Heroes Reborn #3

Review: The first installment gives us a remarkable look inside the brain of a super-speedster hero, showing us how scrambled his perceptions and thinking can be. He has the attention span of a “hummingbird on meth” which is why he keeps telling us how many TVs he owns (48) because he keeps forgetting he mentioned it (after a quick count). His origin has echoes of that of Doctor Strange (a visit to the Ancient One to learn about his powers), but his personality is pure Wally West, DC’s Flash. Silver Witch, introduced in issue #1, is Marvel’s Scarlet Witch if she had absorbed the powers of her late brother Pietro (Quicksilver), making her a suitable enemy for Blur. The second tale gives us an insight into the mind of a host of the Phoenix Force, Maya Lopez, formerly Echo and Ronin. As such it’s another nice character piece as we wait for the main plot to take off. See you in thirty!

Comments: Blur is the former Whizzer, which name wasn’t funny when the character was created. Silver Witch’s “No more speed” is a callback to the famous “No more mutants” cry of the Scarlet Witch but with fewer universal consequences.

Comments on tie-ins by RobFJ:-

1 tie-in was supposed to be published alongside this weekly issue but was delayed to next week. However I have backdated it and another tie-in to this issue because they fit better here.

Magneto And The Mutant Force:-

Years ago the X-Men revolted against a Mutant Registration Act and many of them including Prof X were killed by the Squadron in a Mutant Masaacre. Since then Magneto has created a secret refuge for mutants on Island M in the Bermuda Triangle. But now he hears Charles Xavier's voice in his head and believes that Prof X's mind took refuge there. He and his Mutant Force break Emma Frost out of a Squadron jail. She leads them into Magneto's mind to search for the Prof. But the person in his head turns out to be Charles' evil sister Cassandra Nova who escapes to menace the world.

This was the tie-in scheduled for this week. The connection with the main issue is that the flashback Squadron vs X-Men battle includes Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, and this climactic fight was probably where Blur killed Pietro causing Silver Witch to become his arch-foe.

Siege Society:-

Apparently in this reality the Civil War split the Squadron, and Nighthawk led his side to Europe leaving the US to Hyperion, Dr Spectrum and Power Princess. Now Baron Zemo's Hydra have located Nighthawk's base beneath the Tower Of London, and he's leading a team of mercenaries called Siege Society (Black Widow, Fire-Ant (Scott Lang), Hawkeye, Sabretooth, Silver Witch and Soviet Agent (surname Walkovitch)) to invade it. They are opposed by Amphibian, Arcanna, Blue Eagle, Golden Archer and Tom Thumb. Blur and Nighthawk arrive to stop them, but too late to save Amphibian, Arcanna and Golden Archer.

This tie-in is connected to this issue because it shows Blur and Silver Witch having a racing battle. (There are echoes of their conversations in the battles depicted in #1 and #3 of the main series, but they aren't identical. Presumably the pair often spar this way.) This is the 1st time we've learned that Blur and Nighthawk aren't with Hyperion. Looking back I find that HR#3 doesn't say anything about it either way. But #4 suggests that Dr Spectrum and Blur are still in communication. And in #1 they were all still working for President Phil Coulson. So maybe this issue is in the past and the team got back together again later. 1 reason why this issue was published next week with HR#4 might be that it shows Mephisto having replaced God in people's consciousness in this reality, which isn't revealed until #4.

Review: The first installment gives us a remarkable look inside the brain of a super-speedster hero, showing us how scrambled his perceptions and thinking can be. He has the attention span of a “hummingbird on meth” which is why he keeps telling us how many TVs he owns (48) because he keeps forgetting he mentioned it (after a quick count). His origin has echoes of that of Doctor Strange (a visit to the Ancient One to learn about his powers, but his personality is pure Wally West, DC’s Flash. Silver Witch, introduced in issue #1, is Marvel’s Scarlet Witch if she had absorbed the powers of her late brother Pietro (Quicksilver), making her a suitable enemy for Blur. The second tale gives us an insight into the mind of a host of the Phoenix Force, Maya Lopez, formerly Echo and Ronin. As such it’s another nice character piece as we wait for the main plot to take off. See you in thirty!

Comments: Blur is the former Whizzer, which name wasn’t funny when the character was created. Silver Witch’s “No more speed” is a callback to the famous “No more mutants” cry of the Scarlet Witch but with fewer universal consequences.