The Avengers were rebooted in 1996, in the Heroes Reborn universe.
It was managed at first by Rob Liefeld. The Avengers find Thor frozen in ice, they fight against Kang, Hulk, the Masters of Evil... and not much else.
Liefeld was fired, and Walt Simonson replaced him. The story then focus on Loki's plan to create and consume dimensional duplicates, and eventually becomes all-powerful.
Heroes Reborn: The Avengers provides examples of:
- Adaptational Villainy: In this continuity, Mantis is Kang's lover and partner rather than an Avenger.
- Age Lift: The Vision is actually older than Ultron in this, as Ultron was created in this reality to replace Vision as Hank Pym's lab assistant.
- Big "NO!": When giant Loki turned to his back and saw a giant Odin, ready to defy him. "No! It's impossible!"
- Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: The Swordsman, an ordinary human with nothing but, well, swords, tries to attack Hulk. How else did you expect it to finish?
- Canon Character All Along: Swordsman was initially the only Avenger without a clear Earth-616 counterpart (the original Swordsman was a villain who had died years earlier). In the later Heroes Reborn: Remnants one-shot, it was revealed he was his Earth's counterpart of Deadpool.
- Composite Character:
- Hellcat has the codename and civilian identity (Patsy Walker) of her Earth-616 counterpart, but is a werecat like Tigra.
- As mentioned under "Canon Character All Along", Swordsman was revealed to be Wade Wilson.
- Combining this with Decomposite Character, Hank Pym takes Ultron's role as the creator of The Vision.
- While ultimately averted, the issue before the change from Liefeld to Walt Simsonson for Avengers hinted that Hawkeye was a different person than Clint Barton, as a flashback in the issue sees Hawkeye and a man called Reaper trying to infiltrate HYDRA, only to be caught and Reaper getting part of his right arm shot off and Hawkeye telling him something important, but the simulation is interrupted by Hellcat, the implication being that "Reaper" was the HR version of the Grim Reaper and hence, Hawkeye was Simon Williams, as opposed to Clint Barton (or at the very least, given a Wonder Man does appear in it, that Hawkeye and Grim Reaper are Related in the Adaptation). However, because of the change, Hawkeye was shown to be Clint Barton, as always.
- Mantis is the object of Kang's desires as well as his primary source of motivation, essentially making her this reality's version of Princess Ravonna. This is also reflective of the Mantis seen The Crossing before Avengers Forever retconned that that particular "Mantis" was a Space Phantom.
- Decomposite Character:
- As mentioned in "Composite Character", Ultron's role as the Vision's creator is taken by Hank Pym. In fact, as mentioned under "Age Lift", Ultron is actually younger than Vision in this, as Ultron was created to replace Vision as Hank's assistant.
- As in The Incredible Hulk Returns before it and the Marvel Cinematic Universe since, Donald Blake is a separate person from Thor.
- The Faceless: Hawkeye. In Onslaught Reborn it becomes a plot point (sorta), when he is revealed to actually be Wolverine.
- "Fantastic Voyage" Plot: As in The Kree/Skrull War, Henry Pym made a voyage inside the Vision to repair him. But, being a 90's comic book, it was hardly fantastic.
- Informed Ability: Captain America's leadership. They all praise it, they are all amazed by it, but consider the results. He unleashed a barbaric berserker with super-strength to the world. He can't get Hawkeye and Swordman to follow his command. He let Kang escape. He attacked Hulk... and you may imagine how does that end. Thor, unable to kill, left the team... and he let him go (who began a brawl at some random bar, something that anyone would have guessed it would happen in the immediate future). By not giving room to Hawkeye, he made him resented, a thing that Loki exploited. He did not notice that Hellcat was missing, which led to a disaster. And so on, and so on... Perhaps putting Hawkeye in command wasn't such a bad idea after all: it seems unlikely he could do it worse.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Captain America, of all people. An archeology expedition found Thor trapped in amber, and called the Avengers. Captain America rushed to the attack, to liberate him... and only after they do so, he stops to reconsider if liberating a superpowerful berserker from the Viking age was really a good idea.
