Publication History
Following the apparent deaths of the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and Dr. Doom battling Onslaught in Onslaught: Marvel Universe, they were "reborn" and certain aspects of their earlier stories were expanded with the intent of telling their adventures anew for modern generations. This was explained, in-story, as their having been transported into a pocket universe by Franklin Richards, the near-omnipotent, psychic son of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, to save them, where they lived in the so-called "Franklin-verse", oblivious to what had happened to them. The characters' origins and histories were revised and updated circa mid-nineties for modern audiences. For instance, Ben Grimm fought as a pilot in the Gulf War instead of World War II, and Susan and Johnny Storm were explained to have been financial backers for Reed Richards' rocket, hence their presence on the mission. In addition, while Richards' goal of becoming the first man to get to Mars remained, it was revealed that he secretly aimed to explore the interstellar anomalies of that area.
For this reworking, Marvel "farmed out" the properties to some of their former employees who had left the company to form Image Comics. Jim Lee's Wildstorm Productions studios handled Fantastic Four and Iron Man, and Rob Liefeld's Extreme Studios took the reins of The Avengers and Captain America. However, after six issues, Marvel attempted to renegotiate Liefeld and Lee's contracts, offering them less money for the projects. Liefeld rejected the revised contract, while Lee accepted the new terms and took over Liefeld's titles. While Avengers had performed poorly with fans for Liefeld's issues, Walt Simonson took over the book when it moved to WildStorm and produced a well-regarded conclusion. Although the four titles in "Heroes Reborn" were slated for a 12-issue run, James Robinson wrote a thirteenth and final issue for each book. The storyline, entitled "World War III", was a crossover between the Marvel and WildStorm characters.
The changes to the characters were controversial, provoking debates amongst fans. However, all of the titles experienced a large upsurge in sales.
At the end of the storyline, the Fantastic Four and Avengers were returned to the mainstream Marvel Universe, again through the intervention of Franklin Richards, in the miniseries Heroes Reborn: The Return (She-Hulk and several members of the Inhuman Royal Family were incorrectly depicted as returning heroes, even though they were not among the missing heroes from Onslaught: Marvel Universe). The ensuing storyline, dubbed "Heroes Return" was once again created in-house at Marvel Comics.
Read more about this topic: Heroes Reborn
Famous quotes containing the words publication and/or history:
“An action is the perfection and publication of thought. A right action seems to fill the eye, and to be related to all nature.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“There has never been in history another such culture as the Western civilization M a culture which has practiced the belief that the physical and social environment of man is subject to rational manipulation and that history is subject to the will and action of man; whereas central to the traditional cultures of the rivals of Western civilization, those of Africa and Asia, is a belief that it is environment that dominates man.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)