Multiversal Avengers Archives: Avengers of Heroes Reborn

In Earth 7062, the heroes who you might know from the 1960s get their origins updated to the 1990s. Looking cooler, younger and stronger, this is the kind of hero you would like to see in TV!

On July 3rd, 1994, Washington D.C. was attacked by some sort of "Lava Men", but luckily Captain America, his sidekick Bucky and a bunch of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents were able to stop them from getting to any innocent civilians. However, the shocking realization was in seeing the reports from other parts of the country: Iron Man was fighting a trio of the creatures in New York, Goliath and Wasp fought them in Chicago and Thor fought more of them in Alaska, and it all happened at the same time.

Fearing another organized attack at any time of the day, General Nick Fury, leader of S.H.I.E.L.D., demanded that Captain America contacted the other heroes to find the source of the attacks, and so he did. The heroes got to S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ quickly and soon they started investigating the source of the attacks, which Goliath discovered to be an underground base in Arizona. The heroes managed to get there in time before any other attack could be launched and begun fighting more Lava Men before Captain America got to the source: A man called Rupert Elder, who was controlling the Lava Men with a telepathic helmet. Cap disconnected the helmet, after which all Lava Men dissolved, and Rupert began crying. With all other heroes present, Rupert began explaining what was going on. He was contacted by S.H.I.E.L.D. a few years ago to develop some new disposable life forms that they could use as soldiers. While he started developing the Lava Men, they proved to be too unstable to use and he was fired from the project without warning. Having been treated as if he was nobody for his whole life, and now by a whole government agency, Rupert decided to take the supervillain codename "Mole Man" and start organizing an attack on different parts of the country to take his vengeance against society.

The heroes took Rupert to S.H.I.E.L.D. custody, but felt betrayed by Fury, who knew the origins of the Lava Men and didn't want to tell anyone to keep secrets safe, and no one felt more betrayed than Captain America, who had been working with him ever since he was unfrozen. However, the heroes realized they did a lot of good together and figured that they could work together outside of S.H.I.E.L.D. as a real team. And when the question turned into how they would do that, Iron Man came up with an idea...
The next day, on July 4th, Stark Industries made a public act so that Tony Stark, the company's CEO, could make an announcement, one he claimed would change human history forever. He talked about how for the past years he had been telling the world that the superhero Iron Man was his bodyguard, but that was all a lie: He was Iron Man, and was tired of pretending he wasn't. He felt this was the right time to tell that to the world, since from now on, Stark Industries would officially sponsor the world's first superhero team: The Avengers!
In that moment, his fellow heroes showed up behind him, and a picture of all 5 heroes was taken that would mark the beginning of a new era of heroism: The Age of the Avengers!

Captain America: Steve Rogers was a young boy in 1940 who received a Super-Soldier Serum to become the main force of good to fight the nazis in America. Going by Captain America, he fought many enemies, but his worst one was the Red Skull, a Nazi German Super-Soldier who could match Rogers' strength. After a fatal fight with Red Skull, it seemed like Steve and his sidekick Bucky Barnes had perished in battle, but in actuality Steve had survived and was found frozen in a block of ice. Agents from the defense agency S.H.I.E.L.D. found Steve in 1991 and unfroze him, and they discovered it was the serum which had kept him alive all those years. However, the effects of the serum were starting to wear off, and they needed a way to keep Steve alive, so they gave him an armor which would restore his youth and make him as strong as he once was with the serum. Now once again being able to be a hero, Steve took the mantle of Captain America once again, and with Buckey Barnes's granddaughter, Rikki Barnes, as his new sidekick (Also going by the codename "Bucky"), he felt like he was in his glory days, even if it was in a world very different to the one he once lived in.

