Heroes Reborn: Young Allies #1
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeHeroes Reborn: Young Allies #1 is the single issue that formally introduces the Counter-Earth incarnation of the Young Allies — a teenage resistance cell operating in the power vacuum left on Franklin Richards' pocket-universe world after the Avengers and Fantastic Four returned to Earth-616. The issue marks the first appearances of this version of the team as a unit, along with first appearances for Counter-Earth Kid Colt (Elric Whitemane), Toro (Benito Serrano), and I.Q. (Ishmael Questor), and it delivers the first in-story origin exposition for each of those characters. Beyond the debuts, the one-shot is narratively significant as the launching pad for Rikki 'Bucky' Barnes' long career as a morally independent hero: she demonstrates here — years before Ed Brubaker's celebrated Captain America run gave the name 'Bucky' wider resonance — that she operates by her own ethical code rather than merely following a mentor's shadow. The issue also births the cosmic entities Kaos and Order, who would continue to figure into Counter-Earth mythology through subsequent Thunderbolts and Exiles storylines.
ComicBooks.com Value
This exact issue on ebay
Raw / ungraded ▾ $1.29–$400 25 listings
More listings for this title
Read it digitally
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
The one-shot was written by Fabian Nicieza with pencils by Mark Bagley, inks by Al Vey, colors by Jason Wright, and lettering by Richard Starkings and Saida Temofonte; Tom Brevoort edited and Bob Harras served as editor-in-chief. It was part of a coordinated wave of Heroes Reborn one-shots — including Doomsday, Ashema, Masters of Evil, Rebel, Remnants, and Doom — all released around the same November 1999 on-sale date (cover-dated January 2000) to flesh out the Counter-Earth setting as Marvel wound down that line. Nicieza and Bagley were an established partnership from their celebrated New Warriors and early Amazing Spider-Man work, making them a natural fit to launch a book about scrappy young outsiders bucking an oppressive system.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published as a one-shot (single issue, no ongoing series); on-sale date November 10, 1999; cover date January 2000.
- Written by Fabian Nicieza; pencils by Mark Bagley; inks by Al Vey; colors by Jason Wright; letters by Richard Starkings and Saida Temofonte; edited by Tom Brevoort.
- First appearance of the Counter-Earth Young Allies as a team, set on the Heroes Reborn pocket-universe world known as Counter-Earth.
- First appearances of Counter-Earth Kid Colt (Elric Whitemane — a human/Kymellian hybrid created by S.H.I.E.L.D. who can assume a humanoid horse form and open miniature wormholes), Toro (Benito Serrano), and I.Q. (Ishmael Questor, a quadriplegic telepath living in a life-sustaining tank).
- Features Rikki 'Bucky' Barnes — Captain America's sidekick from the Heroes Reborn pocket universe — as the team's leader; this issue delivers early solo characterization for her as a morally self-directed hero.
- The climax sees the Rip energy entity split into two new cosmic beings, Kaos (male) and Order (female), who declare their mission to judge whether humanity on Counter-Earth lives or dies — both characters make their first appearances here.
- Cover art is also by Mark Bagley.
- The issue has been collected in both the Heroes Reborn: The Return trade paperback and the significantly larger Heroes Reborn: The Return Omnibus (published September 2020), which also collects the companion one-shots, Thunderbolts and Exiles crossover issues, and the Onslaught Reborn and Onslaught Unleashed mini-series.
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Avengers #23 (1999), Marvel Top #21 (2000), Heroes Reborn: The Return #[nn] (2009), Heroes Reborn: The Return Omnibus #[nn] (2020)
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.