Secret Wars

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This article refers to the 1984 Secret Wars toy and comic book series. For other possible uses of Secret Wars see Secret Wars (disambiguation).
Secret Wars


Cover to Secret Wars #1. Art by Mike Zeck.
Publisher Marvel Comics
Schedule Monthly
Format limited series
Publication dates 1984 - 1985
Number of issues 12
Main character(s) Cast of characters
Creative team
Writer(s) Jim Shooter
Penciller(s) Mike Zeck

Secret Wars (full title Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars) is the name of a twelve-issue Marvel Comics' comic book limited series produced between 1984 and 1985, and a Mattel toy line that reflected the series.

The series, which was conceived to launch the toy line, was written by Marvel's then-Editor-in-chief Jim Shooter and primarily pencilled by Mike Zeck. The story was a large scale crossover, in which many of Marvel's most popular super-heroes and super-villains were transported to an alien planet and pitted against each other in an all-out battle.

Although the toy line was discontinued in 1985, the miniseries was a hit for Marvel, breaking sales records for a monthly comic at the time of its release and spawning an almost immediate sequel: Secret Wars II.

Contents

[edit] Premise

The first issue of Secret Wars introduced an all-powerful, godlike character called the Beyonder to the Marvel Universe. The story explained that the Beyonder had been observing the universe for some time. At the series' start the entity is shown drawing various superhumans to specific locations and then abducting them by means of teleportation.

All were transported to "Battleworld", a planet created by the Beyonder in a distant galaxy and stocked with alien weapons and technology. There, the Beyonder issued the following message:

"I am from beyond! Slay your enemies and all that you desire shall be yours! Nothing you dream of is impossible for me to accomplish!"

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
The cover of Secret Wars #8, which introduced Spider-Man's black costume. Pencil art by Mike Zeck.
Enlarge
The cover of Secret Wars #8, which introduced Spider-Man's black costume. Pencil art by Mike Zeck.

Opposing factions were formed of super-heroes and super-villains. The two sides went on to engage in several battles on the planet. At one point, the X-Men left the side of the heroes to form a third faction on stand-by for the other heroes. The planet-consuming Galactus, largely indifferent to the actions of the lesser-powered characters, represented his "own" side. The phrase "secret war" was first used by Captain America.

Each group had its victories and losses. Even the Beyonder found itself caught up in a struggle for its existence when Doctor Doom temporarily stole its vast power. In the end, the Beyonder, Doom and the villain Klaw vanished to parts unknown. For the most part, the heroes returned to Earth by reversing the effects of the machines that had brought them to Battleworld, while the villains (and a chunk of Denver that had been used in Battleworld's assembly) returned to Earth using the vast powers of the Molecule Man. The Thing elected to remain on Battleworld because he found that he was able to revert to his human state there. The character spent a year's worth of stories away from Earth and the She-Hulk took his place in the Fantastic Four.

The series had several immediate consequences for a number of Marvel Universe characters. Spider-Man encountered a symbiotic creature on the planet that enveloped him and expressed itself as a new black costume which produced its own web supply. Spider-Man initially thought that the creature was an advanced synthetic costume produced by an alien machine; it wasn't until after almost a year of continuity in the Spider-Man comics that Peter Parker discovered the true nature of the creature, as it tried to take over Parker's body and bond permanently with him. Spider-Man was able to rid himself of the creature with the help of Reed Richards, and when the creature subsequently escaped from the Fantastic Four's headquarters, it bonded with Eddie Brock to become the supervillain Venom. A new Spider-Woman, Julia Carpenter was introduced, Colossus had an affair with an alien on battleworld which led him to break up with Shadowcat when he returned to Earth, and two new supervillainesses - Titania, a bullying powerhouse and her friend Volcana - were created.

The Beyonder would return months later in another crossover, the Secret Wars II miniseries, a sequel where it took human form and came to Earth in search of enlightenment, consequently conflicting with the planets' superhumans.

After the conclusion of Secret Wars II, it was revealed in an Annual of the Fantastic Four that both the Beyonder and the Molecule Man were aspects of the Cosmic Cube that had been rent asunder; at the conclusion of that story, both characters were recombined into the Cube.

A postscript of sorts to the original Secret Wars series came 14 years after its conclusion in What If...? Vol. 2 #114 (November, 1998) - "Brave New World" by Jay Faerber and Gregg Schigiel which explored what would have happened had all the characters gotten stuck on Battleworld and never returned home.

Though its title is clearly inspired by the series, the storyline of the 2003 Secret War limited series by Brian Michael Bendis and Gabriele Dell'Otto is totally unrelated to the original series.

[edit] Cast of Characters

[edit] Super-Heroes

[edit] The X-Men

(Though they were allied with Captain America's faction, the mutants chose to act as a "third force" in the conflict.)

[edit] Super-Villains

[edit] Non-aligned

[edit] Mattel Toy Series

A damaged Wolverine figure from Mattel's first Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars line (pictured without accessories).
Enlarge
A damaged Wolverine figure from Mattel's first Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars line (pictured without accessories).

In the years since the miniseries Jim Shooter has openly discussed its origin as a proposed toy line [1]:

"Kenner had licensed the DC Heroes. Mattel had He-Man, but wanted to hedge in case super-heroes became the next big fad. They were interested in Marvel's characters, but only if we staged a publishing event that would get a lot of attention, and they could build a theme around. Fans, especially young fans often suggested to me "one big story with all the heroes and all the villains in it", so I proposed that. It flew.
"Mattel thought that kids responded well to the word, "secret" so after a couple of working names bit the dust, we called the story Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars."

