In case you are a comic fan that has been living under a rock, here’s a News Flash for you: The end of the Marvel Universe is here!
That’s right: Earth-616, home of the Marvel Universe as we know it, is ending and so is the other major Marvel universe, the Ultimate Universe-also known as Earth-1610. In one of the most far-reaching, cross-over filled events (there are a total of 55 mini-series or one-shots to support this event) of all time, Marvel brings us the NEW SECRET WARS. Now, if you’re an old time comic fan, you know that the original SECRET WARS from back in the day was famous for not only introducing us to the Beyonder but also the black Spider Man costume. The new SECRET WARS, orchestrated by Jonathan Hickman, is coming from a story Hickman has been crafting since AVENGERS #1, the most recent run, was published. In recent months, AVENGERS and NEW AVENGERS have been making all the moves that is setting this event in motion. In a nutshell, a really, REALLY compressed nutshell, the multiverse has come to an end as the Illuminati watched and, in some cases, actually helped, and only two universes remain. The Illuminati is played by Doctor Strange, Doc Green(AKA The Hulk), Black Bolt, Black Panther, Beast, and Amadeus Cho. At one point, Namor was part of this group, but a little falling out led him to the Cabal, which is made up of some big hitters including Maximus the Mad, Terrax and Thanos.
In SECRET WARS #1, Hickman and artist Esad Ribic have the two universes collide-LITERALLY. Heroes from both worlds fight each other while Mister Fantastic from two worlds (Mister Fantastic of Earth-1610 is known as The Maker) each make plans to survive along with a small group of their friends. During the battle, the Children of Tomorrow kill Black Bolt, Rocket Raccoon, Black Widow, Spider-Woman, Beast, and Groot. Stark Tower is destroyed and the Punisher aims to take out the Kingpin and some high profile villains. Cyclops becomes Phoenix and kills the Children of Tomorrow. As the incursion begins, a hull breach causes Sue Richards, The Thing and most of the Future Foundation to be lost during the incursion.
In place of the two worlds is Battleworld. Battleworld, as we are told, is “a massive, patchwork planet composed of the fragments of worlds that no longer exist.” And it is run by the “god and master”, Victor Von Doom. So, what you get, since there are several different areas that make up Battleworld: 41 to be exact. These have such colorful names as limbo, Perfection, Doomgard, New Quack City, and so on. In fact, Manhattan itself is made up of four sections: Attilan, Manhattan from Earth-616, Manhattan from Earth-1610 and Monster Metropolis, which is below Earth-616.
SECRET WARS #2 gives us the first real glimpse of what happens when worlds collide.
It seems that the Thors, all of them from all the various universes, are acting as King Doom’s police on Battleworld. Sue Storm sits at Doom’s side and Dr. Strange is now the Sheriff of Agamatto. In the end, a ship containing The Cabal lands on Battleworld, seemingly unaffected by the changes due to the incursion. It is a wild world where anything can and probably will happen. The art on these issues is amazing and Hickman’s writing is, as always great, even if this story doesn’t totally blow me away. And I think that is because I fear what will happen following the resetting of the Universes. Based on what we have already seen from Marvel, the ALL NEW, ALL DIFFERENT AVENGERS will have Ultimate Spider man Miles Morales in it, along with Ms. Marvel, Thor, Nova, the Vision, Iron Man, and Captain America (i.e. Sam Wilson).
Now, about those 55 mini-series. The first week out was loaded and I sampled them all. In fact, my plan was to get all the cross-over books and do weekly reviews, like I did with CONVERGENCE over at DC. But, after reading through the first week, and eating the cost of all these new titles, I decided otherwise. Instead, I will be selectively buying and reading the mini-series.
A-FORCE #1 is set in Arcadia and is about the all-female Avengers, for lack of a better term. She-Hulk, Medusa, Dazzler, Storm, and more populate this title. Unfortunately, America Chavez breaks a law and gets exiled. I read this issue and just shrugged my shoulders. It wasn’t that I didn’t understand what was happening, I just didn’t care. These were not MY characters that I loved. These were characters transplanted to a world I don’t like.