Iron Man: After losing his parents at 18 years of age, young Anthony Stark didn't know what to do with the company he inherited from them. His mentor, Obadiah Stane, persuaded him into turning Stark Industries into a weapons manufacturer for the U.S. government, and without realizing the implications of that, Tony agreed and followed Obadiah's instructions.
10 years later, and fully invested in the weapons manufacturing business, Tony had been drinking a lot to not feel responsible about the damage he was doing to the world and his contributions to the wars going around in the world, but he had a moment of clarity when he was dragged to a battlefield by accident during the testing of one of his newest weapons. When he got back home, Tony realized he couldn't sell the project he had been working on for the last few years, the Iron Man armor, because the damage it could do to the world would be immeasurable, even more if it got mass produced. However, he also felt it needed to be used for good, and so he decided to use it himself, becoming a superhero of some sort.
His first outings were hard, and people started suspecting why Iron Man showed up always around Stark Industries related stuff, so Tony explained Iron Man was not only a superhero but also his personal bodyguard. This angered Obadiah, who quickly figured out Tony was Iron Man and hiding it from everyone. He was also angry at Tony when he decided to turn the company into a Research and Development company again, and so he commissioned an armor similar to Tony's to some scientists.
Calling himself Iron Monger, Obadiah attacked Iron Man in public and claimed to be his "archenemy", and while he managed to put a good fight against him, his armor eventually malfunctioned and got him killed.
This traumatized Tony, who saw Obadiah as a friend, but that didn't stop him from being Iron Man, and he kept on fighting against many other supervillains.

Thor: Donald Blake was a doctor in his mid 20s who went in a trip to Norway with his family, including his wife and fellow doctor, Jane Foster. The family was taking residence on a cottage on the mountains, and while Donald was appreciating the view on his own, two weird black crows stood on his shoulder, and began talking to him. Donald used a cane to help him walk, so the crows scared him and made him fall, but they continued talking. The crows told Donald that he wasn't an ordinary human, but rather a reincarnation of the Norse god Thor, after the Ragnarök devastated all of the Norse pantheon. Donald clearly had a hard time believing them, but also had a hard time believing crows could talk, so he kept listening. They told him that he could transform his cane into the hammer of Thor, Mjolnir, and it would prove useful soon, since some Frost Giants from the mystic realm of Jotunheim were about to attack.
While Donald still needed some more solid proof, the proof came to him, since he then saw some giant figures walking on the river at distance. He quickly got down to the cottage where his family was and closed it with keys, telling them to stay safe there. Then, listening to the crows' instructions, he hit the cane against the ground, which transformed him into Thor and his cane into Mjormir.
The crows told him how to use Mjormir to fly, how to throw it against an enemy and how to invoke storm, thunder and lightning. Donald used those skills in his favor and, after a though fight, he managed to defeat the Frost Giants, who now truly believed the God of Thunder was back.
After that, Donald had a hard time explaining what happened, but he managed to convince his family that it was just a storm. But when he got back to America, Donald realized his whole life had changed forever, and while he didn't know how to process the information, he knew what he had to do to: Keep protecting the innocents and be a hero. Thus, he continued acting as Thor and became a very well-known superhero.

Goliath: Hank Pym was a scientist who one day discovered something amazing: Particles which could make the size of matter increase or decrease. Calling them Pym Particles in his honor, he decided to use them for good and took the mantle and secret identity of Goliath. Unlike other fellow masked individuals, Hank didn't fight crime or supervillains, but rather used his ability to increase his size to help around natural disasters, rescue people from distress and so on. Hank saw crimefighting as something beneath him and that lesser heroes could do. However, that would change one day when Hank's lab assistant (whom he had grown to have a very close relationship with), Janet Van Dyne, had been kidnapped by a scientist supervillain called Dr. Nemesis, who performed some experiments on her. Goliath found Nemesis after he experimented on Janet and began to fight him, which was hard since Nemesis could also increase and decrease size (he had stolen Pym Particles). Hank defeated his rival, but then saw what was done to Janet and was horrified: Nemesis had turned her into a hybrid of a human and a wasp. Hank took her to his lab and tried to reverse engineer it, and while she looked a bit less bug-like, she still had Wasp features and couldn't go around pretending to be a human. It was at this point that Janet revealed the truth to Hank: She was a double agent working for S.H.I.E.L.D., the government agency focused on superhuman affairs, but while she was sent there to spy on his research, she ended up falling for him and wanted to continue their relationship. Hank did feel betrayed, but was glad that Janet told him the truth, and feel it was his fault that she got kidnapped, so he accepted, and they continued dating. Not only that, but using her newly given superpowers, Janet took on the codename Wasp and began a crimefighting career, alongside Hank.

