Iron Man #11
Iron Man Vol. 2 #11 — titled 'Magical Mystery Tour!' — functions as the dramatic pivot point that closes the Heroes Reborn experiment on a note of self-awareness: by sending the Counter-Earth versions of Iron Man and Doctor Doom tumbling through a cascade of canonical Earth-616 moments (the Onslaught battle, the founding of the Avengers, the Thing's career as Blackbeard, the Iron Man/Doctor Doom adventure in Camelot, Rama-Tut's Egypt, and Air Walker at the dawn of life), it confronts both characters — and readers — with the reality that their 'Heroes Reborn' world is a pale imitation of something larger. That thematic shock directly sets the table for the four-title 'Heroes Reunited' crossover that ran through all four #12 issues, making this issue the narrative engine that fires the final act of the Heroes Reborn saga. It also marks the first brief appearance of the Counter-Earth She-Hulk and a redesigned Doc Samson in the Heroes Reborn universe, and delivers a cameo-flashback of Onslaught — the very event that exiled these heroes to Franklin Richards' pocket universe in the first place.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Iron Man Vol. 2 was part of Marvel's 1996 arrangement to outsource four struggling titles to former Marvel artists Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld, who had departed years earlier to co-found Image Comics; Lee's WildStorm Productions handled both Fantastic Four and Iron Man. The series was plotted by Jim Lee and written by Jeph Loeb, with pencils on this issue shared by Whilce Portacio and Terry Shoemaker and inking by John Dell, all working within the compressed one-year timeline the creative team had to complete a full reimagining of Tony Stark's origin and world. The issue was collected alongside the rest of the 12-issue Heroes Reborn Iron Man run in a 2006 trade paperback (Heroes Reborn: Iron Man) and again in a 2020 edition.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published September 1997 as part of Iron Man Vol. 2 (the 'Heroes Reborn' volume), cover-titled 'The Invincible Iron Man'; story title: 'Magical Mystery Tour!' — a nod to the Beatles album of the same name.
- Plotted by Jim Lee and written by Jeph Loeb; pencils by Whilce Portacio and Terry Shoemaker; inks by John Dell; letters by Richard Starkings.
- The central story device is an accidental activation of Doctor Doom's time machine during his throne-room fight with Tony Stark, sending both men on an involuntary tour of pivotal Earth-616 events neither can consciously remember — including the Onslaught battle, the original Avengers formation, the Thing's Blackbeard adventure (Fantastic Four #5), the Iron Man/Doom adventure in Camelot (Iron Man #150), the reign of Rama-Tut, and Air Walker seeding life on prehistoric Earth.
- Marks the first brief appearance of the Counter-Earth (Heroes Reborn) versions of She-Hulk and a notably more human-looking Doc Samson within the Heroes Reborn Iron Man series.
- Features a cameo flashback of Onslaught — the psionic entity whose defeat was the in-story reason these heroes were exiled to the pocket universe — forcing both Doom and Stark to confront the existence they have forgotten.
- Serves as the direct narrative lead-in to 'Heroes Reunited,' the four-title crossover (all #12 issues of Fantastic Four, Avengers, Captain America, and Iron Man) that concludes the Heroes Reborn era.
- Conner 'Rebel' O'Reilly appears as a corpse, resolving the identity-swap subplot from issue #10 in which Tony and Rebel had secretly exchanged armors before their assault on Hydra.
- Reprinted in Marvel Heroes Reborn (Panini UK, 1997 series) #12, and collected in Heroes Reborn: Iron Man (Marvel, 2006) and the 2020 trade paperback edition of the same material.
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Reprinted in Marvel Heroes Reborn #12 (1998), Iron Man #11 (1999), Iron Man #11 (1999), Heroes Reborn: Iron Man #[nn] (2006), Heroes Reborn Omnibus #[nn] (2019), Heroes Reborn: Iron Man #[nn] (2020)
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