Tai Freligh reviews Heroes Vengeance #4…
Carlos Gutierrez of the Heroes Reborn: Event Series, is not the only person to assume the alias of El Vengador. Before him came his grandfather Luis and his older brother Oscar. Here we learn the stories of the Gutierrez family…
From Titan Comics comes a series of comic stories that serve as prequels to the Heroes Reborn television show on NBC. They plan on coming out with several five issue character studies, the first being El Vengador.
The first issue (of five) started to tell the back-story of El Vengador, the wrestler and El Vengador, the EVO. It asked the question, “what is a hero?” and explored different answers to that. In the second issue, we got to see a little bit more about how he deals with his opponents. The third issue focused mainly on Oscar and his interactions with gang members who are trafficking humans.
In this fourth of five issues, we get a mix of storylines all criss-crossing. We go into the past when Oscar’s grandfather Luis was El Vengador, the wrestler and was forced to throw a fight because his family was threatened by thugs. A young Carlos watches the fight with his older brother Oscar and doesn’t understand why El Vengador loses the fight when he had his opponent pinned and then let him up. Carlos sees El Vengador get unmasked as a result of losing the fight and sees that it’s his grandfather. He loses all faith in him and renounces him.
Meanwhile we jump back to modern day where Carlos comes home from Afghanistan a war hero, but he’s a drunk and his older brother Oscar doesn’t believe he’s actually a hero. Oscar is El Vengador, the EVO crime fighter helping to clean the streets up from thugs who are trafficking EVOs for a corrupt cop (Captain Dearing- who we learn more about in the Heroes Reborn television show). The thugs don’t get their money until the EVOs are delivered to Sunstone Manor (yet another thing we know about from the TV show). Oscar overhears this and calls Father Mauricio. It’s time for a soul-saving mission.
At the end there are four pages of really interesting information about luchadores (wrestlers), including a brief history of lucha libra (free wrestling), glossary of terms and moves, the rules of wrestling, famous luchadores and some of the psychology behind the colorful masks these wrestlers wear. The issue also includes a variant cover as well as a tease to the final issue where we see a mysterious looking wrestler on the cover of Heroes Vengeance #5. This issue was all over the place and felt like it was too short. Not enough scenery chewed up for my tastes, so I’m giving it a 7 out of 10. I hope the final issue wraps it all up nicely.
Heroes: Vengeance #4 is out now, priced $3.99.
Tai Freligh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=dCAkjUgLFmg
Originally published January 6, 2016. Updated April 14, 2018.