Mattel went on to produce two lines of figures (with a series of vehicles and accessories and a few special foreign releases) in 1984 and 1985. After the first line most of the figures released were for characters who had not been involved in the Secret Wars comic at all.

Each figure was articulated only at the shoulders, hips and neck. They came with "Secret Shields"; the heroes' were round, while the villains had square shields. These shields came with a series of lenticular inserts whose images changed when tilted, the best known of which was a "secret identity" card, which changed between each character's masked and unmasked faces. A few figures came with other accessories, mainly guns, which reoccurred in multiple packs.

[edit] Full List of Mattel Toy Series

[edit] Series I

[edit] Series II

[edit] Foreign/Special Releases

[edit] Vehicles and Accessories

  • Doom Copter
  • Doom Cycle
  • Doom Roller
  • Doom Star Glider
  • Marvel Super Heroes Freedom Fighter Playset
  • Marvel Super Villains Tower of Doom Playset
  • Star Dart Glider
  • Turbo Copter
  • Turbo Cycle

[edit] Comparisons with Crisis on Infinite Earths

Although Secret Wars was launched almost a year before Crisis on Infinite Earths (Secret Wars #1 was cover dated May, 1984, while Crisis #1 is cover dated April, 1985) the two have been compared to each other since the time of their first release.

Like Secret Wars, Crisis featured DC's most popular super-heroes in conflict with many of the company's super-villains. However, where Secret Wars featured a limited cast of around 20 superhumans, Crisis endeavored to touch on every character in the company's library, in the process drastically altering aspects of many of them.

Some critics in comparing the two, slighted Secret Wars for its more simplistic story and minor consequences [2], though others have expressed the view that the series is an entertaining diversion from the long, drawn-out plots and subplots of other comics [3].

Neither miniseries was the first of its type however. In 1982, two years before Secret Wars #1 was published, Marvel had released Contest of Champions, the first comic book which advertised the fact that it would only be published for a specific number of issues and the first to feature a large, company wide super-hero crossover storyline. However, while Contest of Champions ran for 3 issues Secret Wars and Crisis would run for 12.

[edit] First Modern Crossover

Secret Wars was the first of a new breed of large crossover events which would become a staple of both Marvel and DC's publishing schedule from that year on. However, Secret Wars was unlike most of its successors in one important regard. From the month of the Secret Wars' debut all of Marvel's other titles were set after the events portrayed in the miniseries, rather than occurring simultanously as is the custom. For example, in The Amazing Spider-Man #251 (April, 1984), Spider-Man was shown being abducted by the Beyonder, and in the opening of #252 (May, 1984) he was shown returning from Battleworld in his new costume, the events of the Secret Wars miniseries having occurred in a matter of "days" between the two issues.

However, the first issue of the miniseries was also published that May, the same month as The Amazing Spider-Man #252. This meant that by the time the series ended (#12 in April 1985), a full year's worth of storylines had occurred in the other titles since the events depicted in that final issue. Moreover, not only did the readers know from the very beginning of the story what many of its consequences would be, but also that by the time it ended they knew what would happen to each of the characters for some considerable time after the story took place. The series was entirely self-contained. Unlike Crisis and other subsequent "events", after its first month, the other regular Marvel titles could not link in with the story. This put Marvel at a disadvantage to DC who maximised the sales potential of their Crisis, with lots of tie-in issues each of which saw a modest rise in sales.

When Shooter launched the sequel miniseries Secret Wars II a few months after the end of Secrets Wars the new crossover was more open ended, allowing him to tie-in the storyline with nearly every other Marvel title, some more than once, over the course of its nine month run.

[edit] Other Media

A Secret Wars animated series to accompany the toyline and comic was in development at Marvel Productions in 1984 but the series never came to fruition.

An abbreviated form of the Secret Wars were featured in a three-part story of Spider-Man: The Animated Series. In that story, the characters were:

[edit] Heroes

[edit] Villains

[edit] Characters planned to be used, but pulled

Hulk and She-Hulk didn't make it to the final draft, because The Incredible Hulk Season 2 was premiering on UPN, hence the Lizard's addition to the heroes team (As well as making it more Spidey centric).

The reason for pulling seven of the X-Men is due to the cost from their last appearance on Spider-Man. Storm was brought on, because her voice actress, Iona Morris was in LA at the time of production.

When the entire X-Men cast were to appear, Magneto was first chosen as the villain to appear. Since his appearance clashed with his character's portrayal on the X-Men animated series, Mr. Sinister was then chosen as an opponent. There was even an addition episode which would have made the Secret Wars a 4 Parter. It was set between Arrival and Gauntlet Of The Red Skull.

    • The episode would have Spider-Man and The X-Men infiltrating Sinister's base. During the episode, Spider-Man would come upon the Venom Symbiote temporarily using it.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] The Original Miniseries

  • Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #1-12 (1984- 1985)

[edit] Original Tie-ins

  • Amazing Spider-Man #249-252 (February - May, 1984)
  • Avengers #240-243 (February - April, 1984)
  • Captain America #292 (April, 1984)
  • Incredible Hulk #294, 295 (April - May, 1984)
  • Iron Man #181, 182 (April - May, 1984)
  • Fantastic Four #265 (April, 1984)
  • Marvel Team-Up #141 (May, 1984)
  • The Thing #10 (April, 1984)
  • Uncanny X-Men #178-181 (February - May, 1984)

[edit] Post Secret Wars #12 Tie-ins

  • The Thing #11-22 (May, 1984 - May, 1985)
  • Thor #383 (September, 1987)
  • Quasar #8 (March, 1990).
  • What If ...? (Vol. 2) #114 (November, 1998)
  • She-Hulk (Vol. 3) #10 (February, 2005).

[edit] Sources

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