Wasp: Janet Van Dyne was a high level S.H.I.E.L.D. agent sent to spy on Hank Pym, a man who discovered particles that could increase and decrease the size of matter, and crafted himself the identity of Goliath. While originally sent just to spy on him, Janet did end up falling for Hank, and they started dating. However, one day while Hank wasn't on the lab, a villain called Dr. Nemesis broke in and kidnapped Janet. Dr. Nemesis also used the so called "Pym Particles" to execute his crimes, but he wanted a "queen" to accompany him during his escapades, and so he began experimenting on Janet. Goliath came to the rescue and defeated Nemesis, but he had already experimented on Janet, and turned her into a wasp-like creatures. Hank tried to revert it back in his lab and managed to make her appear a bit more human, but she was still clearly wasp-looking, with wings in her back, slightly yellow skin and some other features that made it obvious she was not a human. However, she also could use her wings to fly, could shot blasts of energy from her hands and shrink her size, so she was in condition to be (and *wanted* to be) a superhero along with Hank. It was around this time she confessed to Hank she was actually a spy, but she did fall in love with him and wanted their relationship to continue, which Hank agreed to. And so, Janet became the heroine known as Wasp, who used humor to try to forget the fact she didn't look like a human to the world anymore.

Black Panther: T'Challa is the son of T'Chaka, the king of Wakanda, a highly advanced African nation hidden from the rest of the world. Being the only son of T'Chaka, he was supposed to be the new king and take the mantle of the Black Panther, the warrior who led Wakanda for generations and was an avatar to the panther god, Bast. However, a terrorist calling himself Man-Ape killed T'Chaka in a duel and took the throne, setting Wakanda in a dictatorship and exiling Prince T'Challa, but not before he could take the costume of the Black Panther. Before leaving, T'Challa also took the Heart-Shaped Herb, which gave members of the royal family enhanced strength, stamina, reflexes and senses, which added to the strict training T'Challa had been subjected to, made him a very formidable and lethal warrior.
T'Challa traveled to America and started a life as Professor Luke Charles, with the intention of eventually returning to his country and fight against the dictatorship. He also began to fight crime in the streets of Harlem as Black Panther, which called the attention of the super-team the Avengers, who relucted the hero to their files without knowing his full origin...

Ms. Marvel: An air-force pilot, Carol Danvers saw her whole life change in front of her when, in a test flight, her jet was intercepted by an alien mother ship. The ship took Carol, and inside it was a man named Mar-Vell. Mar-Vell was a deserter of the Kree Empire, an alien military force that devastated and conquered what was in its sight. Mar-Vell, once a high captain of the Kree force, was tired of all that and wanted out, but clearly the Kree wouldn't let go of him that easily, so now he was a wanted criminal. The reason Mar-Vell contacted Carol is that he found out that a while ago, a Kree soldier came to earth, had a kid with an Earth woman and then left, and the child that came from that... was Carol!
Shocked by the reveal, Carol realized her whole life was a lie, but Mar-Vell had little time left, so he kept talking and gave something to Carol: the Nega-Bands. The Nega-Bands are powerful weapons that only the highest of Kree Captains, like he once was, got to wear, and now it was Carol's turn to use them to protect humanity. The bands gave Carol powers like super-strength, durability, reflexes, and the abilities to generate solar energy, fly, and even allowed her to transform into a costume.
After telling everything she needed to know, Mar-Vell left Carol on ground, expecting that she knew what was the right thing to do, and she indeed did: soon after that, she began operating as Ms. Marvel, Earth's newest champion, and was contacted by the Avengers to join their team.

