fit his way of inking much better than when he did it in issue #7 with Aaron Kuder. Mathew Wilson’s coloring and shading go nice with Ed’s style, giving readers some pretty and vibrant pages.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I wasn’t honestly expecting too much from Heroes Return #1. However, it actually surprised me positively. Most of the hanging plot threads were satisfactorily tied and the story gave us a few new major plot hooks for the future as well. I’m looking forward to the “Mephisto corps” and a new villain in the form of a vengeful Nighthawk. I guess it was only a matter of time before Marvel would reintroduce their “surrogate Batman” to us.

The only thing I found as something worth critiquing in this issue was Aaron using Blade as a writer surrogate to espy us with plot points that should have been shown and not told -ideally. It’s not a huge flaw and it felt a bit lazy. Jason Aaron finally delivers with the last issue of Heroes Reborn (Heroes Return) after some fumbling with the earlier books and gives us a deserving final issue.

8.5/10

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