WARNING: The following contains spoilers for "The Pageant of the Masters of Nocturnal Artistry" by Jason Aaron, R.M. Guera, Giulia Brusco, and VC's Cory Petit, from the pages of Heroes Reborn #5, on sale now.
The Marvel Universe has always been home to some of the most terrifying villains in comics, and the world of Heroes Reborn is no different. In fact, it might even be worse, as for all the good that the Squadron Supreme are doing to keep the Earth safe, the classic villains of the primary Marvel timeline have found themselves to be even stronger than ever before in this world without the Avengers.
Some of them have even come to grow quite fond of this new version of reality, so much so that even Norman Osborn's Goblin is begging Earth's Mightiest Heroes not to let anyone set things right in Heroes Reborn #5.
After a riot breaks out at the Ravencroft Asylum, Nighthawk stops a rampaging Kraven the Hunter before fighting his way into the facility, where he takes on everyone from Doctor Octopus to the Black Skull. When the hero's hunt comes to an end, he is left face to face with a version of Norman Osborn that has completely transformed into his Goblin persona. Their fight is brutal, but it doesn't last very long once a Goblin Gas infected Gwen Stacy hurls several of Nighthawk's own throwing blades into Norman's face, blinding him in one eye and sending him crashing down from the balcony where he stood. In what might be the Goblin's final moments, he is cradled by his longtime nemesis and pleads with Nighthawk for just one favor. Specifically, Osborn asks Nighthawk to not let the other heroes change the world back to the way it should be, telling him that he "really like[s] it this way."
As unsettling as the scene might be, Green Goblin's final words speak volumes about just how the changes that have been made to the timeline are affecting the villains who have begun to recognize them. Wanda Maximoff, the Silver Witch who was locked away by Blur following their last encounter, has had a profound influence on those around her.
After being sent to Ravencroft, Wanda began ranting almost incoherently about the fact that the world was wrong now, something that more and more people on all sides of the fight that will inevitably come are realizing. For someone like Wanda who was, in the primary timeline, reformed by the Avengers and came to be a hero, the world around her is horrifying compared to what it once was even with the Squadron Supreme seemingly being greater heroes than the Avengers ever were.
Apart from the masses worshipping Mephisto as their one true savior, the brutality which the Squadron Supreme exhibit seems to be the nature of this reality as a whole more than it is a set of specific character traits. The carnage and bloodshed might be more brightly colored than they have been in the past, but that doesn't make them less damaging overall, and that's exactly the kind of universe that someone like the Goblin would be more than right at home in.
Losing the Avengers in the way that Heroes Reborn has is not a small change to the timeline, but the fact that it has done so much damage is still shocking, to say the least. Mephisto's vision of the Marvel Universe is undoubtedly one of the worst that has ever been seen despite its eerily friendly demeanor. With any luck, the few Avengers left that remember things the way they were will be able to set the world back to what it is supposed to be without doing any lasting harm, and hopefully that happens before anyone else gets too comfortable with their new reality.