Young Allies: A team of Young Heroes recruited by Bucky, they are determined to prove they are just as good at being heroes as the Avengers, and that they can take the same threats they can.

Bucky: Ever since she was a kid, Rikki Barnes heard stories of how heroic her grandfather was for fighting alongside the legendary Captain America in WWII, and all those stories inspired Rikki to follow the steps of her grandpa, who she never got to meet. She began training as early as when she was 6, and her training got more and more advanced as time went on. Her original goal was to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent when she turned 18, but that all changed when the fourteen-year-old Rikki found out Captain America had just been unfrozen by them and realized that it was her destiny to be the new Bucky. She tracked and followed him in some of his first missions unfrozen, and while he dismissed her at first for being too young and having already lost another teen partner, he saw how useful she was and figured it wouldn't hurt to have her around, at least for a while. They went on many missions together, and Rikki got many chances to prove herself as useful, which Steve saw and congratulated her for it. However, their relationship changed in 1994, when Rikki was 17 and the Avengers were formed, a team comprised of various heroes and of which Steve was a part of. Rikki tried to tell Cap she should be on the team too, having been his partner ever since he was unfrozen, but Steve considered the threats the Avengers would face were way bigger than Rikki was prepared to fight, and so he prohibited her from joining. Feeling betrayed by a man who she thought was her friend, Rikki distanced herself from Cap and began fighting crime on her own.
A few months after that, she realized she wasn't the only teen hero around, and figured the best way to prove the world she was capable of being an Avengers, was leading her own Avengers, and thus, after contacting each of the young heroes, Rikki formed the Young Allies.

Rebel: Connor O'Reilly isn't just an ordinary teenager, since his intellect compares to that of great minds, like the one of Tony Stark himself. O'Rielly was a great fanatic of Iron Man, who the public believed to be the bodyguard of Tony Stark, but Connor figured it was actually him after seeing him a few times in action. His greatest achievement, however, was being able to make a handmade armor at 18 years-old, after years of looking at TV Reports of the armored hero. He tried to call the attention of the hero, who had recently founded the Avengers and revealed his identity to the public, but he dismissed Connor and treated him as just another kid putting himself in danger for attention. Saddened by this, he wanted to give up the superhero thing, but what he didn't know, is that Bucky, Captain America's ex-sidekick, watched what he did on TV, and wanting to form a team of young heroes who wanted to prove themselves, tracked him down. Connor was surprised to see a girl wearing a blue costume appear in his window in the middle of the nights, but after recognized her, he let her in and heard her proposition. She not only offered him a spot on her team, but also the resources to improve his armor, and with an offer that good, Connor couldn't turn it down. Calling himself Rebel, he was one of the most valuable members of the team, named the Young Allies, due to his IQ. There were certain romantic tensions between him and Bucky, and they eventually started dating after sharing a kiss.

Thialfi: While he was attending High School, young Thomas Collins realized he wasn't like other people his age anymore. He was able to take blows that would knock most other people, even though he hadn't trained a single day of his life. He also sometimes felt a rage inside of him that could only be compared to a warrior's instinct, and all those sings were eventually validated when one day, the Norse God and superhero Thor showed up at his house, and revealed to Thomas he was the reincarnation of Thialfi, a boy who was once an ally to Thor in a previous life and gained honor and respect among the halls of Asgard. Thor knew that the offer was complicated, but he knew he was the only one who could help Thomas control his abilities and instincts, and so he accepted to be trained by the god to learn how to be a true warrior. After training with him for a while, he decided he was ready to become his own hero, going by the name of his previous self, Thialfi. Thialfi was then tracked down by two other young heroes, Bucky and Rebel, who wanted to have him as a member for a new team they were forming, to which Thialfi agreed to. They then proceeded to share their secret identities with each other and chose a team name: The Young Allies. Soon, this team would find themselves in their first big fight, when they met...

