Written by Jason Aaron
Art by Dale Keown, Ed McGuinness
Published by Marvel Comics
Just when you’d think the next issue in Heroes Reborn would continue with Blade’s mission to undo this tinkered-with reality after freeing Captain America from the ice, it goes in another direction.
Instead, the issue focuses on Hyperion, the Marvel Universe’s Superman, a solar-powered hero of limitless atomic might. But this Hyperion appears to combine red state American jingoism with lethal, state-sanctioned force whenever he feels justified.
Galactus arrives in New York, ready to drain the Earth of all elemental life for his sustenance. And not soon after he gets off one “so speaks Galactus,” Hyperion comes at him faster than the Silver Surfer as a speeding bullet through Galactus’ cosmic brain.
Bang! Pow! Right in the kisser!
Picking up from when Hyperion stopped Doctor Doom’s Juggernaut-fueled attack on the White House, the super-sentinel of liberty tracks down escapees from Reed Richards’ Negative Zone dimension. Who doesn’t love a montage of superhero exploits?
Jason Aaron uses this sequence to explore further alternate versions of Marvel characters in a world without the Avengers. Among them, Hank Pym was an ant-sized sidekick to Hyperion who is consumed by his own size-changing tech that becomes Ultron.
We also meet Gladiator and other former members of the Imperial Guard, who have since been infected by the Brood and transformed into monsters along with the entire Shi’Ar Imperium.
And then there’s Peter Parker, kid photographer at the Daily Bugl,e who fancies himself Hyperion’s Pal and always gets into clumsy trouble in true Jimmy Olsen fashion. Will he be turned into a giant turtle, or perhaps a man-spider?
But after an encounter with the Hulk, Hyperion’s confidence in this world is shaken. Hulk kept speaking backwards about how this world was wrong somehow, asking about the Avengers and where Steve is.
But Hyperion suppresses those uneasy feelings and takes a soak in the sun.
Dale Keown and Carlos Magno frequently frame Hyperion as not the pure-hearted hero you’d expect. He crowds panels, throwing his weight and height around in the presence of mere mortals. His fights feel brutal and coldly efficient. The domino mask doesn’t help, either.
Just when you think the story is over, a piece of backmatter arrives as an epilogue. It picks up with Blade and a freed Steve Rogers, and it’ll be interesting to see their road trip unfold.
