Heroes Reborn might be the most fun you can have with comics right now if you’re a fan of the Big Two. This week, Jason Aaron and Erica D’Urso focus their sights on Power Princess, who serves as a kind of Thor, not the Squadron Supreme, but also a dead ringer for Wonder Woman. As the series has shown, the world’s greatest heroes aren’t so heroic, and it’s Power Princess’s turn this week.
This issue opens with Power Princess fighting All-Gog, who is basically Mangog but with more clothing. They are somewhat equally matched, though All-Gog is certain he can defeat Power Princess. As has been shown with the other heroes on the Squadron Supreme, its members play dirty. Power Princess makes short work of All-Gog and relishes in the gore and brutality of it. Cut to Power Princess guzzling wine and being totally bored when she isn’t killing anything. One can see how Aaron is mirroring Thor here, the drunkard when not fighting, but Power Princess is far more evil in her nature.
The fun of this story lies in how Aaron weaves familiar Marvel stories and history into this new alternate reality. War of the Realms and Namor, just to name two, are spoken of by Power Princess via her captions. She’s clearly lived a full life that has skimmed the truths of the main Marvel universe, but it has simply lacked the Avengers. This issue also offers a major conflict using the main Avenger which progresses things nicely.
That’s a cold move, Power Princess.
Credit: Marvel Comics
D’Urso, with colors by Jason Keith, draws a kinetic and at times frenetic comic book. There’s an interesting play with a perspective that elongates Power Princess elastic. When she punches the Avenger mentioned in the previous paragraph, her fist is larger than her head, but the perspective is such that it’s closer to the reader. It’s a fun, at times cartoony look that gives the book a true comic book feel. Keith’s colors are a touch muted, making it less Golden Age comics and more modern fare.
There’s also a backup by Aaron, Ed McGuinness, Mark Morales, and Matthew Wilson that further reveals how Power Princess has taken care of some major threats that Thor struggled with. This series has done a good job establishing the fact that the Squadron Supreme is superpowered, overly so, and thus something is going on to overpower them. It also subtly raises the stakes as we know the Avengers will eventually confront this team. McGuiness’ clean and larger-than-life style is much appreciated which gives these god-like figures ample room to show off.
This series is less an event and more of a series of episodic one-shots, which is fine once you accept it. That said, it does make this issue, and those that came before it, feel less of a plot progressing event and more of a fun nod to DC Comics characters mixing in with Marvel history. For that, the story can feel simplistic and is trickier to buy into.
Heroes Reborn #6 focuses its attention on Power Princess, an impressive fill-in for Thor albeit much more evil. Seeing how a godlike figure with a temper and moral failings serves as a major hero in the Marvel universe is intriguing thanks to nods to familiar events and stories.
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