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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
I’d heard that this compendium might be the direction Marvel will go after Wandavision, Loki, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Doctor Strange: The Multiverse of Madness so I decided to purchase it to find out. I’ve read The Age of Apocalypse and Infinity War and this story, like those, demands that the reader have some knowledge of the larger universe. I think that this is why the story only has a 3.8 rating. Personally, even though I was missing ALOT of context, I loved the story and can see how this could be the next direction. The story was as epic as Infinity War and includes characters who were excluded from the Marvel movies die to contractual obligations in major roles (Fantastic Four, Weapon X, and even Miles Morales.). I can’t wait for this story but it’s going to take as much buildup as Infinity War did. Great read.
Jonathan Hickman's magnum opus. Probably my favorite company-wide event since the original Civil War and definitely better than the original, disappointing, Secret Wars.
When I first read Secret Wars, it rocked my world, and I always thought it was everybody else that was wrong for thinking that maybe this book has problems. Turns out we're both right: Secret Wars is amazing, and it has problems.
Here's everything this book gets right. This is probably the best exploration of Doom's character ever committed to the page. Doom is an ambitious man who's willing to do things that your average hero wouldn't, but he's ultimately too high on his own supply to get things right. The guy gains the power to remake the multiverse, and what does he do with it? He creates Battleworld, a patchwork planet cobbled from pieces of other universes, in which he's the God Emperor (of course), Valeria is his daughter (of course) and Sue is his wife who thinks he's totally awesome and loves his real face (hmm...). It's only while running his planet that he starts to realize that maybe he isn't as brilliant as he thinks he is.
As an ending to the incursion storyline, Secret Wars contrasts Doom's actions with Reed's. If you had to pick, you'd much rather Reed have this god-level power, but despite having big dreams of solving everything, he didn't even go far enough to uncover everything Doom uncovered about the reasons for the incursions. He'd certainly never accept the power of a god if it were offered to him. This dichotomy between the rivals is the best thing about Secret Wars. It does a great job of hammering home the point of this Avengers saga: having the biggest brain means little if you're not willing to strive for the greatest good.
And now, with a heavy heart, I have to criticize the book that blew my pants off eight years ago.
The invisible hand of Marvel's editorial is all over Secret Wars. Why would Hickman choose to end his Avengers saga in an alternate reality like this if not because 2015 was the 20th anniversary of Marvel's first crossover event? And while the guy ended up overshooting deadlines all over the place at the time, something about this series still feels rushed. Yet again, we have a time skip in the middle of the story where some really important things happen, and we're only told about those things in exposition. I suppose you'd have to read the tie-ins to learn more, but come on.
The worst thing about Secret Wars, though, is that while it works as a delayed climax to his Fantastic Four work, it doesn't really address his Avengers story at all. Steve and Tony are totally absent from this event, and the characters that do show up don't get any resolution to their character arcs apart from Namor and T'Challa becoming friends again. The sudden inclusion of the Ultimate Marvel characters at the end of Avengers doesn't pay off either - the Maker is here, but he doesn't really do much besides being a foil to 616 Reed.
Secret Wars is ultimately a brilliant cap to Hickman's work on the Fantastic Four, but it's almost a non-sequitur in regards to his Avengers run. It's also a microcosm of how outside nonsense can get in the way of telling a story when you're writing editorially controlled books like the Avengers. Hickman is a brilliant writer when Marvel lets him cook - which they do now. As I've been saying all along, Hickman's Avengers run is absolutely worth the read, but rereading it has demystified it for me a little bit. It's brilliant, but it's also flawed, just like the stars of the story itself.
Here's everything this book gets right. This is probably the best exploration of Doom's character ever committed to the page. Doom is an ambitious man who's willing to do things that your average hero wouldn't, but he's ultimately too high on his own supply to get things right. The guy gains the power to remake the multiverse, and what does he do with it? He creates Battleworld, a patchwork planet cobbled from pieces of other universes, in which he's the God Emperor (of course), Valeria is his daughter (of course) and Sue is his wife who thinks he's totally awesome and loves his real face (hmm...). It's only while running his planet that he starts to realize that maybe he isn't as brilliant as he thinks he is.
As an ending to the incursion storyline, Secret Wars contrasts Doom's actions with Reed's. If you had to pick, you'd much rather Reed have this god-level power, but despite having big dreams of solving everything, he didn't even go far enough to uncover everything Doom uncovered about the reasons for the incursions. He'd certainly never accept the power of a god if it were offered to him. This dichotomy between the rivals is the best thing about Secret Wars. It does a great job of hammering home the point of this Avengers saga: having the biggest brain means little if you're not willing to strive for the greatest good.
And now, with a heavy heart, I have to criticize the book that blew my pants off eight years ago.
The invisible hand of Marvel's editorial is all over Secret Wars. Why would Hickman choose to end his Avengers saga in an alternate reality like this if not because 2015 was the 20th anniversary of Marvel's first crossover event? And while the guy ended up overshooting deadlines all over the place at the time, something about this series still feels rushed. Yet again, we have a time skip in the middle of the story where some really important things happen, and we're only told about those things in exposition. I suppose you'd have to read the tie-ins to learn more, but come on.
The worst thing about Secret Wars, though, is that while it works as a delayed climax to his Fantastic Four work, it doesn't really address his Avengers story at all. Steve and Tony are totally absent from this event, and the characters that do show up don't get any resolution to their character arcs apart from Namor and T'Challa becoming friends again. The sudden inclusion of the Ultimate Marvel characters at the end of Avengers doesn't pay off either - the Maker is here, but he doesn't really do much besides being a foil to 616 Reed.