DEADPOOL’S SECRET WARS #1 tells us how Deadpool was around during the first Secret Wars in 1984. And he wins the war for the heroes by kicking Kang the Conqueror in the nuts. Not to be outdone, we get a back-up story by Cullen Bunn where our hero is involved with the CONTEST OFCHAMPIONS mini-series. Great-the 80’s are back! Yeah…not so great! Deadpool is Marvel’s version of Harley Quinn and that ship has sailed!
MASTER OF KUNG-FU #1 features a drunk, homeless Shang-Chi who does a great job of fighting off members of the Ten Rings while hung like a picture! Callisto and the Outcasts team up with him and they look to take on the Emperor. This was the coolest book of the week, with a story by Haden Blackman and art by Dalibor Talajic and a pretty cool Francesco Francavilla cover. I look forward to the second issue of this four issue series and this will stay on my pull list!
PLANET HULK #1 is, unfortunately, NOT by the man behind the original PLANET HULK series, Greg Pak. It’s by Sam Humphries and the only really good thing about it is that a young, ponytailed Steve Rogers rides around with his companion Devil Dinosaur searching Greenland for Bucky, the Winter Soldier. He gets attacked by giant Gamma irradiated earthworms and gets saved by the Hulk. Oh yeah: there is a back-up story that IS by Greg Pak telling a new origin of the Hulk where Amadeus Cho is Rick Jones. Yeah, I like Captain America as Russell Crowe, but not enough to buy it, although the art by Mark Laming looks awesome!
SECRET WARS: BATTLEWORLD #1 told tales from the various points on Battleworld. So, it’s an anthology title. This was interesting, but not interesting enough to make me want to buy all four issues. What we get is The Punisher as Soldier Supreme, the Infernal Four (Ghost Rider, Hulk, Spider-Man, Wolverine), the Rocket of Raggador, the Weapon of Watoomb, and The Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing(M.O.D.O.K.). Well, we get LOTS of those, in various shapes and sizes. Again, this was interesting but not enough to hook me.
SPIDER-VERSE #1 did nothing for me, as I was never attached to any of these characters during the SPIDER-VERSE event. Yeah, I know…but what about SPIDER-GWEN? Didn’t care then and don’t care now. So yeah: I may be one of the few people who DIDN’T buy SPIDER-VERSE #2 which had the first appearance of Spider-Gwen and is now the hottest book out there. Again, didn’t care then and still don’t care now. So, we have Peter Porker in a hospital bed and Norman Osborn in it and…sorry: don’t care.
ULTIMATE END #1 is set in Manhattan and features heroes and villains of both Earths including Spider-Man, the Serpent Squad, Nick Fury and Tony Stark of both Earths and more. Although both groups don’t trust each other, they do agree they need to find a way to get at Doom and reset the universes. Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley were there at the beginning and will be here at the end. This was the other first week winner, as we realize that, despite the incursion, some people remain relatively unchanged.
The second week of mini-series included INFERNO #1, SECRET WARS JOURNAL #1, INFINITY GAUNTLET #1, WHERE MONSTERS DWELL #1, 2099 #1 and OLD MAN LOGAN #1. I read INFINITY GAUNTLET, OLD MAN LOGAN and WHERE MONSTERS DWELL. The first did NOTHING for me, the second was fun and looked amazing(fans of GREEN ARROW take note as Andrea Sorrentino is the artist), while the third was the killer, with a story by Garth Ennis and art from Russ Braun.
Bottom line: I am not wowed by this event at all. Sure, Hickman has deconstructed the Marvel Universe and is going to rebuild it somehow. But the mini-series just don’t have the same punch. And here’s an issue early on: issue #4 of SECRET WARS is shipping ON July 1st now, instead of it’s original June 17th date. That means the mini-series all get shipped back with it, so as not to reveal critical plot points (just like happened during CIVIL WARS). Issue #5 moves back SIX WEEKS until August 12th and issue #6 moves to September 2nd. And some of those mini-series now get pushed back upwards of six weeks too.
When all is said and done, whether they like to call it one or not, this is a REBOOT, just like DC is doing. And, when all is said on done, many characters are going to be put on the shelf for good. So, why this and why now? It’s generating sales and buzz and that’s what it’s about. Oh yeah: it’s also about movies. And that seems to be where the money is in a world gone digital.
So, I may be the only one out there that doesn’t love this whole thing. And so be it. When all is said and done, I may truly find myself where I was back in the early 1990s: looking to give the other publishers my entertainment dollar.
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