Heroes Reborn #7; Written by Jason Aaron, Art by Aaron Kuder, Ed McGuinness
Heroes Reborn: Weapon X & Final Flight #1; Written by Ed Brisson; Art by Roland Boschi
Published by Marvel Comics
Wow, we’re already at the penultimate issue of the Heroes Reborn crossover’s main title. This has been pretty fun, reading new chapters of this crossover every week.
Each issue has given more to play with in this alt-reality that basically works like a DC dark timeline version of the Marvel Universe. And now that the previous issues dug us into each member of the Squadron Supreme of America, issue #7 gets to put the team together.
But in this case, the Squadron Supreme is coming together after a raft of issues that had driven them apart. This issue overall feels like a placeholder before we get to the confrontation between them and the Avengers seeking to correct reality: Captain America, Blade, Black Panther, Echo who possesses the Phoenix Force, and a mysterious child wielding the Starbrand.
But calling this a placeholder issue wouldn’t be entirely fair.
Just as the prior issues got into each member separately, this issue digs into the Squadron’s collective past. And that includes alt-reality versions of Avengers crossover events.
In this version of Civil War, the superhero registration act is involved, but the fight between Hyperion and Nighthawk mainly comes down to a love triangle with Power Princess.
And here, Avengers vs. X-Men becomes Squadron Supreme against Alpha Flight, the Canadian team, but now led by a Weapon X who never became Wolverine. And much like how Connecticut was left in ruins by Civil War, Weapon X says in a flashback that the Squadron made Canada into a wasteland.
I tell you, something’s wrong with that world. Everything is going wrong.
In this week’s lone tie-in book, Weapon X & Final Flight #1, we see even more just how wrong it’s all gone. This one reads like a Vertigo book, full of regrets and doom.
We find out that America invaded Canada, annexed British Columbia and Alberta for the lumber and oil, and bombed the rest to nothing. And the Squadron Supreme led the way.
Alpha Flight has remained on the run for two years since Weapon X killed Hyperion with enchanted adamantium claws to avenge the killing of Jean Gray during the America-Canada war. And the resistance against America’s might is proving increasingly futile.
As the team fractures between Weapon X and Sasquatch, we see the toll the constant fighting and running have taken. We see everyday Canadians rounded up and arrested for “harboring terrorists.” And when Hyperion returns from the dead, more nightmares in this nightmare world come to pass.
This is a nightmare world where Alpha Flight is betrayed and gives up. Where Power Princess’ Utopian sisters are all dead because of a virus from man’s world that Zarda unwittingly brought to the island. Where Nick Fury was president, gunned down, and a statue of the man sits in what was the Lincoln Memorial.
A plaque at the site reads, “In Mephisto We Trust.”
Ah, Mephisto.
His hands are everywhere, aren’t they? We see just how much in the backmatter story, which offshoots from the main story with what happens next in President Coulson’s chambers at the White House.
I don’t want to give much away, but the sinister power finally shows himself and his gambit in shocking fashion.
We’re coming toward the end. Prepare for all hell to break loose!
