Doctor Doom finally gets to the end of the Heroes Reborn nonsense. As a bonus he’s written by Peter David, one of my favorite writers. Can he rescue Doom from this dumpster fire of a reboot?
Heroes Reborn: The Return #1 (1997)
by Peter David & Salvador Larroca
Doom doesn’t actually show up in the first two issues, so I’m not going into too much detail…
One new character introduced that will be very important in other Doom stories is Ashema, a Celestial that shows up on Earth by causing a massive explosion at an observatory…
…and taking the shape of a woman, who will go around wearing only a trench coat during the entire storyline.
She looks like this because the true form of a Celestial would scare the crap out of Franklin… but considering he’s like 5, I’m not sure being a naked woman in a trench coat is much better.
Also, Franklin is apparently so absurdly powerful that his existence makes Earth completely useless to the Celestials, since the planet has already created the most powerful being it can.
Well it turns out that the universe where all the Heroes Reborn stories took place is actually a pocket universe Franklin created subconsciously (!!!!), and again HE’S FIVE, so… yeah no argument about Franklin being the most powerful human.
Franklin is great character, but if you think too much about him, he’s TERRIFYING.
But the Celestials are terrifying as well. No wonder they scare the crap out of Loki.
Heroes Reborn: The Return #3 (1997)
by Peter David & Salvador Larroca
Basically nothing of substance happens in issue 2. I can’t think of a reason why things pick up in issue 3.
Among other things, Spider-Man is brought to the “Franklin-verse”…
…which I only mention because the reaction from the “reborn” heroes is hilarious.
Ashema arrived on Earth to wipe out one of the two universes, and Franklin MIGHT not be powerful to stop her on his own. So we basically need her to have a change of heart.
The standard solution would just for her to be converted by the goodness of the kid, but that’s a bit too cheesy. So Peter David adds a neat detail: since this entire alternate Earth was created by Franklin, reading his mind means Ashema is connected to EVERYBODY, and THAT changes her.
That’s just good writing.
Okay, time for Doctor Doom to make his grand entrance… and I do mean grand, because he shows up with a GINORMOUS spaceship!!!
See, this kind of stuff is exactly the reason why the heroes keep Doctor Doom around in these big crossovers: they spend several issues gathering clues, and then he shows up having figured out everything (and then some) on his own.
Also, the reason Doom has this huge ship is that he built one in case he needed to escape from Galactus last time. So… in addition to having a time machine to try saving the world several times in a row, he ALSO built himself this colossal vessel just in case!?
There’s being prepared for anything, there’s being Batman, and then there’s being Doctor Doom.
At this point the heroes have figured out A) this is not their place of origin B) this entire planet is less than a year old C) the planet is on borrowed time… so there’s only one solution: leave the “Franklin-verse”.
Franklin and the heroes argue with Ashema that there must be a way for both Earths to be allowed to exist… but the argument is cut short by the arrival of the Celestials.
Heroes Reborn: The Return #3 (1997)
by Peter David & Salvador Larroca
Proclamations that “things will change forever” can be funny in hindsight. Sometime it’s true, sometimes it’s utter bulls##t… the only things changing for the heroes is that they’ll be out of a terrible reboot.
I really don’t get what Doom is complaining about. What does he have in the reboot that he doesn’t have in the main timeline? He’s still scarred and he’s still the ruler of Latveria… if anything, the reboot version has it worse because he doesn’t have access to some of its absurd resources.
Considering he says this in the middle of a reunion of the “Knights of the Atomic RoundTable”, a.k.a his reboot college buddies?
Since the heroes are trying to save both worlds, the heroes that exist only in the reboot have to stay behind. That’s treated as being only Nikki Barnes, the girl Bucky…
…but that’s not technically correct. The Inhumans and She-Hulk board the ship as well, except these SHOULD be the reboot versions only… the originals didn’t “die” during Onslaught.
They’ll be completely ignored after the return, with the explanation given (outside of comics) that they “merged” with the originals… SOMEHOW.
Goes to show how little care was given to the reboot, and for once I can’t blame them.
Antagonizing a Celestial is rarely a good idea…
…but luckily for them, reading Franklin’s mind (and talking to other Celestials) made Ashema change her mind.
Like I said: RARELY a good idea.
It took forever to gather everyone, but the heroes finally board Doom’s ship as he shows example #432 of why he’s awesome.
Good thing Reed doesn’t remember Fantastic Four Annual #20 yet, otherwise I don’t think he’d let Doom get this close to his son.
On the other hand, if the Thing remembered what happened between him and Doom, he’d still make fun of him.
As always, Peter David writes a hilarious Spider-Man.
The heroes leave the pocket universe, which will survive thanks to Ashema. But Doom has to go all Doctor Doom about it, and decides to kidnap Franklin to steal his powers!
Last time Doom kidnapped Franklin, he was prepared to sell his soul. But that was to save Doom’s mother. Considering that her all he wants is to steal his powers, I seriously doubt he wants to seriously hurt the kid… although you wouldn’t be able to tell by his words.
In fact, Doom is ALREADY stealing part of Franklin’s power!!!
He’s even fantasizing as keeping Franklin as his son! Because things went so smoothly with Kristoff.
Is Reed talk about Doom having friends and respect BEFORE he became Doctor Doom? Because that’s not exactly how I’d describe his status during the reboot.
Despite the fact that the story has really pushed the idea of “either we all leave together or the plan won’t work”, Thor just takes Doom to another dimension and that doesn’t seem to cause any trouble.
The heroes cross the threshold to their original reality, getting back all their memories.
Peter David draws an interesting parallel between people who lost something in the reboot (Susan didn’t have her kid) and those whose life is crappier in the original universe (the Hulk, who of course David knows very well being his then-current writer)…
…plus I assume some meta-commentary on the futility of the reboot, highlighting that Captain America absolutely didn’t need it.
And that’s how the heroes return, with the last coda of Ashema promising that failing to agree to her terms will have consequences.
Ashema will still have a role in the Doom retrospective, but… nope, this won’t really have that much consequences.
Except the fact that Doom is presumed lost, leading to ANOTHER gap in his regular appearances!
Doom significance: 8/10
The existence of the “Franklin-verse” will be the cause of many Doom stories coming after this, plus it’s the reason for his second disappearance from the 90s.
Silver Age-ness: 1/10
The scene where Ashema turns Thor into a frog (a clear Simonson reference), but just barely.
Does it stand the test of time? 4/10
Despite my love for Peter David, this feels seriously rushed. Since I mostly covered the Doom stuff you might think I skipped a big chunk of the story, but… nothing really happens for a huge part of it! There are a couple of serious topics tossed around, but there isn’t time to focus on any of them.
And since the foundations of the reboot are incredibly flimsy, it’s basically impossible to feel much of anything for the world we’re leaving behind.
Well, we aren’t ant the “Franklin-verse” will get some much-needed depth soon… but if you take this miniseries alone, you won’t find much to be missed.
Crazy tech
Doom has a colossally huge spaceship (which can also shrink to microscopic size!) just laying around in case he needs one. Plus, his armor is able to absorb Franklin’s power; we don’t know how much (probably barely anything at all), but still impressive considering how little time he has to pull it off.