Secret Wars #1

Originally written 5-14-11

A small portion of Earth's mightiest heroes and villains; the absolute best of the best, find themselves transported into the far ends of space in separate vessels. They begin to question what's going on, then suddenly, they witness an entire galaxy destroyed and a planet being created right before their eyes. Next, a void opens up, and they hear the words from what claims to be an omnipotent being; "I am from beyond! Slay your enemies and all you desire shall be yours! Nothing you dream of is impossible for me to accomplish!". Afterwards, both parties are sent to the planet dubbed Battleworld, and the battle to claim the prize from the being called the Beyonder now begins. -summary

Secret Wars written by Jim Shooter is a classic good vs. evil showdown that takes place over 12 issues. At first, it becomes pretty straight forward when the villains, whom are pretty much leaderless decides to go after the Beyonder's reward. Chaos ensues as both sides clash and we're given a few good fights here. For awhile, it does appear to be standard superhero fare. However, ulterior motives run rampant as Galactus gets hungry and decides it's time to eat the planet, The X-Men would rather join forces with Magneto, and Doctor Doom will not play the pawn of any being: cosmic god or otherwise. Therefore, he puts his own plan into motion and the villains will have only two choices; follow Doom or die by the hand of the sinister robot Ultron, whom Doom has full command over. Despite the oversized line-up and many encounters taking place. It's Doctor Doom who no doubt overshadows everyone involved in the story.

During the course of the battle many characters will be put on the spot, some will get a chance to shine, while others will just be plain misused. The X-Men stand out in particular here as they're trounced single-handedly by Spider-Man, and even by another character that took me by complete surprise. The Molecule Man shows why he is quite possibly the most powerful man in the universe. Plus, there are several first appearances here, such as the evil strong woman Titania, whom goes one on one with the She-Hulk and later on with Spider-Man; in which the latter encounter would effect her for years to come. The high energy blasting Volcana and a new Spider-Woman makes their debut as well.

The large amount of characters pretty much makes it impossible to develop all of them, but the reader will be given enough on multiple characters personalities to either hate or love some of them. The Absorbing Man stands out with his wit that almost always makes me laugh, and I constantly get a kick out of the Enchantress whom cries over her beer literally due to her latest failed attempt to seduce Thor. The Beyonder is also developed in a subtle way and I found him to be interesting, since he's this all powerful god that destroyed an entire galaxy and created a planet only to see what makes mortals tick. I think the writing is pretty well balanced providing a real good mix of comedy, suspense, and action.

Although most of the action was pretty good and the artwork wasn't bad; the designs felt too average even for that time. Characters were lacking many features and those whom were in the background weren't exactly a mystery, but they lacked way too many details. It also appeared pretty rushed going towards the end though with some unimaginative drawings for the monsters. On a real positive note, the cover art for the original issues are intact with cover #10 being the absolute best. I thought the dialogue bubbles were easy to follow and well placed, and speaking of the dialogue, it had some highs as well as some major lows. In any case, a majority of the interactions were fun to read, and I enjoyed the brief altercation between Wolverine and Captain America in regards to mutants being at war with humans, along with his reference to the Nazi's going after the Jews not being much different from what the mutants go through.

In retrospect, Secret Wars does have that Marvel "big event" feel. However, it feels like your average story. Although there were some changes in the lives of characters such as Colossus and Kitty Pryde breaking up, and She-Hulk joining the Fantastic Four; these little situations were pretty much forgettable with only Spider-Man going through the biggest change. The black costume Spider-Man gained on this planet to replace his torn up red and blue, would later be revealed as a living alien symbiote attempting to bond with him. This would later result in the creation of Spider-Man's deadliest enemy Venom. Therefore, when comparing this to DC's epic, it comes up very short when considering that DC's Crisis on Infinite Earth's made huge ever lasting changes to the status quo.

In closing, Secret Wars is still something that I would recommend to serious Marvel fans. It's an interesting, fun, and easy to follow read. Even up to this day, I get the feel to re-read it and there are some stand out moments for me that always bring a smile. It's not among Marvel's best, but if you find it cheap then check it out.

Pros: Some very good action, Dr. Doom, funny dialogue at times, nice plot twist

Cons: Some characters looked too weak, some looked too strong, some awful dialogue at times