Warning! Spoilers to Heroes Reborn #2 below!
According to the new Heroes Reborn timeline, Marvel's version of Wonder Woman, the Power Princess, killed Adolf Hitler near the end of World War II. In this world where the Avengers were never created, their absence has been cleverly reworked with other characters replacing Steve Rogers and his iconic teammates in critical moments in Marvel history. Although Steve was not the person responsible for killing Hitler in the original Marvel timeline, the image of him punching the infamous dictator is one of his most iconic images and this replacement shows how in depth this deception was made to fool the entire world.
Created by Don Perlin and J.M DeMatteis in Defenders #112, this pastiche of DC Comics Wonder Woman grew up on Utopia Isle, an isolated society untouched by foreign civilization whose people were the result of genetic experimentation by the aliens known as the Kree. When the Utopians felt humanity had become too dangerous to coexist on the same planet, they left Earth with their princess Zarda to be their emissary on Earth, operating under her superhero codename, the Power Princess. Before she was a permanent member of the Squadron Supreme, she fought in World War II alongside the Golden Agency, her world's version of the Justice Society of America, where she met her husband Howard Shelton. She has remained a consistent member of the Squadron Supreme throughout the years despite changes to her backstory, personality, and history.
In Heroes Reborn, the world has been reimagined to have never seen the Avengers created, with the Squadron Supreme having replaced them, living their lives with no memory of their previous membership or history. With Blade as the only person who has retained his memories, his search coincides with learning more about how this world has been seemingly modified and changed. One such example takes place in Heroes Reborn #2 by Jason Aaron, Dale Keown, Carlos Magno, Ed McGuiness, Scott Hanna, and Mark Morales. Mark Milton, Hyperion's high school teacher secret identity, teaches his students that World War II began to end when the German forces surrendered following Adolf Hitler's death at the hands of Power Princess, a member of the Invaders.
Milton's lesson is important because it is not only a fantasy retelling of real-life events but also the earliest example of how Marvel's history has been edited and reformatted by powerful forces. Instead of Adolf Hitler's suicide alongside Eva Braun as American forces invaded Germany, Marvel originally had Human Torch and Toro of the Invaders interrupt Hitler's dishonorable death. When he refused to surrender and tried to activate a bomb, Torch made the choice to burn him alive, thus ending his threat. This has been replaced with a new history that references Power Princess' past in the Golden Age of comics similar to Wonder Woman while making her a member of Marvel's Invaders. Instead of Captain America famously punching Hitler, Power Princess takes it a step further by killing him, his death being the catalyst that begins the end of the Axis of Evil with Namor additionally replacing the atomic bomb with his own historical destruction.
While the discovery of Steve Rogers' body was important in the history of the Avengers, his absence has left a world that is in some ways better and some ways worse than the Marvel universe fans have grown to know. With Blade having found and revived Steve, Captain America wakes up again to an unrecognizable world, one where peace and prosperity is maintained by violence, brutality, and decisions that would have been resisted by him and the Avengers. With Power Princess' reimagined significance, Heroes Reborn continues to explore the theme of what kind of world would exist without the Avengers, who is responsible, and if Earth's Mightiest Heroes can restore the world and its history to what it once was.
from ScreenRant - Feed https://ift.tt/2SjqyB0
0 Comments