WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Heroes Reborn #5 by Jason Aaron, R.M. Guera, and Giulia Brusco, and for Marvel Double Action #1 by Tim Seeley, Dan Jurgens, Scott Hanna, and Chris Sotomayor, both on sale now.
The Marvel Universe isn’t a great place to live, especially thanks to reality-reshaping events like Heroes Reborn. In this Mephisto-created timeline where the Avengers never formed, Nighthawk becomes a Batman-esque figure, who protects Washington, D.C.
complete with Sam Wilson’s Falcon as his surrogate Robin. Unfortnutaely, this version of Sam Wilson met the same tragic fate that ended a young Gwen Stacy’s life.
In Heroes Reborn #5, a riot at Ravecroft Asylum puts Nighthawk’s abilities to the test. Every villain housed in the asylum broke free of their cells and took to maiming and killing the doctors and guards on staff. The Lizard, Bullseye, Sabretooth, and even the Black Skull attempt to kill the masked hero. Waiting for him in the heart of the riot, however, was an old foe with a deadly thirst for revenge.
With Doctor Gwen Stacy in his clutches, the Goblinn taunted Nighthawk as he threatened to drop Gwen to her death, which brought back his memories of Goblin killing Falcon similarly. Unlike their previous encounter, Nighthawk seemignly managed to save Gwen and defeat Goblin. The victory rings hollow as the Green Goblin commits suicide, leaving Nighthawk with a cryptic request.
The new Heroes Reborn event toys with the classic timeline of Marvel’s Earth-616 by mixing around characters and events. The Falcon’s death, which is detailed fully in Marvel Double Action, extensively references the classic story “The Night Gwen Stacy Died!” from 1973’s Amazing Spider-Man #121, by Gerry Conway and Gil Kane.
In the original tale, Green Goblin battled Spider-Man atop the George Washington Bridge, its climax occurring when Green Goblin knocked Gwen Stacy off of the bridge. Spider-Man shot his web to save her, but the fall inadvertently snapped her neck. In the new retelling, Green Goblin knocks the Falcon to his death off of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. In a scene that’s a one-to-one recreation of the original comic, Nighthawk is successful in catching Falcon before he hits the water, but kills him inadvertently by snapping his neck through the whiplash of pulling his body mid-air.
While Heroes Reborn has been built around fresh takes on classic characters,moments like this make it clear that some moments in Marvel history are destined to happen, even if the details and the players involved are different.
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