Secret Wars is ultimately a brilliant cap to Hickman's work on the Fantastic Four, but it's almost a non-sequitur in regards to his Avengers run. It's also a microcosm of how outside nonsense can get in the way of telling a story when you're writing editorially controlled books like the Avengers. Hickman is a brilliant writer when Marvel lets him cook - which they do now. As I've been saying all along, Hickman's Avengers run is absolutely worth the read, but rereading it has demystified it for me a little bit. It's brilliant, but it's also flawed, just like the stars of the story itself.
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
The most frustrating part about reading these comics is that there are very few entry points for people that haven't read every last Marvel comic. Fortunately for me, l've seen several of the MCU films and have a few comics under my belt to navigate just barely through this one. Also helped that my oldest is somewhat of a Marvel encyclopedia himself. The first half of the story took A LOT of questions, but the second half was a little more clear. If you're looking for twists and turns, you'll get them here. Now I'll just keep my fingers crossed that this helps me understand the film adaptations a little more easier when they come out.
A fun read about the end of everything and the beginning of everything again. I didn't even know the backstory for most of the characters, but it wasn't a deal breaker.
Read as single issues.
I give Secret Wars a solid "meh." The art was a treat. The Reed Richards/Doom mosaic panel in #9 is one of the coolest pages I've ever seen. There were some great story elements, and there was some not so great storytelling. Some of the Battleworld spin-offs were a lot of fun (The Runaways, A-Force, Thors) and some were less fun (Captain Marvel and the Carol Corps, Mrs. Deadpool). And overall, by the end of book 9 everything gets tied up with a pretty bow and none of it matters anyway!
I give Secret Wars a solid "meh." The art was a treat. The Reed Richards/Doom mosaic panel in #9 is one of the coolest pages I've ever seen. There were some great story elements, and there was some not so great storytelling. Some of the Battleworld spin-offs were a lot of fun (The Runaways, A-Force, Thors) and some were less fun (Captain Marvel and the Carol Corps, Mrs. Deadpool). And overall, by the end of book 9 everything gets tied up with a pretty bow and none of it matters anyway!
"Everything lives."
Difficult to rate on it's own, because it's the culmination of seven years worth of Marvel stories, starting with Hickman's FF in 2009 and running through Avengers and Secret Avengers. At its heart it's still a Fantastic Four series about Reed Richards and Victor von Doom. And most of it works wonderfully. There's a few strange tonal issues, (the Marvel Zombies are mostly played for laughs) but it sticks the landing.
Difficult to rate on it's own, because it's the culmination of seven years worth of Marvel stories, starting with Hickman's FF in 2009 and running through Avengers and Secret Avengers. At its heart it's still a Fantastic Four series about Reed Richards and Victor von Doom. And most of it works wonderfully. There's a few strange tonal issues, (the Marvel Zombies are mostly played for laughs) but it sticks the landing.
Solid 3.5. There is a decent amount of backstory needed to fully enjoy this story, it is not full self contained. It can be read and enjoyed with some brief googling, and the adventures in the multiverse with alternate characters is always fun to enjoy visually without much background. Where else can you get a police force of Thors led by God Emperor Doom.
So I'm counting this as having read a book because of the insane number of issues that I read in the lead up to this and the tie-ins. The tie-ins were mostly completely useless for the main story, but at least helped get a feel for battleworld.
My rating break down is as follows:
Avengers/New Avengers lead up to Secret wars: 77 issues - 4.5 stars
Secret Wars: 9 issues - 5 stars
Tie-Ins: 202 issues (by my calculation) - 3 stars
The buildup in Avengers/New Avengers was some of the coolest story telling I've read in all of comics. Some of the twists and turns and references that Hickman makes however are pretty opaque, especially at the beginning when he uses many obscure (to me) marvel characters. Overall its a fantastic story which is a must read for a fan of marvel.
The main Secret Wars event was almost pitch perfect. My only gripe is that they didn't stretch it out into 12 issues. There were enough pages printed for 10, and adding in a couple extra to allow for some decompression and extra scenes would have been amazing. But that's just me being greedy. Overall this is a superb story with the perfect ending. You could read this without Avengers/New Avengers but I wouldn't recommend it.
The tie-ins were extremely scattered and hit or miss. I won't review any of them here except to say that some were amazing, some I couldn't even finish and the vast majority of them were just average.
My rating break down is as follows:
Avengers/New Avengers lead up to Secret wars: 77 issues - 4.5 stars
Secret Wars: 9 issues - 5 stars
Tie-Ins: 202 issues (by my calculation) - 3 stars
The buildup in Avengers/New Avengers was some of the coolest story telling I've read in all of comics. Some of the twists and turns and references that Hickman makes however are pretty opaque, especially at the beginning when he uses many obscure (to me) marvel characters. Overall its a fantastic story which is a must read for a fan of marvel.
The main Secret Wars event was almost pitch perfect. My only gripe is that they didn't stretch it out into 12 issues. There were enough pages printed for 10, and adding in a couple extra to allow for some decompression and extra scenes would have been amazing. But that's just me being greedy. Overall this is a superb story with the perfect ending. You could read this without Avengers/New Avengers but I wouldn't recommend it.
The tie-ins were extremely scattered and hit or miss. I won't review any of them here except to say that some were amazing, some I couldn't even finish and the vast majority of them were just average.