I’m going to save you some time, and some reading. Heroes Reborn: Iron Man is terrible. It’s just atrociously bad. Our formatting system on AIPT doesn’t allow for negative points, but if I could give negative points for something, I would give it to this series. With the exception of the outright offensive books, this may be the worst comic series I have ever read. And I’ve read some real bad comics.
(This is a nice hint for everyone; don’t read AC Comics’ Femforce.)
Heroes Reborn: Iron Man is bad on basically every level you can judge a comic. The art is inconsistent between – if not within – issues. Every single woman is wildly oversexualized. The plot itself is basically incomprehensible. Everyone’s emotional characterization changes from one issue to the next. We’re supposed to seriously care about Tony Stark’s friend “Rebel.” It’s just bad!
But I’m going to be honest. If you know anything about comics, you know this already. So, I’m going to tell you why there’s a couple decent ideas in here.
Because Heroes Reborn does have a core idea here that is pretty good. After all, a simplified Marvel universe shorn of the mutants, and with the Hulk and Spider-Man not having as central a role is a good idea in its own right. We know this, after all, because the same basic idea is what is driving the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but the MCU has become mildly successful.
It’s the same with the art. Listen, I am not a Rob Liefeld fan. The art is not traditionally good. But the critiques of Liefeld that because his art isn’t realistic – because the people in his art don’t look like anyone you can find in real life – is silly. Yes, Liefeld’s people are not realistic. That’s a correct statement. But I don’t believe that was ever the point with his art. He’s trying to create a sense of emotion from the viewer when you see the character. No one thinks that his Iron Man is anything like a real person, sure. But you get the sense of emotion and characterization from the image that you don’t necessarily get from simple photorealism.
Think of it as like Modigliani. Modigliani’s art isn’t at all photo-realistic. But it was never trying to be.
So, yes. Heroes Reborn: Iron Man is bad. It’s really, really bad. But deep inside, if you shovel past all the feces, there are some good, interesting ideas.
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