[1] The plot involves a change in the timeline of the Marvel Universe, which results in a continuity in which the Squadron Supreme are Earth's mightiest heroes while the Avengers never came to be.

[4] As Blade wanders East Los Angeles, California, he notices changes in his reality after seeing Robbie Reyes rushing to school on a bicycle.

He soon finds that the Avengers were never formed in this reality after its founding members were indisposed or became preoccupied, such as Bruce Banner being banished to the Negative Zone after he first became the Hulk, Carol Danvers becoming an insubordinate Air Force pilot who never became a captain, and Tony Stark remaining an arms dealer.

Later, a revived and disguised Captain America visits Hyperion to learn what happened to the United States since he disappeared before returning to Blade to help him restore the world to the way it was.

[6] Amidst the Masters of Doom's attack on Washington D.C., the Silver Witch steals the soul of Squadron member the Blur.

[7] Years prior, bounty hunter Rocket Raccoon and his sentient rifle Groot find a baby girl bearing the Star Brand floating in space and adopt her.

In the present, Uatu the Watcher and several alien species hire Rocket and Groot to help them get revenge on Squadron member and intergalactic lawman Doctor Spectrum.

On Earth, Spectrum meets with President Phil Coulson in a church dedicated to Mephisto regarding Rocket's attack and the Blur's concerns about reality being tampered with.

Following this, Nighthawk returns to his headquarters to review Ravencroft's surveillance footage and discovers Blade and Captain America helped Lopez escape.

Seeking answers, Power Princess travels to Asgard's ruins where she encounters and fights a confused Thor to reclaim her title as the world's last god, but is unable to kill him because of Mjolnir's unseen protection.

Putting aside their differences and without telling President Coulson, they gather clues and rule out suspects before eventually arriving in Wakanda, where they confront the Avengers.

Spotting him however, Captain America confronts Coulson and takes the Pandemonium Cube from him so Star Brand and Lopez can use it to restore the original reality.

Meanwhile, Mephisto traps Coulson's soul in the Pandemonium Cube before meeting with 615 of his warring multiversal doppelgängers to demonstrate how he changed reality to them and propose they form the Council of Red.

[12] Sam Stone, writing for Comic Book Resources, wrote that the series had a strong start, being both of interest to those who had been following Aaron's work with The Avengers and easy to understand by a casual reader, unaware of it.

[17] Olly McNamee from ComicCon commented that "Heroes Return #1 is an amazing book visually, but another wasted opportunity giving us a very predictable dust-up between The Supreme Squadron of America and the Avengers.

A series that seems deigned to set up the next big title-wide crossover for Marvel which I'll be giving a miss based on this slim storyline stretched out to breaking point.

[18] Zack Quaintance from Comics Bookcase wrote that "Heroes Return #1 marks the end of a bloated alternate Marvel Universe story that lacks a point or anything much to say, besides hey wouldn't this be kind of interesting?