Advance Review: Heroes Reborn: Hyperion & The Imperial Guard #1

The original “Heroes Reborn” was a 1996–97 crossover series tracked the events following the apparent deaths of the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and Doctor Doom battling Onslaught. Franklin Richards had built a Pocket Universe, called the Franklin-Verse. The main point to Heroes Reborn is that the characters origins and histories get an update that makes them more relevant to today’s readers. With Ryan Cady (The Punisher, Venom, The X-Files) as one of the writers it will be interesting to see what he has in mind.

Story Thus Far:

Heroes Reborn: Hyperion & The Imperial Guard #1, starts on the last day of Hyperion’s mission with the Imperial Guard. Most of the day has been wrapping up, administrative things. But there is one last thing to do, erase the mission log. Except there seems to be one loose end. Gladiator, the Praetor of the Imperial Guard wants to investigate Deathbird’s “Hidden Keep”, sealed with the Negative Zone. Unfortunately, once they arrive, there is no hidden treasure, but an ancient threat, that if unleashed could threaten the whole universe.

Dialogue:

I must give it to Cady, there were many different types of dialogues inserted and yet it was done efficiently. Trust me, it is not easy to go from introducing characters to creating revelatory dialogue. Yet, the transitions were quite smooth.

Art:

Interesting. The art creative team consists of Michael Bandini and Inked by Elizabeth D’amico. Colored by Erick Arciniega. You must appreciate how complicated the layouts were, and for that they were successful. In the future they need to let the panels speak for themselves, because the word bubbles often got in the way and were not needed.

Note to Comic Speculators:

An interesting thing to note is how much more some of the fringe characters have been used lately so it would not hurt to pick up their 1^st appearance on the cheap. Gladiator (X-Men #107); The Brood (Uncanny X-Men #155); Hyperion (Avengers #85).

SCORE: 4/5

Heroes Reborn: Hyperion & The Imperial Guard #1, Will have 2 covers: Cover A by Chris Sprouse; Cover B, Ben Caldwell.

Writer: Ryan Cady
Artist: Michael Bandini
Inker: Elizabeth D’amico
Colorist: Erick Arciniega
Letterer: Cory Petit
Publisher: Marvel Comics