Written by Jason Aaron
Art by R. M. Guera, Ed McGuinness
Published by Marvel Comics
After the previous issue let the cat out of the bag that Mephisto is worshiped as the god in “god-fearin’ American,” this issue of the Heroes Reborn main title drops concentration on that.
Instead, for the most part we get a straightforward issue about Nighthawk, who is Marvel’s Batman.
Does he have a running internal monologue about his parents’ death and the hole inside him that only punching psychotic super-criminals in the face can assuage?
Yes.
Does he say “hrm” in the fashion of Grant Morrison’s “hh” vocal tick?
Of course.
Does he fight a rogues gallery of colorful freaks and monsters that he also understands because they’re what he could have been instead of choosing to fight for justice?
Most definitely.
Is his archenemy a grinning, cackling madman who killed his sidekick?
Don’t you forget it, buddy.
Does R.M. Guera’s art, with great figures and lots of heavy ink and shadows, resemble onetime Batman artist the late John Paul Leon?
Mmm-hmm.
But there are some differences in this “darkest timeline” despite the many similarities to the Dark Knight.
Unlike Bruce Wayne, Kyle Richmond did not have an Alfred or other parent-like person in his life to show him affection or at least how to grow up.
Multibillionaire Bruce Wayne whose family owned much of the very land that became Gotham City, deeply ensconced in power, and Batman can be read as a manifestation of aristocratic ownership.
Kyle, however, is a Black man and Washington, D.C.’s delegate to the U.S. Congress. In Congress, he doesn’t have a vote. Nighthawk is a whole other power fantasy for him – a chance to take power back in the city for those who are kept from it.
Not that we see much of that in this issue.
There’s a riot at Ravencroft Asylum, and many of the supervillains Nighthawk has put there over the years have attacked and killed guards and hospital staff. Kraven the Hunter has broken outside and is attacking cops when smoke overtakes the scene.
Commissioner Luke Cage calls off the police units upon finding Kraven, tied up and suspended upside down from a lamppost. “The one-man SWAT team just rolled in,” Cage says over the radio.
And then we see more of this alt-reality’s villains. Many of them we’ve seen already in the Heroes Reborn main title and tie-ins, such as Sabretooth, Bullseye, Lizard. But here they are established as Nighthawk’s villains.
In Nighthawk’s layer, we also see a trophy case with Winter Soldier’s cybernetic arm, Silver Samurai’s helmet, Elektra’s sai. Many of Spider-Man’s villains turn up, as well – almost as an inside joke about how DC runs damn near everything through Batman these days.
We also get our first real interaction with Green Goblin in person, and it cribs heavily from The Dark Knight Returns in imagery.
But if Nighthawk is this reality’s greatest detective, he hasn’t quite figured out that this reality is wrong. Though he’s intrigued when Goblin tells him to not let the world go back to the way it was before.
In his case files later, Nighthawk notes that Echo left the asylum days before the riot happened, and finds security footage. There’s Blade, and Echo of course.
But wait, is that a star-spangled shield?
The backmatter story continues with Jason Aaron and Ed McGuinness, as Nighthawk battles a Court of Owls-looking enemy. But when Nighthawk throws his adamantium-level steel hawkarangs, the figure cuts right through them with a sword. What metal in the Marvel Universe could be stronger than adamantium?
Oh, I think you can guess. And it’s the guy often considered the Batman of the Avengers, were they to exist on this planet. A master tactician with ungodly technology, and likely one of the few to deduct the world’s not right.
And now Blade, Steve Rogers and Echo show up on his doorstep.
