Heroes Reborn presents a Marvel Earth without the Avengers

Marvel Comics will revive the title of its alt-reality '90s story 'Heroes Reborn' for a new take on a tale of a world without the Avengers from writer Jason Aaron and artist Ed McGuiness, the longtime creative team of the current Avengers volume, who launched the title together.

In the new 'Heroes Reborn' the Phoenix Force will destroy and "rebirth" the Earth without its mightiest heroes, with many Marvel characters thrust into totally different, sometimes mashed-up roles and identities as a result - many of whom were revealed in last week's round of character teasers.

"Welcome to a world where Tony Stark never built an Iron Man armor. Where Thor is a hard-drinking atheist who despises hammers. Where Wakanda is dismissed as a myth. And where Captain America was never found in the ice, because there were no Avengers to find him," reads Marvel's somewhat ominous description of Heroes Reborn. 

"Instead this world has always been protected by Earth's Mightiest Heroes, the Squadron Supreme of America. And now the Squadron face an attack from some of their fiercest enemies, like Dr. Juggernaut, the Black Skull, the Silver Witch and Thanos with his Infinity Rings," it continues. "Blade is the one man alive who seems to remember that the entire world has somehow been… reborn. And so begins his search for the cause behind this ominous shift in reality."

Aaron has been building to the concept in his Avengers run for some time, with the Phoenix Force playing a role in the lore of several stories tied to the history of the Marvel Universe, and most recently coming to Earth for the current 'Enter the Phoenix' arc, in which the Phoenix Force seeks a new host.

"Maybe the wildest story I've ever put on paper. I got to cut loose on this and release my inner comic-reared child in a really profound way, and together with a cadre of immensely imaginative artists, we built a world that I'm pretty confident in saying is quite unlike any version of the Marvel Universe you've seen before," Aaron states in the announcement of Heroes Reborn. 

"It grew out of the pages of my Avengers run, but kept getting bigger and bigger as it went, and the more pieces I put in place for this Reborn world, the more gleeful and excited I became. This project really stoked the fires of my love for comics in all the right ways."

"It's only natural that after the Phoenix burns the world to ash, there should come a rebirth, and so Reborn is the next big step in the massive super-story that Jason and Ed have been crafting in Avengers," adds executive editor Tom Brevoort. "Prepare to enter a very different yet hauntingly familiar Marvel Universe!"

McGuiness helped launch Aaron's Avengers, and has returned to the title throughout its run. McGuiness and Aaron will now reunite for the 'Heroes Reborn' limited series.

"I've been having an absolute blast designing and drawing some new spins on old favorites Jason Aaron has brought to the table," McGuinness states. "They are all with a purpose story-wise which makes them really cool to get into from the art side of things. He may be the maddest scientist of all!"

Check out more from 'Heroes Reborn' in Marvel's announcement trailer and stay tuned to Newsarama for updates as the story develops. 

Heroes Reborn #1 is due out in May.

Will Heroes Reborn have the impact of these ten events that changed the Marvel Universe?