Iron Man (vol. 2) #12
Heroes Reunited Part 3: Matters of the Heart
This story continues from Avengers (vol. 2) #12 …
At the Baxter Building headquarters, Tony Stark and the Fantastic Four are trying to understand the recent gamma mutations of Leonard Samson and Jennifer Walters, turning them into Doc Samson and She-Hulk respectively.[1][2] They explain that the transformations were caused by being injected with gamma isotopes and undergoing blood transfusion.[3] What’s more amazing is how many more people they are all closely tied to ended up with fantastic powers, something that should be mathematically impossible and suggests that something bigger it at play here.[4]
The Thing finds himself attracted to She-Hulk and his flirtations are reciprocated by her. The Hulk, however, doesn’t like the Thing flirting with his cousin and the pair come to blows. As the space scanner gives off an alarm, the Invisible Woman traps both the Thing and the Hulk in invisible force fields to stop them from fighting. When Reed checks the scanners he sees a trio of super-powered aliens coming to Earth from a massive ship that just entered the solar system. Tony wonders if this has anything to do with the planetary threat that he and Doctor Doom were warned about during their trip through time.[5] The Fantastic Four decide to intercept the aliens first, asking Tony and the Hulkbusters to remain behind as back-up.
After the team leaves, Tony Stark takes responsibility for the gamma mutations that created the Hulkbusters and promises to do whatever he can to find a cure for them. She-Hulk and Samson however enjoy their new forms and assure Tony that staying like this is not a problem for them. The Hulk on the other hand refuses to acknowledge that he is Banner, nor that his alter-ego is lost somewhere inside him. That’s when Tony receives a message and tells the others that he has some important business to attend to. Tony heads down to Ziff Memorial Hospital where Happy Hogan is has been intensive care after Stark International was attacked by Rebel O’Reilly.[6] Pepper Potts, his girlfriend, has remained by his side the whole time. Tony is relieved that Happy is still alive but blames himself for what happened. This somber visit is interrupted when Doctor Doom blasts open the wall to Happy’s hospital room and kidnaps Tony Stark right in front of them. While Pep has a bad feeling about this, Hogan assures her that it’ll have sorted itself out by morning.
Back at the Baxter Building, the Hulkbusters are watching the fight between the Fantastic Four and the Heralds of Galactus. That’s when the Hulk is visited by Liz Ross, who reveals that she is dying of terminal cancer from exposure by the same gamma radiation that turned into the Hulk.[7] Seeing her like this causes the Hulk to revert back to Bruce Banner. She tells Bruce to move on after she is gone, reminding him that the Hulk is the stronger there is. Bruce responds by saying if he is the strongest, why is his heart breaking and the two kiss.
While aboard Doom’s ship, Victor tells Tony to suit up as Iron Man as he is needed to save the world. Tony isn’t entirely sure that Doom is trustworthy since his wanting to save the world could only serve his desire to rule it. Von Doom points out the memory from the past they witnessed wherein Iron Man forced Doom to sacrifice his own life to stop Onslaught, pointing out that Iron Man didn’t seem to think he was a opportunistic despot at the time.[8] This confuses Iron Man since he still isn’t sure if what they saw was actually real or not. It still doesn’t offer an explanation as to why Tony should trust Doom at all. That’s when a holographic projection of Nick Fury appears and tells him that it’s worse because he has to trust SHIELD as well.
Iron Man is furious to learn that Fury is working with Doom and once he is aboard the helicarrier he is even more annoyed that SHIELD has been contracting out to Doom as well as Stark International. Still, this isn’t as important as the crisis ahead and Fury has gathered both the Avengers and the Hulkbusters together to face the coming threat from the alien invaders. Calling a meeting, Fury reveals that the Fantastic Four have failed and the entire team has been killed by Terrax, Firelord, Plasma, and Air-Walker. Doom is shocked to hear this as the Fantastic Four’s death have happened much faster this time than in his past two time jumps and wonders if the battle is already lost. With the Herals going across the globe to install machines that will convert the Earth into energy that their master, Galactus, can consume the majority of the heroes are dispatched out to stop them.
While the groups split up, Iron Man, Doom, Bruce Banner, and Ant-Man stay behind to pool their resources to create a weapon to stop Galactus.[9] The first team — consisting of She-Hulk and Thor — are sent to Attilan to fight Terrax; while Captain America, Hawkeye, Namor and Doc Samson confront Firelord on Monster Island; Lastly, the Vision, Scarlet Witch and the Wasp are sent to Antarctica to stop Plasma; The battles go poorly with many casualties. With time running out, Iron Man and the others finish their “Ultimate Nullifier” weapon just as Galactus arrives on Earth to feed. Iron Man, Ant-Man, and the Hulk ride the Nullifier toward their foe but are blasted to oblivion. Seeing this as yet another failure, Doom steals data from SHIELD’s database that might help him in his next attempt and he leaps backward in time once more.