Wonder Man: A sixteen-year-old living in Texas with his father and mother, Simon Williams was told his older brother Eric had died in the war a few years ago. That proved to not be true at all, when agents of the terrorist organization HYDRA showed up at the Williams' home, led by Eric himself, now wearing a dark and shadowy costume and going by the name Grim Reaper. Simon was taken to the nearest HYDRA base, in which he was experimented with Ionic energy. The idea was to create an Ionic solider to fight the heroes who usually messed with their plans, and Eric chose his brother since he was disposable, and they could test their brainwashing technology on him. However, before the brainwash could be finished, the now Iconically-enhanced Simon escaped and went around flying for days in his new, purple form, until he found a city he felt comfortable crashing on. After flying for days, and due to the little of brainwash tech he was exposed to, Simon couldn't remember who he was, and so he was just very, very confused. He began causing havoc in the city, using his untested powers like energy blasts or super strength, but then, some heroes showed up to stop him.
They were the Young Allies, and while they tried, they inexperience and the fact they were vastly overpowered guaranteed that they wouldn't be able to defeat Simon. However, just when he had already defeated Rebel and Thalfi, Bucky looked at Simon and realized he was just a teen like them and was probably really scared and confused. She then started talking and approaching him slowly, which worked because he actually started listening to her, and when he did, he deactivated his ionic form and went to sleep, after not doing that for days.
Rebel and Thalfi then got back, and none of the three new what to do with Simon, and unfortunately, people who knew what they wanted to do with him quickly showed up:
HYDRA Agents led by the Grim Reaper got to the area soon after and managed to defeat the teen trio. But just when Eric was about to get his little brother, he got up and used his powers to free his newfound friends and defeat the agents. Grim Reaper then tried to attack Simon, who tried to defend himself and ended up accidentally vaporizing him. Shocked by what he just did, he didn't know what to do, but the Young Allies managed to convince to get out of there with them, and they headed to a warehouse where they would spend the night.
The three of them listened to what Simon had to tell them, and they felt very sad for him after hearing all that but assured him they would clear his name and get him back home the next day. Simon, however, knew he didn't just want to go to his normal life, but wanted to be a superhero like them, and while they thought about it, they decided to let him join, with Simon choosing the codename of... Wonder Man! (Yes, even though he's 16).

Trivia

As you noticed, I hadn't published one of these in a while. I try to improve with every entry but that means they take more time, and lately I haven't been at my best. It'll probably be a while until I publish a new chapter, and if I do, I think it'll be a part two of this universe, since I feel I have good bases to develop other characters and it's easier than starting another earth from scratch.

As the title says, this is based on the Heroes Reborn Universe from 1996, which included titles like Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America and Fantastic Four. Not only does this take inspiration from Heroes Reborn, though, but from comics in the 90s in general. Not to the point of parody, but I tried to craft something that would be expectable from a comic in the 90s that had a decent writer in it.

I chose the Lava Men for the first fight of the Avengers since they are very underused villains. After that, it felt pretty natural to tie them to Mole Man. Ironically, Mole Man was the first Fantastic Four villain.

On that subjet, the FF exist in this universe, but formed after the Avengers.

The Avengers being sponsored by an individual and not a goverment organization is something remanicent of other 90s teams like Youngblood, the X-Men or Wildcats.

Yes, they formed on July 4th on purpose.

Captain America wears an armor like he did for a while in the 90s before heroes happened. In there, it was also because the serum's effects started to disappear. However, this version will eventually gain the serum back.

Steve and Rikki mostly fought HYDRA in their early outings. They were also the first superheroes of the modern era, with the rest coming after them.

Iron Man's story takes inspiration from various sources, but I mostly wanted to put him in a place where he would end up being the sponsor of the team.

Most of his individual villains wear armors, power suit or technological enhancements.

With Thor, I turned him into a married man with alive parents to make him more distinct from the rest of the team. Don't worry, it won't take him long to tell the truth to Jane.

