The relaunch saw the return of Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Logan, Odinson and Bruce Banner to their classic identities of Iron Man, Captain America, Wolverine, Thor and Hulk respectively. All those characters had been replaced by legacy heroes in recent times. Stark ended up in a coma in Civil War II, and his armor was donned by the reborn-villain Doctor Doom in Infamous Iron Man and by fifteen year old genius Riri Williams, who took on the codename Ironheart, in Invincible Iron Man. Sam Wilson, a longtime ally of Captain America as Falcon, had taken the mantle in All-New Captain America. Laura Kinney, the female clone of Logan who is also viewed as Logan's daughter, became the Wolverine in All-New Wolverine. Jane Foster, a secondary character of the Thor comics, became a female Thor in Thor vol. 4. Bruce Banner died in Civil War II, with Amadeus Cho becoming the new Incredible Hulk. The relaunch also saw the return of Marvel's first family, the Fantastic Four, which had broken up following the conclusion of the 2015 Secret Wars storyline. The Fresh Start initiative also includes a new incarnation of the West Coast Avengers, consisting of Hawkeye, Kate Bishop, Gwenpool, America Chavez, Quentin Quire, and Kate's boyfriend Johnny. The teaser poster featured Jessica Jones and Miles Morales, characters created by Brian Michael Bendis. Bendis had recently moved to DC Comics; the poster confirmed that Marvel would keep publishing them. On April 18, 2018, a sampler collection – Marvel Universe Magazine – was published, similar to Marvel Legacy #1 from the previous year. It included previews from several forthcoming new #1 issues. The relaunch marked Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson resuming their relationship for the first time since their marriage was retconned out of existence in the "" storyline. Many writers have been assigned with new titles; The Amazing Spider-Mans Dan Slott, Deadpools Gerry Duggan and The Avengers' Mark Waid and others left their title due to the Fresh Start relaunch. The X-Men have been more heavily promoted than in the past, with the entire line getting a relaunch with six new titles as part of the Dawn of X in 2019. The time-displaced original X-Men who were brought into the present day during Bendis' run on the 2012 All-New X-Men series before starring in their own X-Men Blue title, were returned to the past during the Extermination miniseries.
Criticism
David Barnett from The Guardian pointed out that most of the characters involved have appeared in recent films or TV series, or are about to do so, and criticized that effort to emulate the feel of those productions instead of taking full advantage of the capabilities of the comic book medium to produce fantasy and sci-fi without the constraints of special effects budgets. He also considered that Marvel may be stepping back from its attempts to make comics featuring diverse female, black, Asian and LGBT characters, trying instead to appeal to its most conservative readership. Graeme McMillan from The Hollywood Reporter pointed out that Marvel has been announcing wide relaunches annually since 2012, but have provided limited changes.