- Magic Versus Science:
- First mentioned by the Vision. Thor does not understand his "magic" entrance, so he explains that it's not magic but science. Loki gets rid of him with a magic bolt, and finally gets defeated by a spell of the Scarlet Witch.
- Kang captured the Avengers, but nothing can keep Mjölnir out of Thor's hands, no even the XXX century technology.
- Agatha Harkness appears at the Avengers mansion, and requests to see the Scarlet Witch. The robot in the door does not allow her to pass... so she simply goes intangible and pass.
- Loki gets inside Kang's ship, ignoring his defenses, and absorbs Kang and Mantis without problem.
- Loki gets in the helicarrier's cells, ignoring the guards at the door, and absorbs Modok. Angered by that disappearance, Nick Fury doubles the guards, both inside and outside the cell... and all guards fall unconscious when he absorbs the next pack of prisoners.
- Henry Pym realizes the magical use of the Vision done by Loki, and makes him explode, foiling his scheme.
- The Avengers trick Loki into lowering the shield of his source of power, greatly reducing it, and the big shots from the helicarrier take him down.
- Medium AwarenessLoki: The answer, my dear Executioner, is that we are not Asgardians, but projections of someone's wild imagination. But, like Pinocchio, I intend to become a real boy!
- Mythology Gag:
- The Swordsman is sure that he had seen Mantis, Kang's lover, before. In the main continuity, she was his girlfriend, and Kang tried to abduct her many times during The Celestial Madonna Saga.
- Henry Pym reduced his size and got into the Vision, to see what was malfunctioning in him. He's sure he did something like that before... he did, during The Kree/Skrull War.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: When things began, Henry Pym and Janet Van Dyne had no super powers; they were just a scientist and his wife. Pym tested a particle to reduce his size and get inside the Vision... and Janet, when she needed it, reduced to wasp size, with no reason or explanation. This may be explained with the change of writers, as Pym was already Ant-Man when Simonson replaced the disgraced Liefeld, and perhaps he was not informed of this change at the new universe and thought that he was working with Pym and Wasp more akin to the standard continuity.
- One-Winged Angel: Loki becomes all-powerful, and a giant. Justified in his case, after all he's the son of giants.
- Other Me Annoys Me: The Avengers begin with a Berserker Thor, and some time later they get the regular Thor as well. Berserker Thor does not like his Knight in Shining Armor doppelgänger very much...
- Related Differently in the Adaptation: The Vision and Ultron are still tied to Hank Pym, but here, Hank created Vision before creating Ultron, as opposed to the usual "Pym makes Ultron, then Ultron makes the Vision" route.
- Revisiting the Roots: "Heroes Reborn" made many controversial changes, and Walter Simonson tried to make thing a bit "right" again. Captain America took out the wings from the front of his mask, which were not right for some reason, and retrieved the classic big "A". As for Thor, Simonson's favourite character turned into a berserker, he brought instead the "real" Thor, who appears as a second character.
- Summon Bigger Fish: So, Loki became a giant and is walking in the city, Godzilla-style. Who can stop him? Of course, a giant Odin!
- Team Member in the Adaptation: Granted, the first two Swordsmen were Avengers, but the Swordsman in this series is a retroactive case as in 2000, it was revealed he was actually the pocket universe's incarnation of Deadpool.
- That Man Is Dead: "Hulk is not BruceBannerHulk! HULK IS HULK!
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Who would have thought Loki would be this type of guy? When he became an invincible giant, he called his father's name, in a "look what I have achieved" stance. Of course, when we talk about Loki's father, we don't talk about Odin, but Laufey, the frost giant.
- What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: With his new arrows, allies and element of surprise, Hawkeye was taking the Avengers down one by one, and pointed that "This is just too easy!". Cue for Captain America attacking him from the back, getting the bow out of his hands.