… This story continues in Captain America (vol. 2) #12
Recurring Characters
Iron Man, Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, Thing), Avengers (Captain America, Thor, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Ant-Man, Wasp, Hawkeye), Hulkbusters (Hulk, She-Hulk, Doc Samson), Sub-Mariner, Black Bolt, Doctor Doom, Galactus, Terrax, Firelord, Plasma, Air-Walker, SHIELD (Nick Fury), Happy Hogan, Pepper Potts, Betty Ross
Continuity Notes
It should be noted that this is a pocket universe created by Franklin Richards to save the lives of the Fantastic Four and the Avengers in Onslaught: Marvel Universe #1. Not everyone is who they appear to be. The details:
Iron Man, the Fantastic Four, Hulk, Doctor Doom, Captain America, Thor, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Ant-Man, the Wasp and Hawkeye are the genuine articles from the Prime Marvel Universe.
Everyone else featured here is actually a construct created by Franklin to populate his imaginary Earth. See Heroes Reborn: The Return #1-4 for more details on that.
Events in this story play out differently than they did in Fantastic Four (vol. 2) #12 and Avengers (vol. 2) #12 for unexplained reasons. Posit a theory below, the long and short of it is that basically I believe that since Counter-Earth exists in a pocket dimension going back in time is linear instead of creating a divergent reality as it does in the Marvel Multiverse.
This is indeed the case. Franklin’s Counter-Earth is intentionally making our heroes live re-imagined versions of their past lives in order to remind them of who they really are. See Heroes Reborn: The Return #1-4, again.
Banner was transformed into the Hulk by a gamma bomb explosion in Iron Man (vol. 2) #1. While Samson was transformed into the Abomination after being injected with gamma isotope in Iron Man (vol. 2) #8. In issue #10 a blood transfusion with Jennifer turned the Abomination into Doc Samson while Walters became She-Hulk as we saw last issue.
Iron Man and Doctor Doom got a warning about Galactus last issue. Who has previously destroyed Counter-Earth in Fantastic Four (vol. 2) #12 and Avengers (vol. 2) #12. However, these events were re-set thanks to a time traveling Doctor Doom.
Happy was injured in Iron Man (vol. 2) #7.
Liz was exposed to the radiation from the gamma bomb explosion back in Iron Man (vol. 2) #1.
This was in Onslaught: Marvel Universe #1, up until last issue, neither Doom nor Iron Man remembered those events.
Mention is made about how Victor, Bruce, and Tony all went to university together. This was detailed in Iron Man (vol. 2) #1 and Fantastic Four (vol. 2) #5. This is the first time that Hank Pym is mentioned as also attending school with them as well. These, however, are false memories. See Heroes Reborn: The Return #1-4.
Topical References
Tony Stark is depicted as having a beeper in this story. This should be considered a topical reference as this technology is mostly obsolete.
Tony refers to his time as Iron Man as the “year from hell”. This should be considered a topical reference as it measures time based on publication dates. The Sliding Timescale dictates that Heroes Reborn only occurred over the course of four months. One could assume that Tony’s reference to it being a “year” is based on false memories that make it feel like it’s been longer than it actually is.
Heroes Reunited Reading Order
Iron Man (vol. 2) #12 <— You Are Here
Time Travel in the Heroes Reborn Pocket Dimension
It’s later established in Heroes Reborn: The Return #1-4 that the events of Heroes Reborn don’t take place in an alternate reality, but in a pocket dimension created by Franklin Richards.
The issue of time travel in this pocket dimension has resulted in some poorly explained circumstances that have never been fully explained. For example, in Iron Man (vol. 2) #11, when Doctor Doom first uses the Time Platform he and Iron Man don’t get transported into the past on Counter-Earth (technically there isn’t any, it’s all fabricated) they end up in the past on Earth-616 seeing their past lives prior to the Onslaught incident.
In the Heroes Reunited story arc, Doctor Doom goes back in time a day each time the heroes fail to stop Galactus from consuming the Earth. Each trip back in time events play out differently with Galactus and his Heralds planting the massive planetary converters in different locations and fighting different groups of heroes. For example, in Fantastic Four (vol. 2) #12 the Inhumans assist in trying to stop Galactus, but are not present in any of the other subsequent stories, while in Iron Man (vol. 2) #12, the Hulkbusters are involved. In Captain America (vol. 2) #12, Bucky is involved in the conflict when she was absent in the previous three parts.
As I’ve stated above, Marvel has not provided any kind of explanation. Handbook entries that recount these events usually gloss over them heavily. Further, a review of the index of alternate realities omits any possible divergent realities which is usually the norm when time travel is employed in the Marvel Multiverse.
My theory is that the way time travel works in Franklin’s pocket dimension is governed by the boy’s understanding of time travel and his imagination. At the time of this story Franklin is about 8 years old (per the Sliding Timescale) so his ability to understand how time travel works in the Marvel Universe would likely be very limited.
As such, given the ambigious nature of Counter-Earth, I presume that it operates on a linear timeline and that time traveling doesn’t actually work within the confines of that dimension. This is why when Doom and Iron Man tried to go back further than a year in time, they ended up in the past of Earth-616. This is because entire history on Counter-Earth — other than what the Avengers and Fantastic Four are experiencing in the moment — is entirely fabricated. “Time Travel” then doesn’t actually send the character back in time. Instead, Franklin merely resets the “plot” rolling back details and altering people’s memories and perceptions to make it seem like the time traveler went back in time and events just play out in a different way.