In this version I went full Donald Blake too, which is something that other modernizations of the character mostly shy away from or only reference.

Also, I wanted to set a dynamic where he would interact with Hugin and Munin (Odin's crows) since Odin himself didn't come back to life.

What happened in Ragnarok is a mystery for the moment...

This version of Hank is always Goliath and wont have as many changes of identity as his 616 self.

Inspired by Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, I wanted to set a dynamic where Hank initially didn't do traditional superheroism like fighting crime, and while he will get used to being on the team, he'll consider that other ways of helping people are superior to just going around and punching criminals.

Janet is probably the Avenger with the most changes. I did this because it seems like something 90s comics would do to her, but I also didn't diminish her importance on the team or her precence with the changes.

By making her a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, Janet now has more experience in hand to hand fighting than other Avengers like Goliath or Iron Man.

Her insect like appearance is inspired by the look she gained in Avengers: The Crossing. While not a change most fines like for her 616 version, here it helps to set her apart from the rest of the team a bit more and have an internal conflict with her appearance in the style of Ben Grimm.

With Black Panther, there is always the dilema of how to make the character an active Avenger without undermining his origins in Wakanda. In this case, I took some inspiration from EMH and made his parent be killed in a duel with Man-Ape, have him take control of the country (and make it more explicit that he is not a good leader) and have T'Challa go to America. Here though, T'Challa is young and afraid of Man-Ape, and while he decided to be Black Panther in America, he doesn't want to face what lies in Wakanda, thus he doesn't tell anyone the truth of his origins to no one, not even his teammates in the Avengers. They will eventually find out about it, however, but that's a story for another day.

I brought back the identity of Luke Charles since it felt something Heroes Reborn would do if they dealt with T'Challa. Plus, it does fit the story I had in mind for him.

Honestly, Ms. Marvel did feel like she came out of nowhere in this, but I did end up liking this version, I feel a Carol who doesn't have natural powers but rather wears the Nega-Bands would have some differences with other versions of her character.

Yes, there are some notable similarities with Green Lantern and Hal Jordan, but that's why I decided to make her a Kree-Human Hybrid (Which is something current comics are doing I believe). Also, Carol's place on the team sets up the team's eventual clash with the Kree, one of their classic foes.

Speaking of similarities with DC, this version of the Young Allies does feel a bit like Peter David's Young Justice, but since his run on YJ is awesome and there are lots of notable differences between the teams, I don't think that's a bad thing.

Out of all of the members, Rikki is the only one who was actually in the Young Allies, and the one with less changes. However, her story has another path, one where she's constantly trying to prove herself, but she'll eventually realize she doesn't have to. And while she has a falling off with Steve, eventually the two will reconcile.

I made a lot of changes with Rebel, a character who originated in Heroes Reborn. He went from Iron Man's best buddy to Syndrome 2.0., but he does serve a purpose in the story and the team: Rikki is the leader, Thomas is the reckless warrior and Simon is the unstable powerhouse, while Connor is the brains of the team.

Thialfi is escencially a new character, since the Marvel version of him has nothing to do with my version, and was introduced after the 90s. There's not much to say about him, just that he fights with a sword and a shield, and is basically the teams cheerful warrior in personality.

As with Wasp, or probably more than her, Simon differs a lot from his 616 self. Instead of a millionare CEO, he's a Texan teen with an evil older brother who gets kidnapped and turned into a weapon against his will. I had the idea of making Simon into a teen hero for a while now, but I didn't know where to put it until now.

If we go with the Young Justice comparisons, then in story Wondy would be our Secret.

Now, at the moment, neither Mutants nor Spidey exist in this universe, since they didn't exist in the original Heroes Reborn either. But I might change my mind and introduce some sort of version of them (With a twist, of course).

Also, don't take this lineups for either team as the definitive ones: There'll definitely be some lineup changes in the Avengers as time goes on, and I have ideas for a couple more Young Allies. And of course, some other teams or characters could be introduced, like a S.H.I.E.L.D. sponsored super-team...