One of the early initiatives put into place to capitalise on the mid-nineties comic book boom was the Heroes Reborn reboot. Essentially Marvel's version of DC's New 52 on a smaller scale, Heroes Reborn even included the same creative team of Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld being handed the keys to the kingdom with which they could do whatever they wanted. Apparently what they wanted to do was cancel and relaunch previously successful titles with unnecessary continuity changes, provide terrible artwork, and infuriate their readers. Having been supposedly "killed off" during the best-forgotten Onslaught crossover, it was explained that the Fantastic Four, Captain America and the Avengers had been brought back to life within a pocket universe created by Mr Fantastic's superpowered son Franklin. Apparently Franklin had the same instincts as a grown editor, as he update the characters in banal (Ben Grimm was now a Gulf War fighter pilot, rather than serving in WWII) and strange (Captain America got wings on his head instead of an A). The revisions were not popular amongst fans or Marvel themselves, who regretted outsourcing the reboot to Lee and Liefeld's independent Image Comics, eventually cancelling the Captain America series (which would later be reborn itself elsewhere) and returning the characters to the regular Marvel Universe we all know and love.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
